Over on our sister PaymentsViews.com blog, Glenbrook's Russ Jones takes a look at "Pay with a Tweet" - the name of a new payment concept developed by an interactive advertising agency called Innovative Thunder.

A seller registers a URL with Pay with a Tweet that points to some digital content they want to sell, and attaches a tweet to the URL. When a potential buyer comes along, they just click on the “Pay with a Tweet” button which tweets the seller’s message from the buyer and then provides the buyer with access to the underlying digital goods.

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners and our PaymentsJobs.com job board - the best place to post your position openings for payments professionals!

• Adam Lasnik: The blatherings of "Ultimate Rewards" by Chase = Insulting Rewards (marketing)
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• BusinessWeek: Lawmakers Agree on Wall Street’s Biggest Overhaul Since 1930s
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• PayPal Blog: Update on PayPal X Services Pricing
• The Financial Services Club's Blog: Why banks should avoid the remittance markets
• Mobile Commerce Daily: US lags in mobile commerce despite strong consumer demand: Sybase
• Citadel Advantage: Barclays adds enhancements to its mobile banking service
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NACHA—The Electronic Payments Association has announced that its membership has approved a new rule on mobile ACH payments as part of the NACHA Operating Rules. The Mobile ACH Payments Rule establishes a framework for companies and financial institutions that are accepting, or intend to process, mobile-initiated ACH debit payments from consumers. READ MORE »

MasterCard Worldwide has announced the launch of MasterCard Partners in Prepaid – calling it "a new initiative to stimulate MasterCard’s collaboration with partners and customers around the world and drive growth in prepaid." According to MasterCard, the program "will focus on delivering innovation at a number of levels: in the sharing of global best practices, in thought leadership, in investments in partner growth; and in simplified interactions. The initiative aims to accelerate innovation and engagement to deliver the best prepaid solutions for the marketplace." READ MORE »

Visa has announced the launch of payclick by Visa - calling it "a new way to pay online, that is ideal for downloadable content such as music, games and movies. payclick was developed by Visa and Australian consumers are the first to experience this innovative transaction service." READ MORE »

Discover Financial Services has reported financial results for the second quarter 2010. The company said Discover card sales volume was $23 billion, an increase of 6% from the prior year. The net charge-off rate for the second quarter was 7.97% versus the previously disclosed expectation of 8-8.5%. The net charge-off rate for the third quarter of 2010 is expected to be between 7.5% and 8%.

TNS has published a new white paper by Frost & Sullivan titled "Card Data Security in an IP World".

"While a shift to IP based payment systems (from legacy systems) offers many advantages to businesses, it also presents a much more advantageous environment for cybercriminals to operate as the protocols are easily understood; they can easily remain anonymous on public IP networks, and maintain hundreds or thousands of simultaneous connections for malicious purposes such as Denial of Service, which can make payment networks unavailable for processing transactions."

The white paper is available for download here (registration required).

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners and our PaymentsJobs.com job board - the best place to post your position openings for payments professionals!

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The Direct Response Forum has launched a new quarterly newsletter intended to help payments professionals. You can find it on the DRF website here. This issue has contributed articles on payment options, interchange fees, and fighting fraud.

TransUnion and ID Analytics have introduced a new credit risk score – ID Analytics Credit Optics Plus – that the two companies say "examines conventional measures of creditworthiness, willingness and ability to pay, in combination with a new dimension, stability, in a single solution. This powerful combination provides a 360-degree view of consumer behavior and enhances the predictiveness of credit decisions, often resulting in a performance lift for lenders." READ MORE »

A news story in today's Sydney Morning Herald caught my eye: "New software to beat credit card fraud". The story describes how National Australia Bank is rolling out new technology - called liquid encryption numbers (LEN) - developed at its Bank of New Zealand subsidiary to deal with card fraud.

Exploring a bit further, I found this BNZ page with more details about LEN. According to BNZ, "LEN updates the magnetic stripe security information on BNZ credit cards when a transaction is completed at a BNZ ATM. This technology allows us to automatically detect if your card has been copied or duplicated without your knowledge. " READ MORE »

The Federal Reserve Board has announced posting rules for a new same-day automated clearing house (ACH) service that will be offered on as an opt-in, same-day settlement service for certain ACH debit payments through the FedACH service effective August 2, 2010. According to the Fed, "FedACH customers may opt-in to this service by completing a participation agreement. The service will be limited to transactions arising from consumer checks converted to ACH and consumer debit transfers initiated over the Internet and phone." SameDay forward debit transfers will post to institutions' Federal Reserve accounts at 5:00 p.m. ET and SameDay return debit transfers will post at 5:30 p.m. ET. Details are in this Federal Register notice.

GDS Link has announced that is has been selected by RBS WorldPay to incorporate its DataView360 decisioning technology for better portfolio segmentation and merchant fraud identification. According to the company, "with DataView360, clients can implement and manage their fraud-based rules for several business functions, including screening for fraudulent transactions or generating knowledge-based questions and answers." READ MORE »

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners and our PaymentsJobs.com job board - the best place to post your position openings for payments professionals!

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• Econsultancy: Q&A: Keith Brown of Paythru on mobile payments
• Chicago Tribune: Overdraft protection: Chase, Bank of America differ on overdraft strategy
• Fortune: One more worry for banks: Wal-Mart
• The News Tribune: Fraud a risk in frequent debit transactions
• NYTimes.com: Your Money - Debit Card Raises the Cash-Back Reward (Perk Street Financial)

In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) entitled Amendment to the Bank Secrecy Act Regulations – Definitions and Other Regulations Relating to Prepaid Access, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has proposed new rules that would establish a more comprehensive regulatory framework for non-bank prepaid access. According to FinCen, "the proposed rule, which focuses on prepaid programs that pose the greatest potential risks of money laundering and terrorist financing, was developed in close cooperation with law enforcement and regulatory authorities." READ MORE »

RSA has publised a new security brief titled "Secure Payment Services: Card Data Security Transformed" which is available for download from their website. According to the company, "the new RSA Security Brief introduces a model for outsourcing credit card data security called "secure payment services." Secure payment services transfer safeguarding card information to outside service providers, improving electronic card data security while simultaneously reducing the time, complexity and cost of achieving PCI compliance for merchants."

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners and our PaymentsJobs.com job board - the best place to post your position openings for payments professionals!

• NACHA: New Study Reveals Less than Three-Quarters of Employees Receive Pay via Direct Deposit
• BusinessWeek: Congressional compromise good for Visa, MasterCard
• Portals and Rails: Will the migration to mobile payments be tempered by potential money laundering risks?
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I think there's a "sleeper" in this interchange legislation - see my post "The End of Interchange?" over on our PaymentsViews.com blog.

What do you think?

Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) has announced that an agreement has been reached with conferees on the Wall Street reform bill regarding his amendment regulating interchange fees.

According to Durbin's announcement, "the agreement makes minor, clarifying changes to the language which passed the Senate 64-33, and responds to concerns raised by state governments regarding their use of prepaid and debit cards distribution of government benefits." READ MORE »

The Electronic Payments Coalition issued a press release this afternoon in response to the proposed changes to Senator Dick Durbin's debit interchange amendment:

Senator Durbin has underscored his commitment to big box retailers and their bottom lines through his so-called compromise. The fact that he has to carve anyone out to provide 'protection' from his amendment gives some indication as to the damage this amendment will cause. Consumers will pay higher fees, lose rewards programs, and have limited choices for debit cards due to the disruption this amendment will bring to the economics of the debit card market. We will continue to fight to ensure that retailers do not succeed in their decade-long lobbying campaign to shift the cost of what they pay to accept cards onto the backs of consumers."

The NFC Forum has announced the winners of the NFC Forum Global Competition 2010: NEXPERTS and PharmaFabula

The NFC Forum Global Competition promotes the development and deployment of innovative and exemplary NFC services by both commercial and academic developers. The Commercial Track is for business ideas that address a specific market, business, or consumer need or want. The Research Track is open to the academic community, including university student teams and institutions. READ MORE »

The Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has released its Spring 2010 Update Newsletter. "This edition of Update features summaries of two conferences sponsored by the Payment Cards Center during the first quarter of 2010. Also in this issue, we feature the Consumer Statistics web pages, which have been gaining in popularity since we first created them earlier this year."

Cardmobili has announced the launch of a free application for consumers that it says "takes advantage of cloud computing infrastructure to unburden consumers from carrying physical loyalty, membership, rewards and association cards and makes them available on their mobile phone. Cardmobili’s smart application aligns merchants and consumers with personalized communication, heightened services and greater control and ease of managing all types of card affiliations and programs through one central device." READ MORE »

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners and our PaymentsJobs.com job board - the best place to post your position openings for payments professionals!

• WSJ.com: Merchants Win Debit-Card Fee Battle
• Washington Post: Lawmakers reach deal to limit card 'swipe fees'
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• AFP: Asians make the most payments with mobile phones: research
• The Atlantic: The End of Free Checking?
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• Wright Express Hosts Third Emerging Technology Forum
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• ABC News: Debit Cards: Shops Say They'll Pass Savings to Customers if New Law Passes
• The State Journal-Register: Qik-n-EZ president supports Durbin proposal on debit-card fees
• Philadelphia Inquirer: Consumer 10.0: A kerfuffle over 'fee creep' |
• Argus Leader: S.D.: Preserve bank fees
• Credit Slips: Interchange Irony: George Mason University Edition
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• CharlotteObserver.com: Retailers, banks battle for billions
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The law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP has posted an article titled "An Overview of Mobile Payments and Their Regulation" written by Timothy R. McTaggart and David W. Freese. The article originally appeared in the June 2010 edition of The Banking Law Journal.