A friend of Payments News files this field report: "I stopped at a Wells Fargo branch yesterday and got to use one of the new next-generation ATM machines. From a customer point of view, I thought they were switching from machines that required envelopes for deposits to machines that didn't. No big deal. Turns out these new machines are a lot more sophisticated than what I was anticipating."   » Continue Reading

Ashley Seager reports for The Guardian on new data from the Bank of England showing "a fall of £311m in credit card borrowing in August, the first fall since May 1994 and the biggest drop since records began in 1993. Credit card lending has slowed sharply this year but this is the first time it has actually fallen."

According to a Reuters report, Retail Decisions Plc said yesterday it had agreed to a $314 million cash offer from RD Card Ltd, a private firm set up by Palamon Capital Partners.

Philip Yam writes on the Scientific American blog about Pay by Touch - asking questions about whether fingerprints can be "spoofed", whether germs on the fingerprint reader might be a concern, and about privacy concerns. He concludes by discussing the economics of Pay by Touch's ACH-based payment system, noting that, according to a company rep he spoke with, "several Pay By Touch retailers have dropped credit transactions entirely for the cost savings."

Mercator Advisory Group has announced the first of three reports of its 3rd Annual Survey of the Prepaid Market is now available. This report reveals that Open Networks, including American Express, Discover (Pulse), MasterCard, and Visa, all have established in-roads into a market segment once exclusively controlled by closed systems - In Store Gift Cards. The report notes that "the increasing adoption of the merchant retail locations as a place where consumers acquire their Open Prepaid Cards should be watched closely by financial institutions, since it creates an important new channel."   » Continue Reading