Green Dot and PayPal have announced an agreement that will allow U.S. consumers to load money directly to their PayPal accounts using Green Dot’s MoneyPak. This will enable people to shop anywhere PayPal is accepted without the need for a bank account or credit card. READ MORE »

Intuit has announced TurboTax for Online Banking, "a new offering designed to help financial institutions bring more value to customers – and increase deposits – by turning their online banking site into a valuable tax resource." Available for Digital Insight financial institutions to offer in the upcoming tax season, TurboTax for Online Banking won a Best of Show award at Finovate 2009, a conference showcasing the best new innovations in financial and banking technology. READ MORE »

A survey commissioned by VeriSign's Messaging and Mobile Media Division (in collaboration with Fiserv and M-Com) of more than 500 U.S. mobile phone users finds that financial institutions should mine the untapped market of offline-banking consumers as a potential target audience for mobile banking and payment services.

According to the survey, sixty percent of consumers not currently using online banking would be interested in using at least one mobile banking service if it was offered during a typical month. The survey also shows that non-online-banking consumers are heavy users of traditional bank channels: nearly two-thirds reported contacting their financial institution once a week or more through one or more bank channels such as contact centers and interactive voice response systems. These are among the most costly customer service channels. READ MORE »

Today's UK card fraud report was surprisingly positive - with card fraud losses down 23% for the first half of 2009 vs. 2008. However, there was much worse news with respect to online banking fraud - which spiked up 55% in the same period. READ MORE »

In an article titled "For Gun-Shy Consumers, Debit Is Replacing Credit", Nancy Trejos writes for the Washington Post about how the recession has cooled consumers on credit cards while they are increasingly using their debit cards to make purchases.

A strongly worded New York Times editorial today titled "Bleeding Holders of Debit Cards Dry" notes that several banks last month announced changes to their overdraft policies - but says those changes aren't enough. Citing yesterday's report from the Center for Responsible Lending that estimated that "banks and credit unions raked in nearly $24 billion in overdraft income in 2008" and noting that "American families now spend more on overdraft fees every year than on books, breakfast cereal or fresh vegetables and only slightly less than they spend on major appliances," the editorial advocates stronger Congressional action.

The Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) has announced that it will welcome more than 30 senior executives from a broad cross-sector of the financial industry in Chicago today for a joint meeting of its Innovators and Responsible Credit Roundtables. The gathering seeks to provide insight and actionable ideas for companies, advance their individual efforts in developing new projects and business models, and identify opportunities for industry-wide action. READ MORE »

The Discover U.S. Spending Monitor rose for the second straight month, climbing 2 points in September to 89 (based out of 100). The rise in the Monitor’s index is mostly attributed to improved economic sentiment in September. In all, 33 percent of U.S. consumers feel economic conditions are improving, a Monitor high and 2-point increase from August. In September, consumers felt a little better about their personal finances as well. Thirty-three percent rated their finances as good, or excellent, the highest in four months and up a point from August. READ MORE »

• Porter Apple Company Improves Efficiency, Protects Customers With Merchant Link Gateway and Transaction Vault
• Prosper Experiences Influx of Creditworthy Borrowers
• Digital Check Introduces Low-Cost, Mobile Scanner Family of Products
• Counting On Currency: The Cashless Branch (continued) – Is it possible to be cashless and still make customers happy?
• NYTimes.com: Paralysis in the Debt Markets Is Deepening the Credit Drought
• The Register: IE, Chrome, Safari duped by bogus PayPal SSL cert
• EFTPOS Card Skimmers Target Perth - Card skimmers steal $150,000 from West Aussies
• USATODAY.com: Federal Reserve plans to rein in banks' risky pay packages
• BBC News: Q&A: Phishing for your precious data