January 9th edition of Business Week contains a lengthy investigative report by Brian Grow on online money transfer systems like e-gold Ltd. The article focuses on the potential use of the e-gold payment service by those wanting to move money while skirting the reporting obligations associated with US money laundering regulations.

Technorati Tags: E-gold, Money Transfer

On this last day of 2005, here's a quick reminder that you can get a free credit report every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

To request yours, visit AnnualCreditReport.com.

Damon Darlin reports for the New York Times on the flurry of rewards-based credit cards now being offered.

First Data Corp. has announced an agreement for the acquisition of GZS by First Data. GZS is Germany's leading processor of cashless, card-based payment transactions. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Completion of the transaction, which is expected to occur in the second quarter 2006, is subject to approval of relevant authorities.

Technorati Tags: First Data Corp.

Vanessa Richardson reports for MSNBC on the movement by banks to stronger authentication beyond simple userids and passwords.

Technorati Tags: FFIEC, PassMark Security, SiteKey, Two-Factor Authentication

Natalie Gott reports for the Associated Press on Bank of America's plans to complete the acquisition of MBNA this Sunday, January 1, 2006.

Peter Burrows reports for Business Week on I4 Commerce's Bill Me Later.

Technorati Tags: Bill Me Later, Ecommerce Payments

Note: Throughout the day, as Payments News happens, this post is updated.

• China to monitor mobile phone payments in search for porn sites
• UK: Banks criticised over lending practices
• Dept. of Homeland Security Completes Foundation Of Biometric Entry System

Technorati Tags: China Payments, Mobile Payments, UK Payments

Melissa Allison reports for the Seattle Times on Washington Mutual's likelihood of being acquired by another bank (in particular, by JP Morgan Chase), in 2006.

Forbes' Seth Lubove examines the opportunities for micropayments in 2006 including mentions of BitPass and Peppercoin.

Technorati Tags: BitPass, Peppercoin, Micropayments

We're taking a look back at the major payments-related news stories for 2005. We've examined our archives month by month and have culled the the most important and interesting highlights.

Here are the Payments News highlights from July 2005.

Note: Throughout the day, as Payments News happens, this post is updated.

• China UnionPay : 2005 cross-bank transactions expected to exceed RMB 1 trillion
• Debt Collection Agency Services in Demand for 2006
• Myvesta Survey Shows Americans Paring Down Credit Card Debt
• JCB Certified for BS7799-2:2002 and ISMS Standards in Japan

Visa USA reports $32.2 billion in holiday spending volumes for the week before Christmas (Dec. 19 - Dec. 25) were up 26.9 percent over the same period last year. Friday, December 23rd was the highest overall sales volume day of the 2005 holiday shopping season as consumers spent over $5.9 billion.

Jonathan Birchall reports for the Financial Times on Pay By Touch's plans to expand from 300 stores today equipped with its biometric payment service to an estimated 6,000 stores by the end of next year.

iPayment has announced that it has agreed to a buyout at $43.50 per share by a new corporation formed by Chairman and CEO Gregory S. Daily and will be taken private as a result. Earlier, the company had appointed a special committee of its board of directors to consider Daily's offers.

Note: Throughout the day, as Payments News happens, this post is updated.

• Booleansoft Introduces Digital Signature Solution
• HSA Bank Announces Relationship With Metavante's MBI Benefits

We're taking a look back at the major payments-related news stories for 2005. We've examined our archives month by month and have culled the the most important and interesting highlights.

Here are the Payments News highlights from June 2005.

Over the Christmas holiday weekend, I happened to notice that PayPal had some consumer-focused advertising up on the Boston Globe's website - in the right sidebar of the Globe's Business section- note that PayPal's ad is in an ad rotation and you may not see it unless you refresh the page several times. This is the first time that I recall seeing this kind of consumer-focused advertising from PayPal.

Shuchi Vyas reports to India's Economic Times on mobile payments and the expected growth in mobile commerce in India. The article says that mobile commerce is considered to be the next killer application for mobile phones.

Valerie Miller reports for the Las Vegas Business Press on casino operator perspectives on "new-fangled payment systems."

Stephanie King reports for the Wall St. Journal on an optimistic report from MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse retail data service that concludedholiday spending rose 8.7 percent.

Huang Tien-lin, a national policy adviser to the president of Taiwan, writes an op-ed piece for the Taipei Times on the problems of excessive credit card debt in Taiwan.

In Singapore, NEC has announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind RFID-enabled customer card that will store relevant details of customer's purchase, warranty programme and service records.

We're taking a look back at the major payments-related news stories for 2005. We've examined our archives month by month and have culled the the most important and interesting highlights.

Here are the Payments News highlights from May 2005.

Last week, First Data Corp., as part of a series of restructurings and reorganizations now underway following replacement of its CEO, announced that its BidPay Online Auction Payment Service is being shut down later this week. This article explores what lessons might we learn from BidPay's ultimate failure in the market.

Naomi Canton reports for the UK's Norwich Evening News on one family's experience with Christmas time identity theft affecting their credit and debit card accounts.

Joseph Menn reports for the Los Angeles Times on efforts by various data brokers to support federal rules to safeguard personal information - preferring a consistent federal standard vs. a range of potentially tougher and more varied state laws.

Bob Mook reports for the Denver Business Journal on instant card issuance and Englewood, CO-based Dynamic Card Solutions.

Anthony Faiola reports for the Washington Post on growth in the use of e-cash payments in Japan following widespread deployment of e-cash equipped cell phones by NTT DoCoMo.

Scott Reeves reports for Forbes on using credit (and credit cards) wisely.