Here's a review of this week's top stories on Payments News. If you missed it, last week's Weekly Wrap is here. Back to the future!: for fun, click for this same week's activity a year ago here on Payments News!

• ACH News
  • Wells Fargo and Bank of America have announced the formation of a joint venture called Pariter Solutions LLC to operate a single, combined automated clearinghouse (ACH) platform for both companies and their clients. Pariter Solutions will be the country's largest processor of ACH payments.(See more ACH, Bank of American, Pariter Solutions and Wells Fargo news.)
  • NACHA named Janet O. Estep, most recently an executive vice president with U.S. Bank, to succeed Elliott McEntee, who will retire as president and chief executive officer at the end of 2008. (See more NACHA news.)
• American Express News
  • Universal Studios has announced it has entered into a multi-year marketing and financial services alliance with GE Money and American Express. (See more American Express and GE Money news.)
• Chase News
  • Chase announced a Chase Payroll Card with daily deposit of payroll. (See more Chase Card Services and Payroll Card news.)
  • Chase announced the Colorado Automated Payment card for state benefit payments. (See more Chase Card Services and Government Payments news.)
• Contactless Payments News
  • The Federal Trade Commission and the Technology Law and Public Policy clinic at the University of Washington Law School have announced they will be holding a one-day Town Hall meeting entitled “Pay on the Go: Consumers and Contactless Payment" to be held July 24 in Seattle to explore emerging uses of contactless payment devices and their implications for consumer protection policy. (See more Contactless, NFC and Mobile Payments news.)
  • INSIDE Contactless announced it has shipped over 50 million of its Micropass contactless payment chips. (See more Contactless news.)
• Credit Card News
  • Cards&Payments has released the results of its Annual Bankcard Profitability Study finding that credit card issuers in 2007 generated a sizeable profit, though down slightly from the previous year. (See more Card Issuers and Credit Card news.)
  • The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a new report titled "Credit and Debit Cards: Federal Entities Are Taking Actions to Limit Their Interchange Fees, but Additional Revenue Collection Cost Savings May Exist". (See more Credit Card news.)
• Debit Card News
  • Bank of America announced that its debit card-based Keep the Change savings program has helped its customers save more than one billion dollars in customer round-ups and bank-matching funds. (See more Bank of America, Card Rewards Programs, and news.)
• First Data Corp. News
  • First Data Corp. disclosed more information about its previously announced acquisition of InComm saying it was paying approximately $980 million plus contingent future payments of up to $250 million over a three-year performance period. (See more First Data Corp. and InComm news).
  • First Data Corp. reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2008. (See more First Data Corp. news).
• Interchange Fee News
  • The US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Thursday regarding credit card interchange fees and new legislation intended to reduce the fees. (See more Interchange Fee news).
• Mobile Payments News
  
  • Nortel released results of a study into hyperconnectivity finding that many consumers find their mobile phones are more important than wallets or keys. (See more Mobile Payments news).
• PayPal News
  • In Australia, eBay's plans to require that sellers use PayPal continue to be very controversial. (See more Australia and PayPal news.)
• PCI Compliance News
  • The PCI Security Standards Council announced the timeline for the release of PCI DSS version 1.2, scheduled for availability in October 2008. (See more PCI Compliance and PCI Security Standards Council news.)
  • In a couple of Payments News posts, we continued to explore estimates of what the total industry cost of PCI compliance might be. (See more PCI Compliance news.)
• Visa News
  • Visa Inc. has made available its various regional Operating Regulations on its corporate web site - except for Visa Europe which remains and separate entity. (See more Visa news.)
  • Visa Inc. has announced the Visa Meetings card, the newest member in its suite of commercial payment solutions to help businesses more strategically manage this expense category. (See more Visa news.)
• Open Job Listings on PaymentsJobs.com
  
  • Open Sales Position E-Commerce Company at preCharge.com (New York)
  • Vice President and Program Manager at Skylight Financial (Atlanta, Georgia)
  • Payments Attorney at a stealth start up (San Francisco/Bay Area)
  • Director - Chargebacks & Disputes Policy at American Express (Phoenix, Arizona)
  • Sales Executive at Online Resources (Atlanta, GA)
  • Account Relationship Manager at Skylight Financial (Atlanta, GA)
  • Product Manager at Skylight Financial (Atlanta, GA)
• Upcoming Glenbrook Payments Education Offerings
  
  • Workshop on The Structure of the Merchant Payments Marketplace - San Francisco Bay Area - June 10
  • Glenbrook Payments Boot Camp - San Francisco Bay Area - June 11-12

You can find all of our Weekly Wrap summaries in the Payments News Weekly Wrap Archive. They're published every Saturday and look back at the highlights of the week's news. Please send us on how we can improve the Weekly Wrap!

Glenbrook's Jim Salters will be attending the Payments 2008 conference being held this coming week - May 18-21 in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand.

• Omaha World-Herald: 400 may lose First Data jobs

Online Resources has released the results of its second survey of U.S. households looking at how bill payment patterns are being affected by the "ongoing economic softness. The survey shows that Americans’ personal financial stability continues to decrease, as the mortgage crunch, rising energy costs and a decreasing savings rate hit more households."   » Continue Reading

A few days back we wrote about some expert views on the industry cost of PCI compliance. We've had several interesting discussions in email from folks reacting to the $2 billion number that my expert friends at dinner came up with. One of those, long-time friend and former colleague, Walt Conway, sent along his own "very rough cut estimate" of the PCI compliance costs. Walt's been consulting with colleges and universities on PCI for the last couple of years - and I asked him if we could share his thinking here.   » Continue Reading

MSN India reports on mobile wallets and payments in India saying that "current payment players in India are mChek, Obopay and PayMate." The article notes that the Reserve Bank of India is currently formulating the regulatory guidelines for mobile payments with the final draft expected by June 2008.

Paradise Lost - that's the title of the special report in this week's issue of the Economist. "This special report will ask how banks should be run and regulated so that the next time boom turns to bust the outcome will be less miserable for all concerned."

In late April, First Data Corp. announced the acquisition of InComm, a marketer, distributor and technology innovator of stored value gift and prepaid products. At the time, specific terms weren't announced. Yesterday, First Data filed a 10-Q with the SEC reporting its financial results for the first quarter of 2008. In that filing, First Data disclosed more information about the acquisition: "The Company will acquire InComm for approximately $980 million, plus contingent future payments of up to $250 million over a three-year performance period." FDC says the acquisition is expected to close later this year.

When I was in London a few weeks ago for the Digital Money Forum, I got introduced to Twitter, an addictive social networking service that allows you and your friends to follow each others latest thoughts. At the recent Finovate Startup conference in San Francisco, several of us in the audience (and around the globe!) were twittering back and forth about the presenters in real-time.

Anyway, the new Business Week has an article titled Why Twitter Matters. You can follow Payments News on Twitter (and get real-time updates about posts and my random thoughts). You can also use TweetScan to search for recent "tweets" about specific subjects - for example, here's a Tweetscan of every tweet mentioning PayPal. TweetScan even lets you setup an RSS feed of your favorite scans so you can monitor them in Google Reader, etc. Some big companies regularly monitor Twitter for mentions of their brands.

What's this got to do with payments, you ask? Nothing - but it's Friday and a pretty slow news day so far!

Mobilians International has announced commercial availability of its phone-based payment service on NHN USA’s ijji.com online gaming website. With Mobilians’ PhoneBill service, NHN USA’s customers now can purchase ijji.com “G-Coins” in multiple increments by charging them to their home phone bill.   » Continue Reading

Metavante Technologies Ltd. has announced that it has been granted Payment Application Best Practice (PABP) certification from Visa Europe for both card issuing and transaction acquiring. Metavante Technologies Ltd., a provider of prepaid and debit card processing and licensed software in Europe, is part of Metavante, a U.S.-based provider of banking and payments technology.   » Continue Reading

In an article titled Rising Credit Card Interchange Fees Equal Double Punch at Pumps, Convenience Store News reports on yesterday's testimony at the House Judiciary Committee hearing on interchange fees. "Last year, convenience stores paid $7.6 billion in credit card fees, a figure more than double industry profits of $3.4 billion."

Tom Robinson, president of the San Jose, Calif.-based Robinson Oil Corp. who testified at the hearing (his full testimony is here) went on: "Right now there is no market for interchange fees. The fees are fixed by the banks, hidden from the public and forced on merchants in a take-it-or-leave-it offer. The Credit Card Fair Fee Act will create a market for interchange fees for the first time by allowing merchants and the card associations to negotiate on equal footing."

• TrialPay Named 2008 Red Herring North America 100 Winner
• TSYS Acquiring Solutions names COO
• Business Week: The Brewing Credit-Card Storm
• Record Second Quarter Earnings Reported by Meta Financial Group
• First Data Q1 2008 Earnings Call Transcript
• AirTran Airways and Bill Me Later Partner for Summer Travel Promotion
• Identity Theft Assistance Center Expands Offerings to ID Theft Prevention with Launch of ITAC Sentinel™
• OCC Offers Consumer Tips to Avoid Foreclosure Rescue Scams
• CNNMoney.com: Mobile Banking Is Major Priority For U.S. Banks - Study
• AP: Retailers assail credit card fees in House hearing
• Phone-wallets for masses still years away
• CUNA: Don’t Get Hung Up on Phone Payments by Julie Reincke

APACS has published its latest quarterly Statistical Release covering the first quarter of 2008. "In the first quarter of 2008 there were 1.8 billion plastic card purchases made in the UK totalling £91.1 billion. The number of purchases was 8.9% higher than in the first quarter of 2007, and spending was 8.9% higher. Debit cards accounted for 72.8% of all plastic card purchases compared with 71.1% in the first quarter of 2007."

Although taken private by KKR last fall, First Data Corp. continues to announce its financial results - and today reported financial results for the first quarter of 2008. Consolidated revenues were up 16% to $2.1 billion while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were up 8% to $586 million. FDC also commented on Chase Paymentech, its largest merchant alliance, noting that it "expects the alliance to end prior to its existing expiration date in 2010." The company is holding a conference call tomorrow morning to review its results.   » Continue Reading

PayPal has announced that its credit offering - PayPal Pay Later - is now available for payments on eBay.com . "Starting today, eBay buyers in the United States can take advantage of Pay Later’s financing offer of no payments for 90 days for qualifying purchases between $50 and $199."   » Continue Reading

The testimony of several of the witnesses at today's heading on interchange fees by the US House Judiciary Committee is now available online in PDF format. Included is testimony from: Thomas L. Robinson (Vice President of Regulations, National Association of Convenience Stores), Joshua R. Floum (General Counsel and Corporate Sec., Visa Inc.), Steve Cannon (Chairman, Constantine Cannon, LLP), Joshua Peirez (Chief Payment System Integrity Officer, MasterCard Worldwide), John Blum (Vice President of Operations, Chartway FCU), and Edward Mierzwinski (Consumer Program Director U.S. PIRG).

In a press release, the Electronic Payments Coalition commented on today's hearing before the House Judiciary Committee Antitrust Task Force on H.R. 5546: "The Electronic Payments Coalition is pleased that the House Judiciary Committee Antitrust Task Force is holding a hearing today to take a closer look at H.R. 5546, the "Credit Card Fair Fee Act." Members of the Task Force will be given an opportunity to learn quite explicitly that this ill-conceived legislation is nothing short of price controls -- action that would result in less competition, fewer consumer choices, and reduced access to affordable credit and debit options."   » Continue Reading

In a press release, MasterCard Worldwide said that "it is pleased that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report examining interchange fees recognized the benefits the federal government receives from both payment card usage and acceptance. MasterCard urges Members of Congress to review the report before taking action to regulate interchange fees, which would have a negative impact on consumers, small financial institutions, and ultimately merchants."   » Continue Reading

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a new report today titled "Credit and Debit Cards: Federal Entities Are Taking Actions to Limit Their Interchange Fees, but Additional Revenue Collection Cost Savings May Exist" .   » Continue Reading

The National Retail Federation in a press release urged the House Judiciary Committee to support antitrust legislation that would require Visa and MasterCard to negotiate with merchants over credit card processing fees. The NRF said "a hidden fee charged by the two card giants is projected to cost the average U.S. family more than $400 this year."   » Continue Reading

Wells Fargo and Bank of America have announced the formation of a joint venture to operate a single, combined automated clearinghouse (ACH) platform for both companies and their clients. The new entity, called Pariter Solutions LLC, will be the country's largest processor of ACH payments.   » Continue Reading

In a press release, MasterCard commented that "merchants do not need price control legislation or an antitrust exemption to lower costs for payment card acceptance, as they already have real opportunities to negotiate fees." Joshua Peirez, Chief Payment System Integrity Officer at MasterCard Worldwide, gave his testimony at the hearing.   » Continue Reading

The National Association of Convenience Stores has issued a press release on today's House Judiciary Committee hearing on interchange fees. Tom Robinson, president of San Jose, California-based Robinson Oil Corporation testified today at the hearing.   » Continue Reading

In a press release, the Merchants Payments Coalition says that "merchants welcome encouragement from Democrats and Republicans alike in support of HR 5546, the Credit Card Fair Fee Act, bi-partisan legislation that would end credit card industry price fixing, which is the subject of a hearing today by the House Judiciary Committee Antitrust Task Force."   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'Credit Cards Cost, No Matter What', the Washington Posts's personal finance columnist Michele Singletary writes that, even if you're paying off your credit card charges each month, you spend more when you use credit cards that if you just paid by cash. She suggests trying an experiment: "If you don't believe the research, try this experiment: For one month, don't use a credit card. Make all your purchases with cash."

Visa Inc. has announced the Visa Meetings card, the newest member in its suite of commercial payment solutions to help businesses more strategically manage this expense category.   » Continue Reading

As announced last week, today Visa Inc. has made available its various regional Operating Regulations on its corporate web site - except for Visa Europe which remains and separate entity.

Network World: Few expected to make PCI deadline for Web app security
• SBE Entertainment Selects Shift4 for Payment Processing
• Packaged Facts: Alternative Payment Systems Continue to Cash in, Expected to Reach $156 Billion by 2012
• Fiserv Introduces CheckFree PaymentView™ to Address the Challenges of Payments Monitoring and Reporting Across all Payment Types
• Bank of America Debuts Next Phase of 'Bank of Opportunity' Campaign
• Conference next Tuesday, Washington DC: Turmoil in the U.S. Credit Markets: Consumer Credit Protection
• First Data Expands Presence in India Through a Technology Hosting Agreement with Kotak Mahindra Bank
• Visa, MasterCard fight fee regulation plan
• VeriSign Passes Online Security Milestone With One Million Active SSL Certificates
• FICO Credit Scores Coming to Russia with NBKI
• Alliance Data Signs Multi-Year Extension Agreement With Top-10 Client and Leading Specialty Retailer Dress Barn, Inc.
• Progressive Grocer: New Ad Campaign Blasts U.S. Interchange Fees as Among Highest in the World
• Lumidigm Fingerprint Sensor Now Standard Equipment in Diebold identiCenter
• Fair Isaac Announces Real-Time Faster Payments Fraud Solution
• Bankers' Bank First to Reach Milestone with Client-to-Client Image Exchange
• Zopa Celebrates Back-to-Back Webby Wins
• CNN Money: Ahead of the Bell: Credit card fee fight

As we mentioned here on Payments News on Monday, the House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on Thursday, May 15th beginning at 11 AM Eastern time on H.R. 5546, the “Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008”. As of tonight, the committee's website doesn't list the witnesses who will be testifying - but it promises that a live webcast of the hearing will be available.

As an editorial comment, many of us in the payments industry find the "solution" proposed in this legislation to be overly complex. Read the actual text of the draft legislation - and you may reach the same conclusion! We wonder whether the merchant community in fact would be well served by the remedies proposed. A very basic question comes to mind: "Is this the best you can do?"

A few weeks ago, as part of an article about Hannaford's recent card data breach, I blogged about my 'guestimate' of the cost of PCI compliance across the industry. I said: "Seems like somewhere between US$100 million and US$1 billion?" and asked for reactions. No one reacted - so maybe everyone agreed with my estimate?

Tonight at dinner with some sophisticated, experienced players actively involved in the business of PCI compliance, I posed the same question. After chewing on it a while (it takes a few minutes to comprehend the magnitude of the question!), they settled in on the figure of US$2 billion - to me a pretty staggering sum! Does spending of that magnitude significantly change the economics of card acceptance for merchants?

Over on his Netbanker blog, Jim Breuene takes a look at the uptake of mobile banking in the US based upon Bank of America's latest quarterly report.

Fifty percent of surveyed small business owners stated that “economic uncertainty” is one of the biggest challenges faced in the growth and survival of their business, according to the National Small Business Association’s 2008 Survey of Small and Mid-Size Businesses. Chase Card Services has published a set of five tips for small business owners to help manage their credit relationships.   » Continue Reading

The UK's Payments Council has unveiled the first national plan for UK payments - calling it 'a strategic framework for payments innovation and change over the next decade.' The National Payments Plan was developed after extensive consultation with the payments industry and users and includes statements of principle, specific actions and a number of focused reviews of key issues. The document covers current payment methods such as plastic cards, cash and cheques and also reviews the next wave of innovation in payments, fraud and security, and consumer education about payments.   » Continue Reading

The Smart Card Alliance published a press release this morning with some highlights from the CTST 2008 conference now underway in Orlando - saying that 'the buzz was about mobile payment and near field communication (NFC) on the first day of the joint Smart Card Alliance annual meeting and CTST conference.'   » Continue Reading

The PCI Security Standards Council has announced the timeline for the release of PCI DSS version 1.2, scheduled for availability in October 2008. According to the Council, the new version of PCI DSS will 'enhance the clarity of its technical requirements, offer improved flexibility and address new and evolving risks and threats.'   » Continue Reading

The GSMA's Mobile Money Summit 2008 is taking place today and tomorrow in Cairo, Egypt. An impressive list of speakers will be presenting their views on mobile payments. We look forward to hearing more news from the summit later this week.

American Express has announced 'an in-store promotion enabling shoppers to receive a free Spring Fling Card worth $25 from American Express Incentive Services when they purchase two American Express Gift Cards of any value at select drug stores and supermarkets, and at American Express Travel Service offices, through June 30, 2008.'   » Continue Reading

The MasterCard Foundation has announced the launch of its Scholars Program by awarding grants totaling $600,000 to six leading microfinance training institutes. The foundation says its program will fund 200 scholarships for staff working in microfinance in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East to participate in management and professional development courses.   » Continue Reading

Tyfone was one of the companies demoing at the recent Finovate Startup conference in San Francisco (see my notes here). In a press release this morning, Tyfone said they'll be at the Payments 2008 conference in Las Vegas next week demonstrating its mobile payments technology.

What's interesting about Tyfone's approach is their effort to be independent of both handset device suppliers as well as wireless operators. The Tyfone solution is based upon a 'mobile phone memory card with SmartCard RFID/Near Field Communications (NFC) technology' - that plugs into the memory card slot on mobile handsets suitably equipped. I'm not sure what percentage of handsets have those slots - but I suspect it'll grow as more functionality is added to them.   » Continue Reading

Citi has announced enhancements to its Citi Diamond Preferred suite of cards - saying the cards now offer 'an array of exceptional privileges and benefits typically found only in fee-based rewards credit cards -- all for no annual fee.'   » Continue Reading

Travelex Cash Passport, the first prepaid foreign currency card in the United States according to the company, launched May 1. The card allows travelers to load and lock-in their rate for British Pounds or Euros.   » Continue Reading

PhotoGIFTCARD.com has announced that it has signed an agreement with Value Pay Services LLC, the issuer of the SUBWAY Card, to manage online gift card fulfillment for the SUBWAY Card program, including its Limited Edition and Photo Gift Card programs.   » Continue Reading

Craig Timberg writes from Johannesburg for the Washington Post about Brian Richardson, CEO of Wizzit, a South African company focusing on 'getting basic banking services to the world's poor.' Richardson's a believer in mobile banking - saying that 'mobile banking is far more compelling for the unbanked than for anybody else." I love Wizzit's tagline: 'With WIZZIT, you have your bank in your pocket.'

• Nuance Helps Companies Create Stronger Security Measures with Authentication Solutions in Call Centers
• Mark Greene, Fair Isaac CEO, Elected to Capella Education Company’s Board of Directors
• Top Credit Union Chooses Online Resources’ Account Opening
• The TJX Companies, Inc. Completes Previously Announced MasterCard Settlement; Acceptance Rate Exceeds 99%
• Ghana to Make Leap to Cashless Payments Network
• SunTrust Takes Most Innovative Feature Award for Fraud Inspector
• Coinstar Sends Letter Urging Stockholders to Re-Elect Incumbent Directors
• Leading Global Smart Card Providers Fueled by U.S.-Based Solicore
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Ex-Tech worker pleads guilty in credit card fraud
• Phoenix Business Journal: Chase cutting 420 jobs in Phoenix, moving some overseas
• Dialogue First To Take payforIT Initiative Online
• Bankrate.com: Who are the real perpetrators? - The credit card industry is as much to blame for the problem of identity fraud as the thieves according to MSNBC's Bob Sullivan
• Digital Check Executive to Speak at 2008 NACHA Payments Conference
• Diversinet Demonstrates Breakthrough in Mobile Electronic Patient Records

Two important new books about security - and payments security in particular - arrived on my desk this week.

The first book - the second edition of Ross Anderson's Security Engineering - provides fascinating insights into all of those things that are often overlooked when designing secure systems. Anderson provides a comprehensive survey of the issues, the nature of successful attacks, with serious recommendations on how to simply do better across a range of security applications. This is a big book - not exactly suited for reading on the beach - but important nonetheless! Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars by Amazon.com reviewers.

The second book - Zero Day Threat by Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz - provides real insights into the threats that attackers are exploiting to gain the necessary information to take over online banking, PayPal, brokerage, and other accounts. If "know your enemy" makes sense to you, then you'll find Zero Day Threat of great interest. Zero Day Threat is 5-star rated by Amazon.com reviewers.

Both of these books have just been added to the first page of the Payments News Bookstore on Amazon.com.

The Bancorp Payment Solutions Group, a division of The Bancorp Bank, has announced it will be teaming with Deluxe Corporation, to offer the DeluxeCard agent bank program providing a turnkey prepaid card service to financial institutions.   » Continue Reading

Robin Sidel writes for the Wall St. Journal about Thursday's House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008. Sidel writes that one effect of the legislation, if passed and signed into law, would reduce interchange fees paid to banks and, therefore, force issuing banks to cut back on their card reward programs. While merchants are saying that any interchange fee reductions would be passed along to consumers through lower prices, many in the industry say that is unlikely to be the case - and point to the lack of price reductions following action taken by the Reserve Bank of Australia that cut interchange fees significantly in that country.

SWIFT's 2007 Annual Report is available for download .

"SWIFT is a community-inspired co-operative, founded by and for the financial services industry. We work globally with more than 8,300 organisations including banks, market infrastructures, securities institutions, corporations, network providers, business partners and technology companies to ensure the financial world can carry out its business operations with certainty."

[Hat tip: Chris Skinner]

Nortel has released results of a new study of the 'Culture of Connectivity' saying we're entering a period of hyperconnectivity. One of the findings: when asked which item people would take if they had to leave the house for 24 hours, more than 38 percent of global respondents chose their mobile phone over their wallet, keys, laptop and MP3 player. Less than 30 percent chose their wallet first. In Latin America, more than 50 percent chose their mobile phone over any other item. The hyperconnecteds preferred leaving with their laptops. The study is available online with registration. They also have a blog on hyperconnectivity.

Launched two and a half years ago, Bank of America's Keep the Change savings program has helped its customers save more than one billion dollars in customer round-ups and bank-matching funds, the bank announced today.   » Continue Reading

The Federal Reserve Banks (FRBs) and The Clearing House Payments Company (TCH) have announced plans to implement enhanced message formats to accommodate both cover payments and payments containing business remittance information on their respective U.S. dollar wire transfer systems, the Fedwire® Funds Service and CHIPS.   » Continue Reading

The Smart Card Alliance has announced the 2008 award winners for "Outstanding Smart Card Achievement" (OSCA) in the North American and Latin American smart card industry during its annual conference, taking place at the CTST 2008 The Americas Conference and Exhibition in Orlando this week.   » Continue Reading

In an economic environment where many workers are feeling the pinch of the rising cost of living, Nursefinders Inc., one of the nation’s largest healthcare staffing providers, has announced that it is offering daily salary payments to temporary employees who have registered at no cost for a Chase Payroll Card. Upon completion of a daily work shift, an employee’s payroll card account is credited with salary payment as quickly as two hours after an approved time card is submitted.   » Continue Reading

Blackhawk Network has announced the winners of its Hawk Awards, honoring four companies’ and one industry leader’s excellence in the gift card industry. Winners were chosen in several areas; Card Design, Product Innovation, Industry Achievement and Industry Pioneer.   » Continue Reading

A new Online Banking Report has been published titled 'Online Investing Communities: Will social networking revolutionize saving & investing?'. From the announcement: 'We believe social networking will eventually play a large role in online investing, and evidently we are not alone. We found 54 companies involved in investment information exchange and only six of those have monthly traffic of 100,000 or more.'

The NACHA Board of Directors has selected Janet O. Estep, most recently an executive vice president with U.S. Bank, to succeed Elliott McEntee, who will retire as president and chief executive officer at the end of 2008. During the transition period, Estep will serve as president and chief operating officer and McEntee will continue as chief executive officer.   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'Welch pushes bill to trim back credit card fees on businesses' in the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, Peter Hirschfeld reports from Vermont about Rep. Peter Welch's news conference yesterday where he attacked 'rising credit card fees' and announced plans to introduce new legislation concerning them later this week. "It's a near monopoly they have," Welch said of VISA and MasterCard. "And, as is often the case with monopoly power, it's abused." More information is available on Welch's web site.

INSIDE Contactless has announced that shipments of its MicroPass intelligent payment platform for contactless payment cards has surpassed 50 million units. According to the company, 'MicroPass is used to power more certified card products than any other contactless technology, providing issuers with broad choices for card manufacturing. Its low power and high performance, combined with the industry's fastest transaction time and outstanding read distance, enables MicroPass to deliver a superior cardholder experience for a broad range of innovative uses.'   » Continue Reading

• Zoot and ID Insight Partner to Deliver Address-Based Identity Fraud Solution
• Varolii Unveils Next-Generation Predictive Analytics for Customer Communications
• Emergence Capital Names Jeffrey E. Stiefler as Venture Partner
• Genesis Financial Solutions Launches New Originations Website for Non-Prime Consumers
• Four51 e-Commerce Platform Achieves Level 1 PCI Compliance to Protect the Security of All Credit Card Transactions on Its Network
• Times Online (UK): Low-risk credit card borrowers penalised
• Bank Of America Focused On Consumer Credit Amid Weak Economy
• Discover gets US antitrust OK for Diners Club buy
• Stop & Shop Expands Customer-Centric Assortment Planning Using IRI Loyalty Analytics Assortment Planner Solution
• Metatomix's Semantic Services Solution Provides ACI With an Enterprise-Class Platform to Enrich Data Integration Capabilities, Enabling Richer, More Comprehensive Case Data
• Mobile Digital Commerce Services for Premium Content Reached $1.1 Billion in 2007; the Market Set to Reach $1.9 Billion by 2012, According to MultiMedia Intelligence
• CreditUnions.com: Mobile Payments Provide Benefits to Members and Merchants
• IDology Identity Verification Suite Detects & Prevents ID Theft for Red Flag Compliance Regulations
• nCipher Partners with Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. to Provide Storage Encryption Solutions for Credit Union Industry
• Virgin Money Launches ''Student Payback'' Giving Families Access to Low Rates When Financing College
• VeriFone Further Expands into West Africa
• HP to Acquire EDS for $13.9 Billion

The US House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing this Thursday, May 15th, on H.R. 5546, the “Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008”. That bill was introduced by committee chairman Rep. John Conyers, Jr. In an article titled "Old foes unite to keep charging credit card fees to merchants", The Hill reports that the "heated battle over the credit card fees charged to merchants has united two eternal foes" - namely, banks and credit unions. As of tonight, the witness list for Thursday's hearing hasn't been announced.

Glenbrook's next roundtable on the Structure of the Merchant Marketplace will be held June 10th in Santa Clara, California. Registration is now open. Allen Weinberg and Carol Coye Benson will be taking a special look "under the covers" – focusing on the key industry verticals within the U.S. merchant marketplace.   » Continue Reading

Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Benton J. Campbell have announced that 'three defendants have been charged in a federal grand jury indictment and complaint with illegally accessing the computer systems of a national restaurant chain and stealing credit and debit card numbers from that system.'   » Continue Reading

The Federal Trade Commission and the Technology Law and Public Policy clinic at the University of Washington Law School have announced they will be holding a one-day Town Hall meeting entitled “Pay on the Go: Consumers and Contactless Payment" to be held July 24 in Seattle to explore emerging uses of contactless payment devices and their implications for consumer protection policy. According to FTC, the Town Hall follows up on its November 2006 forum, “Protecting Consumers in the Next Tech-ade,” which examined the key technological and business developments that will shape consumers’ experiences in the coming decade.   » Continue Reading

PRBC, a bill payment credit bureau, has announced that its credit verification, reporting and scoring procedures meet or exceed new guidance provided by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) for verifying "bill payment" histories and establishing credit scores for borrowers with little or no traditional credit files or FICO scores.   » Continue Reading

Reminder: eBillme has announced a webinar this Wednesday, May 14, where Russ Jones of Glenbrook Partners will provide an in-depth look at the retailer integration process for several alternative payment options including: Bill Me Later, eBillme, Google Checkout, and PayPal. Registration for the webinar is available online.

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment has partnered with Chase to change the way benefit payments are issued by the state’s Unemployment Insurance Program. Recipients will be issued a Visa debit card called