ING Direct's web site now has information available about its new Electric Orange paperless checking account. The bank describes it by saying "America's first all–electronic, paperless checking account is going to change the way you do your banking. Earn a great rate, with online Free Bill Pay, easy access to cash, an Electric Orange MasterCard Debit Card and more – it provides the access and convenience of checking with the earning power of savings."

Vesdia and Citizens Financial Group have announced the launch of the Citizens Bank Merchant Network - calling it "a new and unique enhancement to the recently launched Citizens Bank Rewards program. Now, when cardholders shop at retailers participating in the Citizens Bank Merchant Network, they will earn up to 20 Everyday Points for each dollar they spend." See the earlier Citizens Bank announcement.

American Express has announced S2SSM eInvoice&Pay, calling it "the first fully integrated Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP) solution. With S2S eInvoice&Pay, companies can now process 100% of their invoices and issue payments to their suppliers from a single online portal managed by American Express."

Visa USA President and CEO John Philip Coghlan told an security summit conference in Washington today "that payment security must become a strategic priority for businesses and that all entities touching payments must invest in security to maintain consumer trust."

Javelin Strategy & Research has announced results of a new study showing there is a strong relationship between a consumer's perception of a retailer's reputation for safeguarding card account data and the consumer's willingness to shop at that retailer. The study also found that consumers believe retailers share an equal responsibility with banks, credit card companies, processors, and cardholders themselves for protecting their credit and debit card account information - and - no surprise given the litany of retailer data breaches - that they believe that retailers are lagging in their responsibility to keep their credit or debit card information out of the hands of criminals

Joseph Pereira reports for the Wall St. Journal on how merchants can be vulnerable to fraudsters attaching mag stripe skimming devices to the merchant's own point of sale systems or, amazingly, simply replacing a merchant's POS terminal with one modified by the fraudster to capture card mag stripe and PIN data - as illustrated by Stop & Shop's recent experience. Pereira cites a recent Gartner study that concluded that eighty percent of card data breaches were due to attacks on POS devices.

The Merchants Payments Coalition says it welcomed comments from Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) yesterday "criticizing the hidden "interchange" fees that Visa and MasterCard charge merchants whenever a customer makes a purchase using a credit or debit card."

Citizens Financial Group has announced the "launch of the Citizens Bank and Charter One Bank Merchant Network that includes partnerships with 14 popular retailers in its Citizens Bank Rewards and Charter One Bank Rewards programs. Customers will earn up to 20 Everyday Points for each dollar of their debit card purchases at the retailers in the Merchant Network."

An editorial in the Lansing (MI) State Journal endorses gift card legislation pending in Michigan that "would bar retailers who offer gift cards for sale from imposing an "inactivity" or "service" fee on the redeemer of the card, or imposing an expiration date on the card's use."

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