Jack Henry & Associates has announced that it has "entered into a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Kentucky-based iPay Technologies, a portfolio company of Spectrum Equity Investors and Bain Capital Ventures. iPay was founded in 2001 and currently operates as the largest independent electronic bill pay provider in the United States. Through strategic partnerships with more than 50 providers of information processing and online banking solutions, iPay's turnkey online bill pay services and technology are supporting more than 3,600 banks and credit unions. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, at the closing Jack Henry will purchase all of the equity of iPay for a purchase price of $300 million in cash, subject to certain closing and post-closing adjustments." READ MORE »

• Newsweek.com: Despite Americas' iPhone Obsession, We're Behind the World's Mobile Calling Curve
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Billeo has announced that its Offer Assistant has been expanded to include Discover's ShopDiscover rewards and PayPal Shopping deals. According to the company, "discounts from nine of the most popular loyalty and rewards programs appear right when online shoppers search for products and services on Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Billeo's Offer Assistant is one of the many ways the company saves people time and money in all types of online transactions, from shopping to bill pay." READ MORE »

HelloWallet, a personal finance website dedicated to helping people reach their financial goals, has announced closing $3.6 million in Series A funding, led by Grotech Ventures along with an investment by Jean and Steve Case. The company, which launched in March 2010, provides its service through partnerships with companies and other organizations that employ or serve more than 3.5 million people. READ MORE »

India's Economic Times is reporting that the State Bank of India "has selected US-based Elavon Incorporation and Visa International as its joint venture partners for merchant acquiring business." See also this article in The Hindu Business Line. It reports that SBI will retain a 51 percent interest in the jV called SBI Payment Services Pvt Ltd.

• Mashable: Near Field Communication: 6 Ways It Could Change Our Daily Lives
• WSJ.com: Blackstone in Talks to Acquire Fidelity National
• TheStreet.com: Credit Card Fee Takes 10% Bite Out of Purchase
• Straits Times (Singapore): Pay by mobile phone
• Bennington Banner: Vermont sets tough new rules on credit card fees
• RBS WorldPay Certifies Gilbarco(R) Passport(R) POS
• U.S. consumers beginning to shed anxiety about economy: RBC Consumer Outlook Index
• Global Payments Expands China UnionPay Card Acceptance Service to Five Additional Asian Markets
• TechCrunch: Kwedit Has Legs – Repayment Rate above 33%
• Bloomberg.com: Banks Hemorrhage Cash With Cards Wanting to Be American Express
• ReadWriteCloud: Requires a Village: A Quest for Payment Data Portability
• ABC News: Behind the Rise of Debit Cards
• VCCircle: Mobile Commerce Ventures To Catch Investor Fancy
• Heartland Payment Systems Reports First Quarter Results
• Raiffeisen Deploys Gemalto’s Web Services for Austria’s First Picture Card Program
• First Federal Bank Selects FIS for Core Processing Technology
• Cryptomathic: Sagem Orga do Brasil Selects Cryptomathic's CardInk
• Bloomberg: Senators Take Aim at $40 Billion of Credit-Card Fees

Over on PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Scott Loftesness takes a look at Klarna - an ecommerce payments provider based in Sweden that's attracted a major investment from Sequoia Capital and partner Michael Moritz.

Digital River has announced it has acquired fatfoogoo, a Europe-based, in-game and online commerce service provider. According to the company, "the combined forces of Digital River’s e-commerce solutions with fatfoogoo’s technology will offer game publishers and developers an unparalleled, single e-commerce connection to manage their online product sales both in-store and in-game." Digital River paid approximately $10 million for fatfoogoo plus an additional earn-out opportunity tied to performance. READ MORE »

Klarna AB has announced that Sequoia Capital is investing in Klarna AB and will become Klarna’s largest single owner. Michael Moritz, Partner at Sequoia Capital, has been made a member of the board.

"Sequoia Capital has extensive expertise and many years’ experience in investing in and developing promising growth companies operating in industries that are exciting for successful global companies. We are now stepping up the pace of our international expansion, first in Europe and then globally, said Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna and previous CEO of Kreditor."

"Klarna has done a fabulous job serving the needs of merchants and consumers in Europe’s e-commerce market," said Michael Moritz, Partner at Sequoia Capital. "With e-commerce growing rapidly across the E.U., where card based payments are only 1/3 that of the U.S., Klarna has an incredible opportunity to be the most trusted solution in the $40 billion global payments market."

Plastyc has announced that companies can now enroll people into prepaid cards from their website or phone systems using its new web services application programming interface (API) available immediately at http://www.plastyc.com. According to the company, "the API enables companies to sign up users for UPside Visa prepaid cards, and then let users check their balances, share money card to card or suspend lost cards from within the companies’ own websites." READ MORE »

Discover's latest monthly US Spending Monitor finds that consumer confidence rebounded in April, "fueled by a distinct change of heart among 18- to 39-year-olds about the state of the U.S. economy."

"The Monitor – a poll of 8,200 consumers that tracks consumer confidence and spending intentions on a daily basis – jumped 5.5 points in April to 91.5 (based out of 100), the highest the Monitor’s index has been since November 2007. Overall, 34 percent, the most ever, believe economic conditions are improving." READ MORE »

• NetBanker: Chase is First U.S. Bank with a Native iPad App
• Connected Planet: Could mobile payments market really be worth $630 billion in five years?
• BusinessWeek: Google Plans to ‘Get Better’ at E-Commerce, Executive Says
• Examiner.com: Secret Service: ATM Card Skimming Five Times Higher This Year
• Bucks Blog - NYTimes.com: The Fate of Continental and United Credit Cards
• TechCrunch: Klarna payments platform secures Sequoia backing and adds Mike Moritz to the board
• HKIA and China Unionpay launch shopping privileges
• StreetInsider.com: Digital River (DRIV) Announces $10M Acquisition of fatfoogoo
• New Aite Group Report: End-to-End Encryption in Card Payments: An Introduction
• First Drop in TransUnion Credit Risk Index Since 2008 Signals Improved Consumer Credit Risk Conditions
• McCarran International Airport and MasterCard Worldwide Bring Contactless Payments to Airport Parking
• First Bag is Free With the Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express
• TheStreet.com: Credit-Card Rates to Rise; Yours Don't Have to
• TechCrunch: Offermatic Is The Freak Love Child Of Mint, Groupon And Blippy

American Express yesterday launched PASS - "a prepaid reloadable Card parents give to teens and young adults, providing peace of mind to parents as a safer alternative to cash, credit and debit cards. PASS, which will be sold and marketed exclusively to adults, is currently available as a preview to American Express Cardmembers and will be available to the general public this summer." READ MORE »

American Express has launched ZYNC from American Express, a new charge card it says is "designed for and with a new generation of Cardmembers in their 20s and 30s. Offered in beta since December 2009, the ZYNC Card brings together the financial control of the pay-in-full Charge Card with the added flexibility to select bundles of rewards and benefits called “Packs” that are tailored to specific lifestyle interests and spending habits in categories such as music, fashion, food, travel and more." READ MORE »

ATM transaction flows under the Euro Alliance of Payment Schemes (EAPS), which unites European debit card schemes, have increased thanks to Consorzio Bancomat and Zentraler Kreditausschuss opening up the Italian and German processing gateways, SIA-SSB and CardProcess, under the EAPS framework to support their agreement to allow each other’s cardholders to withdraw cash from their respective ATM networks. READ MORE »

MasterCard this morning has announced financial results for the first quarter 2010. The company reported gross dollar volume increased 8.3% on a local currency basis to $631 billion, cross border volumes increased 10.9% and processed transactions increased 4.6%. A press release, supplemental operating results, and an accompanying presentation are available on the MasterCard web site.

MasterCard president and chief operating officer, Ajay Banga, said: “We’re making important investments in innovation, like MasterCard Marketplace, our eCommerce shopping portal, and the launch of MasterCard Labs, a critical component of our global research and development efforts. We are committed to play a significant role in the evolution of payments to better meet the needs of consumers, merchants, businesses and governments around the world, and look forward to bringing even more developments to the market.”

Offerpal Media has announced the beta launch of GamePoints.com - "a consumer Web site that rewards its members with virtual currency for use in their favorite online games when they shop at big-brand retailers, take part in offers from trusted advertisers, complete market research surveys, watch online videos, trade in unwanted gift cards or conduct other marketing actions." Points earned "can be exchanged for in-game virtual currency in more than 1,500 online games and applications across the Web's top social networking platforms, virtual worlds, MMOs and other gaming sites." READ MORE »

Plastic Jungle and Offerpal Media have announced an agreement to "allow consumers to convert unused and partially redeemed gift cards into a payment method for virtual currencies. Through this agreement, consumers will be able to exchange gift cards for purchasing power within thousands of the Web’s top online games, virtual worlds and social networks, tapping the estimated $30 billion unredeemed gift card economy." READ MORE »

American Express has released "new trends and insights into consumer spending patterns including some surprising purchasing decisions and trade-offs being made at the point of sale. The publication, Harnessing the Opportunity, from the American Express Business Insights group, provides a unique view of trends developing based on aggregated consumer spending data over the past three years." READ MORE »

• Plastic Jungle Blog: Game On! Turn Gift Cards Into Game Points
• Seeking Alpha: Mastercard Incorporated Q1 2010 Earnings Call Transcript
• MSNBC.com: Chairman: Sears ‘unrecognizable’ in five years
• PayPal: 4 ways to improve checkout now - from the PayPal Global Customer Experience Research Team
• paidContent: Honolulu Civil Beat Launches With PayPal As The Great Link, Lower Trial Fee
• Practical eCommerce: CyberSource CEO Addresses Visa's Acquisition
• Threat Level - Wired.com: Former Con Man Helps Feds Thwart Alleged ATM Hacking Spree
• Digital Transactions: Eye on Mobile: An Apple-ViVOtech Rumor; Google Invests in a Gateway
• Digital Transactions: MasterCard Aims for Faster Authorizations, More Message Data
• The Moscow Times: Thriving E-Money Industry Puzzles Regulators
• RFinity Wins Contactless Intelligence’s Monkey Award for Trailblazing and Innovation
• Visa Canada and Julian de Guzman Kick-Off New Financial Literacy Tool in Toronto
• Rebate cards become a little more like rebates in one state (Massachusetts)
• The Merchant Account Blog: A Comparison of 3 Alternative Payment Methods (Google Checkout, PayPal, Amazon Payments)
• SoundBite Communications Introduces Real-Time, Interactive Fraud Management Solution for Card Issuing Banks
• The Hartford Launches iPhone App for Auto Claims
• TSYS, Planet Payment Extend Multi-Currency Processing Contract
• Xconomy: Behind the Scenes at Google Ventures: The Full Q&A with Bill Maris
• Juniper Research: Mobile Payments Market to Quadruple by 2014, reaching $630bn in value, although still only accounting for around 5% of ecommerce retail sales
• NetBanker: The iPad: One Million Shipped in First Month, but Still No Bank or Credit Union Online Banking Apps
• VentureBeat: Offerpal Media launches a virtual money war with Facebook
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• WSJ.com: J.C. Penney Spends to Get Ahead On Mobile Shoppers, Other Trends

Erick Schonfeld writes for TechCrunch that Google Ventures announced this morning that it has invested in Southlake, Texas-based mobile payments startup Corduro. He notes that "It looks like its site has just gone up, and is still pretty much a placeholder with a lot of dummy text" - see, for example, Corduro's About Us page. READ MORE »

First Data Corporation has announced that its STAR Network has signed a multi-year agreement with SunTrust Banks Inc. to provide PIN-secured debit point-of-sale (POS) and ATM access to its cardholders. SunTrust is one of the top 10 debit card issuers in the US.

“This is a huge win for us,” said Kevin Barry, general manager for the STAR Network. “Our new relationship with SunTrust is a validation of our commitment to lead the industry with superior customer service and the most innovative products. SunTrust’s progressive view of payments will be a great match for STAR and our members.” READ MORE »

Glenbrook's next Payments Essentials webinar is this Wednesday from 10:30 - 11:30 AM Pacific. The topic for this session is Social Payments - with Russ Jones and Erin McCune sharing the presentation that was such a big hit at NACHA's Payments 2010 conference last week. Scott Loftesness will be moderating this session. Registration ($149) details are here.

MasterCard Worldwide has announced multiple enhancements to its Worldwide Network that it says "will offer its financial-institution customers and merchant partners opportunities to improve the shopping experience for cardholders; identify new business opportunities; and improve operational efficiencies. With this network upgrade, global enhancements, as well as regional enhancements, for North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America are now available for customer financial institutions to enable for MasterCard-branded card portfolios." READ MORE »

• Nation's Restaurant News: Restaurants downloading more mobile apps
• Berkeleyside: Rash of credit card fraud in Berkeley
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• Citi Cards Helps Drivers Get the Most from Every Tank of Gas, Launches Shell Drive for Five Card
• Visa Signature Named Official Payment Card of the James Beard Foundation
• WAUSAU Financial Systems Adds Web-Enabled Cashiering Capabilities to Receivables Solution
• Merchant Warehouse To Bring Lower Interchange Fees to Merchants Using MICROS-Retail Xstore™ Java POS
• NYTimes.com: Drilling Down - Coupons Make a Comeback
• Financial Post: PayPal gives the little guy a break on fees for purchases that cost pennies
• Wells Fargo Announces $1 Million in Funding to Support U.S. Expansion of Grameen America
• Corporate America Credit Union Adds Viewpointe Pointe2Pointe with Internet Connectivity
• Global Cash Access Introduces Casino Share Intelligence
• Android Users Can Manage Money On the Go with New Mint.com Application
• Fitch Affirms First Data's IDR at 'B'; Outlook Stable
• Bucks Blog - NYTimes.com: The Big Banks Consumers Recommend Most Often
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• NACS Online: Canadian Government Issues Revised Credit, Debit Card Industry Code of Conduct
• Visa Inc. Files SEC Form 10-Q
• Seeking Alpha: Cardtronics, Inc. Q1 2010 Earnings Call Transcript
• HSBC Renews Global Premier Relationship with MasterCard Worldwide