Zach Maxfield speculates on how a potential acquirer might value Metris.

Digital Transactions reports on NACHA's return item fee proposal which was not adopted based upon a vote of the NACHA voting members. While a majority of the members voted in favor of imposing the new fee, the proposal required a 2/3'rds majority to pass and only achieved 57% approval.

The NREF proposal would have required banks that originate ACH debits for client retailers and other businesses to compensate consumers' banks—the so-called receiving banks—each time they send through a transaction that must be returned because the consumer didn’t authorize it.

Voca, the ACH processor for the UK formerly known as BACS, has announced the formation with Retail Decisions and Mi-Pay of a new joint venture company, Digital Payments.

Digital Payments will be a first - enabling retailers to manage consumer payments on digital sales channels including digital television, the internet and mobile phones. Consumers will be able to pay by Direct Debit across these channels for the first time in the same way as they use a credit card. By using Direct Debit consumers can organise direct withdrawals from their bank securely and with ease.

Ian Price has been appointed Managing Director of Digital Payments. Ian, 40, comes from BT Group where he was founding CEO of BT click&buy.

David Lazarus reports for the San Francisco Chronicle on increases in fees for paying bills by phone.

Pay-by-phone fees have indeed become the norm in the banking business -- yet another way that institutions reach into customers' pockets for what were once considered routine services.

"They're using these fees as revenue enhancers," said Travis Plunkett, legislative director for the Consumer Federation of America. "They don't even try to justify these charges as being based on the true cost of the service.

People's Daily Online reports on China's China UnionPay and the establishment of China's own bankcard brand.

"When China fully opens its financial market at the end of 2006, China's bankcard industry will face heated competition with foreign brands, so the establishment of China's own bankcard brand is really important for the domestic industry to become more competitive," the CUP Board Chairman Liu Tinghuan told the Beijing- based Financial News on Thursday.

The three years following the CUP company's creation on March 26, 2002, have been the key for the development of China's bankcard services, Liu said. "Facts have proved that the establishment of the CUP as China's own brand laid a solid foundation for the country's bankcard development, and expanded the market for commercial banks through improving financial service qualities," he said.

• Piggly Wiggly Launches Pay By Touch in Savannah
• ComCity and CardinalCommerce Join Forces to Offer Payer Authentication
• Business Week: Thwarting Identity Thieves
• Online Retailers and Shoppers Get Data Security Boost From HyperconX' New Channel Partnership With ScanAlert
• EFMA Announces Study Tour to China - 23-29 October 2005
• Pay by Touch: New payment method comes to town - "If you don't have a wallet, it can't be stolen"
• NetCert, Inc. Signs Agreement with Bank of China
• India: TCS to roll out next generation smart cards
• UK: How Ingenico Cornered the Chip and PIN Market
• U.S. credit-card delinquency rates fall

Note: This posting is updated regularly throughout the day.