Over on our sister blog PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Erin McCune reports on a recent panel discussion on mobile payments in developing markets organized by Menekse Gencer of mPayConnect.

According to Erin, "The evening started with a primer on mobile financial services..." Click here to read on.

Finovate will return to New York City on Tuesday, September 29 to showcase the best new financial and banking technology innovations from established leading companies and hot young startups. Handpicked from hundreds, the companies get a mere 7 minutes on stage to demo (no powerpoint allowed) their latest and greatest.

Early bird registration closes Friday, Sept. 11th - so if you're interested in attending and saving some money in the process, be sure to register ASAP!

ABI Research has published a mobile banking “report card” which assesses 29 banks on the discoverability and accessibility of their mobile banking services.

Senior analyst Mark Beccue says, “People are asking ‘Is mobile banking taking off in the US?’ For that to happen, two things are required: the services must be easy to find, and accessible to a broad range of consumers . So the ‘grades’ in this report card are not about subscriber numbers or any other measure of success, but about how consumer-friendly the banks’ offerings are.” READ MORE »

PULSE, the Discover Financial Services business unit responsible for expanding global cash access for the company, has signed a long-term ATM acquiring agreement with TRIONIS, a European interbank processing network. TRIONIS is jointly owned by retail banks from nine European countries, the European Savings Banks Group, and First Data. READ MORE »

In a blog post titled "Google Plans Tools to Help News Media Charge for Content", Miguel Helft writes for the New York Times that "Google is planning to roll out a system of micropayments within the next year and hopes that newspapers will use it as they look for new ways to charge users for their content."

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