Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson recently spoke with Elliott McEntee, President and CEO of NACHA about two current payment industry issues - NACHA's reaction to "de-coupled debits" and the progress of the Secure Vault Payments program. She's filed this report on the discussion.

CashEdge has announced that it executed more than $38 billion in account-to-account transfers in 2007 - "a 300% percent increase over 2006 volume. The transfers were initiated by consumers through CashEdge's money movement solutions that are currently in use at nearly one-third of the top 75 banks in the United States."

Javien Digital Payment Solutions has intorduced the Javien New Media Payment Gateway, calling it "the first transaction payment gateway tailored specifically to the needs of companies that sell digital assets like music, movies, games and software, whether sold via the Internet, or to mobile phones."

In an article titled 'ANZ starts rush to mobile banking', Mahesh Sharma writes for Australian IT 'ANZ is set to become the first bank in Australia to launch a mobile phone banking service and its competitors are expected to follow suit soon.' ANZ's offering will include both SMS-based information services as well as a Java-based mobile handset application.

ICONIX has announced that its Iconix Truemark service is officially available to millions of PayPal account holders. According to the company, "by placing an icon next to legitimate email messages, the Iconix Truemark service helps consumers visually identify legitimate email messages and avoid dangerous scams known as phishing attacks."

U.S. Bank, MasterCard Worldwide and Nokia have announced a mobile payments pilot program in Spokane, Washington using new Nokia mobile phones equipped with MasterCard PayPass payment functionality allowing consumers "to pay for purchases with a tap of their mobile phone, instead of sliding a card through a magnetic stripe reader, handing it over to the cashier, or fumbling for cash and coins."

Business Week's Catherine Holahan takes a look at PayPal - and other alternative payment providers including Bill Me Later and Google Checkout. "Experts point to three main drivers for alternative payments: concern over fraud risk, growth in merchant participation, and fear of, or lack of access to, credit cards."

According to APACS, "from today (28 January) the new SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) Scheme will enable euro credit transfers to be made within a maximum of three days, and without any deductions from the principal amount. The customers who will benefit most are those larger businesses for whom it will make cross-border trade easier, and UK consumers who make regular euro payments because they may, for example, maintain properties abroad."

PayPal has announced an agreement to acquire Fraud Sciences Ltd., a privately-held Israeli company with expertise in online risk tools, in a cash transaction with an aggregate transaction value of approximately $169 million. According to PayPal, "Fraud Sciences’ risk tools and analytics are expected to enhance eBay and PayPal’s proprietary fraud management systems and accelerate the development of next generation fraud detection tools."

• American Express Full-Year EPS from Continuing Operations Rises 16%
• Mercator Advisory Group Announces Three New Services: Prepaid, Retail Banking, and Corporate Banking
• New AccuPOS Retail Point of Sale Helps Small and Mid-Market Retailers Ring Up Success
• Discover Card's Third Annual Valentine's Day Shopping Survey Reveals the Way to Someone's Heart is Through Their Stomach
• Alliance Data Receives Notice From The Blackstone Group Regarding Merger Agreement Condition