Last week, in testimony before the US House Financial Services Committee, Sandra Braunstein, Director, Division of Consumer and Community Affairs of The Federal Reserve Board, provided a deep look at consumer credit reports in the US. The Committee was looking into issues associated with errors in credit reports and how consumers can get the errors corrected.

The new issue of The Visa Quarterly is mostly devoted to mobile payments - including an interview with Dave Wentker, vice president of Mobile Innovation at Visa International, and a discussion of Visa's Mobile Platform. Payments News took a look at Visa's Mobile Platform earlier this year.

Mercator Advisory Group has released a new report titled "HSA Growth Accelerates In Uncharted Waters" that discusses the significant investments being made to implement Prepaid HSA cards that will provide significant benefits to cardholders and Third Party Administrators.   » Continue Reading

Visa USA says that a Federal Reserve Board decision announced earlier today will "make it easier for merchants to accept cards at vending machines, parking lots and a range of other locations, giving consumers more places to make convenient, small ticket purchases with their Visa cards."   » Continue Reading

AccountNow, a marketer of MasterCard and Visa branded prepaid cards, has announced the closing of $12.75 million in a third round of venture funding led by Trident Capital.   » Continue Reading

TowerGroup has announced a new report titled "Price Optimization: A Practical Guide to a Retail Bank Implementation" that finds that the "strategies and procedures used by most banks today to set prices remain too simplistic. Banks are still relying heavily on manual processes and so are prone to errors, and they often exclude consideration of a critical factor -- the consumer's price elasticity of demand."   » Continue Reading

mFoundry has announced the expansion of its Spotlight Financial Platform to enable mobile banking applications on the iPhone.   » Continue Reading

Northwest Airlines has announced that it is now offering PayPal as a way to pay for tickets at its Web site www.nwa.com. "With more than 140 million accounts, PayPal is a global leader in online payment solutions that allows a safe, easy way to pay for items and services online. With PayPal, Northwest customers now have a new way to pay for tickets using debit cards, bank accounts, stored balances, or credit cards through their individual PayPal accounts."   » Continue Reading

The Federal Reserve Board has announced its approval of a final rule to create an exception for transactions of $15 or less from Regulation E's requirement that receipts be made available to consumers for transactions initiated at an electronic terminal. According to the Fed, the rule is intended to facilitate the ability of consumers to use debit cards in retail environments where making receipts available may not be practical or cost effective. A copy of the Federal Register notice (PDF) is available online.

Visa USA has released a "detailed analysis revealing key insights into how U.S. businesses large and small are spending their money. The Visa Commercial Consumption Expenditure™ (CCE) Index for 2006 analyzes government data sources and research methods to provide a useful assessment of business expenditures."   » Continue Reading

Visa International and FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) have announced confirmation that "Visa has become a FIFA Partner with global rights to a broad range of FIFA activities, including the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups and the FIFA Women's World Cups." According to an article by Robin Sidel in the Wall St. Journal, Visa will be paying $170 million for the sponsorship.   » Continue Reading

Paul F. Roberts writes for InfoWorld about a conference held last month by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston exploring various aspects of contactless payment technology including security.

• TransUnion Enhances Its Credit Retriever Solution
• Alliance Data Signs Multi-Year Expansion And Renewal Agreement With Fortunoff
• Tips for the First Time Credit Users: MMI provides financial advice for college students
• American Airlines and MasterCard Introduce the 'Sum It Up Sweepstakes'
• Capital One Announces Cost Restructuring Initiative
• Alliance Data Signs Multi-Year Expansion And Renewal Agreement With Fortunoff
• Givex and Merchant Link Complete Gift Card Program Integration
• New York Times: Wells Fargo Gives Next Chief an Early Start
• Javelin Predicts Contactless Cards and In-Store Mobile Payments Initiatives Will Languish Until Chips Are Embedded in Mobile Devices
• The Institute of Fraud Risk Management Offers Professional Training to Combat Identity Theft
• GE Money Bank in Germany selects Atos Origin as its Visa Card processor
• FundsXpress and The First National Bank of Bastrop Announce Multi-Year Renewal of Business Partnership
• VeriFone’s PAYware Selected For Hong Kong’s First Ever Gift Card Scheme