Shaheen Pasha reports for CNNMoney.com on comments made by Citigroup CEO Charles Prince about Citi's new Citibank Direct at an industry conference in New York today. According to Prince, in the first ten days after launching the new online bank in late March, Citi exceeded their estimates of volume by ten times and since has raised $3 billion in new deposits for the bank. Prince's slides (PDF) from today's conference are available online on the Citigroup web site.

The Hispanic Marketing & Public Relations blog has posted a podcast interview with Wells Fargo Senior Vice President Daniel Ayala in which he talks about his business at Wells Fargo serving Hispanics - not just for remittances but for their whole financial lives.

Chris Hogg reports for the BBC from Tokyo about NTT DoCoMo's move into mobile payments and credit.   » Continue Reading

John Schmeltzer writes for the Chicago Tribune about the lack of success in the US market with self-service ordering kiosks in fast-food restaurants. According to Schmeltzer, "while major restaurant chains such as McDonald's Corp., Taco Bell, Burger King and Dairy Queen have considered the idea, none has taken the step to order a roll-out of the technology." Another comment suggests "the country is not quite ready for self-serve." Huh?

Fishback Financial Corporation has announced the Revel Card, a prepaid MasterCard that "takes prepaid financial services to the long-awaited point where the consumer literally carries the basic products and services found at the typical bank branch with them in their wallet." It plans to unveil the Revel Card at the Underbanked Financial Services Forum being held next week in Chicago.   » Continue Reading

Hilary Osborne reports for The Guardian on moves by three of the UK's biggest banks to reduce the late fees on credit card accounts following negative comments about the sizes of the fees made earlier this year by the Office of Fair Trading. The OFT recommended a "maximum charge of £12, rather than the £20 to £25 commonly charged by card providers and gave the industry until May 31 to respond."

Kathy Chu writes for USA TODAY about how more banks are rolling out debit card rewards programs.

Mathew Ingram writes for Canada's Globe and Mail about what he thinks Google may be planning regarding online payments.

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