Various media outlets are reporting, and now PayPal has confirmed, that Home Depot is the first brick-and-mortar retailer to roll out a limited pilot of the some of the products that PayPal plans to introduce for the physical Point of Sale.

AllthingsD and Internet Retailer are both reporting that the pilot will involved the PayPal Card and PayPal Empty Hands. See our post from several months ago for a run-down off what's going on behind the PayPal vision.

On November 17-18, 2011, the Retail Payments Risk Forum of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta hosted a conference, “The Role of Government in Payments Risk and Fraud.” They have now made some of the presentations from this conference available on the conference website.

Viableware has announced availability of the 'Rail', "an innovative pay-at-the-table system that maintains the traditional look and feel of the bill presentation folder diners are used to seeing delivered to their table, with the added capabilities of a digital interface, at-the-table credit card swiping, on-the-spot digital signing, and credit card authorization. By enabling restaurant guests to self-swipe credit or debit cards, the Rail protects them from card information theft, while also enabling restaurants to streamline payment processes and generate new advertising revenues."

Glenbrook has launched a new research effort exploring best practices among merchants about how payments and fraud risk management functions are organized, staffed, and measured.

If you work in the payments or fraud risk management functions for a merchant, please take a few minutes to complete our survey. In exchange for your help, we'll share the results with you!

You can find the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/75CQCHX

Thanks for helping us out!

VeriFone announced that GUESS has implemented the VeriFone GlobalBay solution inside a dozen stores in the U.S., taken the technology on the road to Asia, and plans to expand the deployment widely in 2012. "GUESS is using the VeriFone solution to enable consumer interaction with iPads mounted on rolling stands that serve as self-service kiosks to its online and in-store products to enhance the overall shopping experience and generate additional sales."

On the web:

• Starbucks Launches ‘pay by app’ for iPhone Users in UK - Telegraph
• Spindle Plans Mobile Payment Product for Small Banks - American Banker
• Square Expands Retail Partnerships to Include OfficeMax And UPS Store Locations - TechCrunch
• PayAnywhere Lets You Build Payments Acceptance Into An App Of Your Own - Business Insider
• Is what you see what you get? Proposed Pricing Disclosures for Electronic Remittances - Portals and Rails
• State Bank of India Drops Plan for Merchant Acquiring JV with Visa, Elavon - The Times of India
• Top 7 Card Readers For Smartphones: Apple, Android, and Blackberry - Mobile POS News
• The Future of Self-Service Checkout - STORES.org
• The State of ACH Fraud - Bank Info Security

On the wires:

• New Mercator Report on India's Prepaid Card Market
• SunGard Closes Syntesys Acquisition to Offer Expanded SWIFT Connectivity and Services
• Chase Partners with Southwest Airlines to Enhance Ultimate Rewards Travel Options for Cardmembers
• U.S. Bank Implements Secure Vault Payments for Nebraska Online Child Support Payments