According to Visa Europe news release, the number of Visa contactless cards issued in the UK currently stands at 8 million and is expected to reach 12 million by end of 2010. Visa Europe notes that, "This landmark follows the rise in the contactless transaction limit from £10 to £15 earlier in the year." READ MORE »

The US Federal Reserve has reported its latest G.19 Consumer Credit statistics - finding that "Consumer credit decreased at an annual rate of 4-1/2 percent in May 2010. Revolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 10-1/2 percent, and nonrevolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 1-1/2 percent."

Discover's latest monthly US Spending Monitor for June 2010 finds that consumer confidence "continued to decline as fewer consumers see economic conditions or their personal finances improving in the month ahead."

"The Monitor - a poll of 8,200 consumers tracking consumer confidence and spending intentions on a daily basis - fell 2 points in June to 88.4. Overall, 28 percent believe economic conditions are improving, a 3-point decline from last month and a drop of 6 points over the last two months."

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!

• Los Angeles Times: Social Shopping Site Swipely Unveils New Features, Talks Strategy
• Washington Post: Two-Month Warning for NFL Credit Card Holders
• Forbes.com: MasterCard's New Master
• PEHub: Kwedit Shifts Gears, Rolling Out PayNearMe Next Month
• Visa Blog: Migration Watch: Newspaper Vending Machines Shift To Plastic

As part of its Mobile Retail Initiative, the NRF has released a 177 page White Paper entitled, "Mobile Retailing Blueprint: A Comprehensive Guide for Navigating the Mobile Landscape".

This Mobile Retail Initiative has produced a Mobile Blueprint to guide retailers in planning and implementing initial mobile applications, including customer marketing, payments and internal operations.

AT&T recently announced that it has joined forces with Apriva to turn smartphones into point-of-sale devices that accept credit and debit card transactions.

"Sales increase when small businesses accept payment cards," said Michael Antieri, president, advanced enterprise mobility solutions, AT&T Business Solutions. "And given that an overwhelming majority of small businesses use smartphones, offering a mobile application that ties together payment cards and smartphones makes perfect sense."

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!

• Western Union Broadens Global Cash Payment Options for AdSense Subscribers
• Discover Financial Services Announces International Alliance with Serbia’s DinaCard
• TransCard Expands Automated Bill Payment Application Into Robust Enterprise Payment Offering
• SFGate: Businesses like Wells Fargo Like The iPad
• CNET: Facebook Scores Virtual-Currency Deal in Asia
• Banking Review: PayPal Head of Mobile on the Future of Money
• allAfrica.com: Uganda: Why Plastic Money Should Be Popularised
• Zong Expands Executive Team with Seasoned Payments and Mobile Veterans
• Adknowledge Selects ThreatMetrix to Strengthen Fraud Protection On Super Rewards

Cold Stone Creamery is the first merchant to launch an gifting program using the First Data eGift Social solution.

”We’re making it easier for people to share a Cold Stone moment, even if time or distance prevents them from being together. Now you don’t have to wait for special occasions to share ice cream; you can send Cold Stone gifts instantly, any day, just because,” said Daniel Beem, president of Cold Stone Creamery. “We’re delighted to know that we’ll be part of more of life’s little moments, from ‘get well soon’ notes and rewards for a job well done to ‘I miss you’ wall posts.”

Chase quietly introduced a new version of its mobile banking app last week that supports remote deposit capture from the iPhone. Jim Bruene over at NetBanker has a write up on how it works, including some nice screen shots. The app upgrade also included mobile access to Chase's P2P payment service.

MasterCard has announced the Launch of its first MasterCard MarketPlace™ app that gives cardholders mobile access to exceptional deals.

The sale of physical merchandise via mobile phones hit $1.2 billion in 2009, according to ABI Research Inc., and is projected to reach $2.2 billion in 2010. With MasterCard MarketPlace Overwhelming Offers™ iPhone app, merchants will be able to improve their relationships with shoppers by offering special deals to those seeking to make purchases from them through their mobile devices while also capturing the additional mobile commerce revenue opportunity.

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!

• Technology Review: The Government Has an Online Identity Plan for You
• Western Union Authorized to Offer Global Money-Transfer Services under Japan's New Law
• Volaris Joins Growing Number of Airlines Using Accertify's Interceptas Platform
• NetSuite and Zuora Partner to Deliver Best-of-Breed Solution for Subscription-Based Businesses
• The New York Times: Twitter Gets Into E-Commerce
• Facebook Credits Won’t Contribute To Profits For “Several Years”
• Boston.com: Investor, TJX Settle Suit Over Data Theft
• Kansas City Federal Reserve: The Changing Nature of U.S. Card Payment Fraud (PDF)

In a blog post on AppleInsider, Distimo - an app store analytics firm - looks at the breakdown of free apps versus paid apps across all the major mobile app stores, as well as assorted metrics around paid app pricing:

More generally, Distimo revealed that more than 50% of applications are priced below or equal to $2.00 in all of the electronic app stores, with the exception of BlackBerry App World and Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

The European Payments Council (EPC) has published a white paper on Mobile Payments:

The EPC White Paper on Mobile Payments offers an informative read to any party interested in mobile payments, and aims to foster a common understanding between payment service providers and bank customers by using non-technical language. The document predominantly focuses on mobile contactless card payments, where the mobile device needs to be in close proximity to a point-of-sale terminal, while also addressing some aspects of mobile remote payments, where two parties are able to send and receive funds irrespective of where they are located.

The white paper is available for download from here.

Over on our sister PaymentsViews.com blog, Glenbrook's Scott Loftesness takes a look at mobile boarding passes and wonders if we've reached a tipping point with potential implications for payments.

Clearly, we’re on the cusp of a serious migration to mobile boarding passes in the US. Travelers will soon be very comfortable displaying their boarding pass to a scanner at the gate – and avoiding the hassles of printing and carrying paper. When will this new way of communicating data simply from the mobile handset jump the rails into new verticals? Are you betting, along with Starbucks and mFoundry – and others, that it’s coming? Seems that the airlines have placed they’re bets!

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!

• Los Angeles Times: U.S. Retailers Pushing To Expand Overseas
• MasterCard Index: Double digit retail sales growth expected in 7 markets in Asia/Pacific
• TheStreet.com: Card Companies' Rate Policies Still Unclear
• Rixty: Get Facebook Credits with Cash and Coins
• Minyanville.com: How Is the Credit Card Industry Making Money?
• U.S. Bankcards Services Prepares U.S. Merchants for Chinese Tourist Boom with Partnership with China UnionPay
• The New York Times: Credit Card Hackers Visit Hotels All Too Often

Chase Paymentech Europe has announced results from a national survey today exploring the challenges faced by UK firms in ‘Customer Not Present’ (CNP) payments. The survey conducted for Chase Paymentech by independent research company, Dynamic Markets, showed that 30 percent of the 200 businesses questioned had international growth plans within the next one-to-two years, but that most did not have the payment systems in place to properly support European customers. READ MORE »