Spring payments boot camps in New York and Palo Alto, a special B2B strategy workshop, and a new Virtual Currencies Report…

Payments Boot Camps – Two day “deep dive” into the industry, $2,195

Apr 10-11, 2012: New York, NY - Bryan Derman and Carol Coye Benson

May 16-17, 2012: Palo Alto, CA - Jay DeWitt and Carol Coye Benson

Special Workshop - Understanding Opportunities in B2B Payments

May 18, 2012: Palo Alto, CA – Carol Coye Benson and Erin McCune

Virtual Currency Report

A new Glenbrook research report, covering Facebook Credits, Microsoft Points, PlaySpan Ultimate Points, Tencent Q Coin, Second Life Linden Dollars, World of Warcraft Gold, various Zynga currencies, and the experimental BitCoin digital currency.

And stay tuned! Next week Glenbrook will announce a special advanced workshop - “Payments 2012” – for Glenbrook Payments Boot Camp alumni only!

Western Union has announced that the company now has mobile money transfer agreements with a total of 26 mobile wallet providers in 22 countries. "Twenty of these agreements are with mobile network operators, collectively representing over 285 million subscribers, while the remaining six are with banks and independents."

VeriFone has announced the acquisition of LIFT Retail Marketing Technology, which will be incorporated into VeriFone’s solutions portfolio as a product and services offering called LiftRetail Solutions.

“VeriFone LiftRetail Solutions will complement our Secure PumpPAY offering by providing gasoline retailers and convenience store operations the ability to maximize revenue opportunities both at the pump and in the store,” said Jennifer Miles, VeriFone executive vice president, North America. “LiftRetail Solutions extends our digital media reach into the convenience store environment, providing a highly accountable media platform that maximizes an advertisers return on investment.”

More information is available at http://www.liftrmt.com/.

The Boston Fed has published a Working Paper entitled "How Consumers Pay: Adoption and Use of Payments".

For the first time, we estimate the number of payment methods adopted by consumers conditional on having access to a bank account, as the unbanked consumers' payment choices are much more limited than those of consumers with bank accounts. This paper follows the analysis in Schuh and Stavins (2010), but with improved data, allowing us to estimate a better model of payment behavior. As in the previous study, cost is found to significantly affect payment use, indicating that the recent increase in the cost of debit cards issued by some banks may lead to a reduction in U.S. consumers' reliance on debit cards for transactions.

WorldPay and China UnionPay have today announced "a partnership which will see WorldPay become the biggest acquirer outside of China for eCommerce UnionPay transactions. The agreement will see WorldPay become the first UnionPay Online Payment acquirer in the US and the vast majority of Europe1, to enable merchants to sell directly to consumers in China, as well as UnionPay cardholders outside of China."

Fiserv has announced that it will combine the Popmoney and ZashPay person-to-person (P2P) payment networks, and market the enhanced service as Popmoney.

“The combination of Popmoney and ZashPay will accelerate the momentum underway in bank-focused person-to-person payments,” said Sanjeev Dheer, division president, Fiserv. “Consumers strongly prefer the convenience of their banking relationship for conducting these types of transactions. The expanded network enhances the usability of the service and accelerates adoption among consumers and small businesses.”

All clients will be upgraded to the enhanced Popmoney product and network by mid-2012.

Vindicia has announced that it has added mobile carrier billing support to CashBox. "Through its integration and partnership with BOKU, Inc., the global leader in mobile payments, Vindicia clients will have the ability to seamlessly and securely accept mobile payments from consumers in 67 countries and across more than 240 mobile network operators."

On the web:

• Retailers To Collaborate on Their Own Digital Wallet - Wall Street Journal
• Google Wanted to Create a Google Bucks Currency - Digital Trends
• PayPal Casts Doubt on Near Field Mobile Payments Systems - The Guardian
• LevelUp Now Seeing $1M Per Month In Transactions; Launches API - TechCrunch
• We Don't Have a Mobile Payment Problem; We Have a Mobile Shopping Problem - Wired.com
• The Cashless Society: One Man’s Quest to Survive without Bills or Coins - Slate Magazine
• UK To Get Cardless Cash Withdrawals (via Ukash) - ATM Marketplace
• Me, My Money, and My Devices - MIT Technology Review

On the wires:

• VeriFone Bringing Lottery to Card Payment Screens
• Chase and Hyatt Unveil Co-Branded Hotel Card with EMV Chip Technology
• Payment Processors Worldwide Rely on Information Builders for Customer-Facing Analytics
• SelectCore to Launch Virtual Visa Through Its Facebook Social Mobile Remittance Platform
• Oberthur Technologies Leverages Global EMV Expertise and Historical Market Presence in the US
• FiftyOne Global Ecommerce Strengthens Service to Canada with Acquisition of Borderfree
• Orange to Offer Visa Mobile Prepaid Accounts to Orange Money Customers
• PULSE Adds Issuers to Network, Expands ATM Coverage in 2011
• MasterCard Recaps Recent Mobile Payments Partnerships