A new report titled "Micro-Payment Systems and their application to mobile networks" (PDF) commissioned by the Information for Development Program (infoDev), in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the GSM Association, found that mobile-enabled commerce, or m-Commerce, can address a major service gap in developing countries that is critical to their social and economic development.

Greg Sandoval reports for CNET News.com that "the FBI has expanded its investigation into a debit card fraud that has mostly affected 200,000 consumers in the Western United States, saying that the case might be linked to other debit card thefts around the country."

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new research report that covers a variety of strategies for credit card issuers to improve portfolio returns by delving more deeply into improving and expanding the uses of portfolio analytics across the account lifecycle.

The NFC Forum has announced that its member roster now includes more than 70 organizations worldwide.

Metavante has announced that it has expanded its Healthcare Payments Solutions division with the addition of the recently completed AdminiSource acquisition that provides healthcare payment distribution services to insurance carriers and healthcare organizations. In addition, Metavante has named John M. Reynolds as president of its Healthcare Payment Solutions division. Reynolds is a 20-year banking industry professional who previously served as senior vice president and business director for Health Benefits Services at Wells Fargo Institutional Trust Service.

The European Central Bank last week released the 4th Progress Report “Towards a Single Euro Payments Area” (PDF) discussing the so-called SEPA initiative.

Click&Buy has announced that Skype is now accepting Click&Buy as an online payment option for Skype users. Click&Buy reports that over five million consumers and 4,000 online merchants are successfully using Click&Buy worldwide. Last month, Click&Buy's owner WebPay AG announced completion of a $23 million financing round led by 3i.

First Data Corp. has announced it has signed a three-year global merchant processing agreement between its affiliate OmniPay, an international merchant acquiring platform, and HSBC.

Sasha Talcott reports for the Boston Globe on plans expected to be announced today by Providence, RI-based Citizens Bank to add contactless payment capability based on MasterCard's PayPass technology to all of its debit cards by June.

Intuit has announced a new simplified credit card processing solution designed for small businesses that don't need a full accounting package or a high end merchant account service. The QuickBooks Credit Card Processing Kit, priced at $39.95, delivers credit card processing for small businesses handling less than $5,000 in credit card transactions each month.

Carol Hymowitz and Elizabeth Bernstein report for the Wall St. Journal about concerns about automated payments that, while increasingly being used by consumers to conveniently pay recurring bills, are often too difficult to have stopped when you actually need them stopped.

Siemens Communications has announced that Nova Southeastern University (NSU), the nation's seventh largest private university, has chosen Siemens to deploy, service and integrate multi-functional smart card solutions using a new generation of contact and contactless smart card technologies.

Steven Lemongello reports for The Jersey Journal on how the implementation of new fangled parking lot pay stations is leaving some drivers puzzled. Amazingly, the new pay stations are still cash-only acceptance devices.

Mark Rasch writes for SecurityFocus about a recent lawsuit in Minnesota (PDF) in which a victim who was included in a data breach of a financial service provider's 550,000 customer database sued the company for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and negligence.

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

• UK: Clothing retailer speeds up credit card transactions (DSL @ POS)
• Washington Post: Alarming Phishing Trends
• Guardian: Barclaycard sets aside £1bn for bad debts
• Taishin says Taiwan card-loan problem to "cool down"
• Illinois: Expirations on gift cards closer to being eliminated
• Hong Kong Seeing Benefits of Positive Data in Credit Reporting - TransUnion Says