The Federal Reserve System’s Payments System Policy Advisory Committee has published a summary of results from a forum on "Transforming U.S. Retail Payments" that was held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta on November 2, 2006 to discuss payments system developments and barriers to innovation with the payments industry and relevant payments system participants. "During the forum, industry experts representing depository institutions, payment processors, and nonfinancial corporations provided a variety of perspectives on strategic issues and opportunities associated with the changing U.S. retail payments system."

The Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) has announced its annual conference and general meeting will be held in Dallas on May 16-17. On May 15, the FSTC will he holding a Mobile Payments Workshop - also in Dallas.

Over on The Bankwatch blog, Colin Henderson takes a look at Huntington Bank's new DirectHuntington high rate online savings account initiative. Huntington announced DirectHuntington earlier today - offering a 5.3% APY.

According to Comdata, "gift cards make holiday shopping quick, while gift card malls make it painless." A recent survey by the company shows consumers hit gift card malls in a big way this past holiday season. Results of a national web survey of adults conducted in February revealed that 22 percent of adults purchased cards at a gift card mall this year, up from 14 percent in 2006.

Retail Expansion Network has announced PaidByCash - described as "a new coast-to-coast cash network that allows any online retailer and any online shopper to complete a cash transaction over the Internet. PaidByCash is a Virtual MasterCard product accepted by nearly every online retailer. With a nationwide network of 60,000 neighborhood retail outlets where consumers can convert cash into an online payment instrument, PaidByCash has opened a new market for the national online retail economy."

The Center for Financial Services Innovation has published a white paper titled "Cardholder Use of General Spending Prepaid Cards: A Closer Look at the Market" (PDF) written by Sherrie L. W. Rhine, Katy Jacob, Yazmin Osaki, and Jennifer Tescher. From the executive summary: "To gain a clearer understanding of the transaction behavior of cardholders, CFSI explored trends in the general spending prepaid card market as understood from four card providers that participated in this study. With transaction data provided by the participants on a total of nearly
2,000 cardholders, this study seeks to define how consumers use branded general spending cards."

The Center for Financial Services Innovation has published a new white paper titled "Card-Based Remittances; A Closer Look at Supply and Demand" (PDF) written by Manuel Orozco, Katy Jacob and Jennifer Tescher. From the executive summary: "This report presents the results of an analysis of the supply and demand for card-based transfers among migrants. We analyze a nationwide study of Latin American and Caribbean migrant remittance senders and their access and use of card products of all kinds. Coupled with extensive interviews with card-based remittance providers, this analysis allows us to investigate the relationship between the supply for card-based remittances and remittance senders’ demands for financial products."

We have received news of the following recent management changes:

• Dave Johnson has been named CFO at mobile payments provider Obopay. Earlier, Johnson held roles as chief operating and/or financial officer at PayPal.

Reuters reports that NTT DoCoMo and McDonald's have announced they will be forming a new joint venture company to facilitate acceptance of mobile payments at McDonald's locations in Japan.

EMVCo, the EMV chip card standards body jointly owned by JCB, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa International, has announced its launch of a Card Type Approval process for Common Core Definitions (CCD) and Common Payment Application (CPA) compliant cards.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), American Bankers Association (ABA) and the Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) have announced joint sponsorship of the inaugural Counter-eCrime Operations Summit (CeCOS), "a conference for counter-ecrime stakeholders focusing on the management of electronic crime events and the work of the professionals charged with engaging these increasingly threatening and costly incidents."

• Anti Consumer Bill in Texas Would Water Down Current State Law by Penalizing Consumers Who Pay with Plastic
• New Smart Card Alliance White Paper: Smart Cards in the U.S. Healthcare Market Benefits Patients, Providers and Payers
• Palm Desert National Bank Announces Stored Value Prepaid Card Programs
• PaySimple Provides Payment Processing Capability to Buz Software Data Management Systems
• BancTec Launches Revolutionary Medical Banking Revenue Management Solution
• Fifth Third Processing Solutions Selects Canopy Financial to Power Healthcare Banking Services
• Dynamic Card Solutions Signs 300th Customer
• Acacia Technologies Licenses Credit Card Fraud Protection Technology to Travelex America