In an AP story titled "BofA to charge annual fees on rewards cards", Bank of America says it is testing annual fees ranging from $29 to $99 on its credit cards.

Fiserv has announced that Biller Direct HV, a hosted solution that integrates electronic billing and payment (EBP) capabilities into company websites, has been enhanced with new delivery and alerting capabilities. New capabilities include a "push e-bill" option that enables the delivery of secure PDF e-bills via e-mail and mobile alerts that notify consumers via their mobile device when a bill has been received. READ MORE

Transparent Financial Services (TransFS), a marketplace for businesses seeking financial services, has announced that it has been awarded a grant by the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center (CEC) to support the company's continuing national expansion. TransFS also announced that the customer base of its comparison-shopping site for credit card processing services has now grown into more than 12 vertical markets. READ MORE

Consumers continue to fight the recession by saving more and paying off debt, banks are responding with more careful lending, and stressed homeowners increasingly are falling behind on mortgages on their primary residence, according to the latest Equifax Credit Trends Report for September 2009. READ MORE

In a post on his Payments Industry Regulation blog titled "Note to Congress Re: CFPA Legislation - Clean up Your Act", Broox Peterson writes that, with the House Committee on Financial Services to begin mark-up of the bill tomorrow, "now is the time to point out a couple of flaws in the bill I hope are fixed during the mark-up. I am not advocating for or against creation of the CFPA, just expecting Congress to make the effort to draft legislation that does not lead to unnecessary confusion and bad policy."

Economic research firm Moebs Services projects that, for the first time in US history, the number of checks and electronic transactions for debit cards, credit cards and automatic payments will exceed 100 billion by the end of 2009 from all transactions from consumers and businesses. Moebs based its projection on research and projections using information from the Federal Reserve for 1979 to 2006. READ MORE

Plastyc has introduced iBankUp, a new online banking service that enables "GenY consumers to save money and keep their credit history clean by giving younger, Web-savvy people constant financial oversight and control with no risk of incurring credit card debt or overdraft fees." READ MORE

The European Payments Council (EPC), the coordination and decision-making body of the European banking industry in relation to payments, has announced that the SEPA Core Direct Debit Scheme and the SEPA Business to Business Direct Debit Scheme will launch on 2 November 2009. READ MORE

TSYS Acquiring Solutions has announced the introduction of MobilePASS - a payment application that gives merchants the ability to accept and process card payments any time, anywhere.

According to TSYS, "MobilePASS enables merchants to accept and process card payments while on-the-go. A convenient alternative to traditional and expensive payment applications such as wireless terminals, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems and old- fashioned knuckle busters, MobilePASS is designed for the 21st century merchant." READ MORE

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