Visa recently launched a new blog - the Visa Viewpoints Blog. In its post launching the new blog, Visa says:

This is our newest channel for communicating with those of you that keep tabs on us as a company or are interested in the growth of digital currency. Some of you may keep a close eye on Visa happenings and others may just check in from time to time. In any circumstance, we hope Visa Viewpoints will provide you with enough relevant and interesting content to warrant becoming a recurring destination in your internet browsing routine."

Several of the recent posts include Visa's take on the Durbin amendment and mobile payments. A full-text RSS feed is available.

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners and our Payments Education series.

• Technology Review: Computing with Secrets, but Keeping them Safe
• TechCrunch: Shoply Lets Anyone Create An Online Store
• Argus Leader: Prepaid card firm opens - Insight Credit Solutions - Trent Sorbe
• Forbes.com: The Great Swipe Fee Robbery
• Reuters: Citi finds few buyers for unwanted retail cards
• The Economist: E-commerce takes off in Japan: Up and away
• The Economist: Banking on mobile phones: Out of thin air (Kenya - M-PESA)
• David Roodman's Microfinance Open Book Blog: What to Read on M-PESA
• Atlanta Bargain Hunter: Financial institutions banking on social media to engage consumers
• CEOs Make First-Ever Joint Appearance to Express Opposition to Debit Amendment
• Forbes.com: One Man's Quest To Foil Hackers (Bob Carr of Heartland)
• Kansas City Star: Op-Ed: Community Banks, Credit Unions, and the Durbin Amendment
• Kansas City Star: Op-Ed: A smart solution on credit card fees
• BusinessWeek: MasterCard’s Banga Says Card Proposals May Survive

Billeo has announced an expansion of its Biller Directory to help consumers pay their bills instantly with a credit, debit or prepaid card at more than 10,000 companies across 26 categories – from cable service providers to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Billeo says its directory is the largest of its kind and "the defacto standard in the U.S. and Canada." Billeo's Biller Directory now covers more than 15,000 companies with two-thirds accepting card-based bill payments. READ MORE »

CashEdge and U.S. Bank have announced that they are partnering to launch CashEdge's person-to-person (P2P) online and mobile payments service, Popmoney, later this year. According to the two companies, "U.S. Bank will offer Popmoney to its mobile banking customers through usbank.com and the downloadable mobile banking application, the U.S. Bank Mobile Wallet. U.S. Bank is the first large U.S. bank to offer a mobile P2P solution that enables users to send money directly from their bank account to anyone with an email address, mobile phone number and a bank account." READ MORE »

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners and our Payments Education series.

• Visa CodeSure gets the green light
• Center for Financial Services Innovation to Lead the Creation of Industry-Wide Principles
• Giving an eGift Card Just Got Easier with Last-Minute-Gifts.com
• PULSE Offers Recommendations for ATM and Debit Card Safety
• NFC World: PTC, Inteligo and MasterCard test NFC payments in Poland
• Transact Network is a 'First' for Visa Europe
• TheStreet: Credit Card Issuers Used Profiling, Fed Says
• Fortumo: In-App Payments for Android are here!

In a white paper titled "A Just fee or Just a Fee? An Examination of Credit Card Late Fees", the Center for Responsible Lending takes a look at late fee pricing by US credit card issuers.

CRL research reveals that issuers do not price penalty fees for risk. When other factors were controlled for using multiple regressions, any positive relationship between losses and late fees disappeared. The results suggest that, rather than as a means to deter behavior, issuer practices reflect an underlying revenue and pricing philosophy; this philosophy along with issuer type (most notably whether an issuer is a credit union) drive any observed relationship between losses and penalty fee prices."

SponsorPay, a virtual currency monetization platform in Europe, has announced that it has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Hasso Plattner Ventures. Team Europe Ventures also participated in this round. The Berlin-based company says it will use the investment to accelerate growth in international markets and further expand its leadership role in Europe. READ MORE »

Vindicia has announced it is integrating InComm with its CashBox billing system to allow allows Vindicia’s merchants to expand the demographic mix that they can target for their online goods and services. CashBox now provides payment method options for both subscription and one-time transactions that support the unique requirements of digital merchants in diverse geographies throughout the world. READ MORE »

First Data Corporation has released its First Data SpendTrend analysis for the month of May 2010 compared to May 2009. SpendTrend tracks same-store consumer spending via credit, signature debit, PIN debit and EBT cards at U.S. merchant locations. According to FDC, "after a rebound in consumer spending in the first quarter of 2010, spending growth began to slow in April and May. Same-store dollar volume growth was 9.2% (8.2% excluding Gasoline Stations) and transaction growth was up 8.4% (8.1% excluding Gasoline Stations) in May, following 10.2% and 9.0%, respectively, in April. Growth in May was hampered by continued levels of high unemployment." READ MORE »

Danal has announced it is partnering with several providers of online games as the first participating merchants for its BilltoMobile payment service. Included are Nexon America , NHN, Perfect World, Ntreev, YNK Interactive, Fantage, Cyberstep, Gravity, Three Rings, Global Tongue, KBS World, MMOABC, Onnet, Planet Cazmo, Ray Flame, Thebroth.com, Uforia, Xivio, and Gamepot USA. According to Danal, these merchants are "featuring the BilltoMobile service on their eCommerce sites as a payment option, along with the traditional choices of credit card, bank card, PayPal and others. Collectively, these initial launch partners generate more than $1 Billion in annual global revenues." READ MORE »

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have announced a $10 million incentive fund to "jumpstart financial services by mobile phone in Haiti and expedite the delivery of cash assistance to victims of the country’s devastating earthquake by humanitarian agencies. This initiative lays the foundation for advanced banking services that could help millions of Haitians lift themselves out of extreme poverty." READ MORE »

MasterCard Worldwide and Smart Hub, a subsidiary of Smart Communications Inc., the biggest mobile carrier in the Philippines, have announced a joint venture "to mobilize MasterCard payment solutions for consumers around the world. The partnership brings together Smart Hub Inc.’s tested mobile payments platform and telecom experience and MasterCard’s global brand, resilient network and electronic payments legacy in order to establish an optimal mobile payments infrastructure for the world’s developing economies." READ MORE »

U.S. Bank and The Kroger Co. have announced a new strategic alliance that will give Kroger customers a suite of payment products. According to the two companies, "U.S. Bank has purchased Kroger’s existing credit card portfolio from RBS Citizens N.A., and plans to offer additional financial services for Kroger customers. Kroger is a large, well-known brand with strong customer loyalty, which creates an ideal platform to introduce innovative payments products and financial services." READ MORE »

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners and our Payments Education series.

• Ingenico: Transforming Ingenico towards profitable growth
• The Business of Fashion: How Mobile Commerce and Communication Will Change the Fashion Business
• MSNBC: Despite reform, credit card users still confused
• Javelin Strategy: 2010 Mobile Banking Behaviors: Fewer Handsets in the U.S., yet Smartphone Growth Exceeds Expectations
• Credit Union Times: Durbin Amendment Should Be Called Walgreens Amendment, Expert Says
• Digital Transactions: Seeking ‘Stickiness,’ MasterCard Rolls out Online Bill Pay for Prepaid
• Fiserv Helps Financial Institutions with Reg E by Offering Overdraft Opt-In Programs
• Ignite Financial Technologies Says Banks Can “Take Back” Reg. E Implementation with Five Core Strategies
• MoneyGram International Forges Region-Wide Alliance with Citi Central America
• BusinessWeek: Durbin’s Curb on Debit Fees Draws Fire for Hurting Consumers
• Celent Banking Blog (Red Gillen); Liking What I See At U.S. Bank
• Auctiva: Donahoe Predicts Mobile-Payments Surge
• CGAP: Mobile banking: Threshold of concern, threshhold of alarm and the zone of comfort
• Mr. Steven Kietz, Credit Card Industry Leader, Joins Emerging Payments Technologies Inc. Operating Under the Brand Cred-Ex as Chairman of its Advisory Board
• Androidheadlines.com: MoVend: The next Step in Mobile Payments
• NetBanker: Launches: Swipely is a Yelp/Twitter/Bankcard Mash-up
• Postec Builds Partnership with Mocapay to Deliver Mobile Loyalty and Gift Programs to Diverse Group of Retailers
• FIS Names Brad Potter to Senior Vice President, EFT Solutions

MasterCard has announced a new bill pay service for MasterCard prepaid card issuers and program managers, and their cardholders. According to MasterCardh, "this new service leverages the capabilities of payment platform and services provider Aliaswire, combined with the industry-leading bill payment solutions of MasterCard RPPS, to offer MasterCard prepaid partners a feature-rich bill payment service that integrates easily with their prepaid card program, and enables MasterCard prepaid cardholders to conveniently pay bills online or via telephone." READ MORE »

Elavon has announced that Semtek and Voltage Security have been selected to include end-to-end encryption capabilities in its acquiring and gateway solutions.

Elavon says its "implementation is unique in that it has chosen to deliver both hardware and software-based technologies and stands ready to support additional end-to-end encryption technologies as they mature—allowing merchants to choose the security solution that best fits their needs today and in the future." READ MORE »

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners and our Payments Education series.

• Progreso Financiero Closes $28 Million in New Funding from Madrone Capital and Greylock Partners to Fuel Growth
• peHUB: Progreso Financiero Raises $28 Million
• Nearly 75 Percent of Online Shoppers Don’t Regularly Look for Online Coupons or Deals before Making Purchases
• GigaOm Pro: Mobile Payments: A Guide to the Growing Market in Your Pocket
• First American Hires Manager of Strategic Partnerships to Support Ongoing Growth
• New Mercator Advisory Group Report: The Durbin Amendment: Impact Analysis
• Pacific Pride and MobSpree Team Up to Offer Location-Based App for Fleet Drivers
• Washington Post: Post Tech - Mobile Internet exploding, online ads about to take off, says analyst Mary Meeker
• Elavon Expands Its Powerful Suite of Security Solutions
• The China Tracker - Forbes.com : How Chinese Businesses Can Reach Global Consumers - An interview with Alan Tien, General Manager of PayPal China
• GlobalCollect Draws Top Online Merchants to Prague for its eCommerce Conference perspectives’10

The Federal Reserve has published its latest G.19 report on Consumer Credit - reporting that while overall consumer credit increased at an annual rate 0.5% in April, revolving consumer credit declined at an annual rate of 12% in the month. Revolving debt outstanding at the end of April 2010 was $838 billion - down over $160 billion from the same month in 2009.

Barclaycard US has announced an exclusive multi-year agreement with the National Football League to market credit cards bearing the NFL shield logo and the logos of each of the 32 NFL clubs.Fans may obtain these credit cards from Barclaycard starting in September via the web, at stadium displays, through in-bound telephone applications and via email and direct mail invitations." READ MORE »

What is BankSimple all about? For some insights, listen to this edition of The Pipeline podcast by Dan Benjamin. In this edition of his excellent podcast series, Dan interviews Alex Payne - who recently left Twitter to join BankSimple as co-founder and Chief Product & Technology Officer. Some fascinating insights into what BankSimple is all about. (You can request to join BankSimple on this page. You can follow Alex Payne on Twitter: @al3x).

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners and our Payments Education series.

• AP: THE INFLUENCE GAME: Dueling over debit card fees
• Canada: MBNA Takes Steps to Help Customers Better Understand and Manage Credit
• Wells Fargo Eases Summertime Travel With Anytime, Anywhere Financial Services
• Ceridian Stored Value Solutions Unveils New Mobile Capabilities For Gift Card Providers
• Seattle Times: Travel: U.S. credit cards sometimes don't work in Europe
• NetBanker: Lifehacker, Bank Technology News Spread the BankSimple Meme
• FT.com: Target gloomy on storecards
• Inside Retailing: UnionPay goes to war with Visa
• WSJ.com: Goldman Sachs, RBS Supply Vendor Finance For Worldpay
• China Real Time Report - WSJ: Visa Draws a Line In the Sand
• Gemalto Achieves Additional MasterCard Accreditation with Its Consulting Services
• Bankrate.com: What is the best cash-back reward credit card?
• Bloomberg: Big banks, small lenders unite to fight any limits on debit card fees
• Los Angeles Times: Small firms putting gift cards on wish lists
• WSJ.com: Congress Moves to Reconcile Financial-System Overhaul