Claire Parker reports for the Fayettville (NC) Observer on local merchants dropping paper checks as a payment method.

Companies have banned or changed the way they process checks not because of the ease of electronic payments, but because they are protecting themselves.

Ted Griffith reports for the Wilmington News-Journal reports on consumer advocate concerns that the continuing consolidation of credit card issuers may result in less attractive pricing for consumers.

Here's another Ask Glenbrook question:

Where can I find official ecommerce sales volumes?

In the latest issue of its monthly Navigator newsletter (subscribe), First Annapolis has provided its second annual update to its list of the world's largest merchant bank card acquirers. Prepared by Charles Marc Abbey and Olga Czabaj from a variety of data sources, the list is based on acquirers who are doing business in one of the four large acquiring markets in the world: US, UK, Canada and France.   » Continue Reading

US Bank Voyager Fleet Systems has announced the acquisition of Advent Business Systems, Inc., based in San Mateo, Calif. Advent provides technology that is deemed to be the most powerful, comprehensive and complete accounting management systems available to the petroleum and energy product supply chain. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.   » Continue Reading

BitPass has announced it has acquired substantially all the assets of Yaga, Inc., a developer of payment and accounting solutions for content providers.   » Continue Reading

Axalto has announced that its multi-application smart cards, Palmera, has been selected by ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China) for the world's first Chinese EMV card issuance project.   » Continue Reading

Mary Rowland reports for MSN Money on ten steps credit cardholders can take to deal with their credit card debt.

The average American pays more than $1,000 a year in interest fees and carries a balance of $9,100 on two to three bank credit cards, according to recent estimates. And credit card companies are tacking on new fees and raising interest rates that make it even more expensive.

Ben Werner reports for South Carolina's TheState.com on credit card issuer "universal default" policies and results from a recent survey of the practice by Consumer Action.   » Continue Reading

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

• Digital Insight to Address Online Authentication Guidelines for ABA Banks, Urge Industry to Keep Eye on Full Picture and Long-Term Results
• AutoZone Chooses First Data's TeleCheck to Convert Paper Checks to Electronic Transactions and for Risk Management
• Corillian to Discuss FFIEC Guidance and Best Practices for Online Fraud Prevention in Web Conference
• Chase to Deploy Diebold's Opteva(R) ATMs
• EMC and Acxiom Partner to Accelerate Development and Deployment of Grid-Based Information Infrastructure
• Smart Cards get Smarter: Market sees Strong Growth
• 'Smart' Credit Cards Could Change The Way You Pay
• NCR Completes Acquisition of Tidel's ATM Business
• Quantum Loyalty Systems Launches New Quantum RewardsCard
• RCU Strengthening Online Services Security with Cyota's Internet Banking Authentication