MasterCard and Cardtronics have announced an exclusive alliance providing Prepaid MasterCard issuers and program managers an opportunity to expand their ATM footprints through Cardtronics’ Allpoint Network, America’s largest surcharge-free ATM Network. The agreement provides Prepaid MasterCard issuers with the tools to compete effectively for new business and participants with surcharge-free access to more than 32,000 ATMs within the US at retail locations like Target, 7-Eleven, and Costco.

BankServ has announced a Remote Deposit Capture (RDC) product that combines the ability to deposit checks from the home computer with the ability to deposit checks from an iPhone and other mobile devices. With this solution, banks can now provide their customers the flexibility of depositing checks using a desktop scanner, flatbed scanner, iPhone or other leading mobile device.

Taggo has soft launched a new system in Singapore that empowers sellers to identify and reward fans of Facebook Pages in the physical world at the point of sale. This allows sellers to launch Facebook promotions which can be executed immediately at a physical venue.

Here's how it works. Sellers add the Taggo app to their Facebook Pages, which allows fans to enter their preferred tap and go RFID card number. Facebook users in Singapore can then choose their existing transit payment card to be their preferred Taggo device. In a retail setting, Taggo’s fan recognition service is built into the sellers POS system or counter top PC.

A new survey by the American Bankers Association (ABA) reports on current consumer preference for various banking channels –– online banking is preferred by 36% of customers, followed by traditional branches (25%), ATMs (15%), mail (8%), and telephone (6%). Mobile, as the newest channel, is preferred by 3% of customers.

A new consumer advocacy program, sponsored by Deluxe Corporation, has launched a campaign to protect Americans against the pressure to use credit or debit cards. As part of the launch, IPSOS has announced survey results that show 75% of consumers insist they should have the freedom to pay at stores or restaurants with whatever method they choose – check, credit card, debit card, or cash. To sign the online petition in support of checks, you can visit www.righttowritechecks.com.

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners:

• American Express Canada Launches New Concept in Travel Rewards Cards
• Bank of America to Offer Merchants First Data Tokenization Solution
• FleetCor Announces the New Chevron and Texaco Universal Business MasterCard
• BB&T launches Remote Deposit Solution for Low-Check-Volume Businesses
• SafetyPay Expands Further Into Latin America with Braspag Partnership in Brazil
• New Celent Report on Mobile Contactless Payments in South Korea

• Planet Biometrics: Mexico Deploys Nationwide Voice Identification
• NetBanker: Top 25 Financial Institutions Ranked by US Web Traffic

PayPal has announced that it will expand its buyer protections for shoppers. Beginning Nov. 1, 2010, expanded protections will cover shoppers on merchant websites if they don’t receive an item they purchased, or if they receive an item that is significantly different than described by the merchant. The expanded program will be available worldwide, but will exclude buyers in Belgium, Brazil, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain.

Jack Henry & Associates has announced the addition of mobile remote deposit capture to its comprehensive portfolio of industry-leading remote deposit capture (RDC) solutions provided by its ProfitStars division and marketed under its Alogent brand. ProfitStars will be integrating its Alogent Mobile Remote Deposit Solution with mobile RDC system provided by Mitek Systems.

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners:

• Retail Sector Embracing E-Invoicing
• Accertify Selected by Walgreen Co. for Online Fraud Prevention
• Western Union to Launch Mobile Money Transfer Service with State Bank of India
• mopay Significantly Enhances Industry Leadership with 16 New Partners in Social Gaming
• Itau Unibanco and China Unionpay Sign Agreement for Brazilian Market

• SC Magazine: Is the US the Weakest Link When it Comes to Credit Card Security?
• St. Louis Post Dispatch: Taste of St. Louis First Major Event to Use Square
• Zacks: MasterCard Targets Debit Business
• getdebit.com: Companies Partner on Internet PIN Debit Processing
• New York Times: David Pogue - A Simple Swipe on the iPhone, and You’re Paid

RIM used its Blackberry DevCon 2010 conference yesterday to announce a number of services for developers, including a new Payment Service that allows developers to initiate payment transactions from within mobile apps. Their message to developers:

The Payment Service provides a familiar, fast and secure purchase experience for users. Using their BlackBerry® ID, they can apply various payment methods, including credit card, PayPal® and carrier billing, towards the purchase of digital goods you define—all without leaving your app.

First Data has announced that Jonathan J. Judge has been named chief executive officer (CEO). Judge brings 34 years of technology industry experience, and was previously president and CEO at Paychex. Prior to Paychex, Judge was the CEO for Crystal Decisions, a private software company providing business intelligence solutions.

CashStar has announced that its retail clients can now offer customers mobile and social capabilities within their eGift card offerings. The Container Store is the first CashStar retailer to roll out Facebook integration. From The Container Store’s eGift Card purchase page, shoppers can send digital gift cards to a friend’s Facebook wall using Facebook Connect. In addition, both senders and recipients of eGift cards have the ability to “Like” and “Share” their digital gifting experiences on Facebook and Twitter.

U.S. Retail merchants incurred more than $139 billion in fraud losses over the past year, according to a new study released by LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The study revealed that for every $100 in fraudulent transactions, retailers incurred $310 in total losses, including costs associated with replacing lost or stolen merchandise. Additionally, the study found that consumer victims of retail fraud incurred $5.5 billion in costs stemming from un-reimbursed losses, legal fees and other factors. While fraud is a $100 billion problem for retail merchants, fraud losses decreased by 25% when compared to 2009.

Obopay has announced new functionality for its Mobile Money for Banks offering, broadening the scope of mobile transaction capabilities for banks and their customers. The new capabilities for Mobile Money for Banks include mobile transfer capabilities between accounts at different banks, get paid tools including text-to-donate and text-to-pay, and features that make it easier for small businesses or even individuals to accept electronic payments.

MarketLive, a hosted eCommerce provider, has announced aggregate performance indicators of their mid-sized retailers for the first nine months of 2010. During the period January 1, 2010-September 20, 2010, retailers experienced a record 44.5% increase in traffic to their sites, resulting in the creation of 55.9% more carts and a 32.4% overall growth in orders. Revenue also increased by 23.3% over the same period in 2009 and units sold increased by 45.5%.

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners:

• Norkom Technologies Partners with MasterCard to Offer Enhanced Fraud Management Services for Issuers
• fring Chooses Gate2Shop Payment Solution to Power its VoIP Platform
• Wells Fargo Triples Its Remittance Payout Locations in the Philippines
• Voice Commerce and Alcatel-Lucent Mobile Wallet Service Team up on Mobile Money
• Western Union Receives Commercial Bank and Foreign Exchange Brokerage Firm License Approvals in Brazil
• 5,100 Merchants Deploy Heartland's End-to-End Encryption Security Solution
• TSYS Signs Agreement with Cynergy Data
• TellerMetrix Remote Capture Software Now Depositing 5 Million 'Checks' Annually
• New Javelin Study on Direct‐to‐Consumer U.S. Identity Protection Market
• EZCheck Adds Gift and Loyalty Card Programs to its Suite of Services
• Barclays Leads the Way by Providing Bank Accounts to Prisoners

• Business Computing World (UK): PCI-DSS: What It Means And Why Your Business Should Care
• Digital Money Blog: Dave Birch on Proliferating Mobile POS Standards
• Asheville Citizen-Times: Update on Asheville Currency Project

Barclaycard has announced the launch of Barclaycard SmartPay, designed to help European retailers compete with domestic retailers in foreign markets by increasing support for local payment methods. "Developed in partnership with Adyen, it will revolutionize cross-border eCommerce by offering a simpler, seamless payment experience to consumers."

Chase Paymentech Europe has announced results on an independent national merchant survey, finding that "79% financial directors thought that their CNP payment capability had developed in a less than ideal way; a figure which rose to 94% in large organizations. The research also found that 68% of merchants still relied on manual CNP payment processing, requiring staff to process and reconcile CNP data manually, placing a huge strain on finance departments." It's even worse for cross-border sales.

Glenbrook's Jacqueline Chilton is moderating a panel on mobile cash at the CTIA Enterprise & Applications Conference being held in San Francisco October 6-8. Jacqueline's panel will focus on mobile payments billed to carrier, and will include panelist from BilltoMobile, Boku, OpenMarket and Zong.

If you're going to be at the conference, - she'd love to meet you!

FourthWall Media has announced a solution that integrates payments and interactive television.

Programmers and cable distributors can find new and exciting ways to generate revenue. Imagine someday watching your favorite basketball team and being able to instantly purchase a Mavericks jersey with the simple push of a button on your existing remote.

As an expansion of its Palo Alto deployment, Bling Nation has announced its mobile phone payment service is now available throughout Stanford University.

"Bling Nation is a perfect fit for Stanford University campus, as the students are addicted to their mobile phones and can't wait to try the next cool technology," said Stephanie Werner, student at Stanford University. "One thing Stanford students keep with them at all times is their cell phone, so it makes sense that the phone can be used for purchases on and off campus."

Akamai Technologies has announced a new Edge Tokenization payment security service that is seamless and undisruptive to a retailer's existing eCommerce workflow. The Akamai solution enables card data to be converted to a token prior to Web transactions landing on a merchant's infrastructure.

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners:

• TrustCommerce Integrates With Leading Healthcare Billing Statement Provider
• WISePay: A New Mobile Payment System for Unbanked and Underbanked Populations
• WilliamPaid Launches Express Online Rent Payment Application for Landlords
• New Mercator Report on End-to-End Encryption

• Mass Transit Magazine: What's New in Transit Payments
• SFGate.com: Everything You Need To Know About Credit Card Rates
• Bank Info Security: POS System Breached?
• Portals and Rails: Could the Fight Against ATM fraud use the Help of Biometrics?

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners:

• Citi Renews U.S. Private Label Card Partnership with Zale Corporation

• Wall Street Journal: How Safe Is Your Debit Card?
• New York Times: As Bank Fees Rise, Maybe Services Will, Too
• AuctionBytes: PayPal To Introduce Out New Checkout Experience

American Express Business Insights has announced the availability of Q2 2010 Business Insights Spend Trends reports, which analyze changing patterns in spending across various categories, US cities and consumer groups. The Business Insights Spend Trends reports reveal a cross-section of notable spending trends across core sectors such as travel, dining and entertainment, and luxury retail during Q2 2010 versus Q2 2009.

RSR Research has announced the results of a benchmarking report entitled, “The Digital Divide: Digital Gifting Among Top Internet Retailers.” RSR focused on the comprehensiveness of the Top 100 Online Retails offerings and the selection, purchase and recipient experience. Based on the evaluation criteria, the retailers with the most comprehensive digital gift card offering are The Home Depot, CVS Caremark, Amazon.com, American Eagle Outfitters, and Sears.

Haitian wireless operator Voila, a subsidiary of Trilogy International Partners, and Unibank, Haiti's premier financial institution, are teaming with international relief and development agency, Mercy Corps, to announce the launch of a humanitarian assistance program utilizing Haiti's first mobile money solution. This program will enable Mercy Corps' cash-for-work, grant and food voucher recipients to use their Voila phones as 'mobile wallets'.

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners:

• CRE Secure Integrates Hosted Payment Page with First Data Global Gateway
• CyberSource Lets Merchants Screen for Fraud Without Exposure to Sensitive Card Info
• New Javelin Report: 2010 Mobile Banking and Smartphone Forecast
• CSN Stores Integrates Mazooma for Its 200+ Online Boutiques
• Western Union Tops 20,000 Agent Locations in Africa
• MasterCard Unveils Enhancements to Its Expense Management Platform
• Earn Virtual Currency for Surfing the Web and by Making Purchases Online

• Commercial Law: Credit Card Skimming and Card Issuers Behaving Badly
• New York Times: PayPal Makes It Easy to Give
• iStockAnalyst: M-payment Cooperation in Netherlands is Important; Retailers Not Yet Convinced
• nineMSN: Japan's Vending Machines Read Minds

Based on the success of mobile money-transfer services in Kenya and other developing countries, The Economist has announced that Nick Hughes and Susie Lonie will jointly receive the Social and Economic award at its forthcoming Innovation Awards ceremony for their outstanding contributions in this field. Nick Hughes (Signal Point Partners) and Susie Lonie (Vodacom South Africa) started a mobile money initiative in Kenya in 2005 called M-PESA, which is a joint venture between Safaricom, the leading mobile telecommunications company in Kenya, and Vodafone. READ MORE »

Western Union and EnStream, creators of the Zoompass Mobile Wallet, have announced a strategic alliance that will allow Zoompass users in Canada to send cross-border and domestic money transfers directly from their mobile phones. EnStream is a mobile-commerce joint venture company owned by Bell Canada, Rogers Communications and TELUS, Canada’s three leading national wireless operators.