Forrester's Alyson Clarke takes a look at Australia's BPAY bill payment service - saying it is "believed to have been a catalyst for all other Internet banking transactions. The service already dominates the electronic bill payment market. With recent news that BPAY's only real competitor, Australia Post's Postbillpay, will discontinue its Internet service, the firm will soon strongly dominate intermediated Internet bill payments. The secret behind BPAY's success? Cooperation."

The August issue of the First Annapolis Navigator is now available. This issue has a special feature article, "An Attractive Alternative: An Interview with Gary Marino, CEO of Bill Me Later, Inc." as well as "Mortgage Market Meltdown: Taking the Pulse on Potential Spillover Effects",
"These Commercial Cards Have Wheels! - A Fleet Card Snapshot", "Q2 2007 Issuer Performance Snapshot", "Business Bankruptcies: Increasing Trend Amid Housing Market Turmoil", and "Average Ticket Dynamics Among Agent Banks".

In its latest Visa Small Business Spend Insights report, Visa USA reports that "U.S. small businesses are cautiously optimistic about their business prospects, but remained concerned about the increasing costs of energy, rent and mortgages."

In a commentary titled "Identity: Innovation or Infrastructure", Glenbrook's Linda Elliott shares some of her thoughts going into this year's Digital Identity World conference.

More and more merchants are finding cash less attractive. "American Airlines today announced a three-week test on flights departing from San Francisco in which it will only accept major credit cards or debit cards for onboard purchases, including headsets, snacks, fresh light meals and alcoholic beverages."

Unstung reports on NFC-based mobile payments efforts in Austria being driven by Mobilkom Austria AG. Currently, the service uses a hybrid of NFC and SMS to complete the purchase - but that's planned to change in the next phase of the service.

Wendy M Grossman writes for the Guardian (UK) about how some smart fraudsters exploit the hole left by the disappearance earlier this year of the National High-Tech Crime Unit in the UK. According to Grossman, "the unit's disappearance means that crimes committed online might not be investigated by the local police for the victim - which in turn would mean that central statistics would not show the extent of e-crime, and the need for the reinstatement of the unit."

Consumer Reports National Research Center has announced results of a national poll finding that "an overwhelming majority of Americans want lawmakers to restrict the use and availability of Social Security numbers by businesses and government agencies. According to the poll, 89 percent of Americans agree that state and federal lawmakers should pass laws restricting the use of Social Security numbers."

In an article titled 'Credit card companies pursue subprime borrowers", the International Herald Tribune publishes Robert Gavin's story from the Boston Globe on the marketing efforts of some credit card issuers targeting subprime consumers for credit cards. According to Gavin, "subprime customers, charged higher rates than those with better credit, are more likely to make minimum payments, maintaining balances that generate interest revenue for card issuers..."

On his blog, Aneace Haddad has posted a presentation he's titled "Making MasterCard's Maestro the preferred debit brand in post-SEPA Europe" in which he discusses the features he thinks any debit product needs to create value for merchants. Aneace's is experimenting with using SlideShow's voice annotated presentation engine for this presentation.

In the UK, Telrock Communications Ltd, a mobile applications technology company focused on the financial services, utility and public-sector markets, has announced an exclusive agreement with PayPoint that will enable consumers to pay bills and top up their mobile phones via text message using its textDebit service.

The Phoenix Payments Research Practice has announced results of recent research concluding that "the shift to debit card usage creates opportunities for banks to increase customer loyalty and deepen their wallet share with their existing customers."

• Digital River Acquires Netgiro Systems AB
• GE Money and American Express Form Card-Issuing Alliance in Japan
• TheStreet.com: Banks Aim High on First Data Debt
• BostonNow: Riding Charlie into the future - T card could be used to buy almost anything (about the CharlieCard)
• Experian's 2007 Vision Conference Promises Solutions to Address Today's Changing Market Conditions
• Mobile Commerce Leader mPoria, Inc. and Mobile Advertising Leader Medio Sign Strategic Partnership
• China: Eachnet Drops Paypal For YeePay
• Australia's #1 Payment Gateway, Selects Ingrian to Enhance PCI Compliance
• MasterCard Board of Directors Announces Regular Quarterly Dividend

We have received news of the following recent management changes:

• Nicholas J. Sommerio has been named chief financial officer of RBS Lynk, the US payment processing arm of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Sommerio was most recently with Global Payments, Inc. and, earlier, with First Data Corporation.