• California bill would ban tracking chips in IDs
• JPMorgan Chase Environmental Policy Triggers Tipping Point for US Bank Sustainability

VeriFone completed its initial public offering this morning. Its new stock symbol is PAY. The IPO was priced at $10 per share, down from its expected pricing range of $12 to $14 per share. VeriFone's latest SEC S-1/A filing is available online.

MBNA and Ixe Banco have announced signing a definitive agreement to form Ixe-MBNA SOFOLasa, a joint venture that will issue and service credit cards and consumer loans in Mexico. Each partner will contribute 50% of the necessary capital.

"Partnering with Ixe Banco is a terrific fit for MBNA," said John Cochran, MBNA's Chief Operating Officer. "Ixe is led by a proven management team and the Mexican market for credit card products and consumer loans is large and growing. The demographics of the customers who are attracted to Ixe are ideal for MBNA. We will benefit from Ixe's experience in Mexico, and Ixe will benefit from MBNA's experience in marketing and servicing credit cards. Together, Ixe and MBNA will offer an exceptional range of products, backed by outstanding Customer service."

• CitiBusiness Credit Cards Helps Protect Small Business Owners with Identity Theft Solutions
• Motley Fool: Why's My FICO Score Wacky?
• Slashdot: Would You Submit Biometric Data to Join a Gym?
• ChevronTexaco Lowers Credit and Debit Card Processing Fees for Summer Driving Season
• Citi Cards Call Center Opens In Greensboro
• Wachovia Launches Web-Based Loan Fulfillment System
• Paying in dollars costs more when using credit card abroad
• Finextra (UK): Net threat
• Synovus execs celebrate past growth, predict more of same

The Evening Times reports on unauthorized withdrawals from ATM's in Glascow, Scotland over the last ten days.

• Your Credit Card Companies on Capitol Hill
• Lightbridge Announces First Quarter 2005 Financial Results
• Heasley Resigns From Board of Fair Isaac
• ActivCard Signs Agreement With Mastercard to Deliver First Multi-Channel Cap Authentication Server

Visa USA reported today that Verified by Visa's share of e-commerce transactions has grown over 40$ with transaction volume during the first quarter of 2005 increasing more than 230% over last year.   » Continue Reading

MarketWatch publishes Renaissance Capital's report on the upcoming initial public offering of VeriFone.

EE Times reports that NTT Docomo has announced a new phone-based credit card service.

NTT Docomo will collaborate with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. (SMFG), Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co. Ltd. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC) to establish a platform for a credit-payment service using Docomo's phones equipped with the Felica wireless IC chip for cashless payments.

Under the deal, Docomo will shortly launch a new credit card brand and acquire 34 percent of the equity of Mitsui Card, paying approximately 98 billion yen (about $925 million). Docomo expects that Sumitomo's card network will accelerate deployment of its new credit card network.

Business Week reports on S&P's downgrade of Visa International's credit rating from A+ to A.

S&P believes Visa's risk profile has significantly changed in the past decade, with its ongoing legal challenges having emerged as a major risk component. The speed, number, and potential severity of events in aggregate elevate business risk to new levels. Concerns about legal risk and, to a lesser extent, changing industry dynamics, reduce the ratings on Visa by one notch. The negative outlook highlights further potential ratings pressure due to the negative effect of current litigations.

• Moneris Solutions President & CEO Jim Baumgartner Named Electronic Transactions Association Member of the Year
• Bank of America Launches Hispanic Savings Program in Miami
• ASK to Further Deliver 700,000 Contactless Cards for Taipei
• Pay By Touch Introduced in Discover Financial Services' Company Cafeteria
• Metavante Announces Record Financial Technology Contract Renewals for 2004
• CyberSource Launches Payment Card Industry Security Compliance Service
• Blair Corporation and Alliance Data Systems Announce New Private Label Credit Agreement
• Student Sues eBay And Paypal
• india: MasterCard, SBI & BPCL announce debit card tie-up

David Bank reports for the Wall St. Journal on a lawsuit filed by BJ's Wholesale Club against IBM seeking compensation for losses following a compromise of credit card information.

The sensitive information encoded in the magnetic stripe on credit cards "was out there more than we thought," says John Shaughnessy, senior vice president for risk management at Visa USA. These secret codes are "jewels" for thieves, Mr. Shaughnessy says. "The fact that it's stored anywhere is troublesome."

American Express reported first quarter financial results today with net income rising 19 percent to $946 million for the quarter on a 10 percent increase in revenues.

Cards in force grew 7 percent to 66.1 million while card payment volume grew 15 percent to $109.3 billion. Amex's Global Network Services payment volume rose over 35% reflecting growth in non-US partner volumes and MBNA-related volumes in the US. Average lending balances grew 4%. Amex grew its marketing, promotion, and rewards expenses aggressively in the quarter -- growing 29 percent.   » Continue Reading

The Financial Times reports this morning that Lloyds TSB will announce today that it will begin issuing American Express cards in the UK.

[Update: American Express has issued a press release confirming the Lloyds TSB relationship.]

VeriSign has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Lightbridge's PrePayIN platform and customer base for $17.45 million in cash plus the assumption of certain contractual liabilities.

"Adding the PrepayIN(TM) platform to our existing pre-paid and billing portfolio is a compliment to our already extensive solution offering," said Vernon Irvin, executive vice president, VeriSign Communications Services. "This is a system that will enrich our prepaid offering domestically, while extending our customer base to markets internationally."

Separately, Lightbridge also announced that it has engaged investment bankers to advise the company on strategic alternatives for its Telecom Decisioning Services business.

• Japan Times: Credit card fraud -- how they do it and how to protect yourself
• Wright Express Reports First-Quarter 2005 Results
• Ariba Adds GE vPayment Tool to Ariba Supplier Network
• InterContinental Hotels Group Launches 'Any Hotel, Anywhere' Card
• U.S. Bank E-Commerce Suite Delivers Cost-Saving Results
• FinCen: GUIDANCE TO MONEY SERVICES BUSINESSES ON OBTAINING AND MAINTAINING BANKING SERVICES (PDF)
• FinCen: Interagency Interpretive Guidance on Providing Banking Services to Money Services Businesses Operating in the United States (PDF)
• Parascript Partners With SQN Banking Systems to Combat Fraud
• MasterCard International Announces New Program to Empower Consumers with the Tools to Manage Debt
• Taipei Times: MasterCard offering firms a line of corporate credit
• VeriSign Achieves Three Industry Security Certifications for Payments Services

Tricia Duryee reports for the Seattle Times on Qpass.

Last month Qpass' customers sold almost $57 million in data on a retail basis. That represents a jump of almost 300 percent from the year-ago period.

Moneris Solutions has announced a new end-to-end wireless payment processing solution for merchants.   » Continue Reading

Greg Farrell reports for USA Today on American Express CEO Ken Chenault.

Mercedes-Benz and Bank of America have announced two new rewards-based credit cards.   » Continue Reading

• ABC News: Pharming Your Identity
• Regal Entertainment Group Casts MasterCard PayPass in Starring Role As New Payment Option for Movie Fans
• Ritz Camera Centers to Expand Acceptance of MasterCard PayPass to Over 1200 Locations
• Wachovia Introduces New Enhancements to Its Web Site
• VeriSign Introduces Three-Year SSL Certificates
• American Express Redefines Spring Fever with New 'My WishList' Online Shopping Experience
• Get paid with prepaid products
• Gemplus Announces Agreement to Acquire Setec
• Pay By Touch Announces Chief Financial Officer
• Your Credit Card Companies: Understanding Information in Your Credit Card Statement Can Improve Overall Credit Management
• Wachovia No. 1 in Small Business Lending by Dollar Volume for Third Year in a Row
• Encryption and Smart Card Technology Leaders Develop Identifier-Based Encryption for Portable Formats
• Yodlee Congratulates Its Customers Bank of America and E*TRADE on Winning Forbes Awards
• Bloomberg: HSBC to Double Workers, Add More Branches in China

Bill Bishop reports on his blog re: news from China about eBay's Eachnet cutting its listing fees as of May 1st.

I doubt they would be cutting prices if business were booming for them in China. I believe Alibaba's Taobao continues to take share from Ebay in China.

PayPal has a handy online calculator that allows merchants to compare their current bank card acceptance pricing with that of PayPal's.

We're often asked if a PayPal Business account is more or less expensive than a traditional online merchant account. The inquirer is often surprised when we say that a PayPal Business account is less expensive, even for multi-million dollar online businesses.

GTnews.com is published a six-part series in association with HSBC on the effective use of payment cards in business. The first two parts are now available: Introduction to Payment Card Business and Corporate Travel & Entertainment Cards.

• Slate: AMERICANS Pay Off Credit Card Debt!
• USA Today: 'Pharmers' hit online bank users with fraud scam
• ZDNet: Retailers feel security heat
• USA Today: New credit card fees take a further swipe at dollar
• Fair Isaac Appoints Campbell to Lead Global Product Organization
• Delaware Online.com: MBNA sees sharp decline in earnings

MBNA has reported financial results for the first quarter.

The Corporation's results were further impacted by unexpectedly high payment volumes from U.S. credit card customers.

While sales volume on MBNA credit cards grew 9.5%, MBNA's credit card loans outstanding declined 9.4% over the same quarter a year ago and 8.9% compared to the fourth quarter of 2004. MBNA has posted is first quarter business results presentation online (PDF).   » Continue Reading

Discover has announced that Federated's 450 Macy's and Bloomingdale stores began accepting Discover cards on April 1.   » Continue Reading

Ted Griffith reports for Delaware Online on Chase's first quarter earnings.

Craig Woker, an analyst with Morningstar in Chicago, called Chase's card business one of the "bright spots" in the first quarter, offsetting what he described as weakness in other areas, such as commercial lending.

• Beijing: Citigroup Announces Approval to Provide Renminbi Currency Services
• TRX Powers Data Integration for MasterCard Hotel Folio Initiative
• VECTORsgi Introduces Replacement for Paper-Based Capture Systems; Solution Manages Transition from Paper to Electronic Image Exchange
• California's Save Mart to Speed Checkouts with NCR Point-of-Sale Solution
• Ussery To Retire From TSYS After 40 Years of Service Retaining Position as Chairman of the Board
• Fortis Bank Live on IntraNet Worldwide's iMTS Solution; iMTS Solution Provides Bank with Best-of-Breed Payment Processing Functionality
• Govolution to Offer Lower Cost Bill Payment Option: PIN-less Debit
• EBay Looks to China for Growth
• LAN Airline Alliance Carriers and Western Union Offer Travelers Additional Payment Options
• Students and the credit card binge
• Revitalizing the Pay-Per-Call System
• Digital Insight's Proprietary Marketing Programs Drive Significant Growth for Banks and Credit Unions
• People's Daily Online: POS terminals are installed on the Xisha Islands in Hainan
• China Daily: China Merchants Bank sets sights on elite customers
• Remarks by President Bush in Signing the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005
• A&B Vending Begins Installing the Cashless e-Port(R) in Vending Machines at Roadside Rest Stops

As part of today's announcement of eBay's first quarter financial results (PDF), PayPal reported a 44% increase in total payment volume to $6.2 billion with 71% of that volume associated with auction payments.

PayPal reported total payment accounts (both registered and unregistered users) grew 57% to 71.6 million. Active accounts were 22.1 million in the quarter. In the conference call, eBay CEO Meg Whitman pointed out that PayPal's user base exceeds that of Discover and is over twice the size of Bank of America's.

PayPal's transaction revenue rate grew slightly from 3.60% to 3.64% while the transaction processing expense rate declined from 1.25% to 1.15%. PayPal's transaction loss rate ticked up slightly from 0.27% to 0.30%.

Overall, PayPal's net revenues for the quarter were $233.1 million, up 47% over last year.

Jennifer Saranow reports in the Wall St. Journal on Citibank's new ThankYou Points retail bank awards program with bonuses paid based upon the number of Citi banking products and services used by each customer.

In a press release, Citi provided more details about the ThankYou program.   » Continue Reading

Jennifer Saranow reports in today's Wall St. Journal on plans by MasterCard to boost fees on all card transactions abroad.

MasterCard says that starting Oct. 1, it will charge issuers a fee of 0.8% on all transactions when the card holder and merchant are from different countries. The company also plans to levy an additional 0.2% whenever a merchant's foreign currency needs to be converted. The new fees apply to users of both MasterCard credit and debit cards, and include ATM withdrawals and debit-card purchases.

Municipal Credit Union and NYCE have announced that MCU will introduce NYCE's new real-time, account-to-account (A2A) money transfer service to MCU's 300,000 members.

MCU is the first financial institution to support NYCE A2A across multiple customer delivery channels -- beginning last year with kiosks, today with online banking, and ATMs later this year.

To transfer funds using A2A processed on the NYCE network, the sender needs the receiver's ATM/debit card number. A2A requires both the sender and the receiver to hold accounts with financial institutions affiliated with the NYCE Network. For security reasons the receiver's PIN and expiration date are never required.

Visa USA today announced the addition of a new layer of technology to help its Member financial institutions reduce application fraud losses and account takeover fraud. The new fraud fighting effort is being developed through an association with Chex Systems, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of eFunds Corporation, and will only be available through Visa to its card-issuing Members.   » Continue Reading

• WSJ: A Cottage Industry Blooms To Help Victims of ID Theft
• Global Payments Announces Processing Agreement with Ark Restaurants Corporation
• WSJ: How European Banks Keep A Tighter Lid on Online Data
• Experian Establishes the World's Most Comprehensive Consumer Classification System
• MoneyGram International Announces First Quarter Results; Increases Guidance for 2005; Money Transfer Volume Grows 36 percent in First Quarter
• America Online Launches Major Campaign against Phishing
• Purchasing Card Growth Dramatic in Programs Adopting Master Agreements, According to AberdeenGroup Research
• Seasoned Software and Internet Executive, Bill Harris, Joins WebSideStory's Board of Directors
• Royal Bank of Scotland Credit Card launches PrivacyGuard to protect identity
• National City and Union Bank of California Launch Check Image Exchange Using SVPCO Check Image Exchange Network
• Triversity Leads the Way in Incorporating Payment Card Industry - PCI - Data Security Standards into its Customer-Centric Retail Solutions
• Business Week: May I See Your Voice, Please?
• DoCoMo Shares Rise on Card Company Investment Report
• Latest ID snafu: 200,000 investors lose data
• Biometric breakthrough - credit cards secured with fingerprint recognition made feasible

China Daily reports on some of Visa's plans for growing its base of cards issued in China.

Presently, there are around 5.6 million Visa credit card holders on the mainland, but the cards issued are not for use locally. Visa's 17 local member banks and five foreign financial institutions provide credit card services for local card holders who then have access to credit services when they travel overseas, as well as for international tourists who are travelling on the mainland.

Ted Griffith reports for Delaware Online on Juniper Bank's deal announced yesterday to issue both American Express and Visa cards for its client UBS.

Juniper, the No. 18 U.S. card issuer, has about 1 million cardholders. UBS has more than 2 million clients for its U.S. retail brokerage business, which UBS calls its "Wealth Management" unit.

Separately, Juniper announced this morning that it has extended its strategic alliance with MasterCard.   » Continue Reading

Nick Goodway reports for the Evening Standard on plans by UK banks to issue consumers hardware devices to help verified their identities when banking or shopping online.

Tony Salmond, consultant to Apac's e-commerce group, said: 'We are in the final stages of consulting with our banks to determine the flavour of these specifications we will see as a UK standard. By the start of May we should have agreement on the authentication standard.'

• TSYS Reports 41.7% Increase in Net Income for First Quarter; After Largest Quarterly Increase in Five Years, Company Raises 2005 Earnings Guidance to 22-25%
• Intersections Inc. and ID Analytics Announce Partnership to Strengthen Consumer Protection From Identity Fraud
• Overwhelming Majority of Americans Feel Consumers Are Taking on Too Much Debt
• StoreFront E-Commerce Integrates Payer Authentication Services, Offers Merchants Valuable Tool to Combat Fraud
• Portland-Area Resident Pays By Touch and Wins a New Car
• Geek.com: Online Retailers Forced to Get Secure
• Internet Security Systems Arms Enterprises With Data Privacy Protection Offering in the Battle Against Organized Crime
• American Express Business Travel Introduces New Corporate Online Solutions for China
• India's ICICI Bank Purchases 5,000 Hypercom Card Payment Terminals
• Pegasystems Tops 350 Million in Supported Cards
• Axalto and Caixa Penedes Pioneer the Migration to EMV Technology in Spain
• GAO: Information Security: Internal Revenue Service Needs to Remedy Serious Weaknesses over Taxpayer and Bank Secrecy Act Data
• Russia’s Anti-Trust Body Closes Case Against Visa International
• PassMark Security and Business Systems Group Offer FIs Fully-Managed Internet Authentication System
• PassMark Delivers First Two-Factor, No Hardware Authentication System to the U.K.

Retail Ventures today announced the findings from its investigation into the theft of credit card and other purchase information from its subsidiary, DSW Shoe Warehouse (DSW).   » Continue Reading

UBS has announced a new dual-card program that will give clients access to charge card, credit card and ATM services through their UBS Resource Management Account. The program will be provided by Juniper Bank, a member of the Barclays Group, who will issue an American Express-branded charge card and a Visa Signature credit card.   » Continue Reading

Visa USA has announced the second phase of its national security advertising campaign featuring a series of advertisements promoting Visa's "layers of security" approach to secure payment card transactions.   » Continue Reading

• American Express Relaunches the Hilton HHonors(R) Platinum Credit Card Adding Richer Rewards Benefits
• Spitzer: LEGISLATIVE PACKAGE AIMED AT REINING IN IDENTITY THEFT
• Euronet Announces Management Changes in EFT Processing Segment
• Fifth Third Bancorp Selects TSYS for Credit Processing
• Australian IT: Banks dally over safe card system
• Federal Reserve announces redesign of financial education web site
• ComputerWorld: Breach of Credit Data May Have Broad Scope
• MasterCard Usability Team Honors the Most Usable Sites on the Web
• Ingrian Nets $15.4 Million in Fourth Round Funding
• Pay By Touch Announces Chief Security Officer
• Asia Payment Systems Reports Delay in Annual 10-KSB Filing
• Information Week: Big Bucks In Micropayments

China's e-commerce, in a crucial stage of development, is to grow at over 50 percent every year, said Song Ling, chairman of China Electronic Commerce Association.

CNN Money carries a Reuters story about the potential value of Discover.

Morgan Stanley's Discover credit card unit could sell for $10 billion to $15 billion, depending on how the Wall Street company divests the business, industry experts said Friday.

Caroline Mayer reports in the Washington Post on how quickly following emerging from bankruptcy consumers begin receiving new credit card offers.

Citigroup announced first quarter financial results this morning including reporting a revenue decline of 3 percent year over year in the Cards segment of its Global Consumer group. Net income from Cards increased 11% year over year with nearly all of that increase coming from a reduction in credit losses. Average assets increased 1 percent year over year.

In its investor presentation (PDF) accompanying its earnings release, Citi described its North American Cards business as a "challenge", listing increased cost of funds and high payment rates as issues.

GE this morning announced first quarter financial results (PDF) and featured the following highlights from its Consumer Finance business unit:

• Launched the Wal-Mart Dual Card, which offers cash back, gasoline discounts and low rates to Wal-Mart shoppers, and which is accepted at more than 4 million merchant and cash access locations on the Discover Network.
• Launched GE Money Care Credit in Australia to finance discretionary procedures for dental care, laser eye surgery and veterinary care, a $6 billion segment not covered by government programs or insurance.
• Signed a seven-year extension of its private-label credit card agreement with SAM'S CLUB and launched SAM'S CLUB Dual Cards for consumers and businesses, with the business card being the first such card ever offered on the Discover Network.
• Brought the Dual Card to Thailand by teaming up with Central Retail Group to launch the Central MasterCard.
• Launched an unsecured personal loan product in Singapore called "ezyCash" through a co-operation agreement with the Singapore Post Office, one of the first of its kind in Asia, which makes full use of the Post Office's extensive network in Singapore.

David Bank reports in Friday's Wall St. Journal on steps retailers are taking to secure their web sites and databases.

The combined Visa-MasterCard rules make merchants' banks responsible for the security of everybody that handles credit-card information, which includes payment processors and other intermediaries as well as retailers themselves.

Breaches must be reported to Visa. If Visa's investigators find that the handler was out of compliance with the security requirements, the card association can fine the bank as much as $500,000. The banks, in turn, may pass the penalty along to the merchant.

• Visa USA Marks 'Financial Literacy Month' With Re-Launch of Practical Money Skills for Life
• Battling Fraud on eBay: Part 2
• New York Times Editorial: Identity Thieves' Secret Weapon
• Fortune: Identity Thieves Spying on Your WiFi?
• Alliance Data Systems to Provide Project Management and Systems Integration Services to Cobb Energy
• Business Week: Personal Data Theft: It's Outrageous
• Payday Lenders Quietly Out Sourcing Their Lead Generation to New Breed of Online Marketing Experts
• Boston Globe: Retailer knew last fall about security breach that recently roiled credit card companies

Larry Dignan writes for Baseline about Home Depot's success with self-checkout.

Home Depot's passion is checkout tweaking. Liebert says Home Depot is experimenting with new checkout formats including belts to move products, eight-lane self-checkouts, and redesigned checkout stands with improved ergonomics.

Home Depot is convinced fast checkouts matter. As Leibert puts it: "Checkout continues to be one of our customers' most important drivers of satisfaction."

Frank Fortunato writes for SmallBusinessComputing.com about battling fraud from a seller's perspective.

Maija Pesola reports for the Financial Times about Internet retailers becoming increasingly concerned about their exposure to web-based crime.

CNN Money reports on HSBC's notification to at least 180,000 MasterCard card holders that their cards may have been compromised at a merchant (Polo Ralph Lauren) and will need to be replaced. The story was originally reported in a Wall St. Journal report by Robin Sidel and Christopher Conkey in this morning's edition.

Peter Kang writes for Forbes about eBay's PayPal.

Perhaps more critical than potential competition, Kessler said, is the firm's push for small- and medium-sized businesses outside of eBay.

Visa has announced the launch of a new currency conversion website to help cardholders prepare for international travel.   » Continue Reading

First Data has reported first quarter financial results with revenues growing 10 percent year over year but earnings per share of $0.47 vs. $0.61 a year ago.   » Continue Reading

• Digital Currency Service Unveiled for Consumers
• New Haven Introduces First Fully-Functional Comprehensive Parking and Local Merchant Smart Card Payment System In U.S.
• Bank of America Introduces Power Rewards Platinum Card
• Globe and Mail: How to Keep a Tight Lid on High-Tech Fraud
• Bruce Schneier: Mitigating Identity Theft
• Oberthur Card Systems Showcases Its ``TotalIDOne'' Smart Card Solution at CardTech/SecurTech 2005
• Payment Data Delivers the Industry's First Microsoft(R) .NET-Connected Web Service for Acceptance of ACH/eCheck Payments

MBNA announced this morning that is has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Nexstar Financial.

Founded in 1999, Nexstar is a leading business process outsourcer in the home finance market. Nexstar's highly scaleable platform for originating and processing home finance products will enable MBNA to offer private label and co-branded home equity loans through its more than 5,000 affinity partners. Nexstar's state-of-the-art technology also will enable MBNA to significantly reduce its costs to originate home equity loans and enhance the Customer experience in this rapidly growing industry.

Sam Varghese writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about a recent email campaign launched by Westpac -- and questions whether the bank knew what it was doing.

Bruce Mohl reports in the Boston Globe on increasing concerns about identity theft based upon the LexisNexis incident and new news about potentially compromised credit card accounts by GM MasterCard.   » Continue Reading

Tim Pennington reports for the Cincinnati Enquirer on credit card use and consumer debt.

• BitPass, 'Blair Witch Project' Creator to Demonstrate Future of Filmmaking at NAB 2005
• VECTORsgi Solutions Enable XML Documents to Exchange in ACH Format
• PassMark Security Raises $7.7 Million Series B Funding Led By Menlo Ventures
• Wachovia Ranked Number One in Online Customer Experience Among Prospective Customers By Keynote Systems
• Axalto Network Card Receives Card Technology Breakthrough Award for Innovation
• Legend Credit to Enter Gift Card Trading Business With New Site
• Bank of Communications Hong Kong Branch Selects First Data to Provide Payment Processing Solutions
• Sinclair Oil and Wright Express Develop Joint Distributor Program
• AdWeek: Visa to Hire SSK for Youth Marketing
• U.S. Secret Service Trains Peruvians on Fake Bills
• Gemplus Wins ICMA Award for Innovative ‘Zing’ Card Design

Wachovia has announced the Wachovia Dinero Directo Card that customers can use to send money to friends and family in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Mexico.

Customers with a Wachovia checking or savings account can fund the Dinero Directo foreign remittance card with money from their Wachovia accounts. The recipient then may use the card at any ATM in the Visa/PLUS network, which consists of more than 950,000 ATMs in 160 countries. The funds are available immediately, and the sender may add money to the card at any time using several funding methods.   » Continue Reading

PropertyBridge and Visa USA have announced a strategic alliance to market online rent payment services for residential properties.

"PropertyBridge's combination of technology and financial expertise has created a new level of data integration that is enormously attractive and productive for property managers," added Jim Eitler, VP, Merchant Relations, Visa USA.

"Through this relationship, we hope to continue to grow the opportunity within the property management space, offer property managers the benefits of card acceptance, and extend added convenience to Visa cardholders."

Gwendolyn Bounds and Robin Sidel report for the Wall St. Journal on merchant reactions to the recent fee increases imposed on card-accepting merchants by Visa and MasterCard.   » Continue Reading

• GeoTrust Publishes White Paper to Alert Internet Users to New Phishing Vulnerability that Will Enable Highly Convincing Attacks
• New Study by Global Advertising Strategies Shows That Banks Don't Understand How to Reach Unbanked Americans
• U.S. Bank Earns One Million Internet Bankers in Just Over a Year
• CheckFree and Hyland Software Offer End-to-End Solution Enabling Payee Verification Fraud Protection and Exception Management With Check Images
• Decline of Cash Concentration Services Signals Fundamental Shift in Corporate Banking Payment Practices
• ACI Readies Canadian Customers for Interac Chip Card Migration
• LaSalle Bank Corporation Selects NetDeposit Software for Remote Check Capture and Electronic Clearing
• Meta Payment Systems Announces Partnership With NetSpend Corporation
• RDM Corporation introduces new imaging solution for Check 21
• Experian Launches Auto Prospect Online Credit
• LexisNexis Data on 310,000 People Feared Stolen
• Credit card company claims approval from Harvard; one student received over 40 calls
• VeriSign Celebrates Tenth Anniversary
• Arizona Federal Renews, Expands Strategic Partnership with Digital Insight
• Giesecke & Devrient and Wave Systems Announce Strategic Partnership
• bd's mongolian barbeque Gives the Gift of Stir-Fry with Gift Card Solutions
• Digital Defense Unveils New Self-Contained Biometric Security Card; Bioprivacy Guaranteed by Cutting-Edge Enrollment and Authentication Technology

Glenbrook will be holding two executive workshop "boot camps" during May near our headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

The first workshop, a two-day "deep dive" into the US payments industry, will be held May 19-20 and taught by Carol Coye Benson and Scott Loftesness.

The second workshop, a one day intensive session examining payments from the merchant perspective, will be held May 26 and taught by Jay DeWitt and Allen Weinberg.

Both of the May workshops will be held at The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

NACHA today reported that more than 12 billion ACH payments were made in 2004, a 20 percent increase over 2003. The growth was largely driven by the rapid expansion of ARC -- the accounts receivable check conversion application -- which experienced a nearly six-fold increase in volume to more than 1.25 billion payments.

Internet-initiated ACH payments also grew significantly with 967 million ACH debit payments worth over $300 billion initiated over the Internet, a growth rate of over of 40 percent from 2003.   » Continue Reading

NACHA announced this morning that it has awarded its 2005 George Mitchell Payments System Excellence Award to Citigroup.   » Continue Reading

Carrie Kirby reports for the San Francisco Chronicle on the online underworld where private personal information is quickly and easily sold over the Internet.

The credit card numbers, bank account numbers, eBay accounts and other data sold there are stolen in corporate security breaches like the one at ChoicePoint, through offline crime like old-fashioned pickpocketing, and through scams known as "phishing" attacks, in which criminals trick people into revealing account information with slick-looking fake e-mails.

In a related story, Kirby reports on the latest kinds of phishing attacks.

Visa has announced the implementation of a semi-annual software update to VisaNet.   » Continue Reading

Fort Knox National Company has announced the results of a recent survey completed by Edgar Dunn & Company examining the key consumer drivers and motivations for their use of electronic payment services.   » Continue Reading

Carreker and ID Analytics have announced an alliance to address payment and deposit fraud schemes.   » Continue Reading

• McDonald's Plays Cards
• ACH Direct Announces a New ODFI Partnership with The Bancorp Bank at NACHA's Annual Payments 2005 Conference
• JPMorgan Chase Launches Distributed Payment Capture Solution That Integrates ACH and Check Clearing Channels
• National City Receives NACHA Quality Award for Integration of Check and Electronic Payment Systems
• Check Free Receives NACHA Quality Award for ARC Processing
• Investors Business Daily profiled Global Payments in its Friday issue last week.
• TRUSTe and Ernst & Young LLP Issue Guide to Help Companies Avoid the Risks Associated With Phishing Fears
• VeriSign Announces VoIP Solution for Financial Services Industry
• CheckFree Introduces e-Check Bridge, a Solution to Mitigate Risk for Corporate Check Conversion Fraud
• US Dataworks Broadens Clearingworks(TM) Functionality and Introduces Distributive Capture Capabilities at PAYMENTS 2005
• American Bank Note Holographics' HoloMag-TM- to Be Featured on Visa Branded Cards
• Bottomline Technologies Receives U.S. Patent on Award-Winning Electronic Payments Platform
• Alacris(R) Announces Strategic Partner Relationship with Axalto

William Safire reports in the New York Times Book Review on a couple of recent books about privacy -- or, rather, the loss of privacy.

Robert O'Harrow Jr.'s ''No Place to Hide'' might just do for privacy protection what Rachel Carson's ''Silent Spring'' did for environmental protection nearly a half-century ago.

Lisa Haarlander reports for the Buffalo News on higher merchant fees imposed by Visa and MasterCard beginning April 1.

"The way this market works is they try to encourage banks to issue their cards by offering higher fees," said Bill Greer, director of editorial services for the Food Marketing Institute. "The competition is over increasing fees rather than decreasing fees. It's a substantial expense for merchants."

• ID TECH Introduces Miniature Smart Card Reader
• Fidelity Information Services Forms Partnership For Electronic Document Solution
• Acacia Technologies Licenses Credit Card Fraud Protection Technology to Petco

Robin Sidel reports in Friday's Wall St. Journal on the potential spinoff of Discover from Morgan Stanley.

"With the right people and the right funding, there are a lot of interesting things that Discover can do," says Duncan MacDonald, an industry consultant. "They can put a real scare into the other networks."

Wharton's Leadership and Change reports on a discussion with American Express CEO Ken Chenault.

Applying Darwinian theory to the business domain, he told a Wharton audience on March 17 that "it's not the strongest or the most intelligent who survive, but those most adaptive to change. Over the past 10 years, the need for, and focus on, adaptability has accelerated."

Lea Goldman reports for Forbes on Neteller.   » Continue Reading

DiamondCluster has announced a new report that concludes that the increase in electronic payments will have major ramifications on the US payments industry including:

A shift in the payments battleground to the retail store and point-of-sale; the realization that the information about the electronic payment transaction may become as valuable to banks and others as the payment transaction itself; and, an understanding that old networks may be used in ways that aren't to banks' advantage.

Eric Dash reports for the New York Times on what banks are doing toenhance their brands through their credit card designs.   »