We're currently doing some extensive research on the mobile commerce / mobile payments market. I'm currently seeking a senior contact at NTT DoCoMo or Sony who has been involved in DoCoMo's integration of the Sony FeliCa technology with DoCoMo i-mode services.

If you are that person - or can introduce me to that person - please contact me as soon as possible via our feedback page.

Commerce Bank has announced the launch of a new, no-fee Commerce Bank Visa credit card that it claims is the first in the nation to eliminate all membership and penalty fees typically charged on credit cards.

"Commerce Bank is passionate about freeing customers from paying unnecessary and ridiculous bank fees and penalties charged by other financial institutions," said Commerce Bank Founder and Chairman Vernon W. Hill.

"The new Commerce Visa card is the first credit card that will actually save customers money while earning them significant rewards points."

In a press release today, MasterCard said that more than 66,000 businesses are now using its proprietary web-based reporting and expense management solutions, MasterCard Smart Data OnLine and MasterCard Smart Data Express.   » Continue Reading

Putnam Investments as announced that intends to vote against the proposed sale of Providian to Washington Mutual saying that WaMu's offer price is too low. In a press release, Putnam said:   » Continue Reading

First Data's newly formed First Data Prepaid Services division has released the results of a recent survey on the use of gift cards as customer incentives.   » Continue Reading

East & Partners reports on the results of a recent survey of merchants in Australia that concluded that 46.7 per cent of Australia's large corporate merchants, 44.5 per cent of medium commercials and 41 per cent of small to medium enterprises (SME) were planning to add surcharges in the next six to 12 months.

This compared with only 6.9 per cent of corporates, 4.2 per cent of commercial companies and 2.8 per cent of SMEs who already applied surcharges.

East's report finds that of those businesses that do currently surcharge, Corporates on average apply a 1.2 percent surcharge; Commercial enterprises add on 1.4 percent; and SMEs apply a 1.6 percent surcharge.

Chen Hua reports for China Daily on consumer credit information systems in China.

Credit industry players and China Unionpay are actively working together on the problem. The central bank established a basic database of individual credit information collected from domestic commercial banks across the nation about eight months ago.

Jay Loomis reports for the Gannett News Service on market share gains by American Express over the last few years.

The average American Express cardholder spent $9,460 last year, according to Ryan Batchelor, a Morningstar analyst. That's several times more than the average annual spending of a Visa or MasterCard customer. These dynamics allow the company to charge merchants a fee of about 2.6 percent on purchases by these customers, compared to the 1.6 percent average fee charged by Visa and MasterCard, he said.

• Stumpf Named President, Chief Operating Officer of Wells Fargo & Company
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• First Data Appoints Nigel Lee as President Of China And North Asia Business
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• Fair Isaac Introduces Data Acquisition and Management Solution for More Profitable Origination Decisions
• Wells Fargo Spearheads the Next Generation of Online Financial Services with Best-in-Class Email Alerts for Money Management
• U.S. Department of the Treasury Gives Green Light to National Campaign to Promote Direct Deposit of Social Security Benefits
• Acacia Technologies Licenses Credit Card Fraud Protection Technology to 7-Eleven, Academy Sports and Michaels Stores
• Store credit cards: flashy perks, high rates
• Life gets a little complicated without credit cards
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• FSV Powers Moneytree Cash Solution Stored-Value Program Launch