David Leonhart writes for the New York Times on the E-ZPass economy - and just how convenient it is. But he worries about the downside: "The old frustrations that came with cash also brought a hidden benefit: they forced you to notice that you were spending money. With electronic money, it’s much easier to be carefree."

On that note, we're totally ready for Independence Day in the United States. Hope you all have a wonderful July 4th holiday!

Jacqueline Chilton has recently joined the team of payments strategy consultants at Glenbrook Partners. Jacqueline brings over fourteen years of consulting experience and extensive knowledge in market assessment, business case development, and product strategy across multiple disciplines including payment cards, cash management, transaction clearing, procurement and technology infrastructure.

We've recently enhanced the Google search engine here on Payments News to include other payments-related sites in the search results - in addition to Payments News pages. If you're searching for something payments related, be sure to search from Payments News - you'll have much higher odds of finding relevant links as compared to a general Google search! You'll find the Payments News search box in the upper right corner of every page.

The July/August issue of BAI's Banking Strategies magazine is now available online. Articles include the cover story "Surviving in the Middle" (a look at BancorpSouth), "Attracting Deposits from Small Biz", "The Top 10 Lessons of Katrina", and "Bill Payment: Putting Banks Back in Control".

FYI, over the weekend we made a few tweaks to Payments News so that both Apple iPhone and Blackberry users can now easily read the stories posted here every day. To do so, just go to the main Payments News url: http://www.paymentsnews.com using either device. Enjoy!

The American Bankers Association's Consumer Credit Delinquency Bulletin reports that credit card loan delinquencies declined the first quarter of 2007 to 4.41 percent of all accounts compared to 4.56 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 (seasonally adjusted).

Swift Financial , M&I Bank and Metavante Corporation have announced agreements facilitating a new business venture that will offer loan and deposit products to small businesses nationwide.

The AP reports on how the use of debit cards is growing "especially fast among young adults."

Google Checkout has announced new digital goods delivery support - described as "an improved user experience tailored specifically to digital goods. Now merchants will have option of tagging an item as digital within the shopping cart and specifying details about how it should be delivered."

According to a new report from APACS titled "The Way We Pay 2007: UK Plastic Cards", £321 billion was spent on plastic cards in the UK in 2006 representing a three-fold rise in the last decade. Cards now account for just under one third of total consumer spending in the UK. Debit cards accounted for 61 per cent of the plastic card spend (£195 billion and over five times that spent in 1996) and credit cards 39 per cent (£126 billion and over twice that spent in 1996). In 2005, cards exceeded cash in all retail spending for the first time and the gap between cards and cash accelerated in 2006 with cash spending of £274 billion.

"As Baby Boomers inch closer to retirement, their spending power will be eclipsed by the nation’s second largest demographic, young consumers known as Echo Boomers. According to a new Visa USA study, Echo Boomers’ spending influence will generate growth in retail categories that help relieve feeling time-stretched, such as restaurants, travel and entertainment. Predictably, as Baby Boomers leave the workforce and age, they will focus their financial resources on medical and dental expenses, gifts for their children and grandchildren and vacations."

As announced last week, Visa and Wells Fargo are testing mobile NFC-based payments. Mary Catherine O'Connor writes for RFID Journal about the testing and provides more specifics on the test plans.

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