Yahoo! has announced on its Search Blog that it will be providing an indication in its search results of merchants that accept PayPal - similar to what Google has been doing with Google Checkout merchants. Yahoo! says "beginning today, when you search for a product on Yahoo! Search you will see little blue shopping cart icons next to some of our merchant listings. Those shopping carts identify merchants that accept PayPal." More information here and here.

NACHA's credit push initiative has a new name - Secure Vault Payments - and web site. "This model allows the consumer to select an online payment option that will "redirect" them to their trusted bank site that will authenticate them in a multi-factor environment and allow their information to remain private while sending a real-time authorization and a confirmation of payment (ACH credit) to the business." And for banks, "it allows financial institutions to generate additional direct revenue from the online banking channel, offsetting the costs of supporting the channel, which continue to increase – particularly in the areas of authentication and security." For financial institutions, a comprehensive set of technical information is available for download along with a series of FAQs and focus group results from consumers and merchants.

mFoundry has announced the formal release of its Spotlight Mobile Financial Platform - calling it "a “single click” financial services solution that serves the needs of financial institutions, wireless operators and their customers."   » Continue Reading

The FDIC last week issued its "Supervisory Policy on Identity Theft" describing the characteristics of identity theft and setting forth the FDIC's expectations that institutions under its supervision take steps to detect and prevent identity theft and mitigate its effects in order to protect consumers and help ensure institutions' safe and sound operations. "The FDIC treats the theft of personal financial information as a significant risk area due to its potential to impact the safety and soundness of an institution, harm consumers, and undermine confidence in the banking system and economy. The FDIC believes that its collaborative efforts with the industry, the public and its fellow regulators will significantly minimize threats to data security and consumers."

Bank of America says that its solution for NACHA's Back Office Conversion (BOC) rule has been "gaining market interest in the retail industry, fueled by its ease of use, flexibility and low implementation cost." BOC, which came into effect March 16, 2007, allows businesses to collect a check written at the checkout counter and convert it in the back office into an electronic form for deposit.   » Continue Reading

Shriya Bubna reports for India's Business Standard about IndiaPay, a new domestic card payment settlement company that would rival global payment systems Visa and MasterCard. “India Pay would provide national infrastructure to be used with a minimum of cost and allow a wider reach. If we look at it from the perspective of benefits, the costs would be justifiable,” said Sanjay Sharma, chief technology officer, IDBI Bank.

Online Resources has announced piloting of an expedited payments service that enables financial institutions to offer their consumers and small businesses online bill payments that are posted by billers on the same day.   » Continue Reading

Visa International's Latin American and Caribbean Region (LAC) has announced reaching US$110 billion in point-of-sale purchase volume for the four quarters ending December 2006, a year-over-year increase of 33 percent on all Visa-branded products in the region. Visa’s debit and prepaid product volume grew 34 percent versus 2005 with a volume of US$37 billion. Purchases made with Visa credit cards grew 32 percent to US$73 billion.   » Continue Reading

Salem Five Bank has introduced mobile banking services - called "Wireless Mobile Banking". An FAQ says that the bank is using MShift technology to enable the services.

A new study from ForeSee Results and Forbes.com has found that "customers who pay bills through their bank’s website are more satisfied with the bank and the online banking experience than those who don’t, and are significantly more likely to purchase additional services from the bank. The data suggests that converting online bankers to online bill paying customers represents the best opportunity for banks and credit unions to increase share of wallet while driving customers toward the most cost-efficient channel for services."   » Continue Reading

MonVia, a specialty firm that helps accelerate the growth of early stage start-ups, has announced the launch of MobiBucks, a new mobile payment solution. According to MobiBucks, "with just a cell phone number and four-digit Personal Identification Number (PIN), consumers can now easily make free and secure cashless transactions on everyday purchases." MobiBucks was founded by Jorge Fernandes, founder and former CEO of ViVOtech, and Dave Barram, a Senior Silicon Valley Executive at Apple, Silicon Graphics and Hewlett-Packard.   » Continue Reading

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