Inside Facebook has an interesting post on Warner Brothers accepting Facebook Credits as form of payment for movie rentals.

Today Warner Brothers announced that it will begin renting movies to users through Facebook applications, starting with The Dark Knight. By allowing users to pay for digital content, not just virtual goods, with its virtual currency Facebook Credits, Facebook is moving in a bold new direction that encroaches on the territory of iTunes and NetFlix.

In an important milestone, PayPal has announced that it has named Don Kingsborough as vice president of Retail and Prepaid Products.

Don was the founder and CEO of Blackhawk Network, a leader in prepaid third party card products and a subsidiary of Safeway Foods. There, Don launched and operated the Gift Card Mall, Inc. kiosks in tens of thousands of retailers in the world, including our very own eBay gift card.

First Data has released its First Data SpendTrend analysis for the full month of February 2011 compared to February 2010.

Overall dollar volume growth increased 8.5% in February, up from January’s 7.4% growth, as many retailers reported sales that beat expectations. Consumers demonstrated a renewed faith in the economic recovery and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.9% in February.

On the wires:

• Western Union, Seven Bank to Introduce International Money Transfers in Japan
• Union Plus and Rev Worldwide Partner on Prepaid Cards for Working Families
• MoneyGram Reveals Strong Results from New Fraud Prevention Tool
• CreditCall Rolls Out End-to-End Encryption Technology
• Study Finds That Identity Theft Protection Services Can Help Mitigate Incident Costs

On the web:

• TechCrunch: Offermatic Raises $4.5 Million From Kleiner Perkins
• MSNBC: The credit card of the future: It 'talks' to you
• Reuters: Senate Must Act First on Debit Card Fees Say Bachus
• TechCrunch: Square’s Jack Dorsey Responds to VeriFone’s Security Hole Allegation

Over on our sister blog, Payments Views, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson takes a look at the Intuit PaymentNetwork, interviewing Intuit SVP and long time payments guru Eric Dunn. This post is the start of a new series for Glenbrook - a journey to discover if the long-awaited “tipping point” in electronic B2B payments has finally arrived.

MasterCard is introducing the Expert Monitoring Compromised Account Service to issuing banks in every market throughout the world. "This service represents the latest addition to MasterCard’s suite of Expert Monitoring Solutions which provide turnkey, next-generation fraud detection and prevention capabilities that help issuers reduce their fraud-related costs."

The Merchant Risk Council (MRC) has announced the final agenda for its upcoming annual conference being held March 22-24 at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort. The organization will also announced the results of three new studies at the conference - a new MRC Payment Security Survey, the Annual MRC Fraud Survey, and a new Payments Benchmarking Survey.

Conference keynote speakers Include Harry Markopolos (financial fraud investigator), Andreas Weigend (former Amazon.com chief scientist), and Joseph Menn (author of "Fatal System Error").

Socialware has announced a relationship with LinkedIn that will enable financial services organizations and professionals to access the extensive networking, marketing and research capabilities available on LinkedIn while remaining compliant with SEC, FINRA, IROC, FSA and state regulations on electronic communication.

With Socialware's industry-leading technology, firms participating on LinkedIn can now efficiently navigate the record-keeping, suitability and supervision challenges associated with social media in the industry.

On the wires:

• Moneris Solutions Adds ThreatMetrix Device Identification Capabilities to Its Online Merchant Fraud Protection
• HID Global Delivers First Gift Card Issuance Project to Major Retailers in Korea
• Multiband, InterceptEFT Announce Partnership for Customer Payment Processing
• Radiant Systems Launches Additional Security Services to Help Restaurant and Retail Operators Protect Consumer Data

On the web:

• MSNBC: The Death of the Magnetic Stripe Credit Card (EMV story)
• New York Times: Debit Card Fees Bring Lobbyists to Capitol Hill
• Gov Info Security: EMV Roots Go Deep in Europe (Interview)
• Inside Facebook: Facebook Helps Sell Digital Media with Credits: Challenges and Opportunities
• ReadWriteWeb: NFC in 2011: Who's Building Your Mobile Wallet?

Over on our sister blog, Payments Views, Glenbrook's Scott Loftesness talks about The PayPal Juggernaut, and the implications of taking the "e" out of eCommerce. "We’re moving rapidly from eCommerce to just Commerce – literally done anywhere you want to be." And PayPal, Scott points out, is a significant beneficiary of this shift.

The US Federal Reserve has reported its latest G.19 Consumer Credit statistics - finding that "consumer credit increased at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in January 2011. Nonrevolving credit increased at an annual rate of 7%, while revolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 6.5%."

Tanla Solutions has announced the launch of TPAYmobile - a cross platform, in-app mobile payment service for mobile applications and games.

Through a single integration with TPAYmobile, developers get access to billing on over 100 mobile networks as well as the ability to charge through Credit & Debit cards globally. TPAYmobile provides developers the ability to monetize through new and innovative business models like in-application billing, try & buy, time bound licensing and subscriptions with absolutely no starter or joining fee.

Fiserv has announced that it "has acquired prepaid card processing and other technologies developed by Maverick Network Solutions, a Delaware-based provider of advanced prepaid and reward and incentive card programs. The Delaware start-up and its employees became part of the Fiserv Card Services group on March 1, 2011."

On the wires:

• Discover and InteliSpend Prepaid Solutions Announce Prepaid Issuing Agreement
• Fiserv Signs IBERIABANK for Turn-Key Debit Solution
• Pay-O-Matic Renews Contract with Prepaid Processor FSV Payment Systems
• CashEdge Signs Deal With Huntington to Provide Popmoney P2P Payments
• New Mercator Report on Prepaid BIN Sponsorship Opportunities for Financial Institutions

On the web:

• CreditCards.com: Credit Cards Magnetic Stripes Get Smarter
• Wall Street Journal: American Express Teams Up With Foursquare
• Inside Facebook: Facebook Credits GetBalance API Helps Developers Dynamically Price Virtual Goods
• TechCrunch: Why Payments Are Hard, Even For Apple And Google
• Wall Street Journal: Banks Look to Replace Lost Debit-Card Fees
• Portals and Rails: Moving to Chip-and-Pin: The Price of Foresight versus the Cost of Hindsight