Jennifer Coleman of the AP reports in the San Francisco Chronicle on a US District Court decision today that threw out a challenge by several banking associations to a new California financial privacy law scheduled to take effect tomorrow.   » Continue Reading

In partnership with MasterCard, the National Bank of Kuwait has launched the first mini card in the Middle East and Africa based upon MasterCard's SideCard technology.   » Continue Reading

The US Navy has announced initial deployment of Navy/Marine Cash™ on 175 Navy ships. Combining a debit card with a smart card-based electronic purse, the system uses on-board cashless ATMs to transfer funds from bank accounts to the on-card electronic purse.   » Continue Reading

Freelance UK reports on criticism of UK banks for their slow clearing times.

The Daily Telegraph reports the Office of Fair Trading is investigating the problem of slow electronic payments that can often take five days for businesses to complete, compared to just a few hours in Sweden.

The Taipei Times reports on plans by banks in Taiwan to issue smart cards.   » Continue Reading

Aldo Svaldi reports in the Denver Post on First Data Corp.'s involvement in political action and public policy debate over immigration.

Jane Croft reports in the Financial Times about Visa Europe becoming a separate organization.   » Continue Reading

Visa USA has announced that, during the first quarter of 2004, e-commerce spending in the United States on Visa branded credit and debit cards reached $22.3 billion. Through May 31st, Visa USA's year-to-date e-commerce dollar volume increased 59 percent over the same period in 2003.   » Continue Reading

Slashdot picks up the discussion on Peppercoin 2.0.

The Conference Board has released the results of a survey of 10,000 consumers that indicates that two-thirds of consumers are now using the Internet to make travel arrangements. However, consumer concerns about the security of credit card information remains the primary reason consumers don't actually book their travel online.   » Continue Reading

Wells Fargo Financial has issued a response to charges by Acorn as reported recently in the Los Angeles Times.   » Continue Reading

Daniel Wolfe reports in the American Banker on GE Consumer Finance's recently announced deal with PayPal.   » Continue Reading

Yodlee has announced that LowerMyBills.com has selected Yodlee's BillDirect to power its BillPay Plus electronic bill presentment and payment service.   » Continue Reading

DesignTechnica.com reports on some Gartner research exploring the use of mobile phones as all-purpose payment devices -- highlighting the importance of the acceptance infrastructure being in place.

Gartner says that a contactless credit facility is the most interesting part of the offering. How many retailers' point-of-sale terminals will be able to process contactless credit payments is unclear. Acceptance at the point of sale will be critical to the success of contactless payment schemes. If few retailers accept contactless payments, customers will tire of trying to use them and revert to traditional payment methods.

Micropayment provider Peppercoin has announced version 2.0 of its small payment service including support for small value transactions at the physical point of sale.

Thomas Claburn reports in Information Week on activity focused on restoring trust in email.

Separately, eWeek reports on plans by VeriSign to introduce an anti-phishing service this week.

The service allows VeriSign to monitor the Internet for signs of new phishing schemes, such as phony looking e-mail messages and new malicious Web sites that play off a customer's brand. VeriSign will then work with ISPs to have those sites removed, and it can help with the forensic investigations.

The full text of the announcement of VeriSign's Email Security Services is now available.

MSN Money's Terry Savage has some advice for consumers on how to deal with consumer debt.

Americans are now carrying $683 billion in revolving credit card debt. That’s not the amount we charge every month; it’s the outstanding unpaid balances on which people pay interest. And, according to a report by Cambridge Consumer Credit Index, 47% of the people who paid less than the full amount on their credit card bills in a recent month, made only the minimum payment due. In fact, only 13% of Americans with an outstanding balance could afford to pay more than half the balance.

Peter Lewis reports in the Seattle Times on a new law in Washington state taking effect July 1st that modifies a number of gift card characteristics.

[Update: Slashdot has picked up a discussion on this topic.]   » Continue Reading

Landon Thomas Jr. writes in the New York Times on the Yin, the Yang and the Deal, exploring the personalities of William Harrison and Jamie Dimon. "William Harrison may be the acquirer in the J. P. Morgan-Bank One merger, but it is becoming clear that James Dimon and his posse will call many of the shots."

O'Reilly is preparing to publish a new book on PayPal titled PayPal Hacks. A full description of the book is available online.

DMeurope.com's eGov Monitor reports that the UK Cabinet Office is exploring the use of verified credit cards as a means of authenticating eGovernment transactions.   » Continue Reading

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has issued an advisory letter to banks regarding electronic record keeping.   » Continue Reading

Wachovia has announced plans to consolidate two east coast call center operations into a new 500 person call center being built in Salem, Oregon.

Hiawatha Bray reports in the Boston Globe on how some online gambling sites are being attacked by network vandals who then demand payments to stop the attacks.   » Continue Reading

E. Scott Reckard and Susan Anasagasti report in the Los Angeles Times on litigation against Wells Fargo regarding terms of a debt consolidation loan.   » Continue Reading

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has issued an advisory letter to US national banks regarding the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act that was signed into law last December. Among other things, the Act caps interest rates that can be charged by creditors to servicemembers at six per cent.   » Continue Reading

The Financial Times reports on plans by the Royal Bank of Scotland's Comfort Cards division to expand its consumer lending presence in Germany through a partnership with Tchibo.

Checkpoint Systems has introduced CheckPASS, a new resource management system for libraries that includes stored value features.   » Continue Reading

The Scotsman reports from the UK on the seemingly endless ways conmen are taking advantage of consumers and their financial services partners.

An earlier story explores the introduction of chip cards and PINs to the UK market.

So how does it work? There are two elements involved in making card transactions secure. The first is to ensure that the card is genuine; the second that the person presenting the card is the true owner. The chip does the former and PIN does the latter. The chip protects your card from the counterfeit, skimming or cloning fraudster, whilst the PIN prevents someone using your card if it’s lost, stolen or intercepted in the post.

Eileen Alt Powell of the AP reports on the costs some consumers are charged for overdraft protection. A few weeks ago, Federal regulators issued proposed new guidance to financial institutions regarding these kinds of overdraft protection programs.   » Continue Reading

Michael Gormley of the AP writes about the issues associated with students and credit card debt.   » Continue Reading

Steve Bills reports in the American Banker on Coinstar's strategies including placing coin counting machines in bank branches as well as networking its machines to allow consumers to electronically transmit the value of all of their counted coins directly into their checking accounts.   » Continue Reading

At the eBay Live! Community Conference being held this week in New Orleans, PayPal announced PayPal Buyer Credit in partnership with GE Consumer Finance. PayPal members can apply for Buyer Credit online at https://www.paypal.com/buyercredit.   » Continue Reading

The Star reports from Malaysia on RHB Bank's issuance of the first MasterCard SideCard in that country.

More more information on the MasterCard SideCard, click here.

Presentations from the Payments 2004 conference held by the Chicago Federal Reserve in late May are now available for downloading.

Internet Retailer covers on a recent Celent Communications report highlighting the growth in usage of electronic checks for online payments. The report said currently e-checks represent 7% of online payments and forecast that percentage growing to 9% next year.   » Continue Reading

CSO Online interviews Alastair MacGibbon, former chief of the Australian High Tech Crime Centre, about his decision to join eBay Australia as director of trust and safety.

Washington Mutual has announced that it has received a US patent on its full-service branch bank design.   » Continue Reading

The Korea Times reports on the upcoming launch of a new feature-rich smart card payment system.

Coinstar has announced that it is testing issuing Starbucks Cards from its coin counting machines without paying a coin-counting fee.

According to Coinstar research, the average individual has an estimated $99 in change collected in jars, cups, piggy banks and/or collecting dust under rugs, cushions and furniture. That same individual adds an additional $5.50 in change to a "container" each week. By transferring your coins into a Starbucks Card, you can treat yourself or someone you know to a delicious Starbucks experience.

The New York Times reports that the Bush administration has completed one of the biggest changes in the history of the food stamp program, replacing paper coupons with electronic benefits and debit cards.

Consumers Union and many other consumer organizations have asked the Federal Reserve Board in a letter to take steps to clarify that payroll card users are entitled to the same kinds of protections that consumers have with bank debit cards under the federal Electronic Funds Transfer Act, including liability limits and error resolution rights.   » Continue Reading

Kathy Chu reports on the Dow Jones Newswire about the increased interest in credit cards that pay rewards on gasoline purchases as fuel prices have continued to climb.   » Continue Reading

SunTrust has announced the Skylight Debit Card Account that it claims offers distinct advantages over other stored value payroll card programs.   » Continue Reading

The Anti-Phishing Working Group has released its latest summary of monthly trends (PDF) indicating a significant slowdown during May in the growth rate of attacks.

PayPal has announced the availability of a new PayPal Web Services software development kit (SDK) for Microsoft platforms.   » Continue Reading

Dawn Chmielewski reports in the San Jose Mercury News on Mperia, an online music portal for independent musicians where payments are handled by micropayments provider BitPass.

Wachovia and the University of Florida have announced their success in using the Electronic Payments Network's (EPN) Universal Payment Identification Code (UPIC) for receiving grant payments electronically.

Thailand's The Nation reports on plans by Visa International to issue new smart cards in Thailand later this year.

Philip Yen, Visa International executive vice president and general manager, said yesterday that most of Thailand’s acquiring banks were now ready to accept Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip-card transactions.

Ron Lieber reports in today's Wall St. Journal on Zevez Corp., a company that helps businesses make mileage collection from credit cards an integral part of their accounts payable process.   » Continue Reading

MasterCard and NameProtect have announced they are working together to combat "phishing" schemes and the brokering of illegally obtained credit card numbers in the online environment.   » Continue Reading

MasterCard has announced it is holding its Global Risk Management Symposium this week in San Diego. MasterCard also indicated plans to make a major announcement regarding a new partnership during the symposium later this week.

MasterCard and Wal-Mart have announced that Wal-Mart has resumed accepting MasterCard Signature debit cards.   » Continue Reading

Ellen McCarthy reports in the Washington Post on Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ Symbol: BBBB), a company expecting to complete its initial public offering later today. Among other services provided to schools and universities, Blackboard operates a payment-related business with its BbOne offering.   » Continue Reading

Global Collect announced today that it has been selected by Microsoft to provide online non-credit card payment processing services, such as direct debit processing, as well as online bank account validation services for the Microsoft MSN platform.   » Continue Reading

EDI Secure LLLP has announced that its partner and inventor Jeffrey Ice has been granted a US Patent (No. 6,598,031) on single use credit card numbers.

Dave Birch from Consult Hyperion writes an opinion piece on how UK banks should provide their chip card equipped customers with a token reader solution to counter phishing.

Also, Steve Bass reports on MSN how to avoid bring tricked into divulging personal information online.

Bank of America reports on the growth it is seeing in usage of Check Cards.

GE Corporate Payment Services has announced a GE/MasterCard Payroll Card product.   » Continue Reading

comScore Networks has released an analysis of the state of online banking in the US reporting that more than 22 million users logged into accounts at the nation's top ten banks in the first quarter of 2004, representing growth of 29 percent versus Q1 2003. During this same period, usage of online bank bill payment services has grown by 37 percent.

Ina Steiner comments on AuctionBytes regarding PayPal's recently announced fee changes.

Prior to the pricing change, sellers could qualify for a lower Merchant rate of 2.2% plus 30 cents per transaction if they received an average of $1,000 in sales per month. Beginning in August, they must receive an average of at least $10,000 per month to qualify for a rate of 2.2%.

Speaking of mobile commerce, the Financial Times reports on NTT DoCoMo's launch of a handset-based electronic wallet service. The mobile operator believes the addition of the new wallet capability will reduce the risk of subscriber's churning as number portability comes soon to Japan.

DoCoMo has signed on departments stores, a convenience store franchise, 20 McDonald's restaurants, airline ANA, credit card company JCB, and JR, the public railway operator, among others. JR users would, for example, be able to use their mobile handsets as travel passes.

Discover Financial Services has announced a partnership with Utix and WildCard Systems for a prepaid gift product program utilizing Discover's NOVUS network.   » Continue Reading

Investors Business Daily reports on a Global Insight study commissioned by Visa Canada that highlights the benefits that electronic payments have brought to the Canadian economy over the last 25 years. The study is available for download (PDF).   » Continue Reading

Another cross-industry consortium focusing on the issues of phishing, spoofing and other tactics of online identity theft has been launched. Called the Trusted Electronic Communications Forum, participating founding member companies include: ABN AMRO, AT&T Wireless, Best Buy, Charles Schwab, CipherTrust, DIRECTV, E*Trade, Fidelity Investments, GE Access, HSBC, IBM, National City Bank, PostX Corporation, Royal Bank of Scotland and Siebel Systems.

Editorial comment: TECF certainly appears to be have been orchestrated by PostX. With these anti-phishing consortia now proliferating, it's becoming pretty clear just where we're at on the "hype cycle" for this topic. Reminds me of the proliferation of mobile commerce consortia a year or two ago! Next thing you know, there will be an analyst report from Gartner or some such firm examining the anti-phishing consortia themselves, the likely winners and losers, etc.

Reuters reports that Visa International is opening an office in Vietnam. Country manager Gordon Cooper will be heading the local office.

Claire Cahoon writes in the Chillicothe Gazette on college students and credit cards.

According to Nellie Mae, a company that works with colleges and universities to establish student loan programs, college students with credit cards are on the rise. The organization reports 54 percent of undergraduate students have a credit card by freshman year, and the number increases to 92 percent once they're sophomores.

PayPal has introduced a new tiered pricing plan which adjusts fees paid by sellers to PayPal for receiving money as their monthly payment volume increases. An FAQ on the new pricing is also available. The new plan takes effect August 6th.

The Federal Trade Commission has issued a new report (PDF) declining to implement a "National Do Not Email Registry" -- because of the inability to properly authenticate the origin of email messages.

The FTC also said that anti-spam efforts should focus on creating a robust e-mail authentication system that would prevent spammers from hiding their tracks and thereby evading Internet service providers’ anti-spam filters and law enforcement. To help focus these efforts, the FTC also announced that it will be sponsoring a Fall 2004 Authentication Summit to encourage a thorough analysis of possible authentication systems and their swift deployment.

We've just posted some reflections on PayPal's new Buyer Credit offering which was introduced recently in partnership with GE Capital Consumer Card Company.

Comments and reactions to the piece are welcomed here.

Citigroup has announced a bi-national credit card allowing US cardholders to share a common account with another cardholder in Mexico and to pay for their purchases on their cards rather than sending them money using more expensive remittance services.   » Continue Reading

Alex Kazim, PayPal's VP of Marketing and Operations, spoke earlier today at a Bear Stearns investment conference in New York. A copy of his presentation (PDF) is available online.

The International Standards Team for Harmonisation has announced that it has delivered a standard XML core payment kernel for corporate-to-bank payment initiation and status messages. Nine banks have been involved in the effort: ABN AMRO, Bank of America, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Nordea, Standard Chartered and Wells Fargo.

Jon Swartz writes in USA Today on the issues surrounding email.   » Continue Reading

Mark Huband reports in the Financial Times on how counterfeiting, forgery and credit card crimes have become the financial backbone of terrorist cells in western Europe.

AdAge reports that Visa USA has appointed former Charles Schwab CEO Susanne Lyons as EVP and Chief Marketing Officer of Visa USA. Lyons replaces Becky Saeger who left Visa USA recently to join Schwab as executive vice president of brand management and branding communications   » Continue Reading

Update (July 28, 2004): See our post "PayPal Class Action Settlement Claims Procedures" for the latest.

PayPal announced today that it had reached a preliminary settlement agreement with a proposed class of PayPal customers who allege that "PayPal did not appropriately communicate about customer transactions and did not appropriately process limits that were placed on some customer accounts."   » Continue Reading

MSNBC technology correspondent Bob Sullivan writes about a soon-to-be released survey by Gartner that will report that nearly 2 million Americans have had their checking accounts raided by criminals in the past 12 months, each reporting an average loss per incident of $1,200 resulting in a total of more than $2 billion in losses for the year.

Gartner researcher Avivah Litan blamed online banking for most of the problem. "There has been a big increase in the abuse of existing checking accounts," Litan said.

The Smart Card Alliance has announced the addition of 21 new members.

JCB has announced that it has announced a two month trial of its new wristwatch "Offica" corporate solution.   » Continue Reading

CyberSource has released the results of a recent study it performed that concludes that merchants can convert as many as 20% more customers by offering them more payment types to choose from.

Those merchants offering one payment type, such as general purpose credit cards, for example, convert 60% of their shoppers. Those offering four types, e.g., credit cards, gift certificates, eChecks, PayPal, etc., convert 72% of their shoppers -- a 20% increase.

The survey results are incorporated into a new industry whitepaper from CyberSource, "The Insider's Guide to eCommerce Payment".

Sterling Allan of Pure Energy Systems News reports on PayPal's recent changes that allow payments for certain types of transactions to be completed without requiring a PayPal account.

SmartPros reports on payroll cards.

About 56 million Americans don't have a bank account, and just 55 percent of American workers are enrolled in direct deposit. These statistics indicate that the two main forms of paychecks -- direct deposit and printed checks -- leave room for yet another paycheck solution.

Small business owner Charlie Redmond writes in DMNews about merchant card acceptance.

Tom Abate writes in the San Francisco Chronicle about America's love-hate relationship with debt.   » Continue Reading

Julie Claire Diop writes in the Hartford Courant (free registration required) about payroll cards and why she thinks they're a poor substitute for having a checking account.   » Continue Reading

CNET Asia interviews Tim Morris, MasterCard's Asia-Pacific vice president and regional head for security and risk management.

The Reserve Bank of Austrlia, which earlier has imposed its regulatory will on credit cards and the Visa debit payment scheme in Australia, has announced it is considering also regulating the EFTPOS and ATM's in Australia. The RBA has invited public comment on its proposal.

Reuters reports that the RBA may also be considering regulation of American Express' card payment system in Australia.

Lavonne Kuykendall reports in the American Banker on the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce's decision to discontinue its issuance of American Express cards. Cardholders are being offered CIBC Visa cards in exchange.

The Pew Hispanic Center has released a study of the costs (PDF) associated with sending money from the US to family members back home in Latin America.   » Continue Reading

Richard Mitchell writes in the latest issue of Credit Card Management on the future of Visa and MasterCard.   » Continue Reading

Hannah Bergman reports in today's American Banker on a study released yesterday by the FDIC exploring the risks associated with outsourcing to third-party offshore vendors. The full study is available for download (PDF) from the FDIC web site.

JP Morgan Chase and Bank One announced today that the post-merger company will go to market under the Chase brand in the consumer and commercial segments.

Identrus and Adobe have announced a strategic partnership that combines Identrus digital signatures into Adobe PDF documents. Wells Fargo Bank will be the first bank to pilot the new Identrus/Adobe offering.   » Continue Reading

PayPal has introduced a Buyer Credit feature in partnership with GE Capital. An FAQ is available.

Glenbrook Partners has published the June edition of the Glenbrook Flash. Personal subscriptions are available via email.

Tim Boreham reports in the The Australian on retailer reactions to the fees charged for card acceptance by American Express and Diner's Club.   » Continue Reading

Information Week reports on Wells Fargo's success with Internet payments including its relationship with eBay/PayPal.

In addition to settling transactions, the system must comply with complex rules and regulations surrounding multicurrency transactions. "The gateway isn't just about technology, it's also about compliance," says Michelle Banaugh, Wells Fargo's senior VP of E-commerce.

The Wall St. Journal reports on the launch of Stockback, a new card-based rewards program issued in partnership with MBNA by Atlanta-based Vesdia Corporation.

CyberSource has announced that it has certified its systems to a new enhanced Internet data specification, enabling its merchant customers to take advantage of new internet fraud screen capabilities provided by American Express.   » Continue Reading

eWeek has a special report this week on fighting cyber-crime. Included is an article about plans by Identrus to issue institutional certificates designed to help fight cyber-crime.

David Twiddy from the Associated Press reports on the decline in usage of paper checks in the US.

Deluxe Corp., the nation's leading check printer, is closing a plant in Anniston, Ala. The company, based in Minneapolis, saw check sales drop 6.5 percent last year. It also has closed or is in the process of shuttering three other printing plants, in San Jose, Calif.; Pittsburgh; and Indianapolis. Business from those plants has been shuffled to other plants, including one in Kansas City.

The Medford, Oregon Mail Tribune reports on Brent Pearson and his just patented anti-check fraud technique. HIs technique optically obscures the bank account number information printed on checks while allowing bank-owned magnetic readers to still read the numbers correctly.   » Continue Reading

Pay by Touch has announced that it has closed $25 million in financing from investors led by Mobius Venture Capital and including participation from the Gordon P. Getty Family Trust and other private investors.   » Continue Reading

CyberSource has announced support for the use of ATM cards for online payments without PIN's within certain specific acceptance categories.   » Continue Reading

E*Trade Financial has announced the sale of its ATM operations subsidiary to Cardtronics for $106 million in cash. In March, Cardtronics filed an S-1 registration statement for an initial public offering that has yet to happen.

Visa EU has announced that first quarter 2004 ecommerce sales in the UK surged up 123 percent over the same period in the prior year.   » Continue Reading

Steve Alexander reports on phishing attacks in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

The Times of India reports on how Remit2India has begun using PayPal as its instant remittance funds transfer backbone from the US to India.   » Continue Reading

Encorus and T-Mobile have introduced Europe's first cross-border interoperable m-payments system, initially serving customers in Germany and the UK.

Uniquely, Encorus has provided T-Mobile with wallet software, transaction processing and merchant acquiring services. Merchants participating in the t-zones service include Allsports, Aral, ebookers, Germanwings, getgo, OTTO, Orion, TELTIX, and WHSmith to name just a few.

Craig Douglas reports in the Wayland (MA) Town Crier on Sovereign Bancorp's deactivation and reissuance of Visa Check debit cards for some 83,000 customers.

Netcraft reports on the new kind of phishing threat posed by the Korgo worm.

The worm represents an alarming advance in phishing, as it forgoes the need to trick the end user into divulging details. Phishing trojans that monitor keystrokes are not new, but to date have required some form of response to an e-mail "bait." Korgo uses the LSASS vulnerability to auto-infect Windows systems that haven't applied the MS04-11 patch issued April 11.

The HawaiiChannel.com reports on delays in th