MasterCard this morning reported operating results for the second quarter including an increase of 12.3 percent in payment volume to $408.4 billion from 4.8 billion transactions.

"MasterCard's customer-centric approach enables us to bring value to our key stakeholders as a thoughtful and innovative partner focused on helping them build, manage and enhance the profitability of their payments businesses," said Alan Heuer, chief operating officer, MasterCard International.

"MasterCard's results for the first half of this year are a testament to the global strength of the MasterCard brand and our ability to work with our member financial institutions to deliver the best payment solutions in the industry."

Gartner has announced the results of a survey of 5,000 active online US adults that examined fraud involving ATM/debit cards. The report "Criminals Exploit Consumer Bank Account and ATM System Weaknesses" is available for purchase online.   » Continue Reading

China's 99Bill has announced partnership agreements with two of China's music download sites 9sky.com and kuro.com to provide online payment solutions.

"99Bill is the first company offering email and mobile phone number based online payment solutions in China, and today's announcement demonstrates our ability to develop innovative payment solutions for local digital content service and application providers" said Oliver Kwan, CEO of 99Bill. "These partnerships are part of 99Bill's ongoing efforts to secure strategic relationships with leading Internet companies in China and establish the company as a leading third party online payment service provider in China".

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