NetSpend has produced a new National Spending & Savings Index finding that even though the economy is showing early signs of a turnaround, low-to-moderate-income consumers are still closely watching what they spend on goods and services and spending more this year on groceries, travel/entertainment and utilities. READ MORE »

• GSMA Launches World's Most Extensive International Number Portability Registry
• NYTimes.com: After Lewis, Who Can Take Charge at Bank of America?

ID Analytics has announced the availability of new collections scores that leverage real-time consumer identity information to improve both early stage and late stage collections efforts. ID Analytics Collections Optics enables companies to increase the effectiveness of collections efforts by accurately determining the likelihood of a charge-off in the early stage, and predicting the balance percentage of late stage delinquent accounts that will likely be repaid. READ MORE »

• Reuters: Brazil agencies urge credit card market overhaul
• MoneyGram International and CUNA Strategic Services Partner to Provide Money Transfer and Bill Payment Services to Nearly 8,000 Credit Unions
• ReadWriteStart: Facecard: Forget the JPEGS, Give Cash in Facebook
• CreditCards.com: Study: Touch money and you feel less pain
• The PayPal Blog: Welcome new leaders to PayPal
• Yoigo and Vesta Partner to Launch New Prepaid Recharge Service
• U.S. Bank Implements New Wholesale Lockbox Platform to Enhance Its National Network
• ACI Makes It Easy to Go Global With New BASE24-eps
• Facecard Gets a Facelift
• StorefrontBacktalk: The Mobile Payment Conundrums: To Chip, To Store, To Bank?
• Fiserv Launches Acumen™: New Account Processing Solution for Credit Unions
• Chase Unveils New Marketing Campaign to Support Small Businesses

The Microsoft “Millennials in Financial Services” survey, conducted by KRC Research of Washington, D.C., found that millennials born between 1981 and 2000 have less trust in banking and investment firms since the bailouts of AIG and global banks a year ago.

Millennials surveyed also believe that the U.S. financial industry is out of touch with the way they would like to communicate with their financial institutions. Based on the findings, millennials would prefer to communicate with their financial institutions through new channels including live online chats with banking representatives, personalized Web portals and financial applications for smartphones. READ MORE »

VeriFone Holdings has announced that it has signed an agreement to become the lead investor in a Series B financing of Semtek Corporation - saying it "has doubled its investment in the security technology developer and acquired an option at a future date to purchase the remaining shares in Semtek." READ MORE »

In an article titled "Chase Cards Today: No Wamu DNA", Maria Aspan writes for the American Banker in Thursday's edition about how Chase Card Services has been handling the Washington Mutual credit card portfolio it acquired when Chase took over WaMu earlier this year. Bottom line: Chase is much more risk averse and decided to exit much of WaMu's higher risk cardholders.

Aspan notes: "If there is one issuer from which JPMorgan Chase is taking lessons these days, it is all the way at the other end of the spectrum from Wamu and Providian: American Express Co. ..."

Bankrate.com has published results from a new study of bank fees showing that the costs of checking accounts have risen again this year to an all-time high. Bankrate's 2009 Checking Study details the average fees associated with using and maintaining an interest bearing account, including bounced check fees, ATM surcharges, and monthly services fees, plus tips on how to avoid them. READ MORE »

Visa has announced Visa IntelliLink Spend Management – calling it "a new global information tool that provides extensive reporting and expense management capabilities for organizations of all sizes on a single scalable platform." READ MORE »

Here are two new job postings now available on PaymentsJobs.com:

• CEO at Merchant Link (Silver Spring, Maryland)

• Fraud - Sr. Product Manager at Yahoo! (Sunnyvale, California)

Are you hiring? Be sure to post your job openings on PaymentsJobs.com!

Fiserv has announced the availability of Fraud Risk Manager 4.6, the newest version of its multi-channel fraud detection and management solution. Also available is AML Manager 4.6, the market-leading anti-money laundering solution.

"Both Fraud Risk Manager and AML Manager from Fiserv are designed to enhance and optimize financial institutions’ financial crime risk management operations, by delivering best-in-class fraud and anti-money laundering (AML) transaction monitoring solutions, integrated with a common platform for automated alert intelligence and investigation, case management and regulatory reporting." READ MORE »

The Federal Reserve Board has proposed rules amending Regulation Z (Truth in Lending) "to protect consumers who use credit cards from a number of potentially costly practices."

"This proposal is another step forward in the Federal Reserve's efforts to ensure that consumers who rely on credit cards are treated fairly," said Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth A. Duke. "The rule bans several harmful practices and requires greater transparency in the disclosure of the terms and conditions of credit card accounts." READ MORE »

Yesterday, Fiserv held an Investor Day in New York City. The presentation materials are available online.

• FT.com: Facebook makes it easier to Connect
• Official Google Checkout Blog: Sell with confidence using Google Checkout's fraud protection
• BusinessWeek: IBM's Encryption Breakthrough for the Web
• APWG Report: The Internet Has Never Been More Dangerous
• Don't Be Fooled by Convenience Store Stunt, Says the Electronic Payments Coalition
• Opinion - WSJ.com: Don't Let 7-Eleven Give Card Holders a "Big Gulp" of Big Government
• PayPal Adds Three Industry Veterans to Executive Team
• Bloomberg.com: American Express Kills Fee for Dormant Gift Cards
• CNNmoney.com: Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis to retire
• The Canadian Press: Mobile banking in its infancy in Canada but smartphones will push up its use
• Kelowna.com: Debit card fraud surprisingly simple despite its high-tech image
• 3Cinteractive Expands Mobile Payments Platform Through Billing Revolution Partnership
• Network Branded Prepaid Card Association Publishes Leading Practices for General Purpose Reloadable Prepaid Card Consumer Disclosures
• WSJ.com: Prepaid Card Industry Fears Impact Of US Consumer Agency Bill
• Citi Launches Relationship With Sony Music Entertainment
• Key Areas of Financial Services Remain Digitally Disconnected With Consumers
• MediaNama: mChek Closes Series-B Funding From Nexus
• Bank Fraud Forum: Internal Fraud - Top 10 Threats (Part 2)
• New Citi California Pulse™ Survey Shows Californians Surprisingly Optimistic About the Future Despite Weak Economy and Job Market
• NYTimes.com: I.M.F. Calls for Restructuring of Financial System
• The Financial Services Club's Blog: Webinar: When Payments Go Mobile Who's Accountable?
• USATODAY.com: Despite recession, banks charge record checking fees

Over on PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Allen Weinberg reports on his recent interview with Jason Hogg, CEO of Revolution Money. READ MORE »

Today was a very busy day for us over on our sister web site, PaymentsViews.com. Beginning with Carol Coye Benson's update on mFoundry yesterday, today's posts include multiple updates from Bryan Derman live from Finovate2009 and a new interview with the CEO of Revolution Money, Jason Hogg by Allen Weinberg.

Be sure to visit PaymentsViews.com regularly for more of this kind of analysis from your friends at Glenbrook - while we continue to cover the news for payments professionals here on PaymentsNews.com!

In a press release this afternoon, MasterCard said that "three quarters of respondents in a new consumer survey believe the fees merchants pay for accepting credit cards are just a cost of doing business, and that merchants should pay those fees. These consumers recognize that merchants receive significant benefits from accepting payment cards, and that merchants should pay for those benefits."

MasterCard went on to question 7-Eleven's recent consumer petition campaign that encouraged consumers to support new legislation to regulate interchange fees paid by merchants. READ MORE »

ClairMail has announced Version 4 of its mobile banking platform designed to help financial institutions realize the strategic potential of mobile banking. According to ClairMail, "this new release of the product delivers game changing capabilities in the three most critical areas of mobile banking solutions, the ability to use mobile to drive to 100% coverage of the bank's customers, the ability to proactively deliver personalized content to deepen customer engagement, and the need for a simple, yet powerful, converged customer experience to deliver comprehensive services and technology through a unified and streamlined customer interface." READ MORE »

Fiserv has announced survey results on how consumers' financial activities have been impacted by the prolonged recession and how financial institutions can help them gain a greater sense of control of their finances. Overall, consumers surveyed indicated a desire for robust online banking functionality that allows them to closely monitor and manage their finances, combined with proactive alerts and reminders from their financial institution. READ MORE »

Yodlee is previewing Yodlee 10, its next-generation, personalized finance platform today at the Finovate event in New York City. As the solutions provider for more than 85% of all online PFM users today, Yodlee is helping banks and portals move PFM to the center of online finance, deepening customer relationships and driving new revenue. READ MORE »

GlobalPlatform, the international specification body for smart card infrastructure, has announced that American Express has joined as its newest Full Member. Amex’s initial focus will be to participate in GlobalPlatform’s current standardization efforts to support the convergence of the payment and mobile technical landscapes. READ MORE »

Glenbrook's Bryan Derman is attending the Finovate2009 conference today in New York City. Bryan will be live blogging throughout the day over on PaymentsViews.com.

Billeo has announced the launch of Offer Assistant - calling it "a patent-pending, free service that for the first time, delivers real time shopping discounts and rewards directly to the consumer within their unsponsored search engine results.   Billeo also announced a partnership with UPside Visa Prepaid Card that offers consumers redeemable points for purchases made with their card."

• U.S. Bank Introduces Downloadable Mobile Banking Application
• Bling Nation - La Junta, Colo. Embraces Mobile Payments
• The Red Tape Chronicles - MSNBC.com: Consumer groups blast banks' card 'tricks'
• CashEdge Signs First Round of Banks for Popmoney™
• New Javelin Report: Multi-Channel Authentication Via Mobile Banking
• US News and World Report: Credit Card Fees: 5 Things You Should Know
• Alaska Option Joins Acculynk Internet PIN Debit Pilot
• Transaction Wireless Signs AMC Entertainment for wGift Mobile Solutions
• South African Airways Adds CyberSource to Its Anti-fraud Arsenal
• CGAP: Why M-PESA should offer savings accounts

eCommLink, a value-added prepaid processor, has announced that its investors, led by Syntek Capital, have provided $10 million in additional funding to support eCommLink’s domestic and international growth plans. READ MORE »

Over on PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson takes a look at mFoundry with her interview of CEO Drew Sievers.

Carol writes:

In the short-term, the killer app for mFoundry will be frequent-use, closed-loop stored value cards – delivered not by NFC but by the use of 2D bar codes. The Starbucks test announced last week is the first of what Sievers claims will be multiple announcements coming from mFoundry in the near future. 

Lloyd Constantine's new book "Priceless: The Case that Brought Down the Visa/MasterCard Bank Cartel" will be in stock and shipping from Amazon.com later this week. The book is quite a read - hard to put down - and highly recommended for payments professionals. See Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson's comments on the book.

INTERAC, Canada’s national debit network, and China Unionpay, China’s national bank card payment network, have announced the launch of a new service that will give China Unionpay cardholders traveling in Canada the ability to withdraw cash from ATMs of participating acquirers in Canada. READ MORE »

Visa has released its annual global Commercial Consumption Expenditure (CCE) index estimating that global commercial spending grew to $90.2 trillion in 2008. The annual Visa CCE report provides standardized tracking of business and government spending globally and is recognized as an industry benchmark for measuring commercial spending. READ MORE »

Diners Club International Ltd., a business unit of Discover, and Elavon, a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, have announced the signing of a merchant acquiring agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Elavon will add Diners Club card acceptance to its portfolio of payment processing services. This relationship will create more acceptance opportunities for Diners Club and Discover cardmembers, who eventually will be able to use their cards at Elavon merchants in the U.K. and western Europe. READ MORE »