Netbanker's Jim Bruene reports on his reactions to yesterday's public session at the Mobile Payment Forum's Spring Member Meeting being held in San Diego - saying that "despite being a payments forum, most of the talk centered around online banking (Firethorn, ClairMail, mFoundry, Sapphire), mobile advertising (Erico), and ecommerce (eBizMobility)."

Andy Williams reports for CR80 News about Canada's planned migration to EMV chip cards - and asks whether this will accelerate a migration to chip cards in the US.

ProfitPoint, a gift and loyalty card program provider, has announced it has raised $6 million in equity capital led by New Spring Ventures II L.P., and joined by Clayton Associates.

First Data International has announced it is partnering with NCS network and communication service Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG (NCS), a mobile payment provider, to offer mobile payment and e-commerce services to merchants and consumers globally.

Pay By Touch has announced that it has formed a partnership with Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide to provide Pay By Touch with strategic and creative counsel to build a global Lovemark.

According to a payments fraud study (PDF) released by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), a majority of organizations are victims of payments fraud and the incidence of fraud continues to climb. Nearly three-quarters of organizations experienced attempted or actual payments fraud in 2006, up from 68 percent reported in 2005.

APACS reported today that the 2006 card fraud figures for the UK show that total card fraud losses fell by three per cent in the past year to £428m – a decrease of nearly £80m over the past two years. Card-not-present fraud losses have increased by 16 per cent over the last two years and now account for just under 50% of all card fraud losses.

American Express and Citibank have announced an agreement for Citibank to sell the American Express Gift Card in more than 980 of its Citibank retail Financial Centers nationwide. American Express says that the agreement with Citibank is its first with a national bank.

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