The July 2006 edition of the First Annapolis Navigator is now available. This month's issue features a review of opportunities and challenges for card-based payments in the U.S. transit market. Other articles include: commentary on credit card growth in the Latin American region, a comparison of merchant acquiring M&A transaction dynamics in the U.S. and Europe, a brief look at The Home Depot's potential bank acquisition and a summary of bank multi-product loyalty/rewards programs.

eCommLink has announced that it has been selected to process transactions generated by the Allow Card Prepaid MasterCard, a card designed to teach financial accountability to America's youth.   » Continue Reading

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has released an updated Information Security Booklet (PDF), which replaces the booklet issued in December 2002. The Information Security Booklet is one of 12 that, in total, comprise the FFIEC IT Examination Handbook. The FFIEC also released an Executive Summary (PDF) that contains a high-level synopsis of each of the 12 booklets and describes the handbook development and maintenance processes.

One year after launching its first contactless credit cards, Chase has announced that it has so far issued nearly seven million cards with blink to cardmembers in Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas - and that the cards are now accepted at more than 25,000 merchant locations nationwide, ranging from convenience stores to sports stadiums. Among the statistics reported regarding blink transactions are a 40 percent increase in average ticket size and increasing frequency of purchases by 35 percent.   » Continue Reading

APACS, the UK payments association representing card companies, has released 2005 e-commerce figures. The results show that 14 per cent of the 34 million adults who use the Internet (4.9 million) made their most recent purchase from an auction site in 2005. There were 79 million transactions over this period, and £2.8 billion was spent. Looking at the wider e-commerce market, for the first time more than half of all adults made an online purchase during 2005 - 25 million or 52 per cent of all adults (and 74 per cent of internet users). This is an increase of 11 per cent of Internet users over 2004.   » Continue Reading

US Bank has announced it has recently issued its 10 millionth gift card and expects to surpass 15 million during the 2006 winter holiday season. US Bank saw gift card sales at 86 percent of its branches in May, and it sold 334,781 Visa Gift Cards during the first two weeks of June leading up to Father's Day. US Bank issues Visa Gift Cards in 41 states through its 2,430 retail branches and mall partners, including Simon Property Group, Macerich Malls and Crocker Park.   » Continue Reading

Virgin Mobile USA has announced the launch of the Virgin Mobile "Stash" Prepaid Visa Debit Card issued by Inter National Bank. The new prepaid debit card is linked to a Virgin Mobile phone, allowing users to earn free airtime. The extended offering of features includes peer-to-peer money transfers and wireless text alerts to manage spending and prevent fraud, as well as online account management and a savings program. Be sure to see the fee structure on this card - both "by-the-month" and "by-the-stripe" options are provided.   » Continue Reading

The Nederlandse Vereniging van Banken (NVB) (Netherlands Bankers' Association) and De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) have announced results of a McKinsey study they commissioned to examine the revenues and costs incurred by banks in that country in providing payments services. A "EUR 23 million loss is the difference between total gross income of EUR 3,996 million and total expenses of EUR 4,019 million. The banks incur losses on nearly all payment instruments. 90% of total expenses is accounted for by checking accounts (EUR 1,215 million), cash (EUR 779 million) and transfers (EUR 329 million). This negative result is compensated for almost entirely by income from balances on retail and corporate accounts." A copy of the study is available for download.

Jaikumar Vijayan reports for Computerworld that "a majority of U.S. banks appear unprepared to meet the Dec. 31 deadline for complying with the guidelines, several analysts said last week. They placed much of the blame for the current lack of preparedness on the fact that the guide-lines aren't mandatory and don't specify what form of strong authentication banks should implement."

Aj Moss inc., an online retailer of bedding ensembles and linens, has put out a press release about the addition of Google Checkout to their e-commerce website. According to the retailer, they hope Google Checkout enables them to "reach an audience of people who seek more simplicity, security and speed in their shopping experience."   » Continue Reading

The Center for Financial Services Innovation has released "Highlights From The Inaugural Underbanked Financial Services Forum" (PDF) written by CFSI's Research Director, Katy Jacob.   » Continue Reading

AFX News Limited reports on comments by US Commerce Department Under Secretary Frank Lavin that China UnionPay is to maintain its credit card monopoly in China over the short-term despite US concerns.

Nicole Gaudiano writes for the Gannett News Service about merchant reaction to credit and debit card interchange fees. "Interchange fees in the United States last year averaged about 1.8 percent of the cost of a transaction, among the highest in the industrialized world. They cost retailers about $30.7 billion last year. Part of the frustration for merchants is that it’s hard to negotiate with the card associations, said Kenneth Posner, a Morgan Stanley analyst. “They have shown an ability to raise prices even when merchants complain,“ he said. “The big frustration is not necessarily the magnitude of the cost. It’s the inability to do anything about it.“

• Wincor Nixdorf and Hypercom Team to Provide Complete POS Solutions
• Panini Releases Remote Deposit Capture White Paper; Financial Evaluation Model Calculates Potential Savings for Corporations
• Wells Fargo Joins First American in Sponsoring the MSN Latino Personal Finance Center
• Bharosa Announces Enhanced Online Banking Security at SVB Silicon Valley Bank
• Authentium Introduces VirtualATM Technology to Lock Down Consumer Online Banking Interactions and Enable Compliance With Industry Guidelines and Regulations
• Phishers Beat Citibank's Two-Factor Authentication
• Smile! You're on your parent's credit card
• Discover Card Fall Shopping Survey Reveals Thirty-One Percent of Consumers Plan to Spend over $300 During Fall Shopping Season
• MBNA Ireland Shares Data With Experian's Consumer Bureau Ireland (ECBI)