The Federal Reserve has announced that consumer credit card agreements from more than 300 credit card issuers are now online in a searchable database it has created. According to the Fed, "the agreements contain general credit terms and conditions along with pricing and fee information. The database will help consumers compare credit card agreements and find a card that best suits their personal finance needs." The database will be updated quarterly. READ MORE »

The Consumer Payments Research Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has released a new public policy discussion paper titled "Mobile Payments in the United States at Retail Point of Sale: Current Market and Future Prospects" authored by Marianne Crowe, Marc Rysman, and Joanna Stavins. From the abstract:

Although mobile payments are increasingly used in some countries, they have not been adopted widely in the United States so far, despite their potential to add value for consumers and streamline the payments system. After describing a few countries’ experiences, we analyze the prospects for the U.S. market for mobile payments in retail payments, particularly the use of contactless and near-field communication technologies. ...

Guardian Analytics has announced closing $9 million in Series C funding led by Sutter Hill Ventures with participation by existing investor Foundation Capital. According to the company, "the Series C funding will be used to accelerate product innovation and capitalize on the growing demand for fraud prevention solutions that can protect financial institutions and their customers from today's sophisticated cybercrime." READ MORE »

Heartland Payment Systems has announced the commercial launch of its new payment card security technology. According to the company, "Heartland has spent more than two years developing and ten months beta testing and iteratively improving this end-to-end encryption technology — called E3™ — that is designed to protect cardholder credit and debit card data, rendering scrambled data useless to cybercriminals." READ MORE »

Prepaid cell phone customers can now use the UPside Visa and iBankUP prepaid card accounts from Plastyc to add airtime minutes to their phones. According to the company, "customers no longer have to buy airtime refill packs and scratch cards at stores or sign up on sites that sell airtime. Instead, they can add minutes to their own phones or their family’s and friend’s phones in the U.S. or overseas right from within their prepaid card account. There are no fees or added costs compared to refill packs, scratch cards or online refills offered by carriers on their own sites." READ MORE »

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• USATODAY.com: Changes in bank, debit card fees may have limited impact
• NYTimes.com: Credit Card Database Is Comprehensive and Dense
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• Venture Capital Dispatch - WSJ: Maveron Shifts Focus To Cope With A More Frugal Consumer
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• Nokia and Yahoo! to Bring Integrated Web Services to Millions of Consumers around the World
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• IBM Agrees to Acquire Sterling Commerce from AT&T for $1.4 Billion
• NACS Online: ExxonMobil Gets PCI Extension from Visa
• Aditic: Mobile Payments is possible in the University of Denver's Coffee Shop
• Red Gillen - Celent Banking Blog: Thinking Beyond “Dumb Payments”
• Springboard Partners with CARE Program to Warn Teens about Credit Cards
• Washington Business Journal: Retailers beat banks in debit card fee fight
• Rupee Times (India): Mobile banking still not flourishing amongst customers
• CapitalVue News: China UnionPay & China Telecom To Promote 3G Mobile Payment
• Data Center Knowledge: eBay Unveils New Flagship Data Center
• Discover Bank Offers Consumer Savings Products Through New Affinity Partnership with Investor Group
• USA Technologies Expands “JumpStart” Cashless Vending Program
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