Mobile wallet and transactions platform provider C-SAM and MasterCard have announced a global strategic partnership, as well as a minority investment by MasterCard.

“This partnership further strengthens our ongoing efforts to work with industry-leading companies to deploy our technologies and help drive innovation and adoption in the rapidly evolving digital payments space,” said Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer, MasterCard. “C-SAM’s proven track record and expertise in developing mobile platforms, combined with our worldwide network and suite of industry-leading payments solutions, will help enable us to deliver new, innovative solutions to a wide range of global customers.”

InComm announced its acquisition of Adility, a platform for online-to-offline commerce, with a network of more than 500 mobile applications and online publishers.

“We created Adility, recognizing the tremendous impact online and mobile-influenced commerce has today on offline retailers and brands,” said Thomas Cornelius, Adility founder and president. “InComm has one of the largest retail networks in the country, and a fantastic team with a track record of delivering innovative solutions to their retail partners. Through our retailer-specific platform, Adility provides the ability to expand in-store sales to a completely new category, offering targeted and measurable promotions that serve the interests of their specific customer base.”

First Data has released its First Data SpendTrend analysis for the full month of November 2012 compared to November 2011.

Dollar volume growth remained solid at 5.8% in November, down from 6.7% in October. The growth was considered healthy as November 2011 was a strong month with dollar volume growth of 7.3%. The growth significantly weighted to spending at retailers during the latter half of the month. Although Black Friday retail spending was weaker this year with growth at 8.3% compared to 9.7% last year, overall November dollar volume growth still performed well.

SpendTrend tracks same-store consumer spending by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT, closed-loop prepaid cards and checks at U.S. merchant locations.

Clutch has announced its new platform that unites shopping, loyalty and gifting to deliver the most relevant offers to consumers and the most targeted customers to merchants. Its consumer-facing app "eliminates the need for multiple apps, enabling consumers to manage gift and loyalty cards, daily deals, coupons, offer searches, purchases, shopping comparisons, social gifting and mobile payments all in one place."

The US Federal Reserve has reported its latest G.19 Consumer Credit statistics - finding that "consumer credit increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.25%. Revolving credit increased at an annual rate of 4.75%, while nonrevolving credit increased at an annual rate of 7.0%."

On the web:

• Jack Dorsey Explains: Why Square Is Getting Into Gift Cards - WSJ
• Can a Computerized Credit Card Disrupt the Payment Industry? - PCMag.com
• PayPal Launches Prepaid “PayPal My Cash Card” for Cash-Preferred Customers - TechCrunch
• Earthport Partners With Bank Of America for Cross-Border Payments - RTT News
• ‘European Square’ iZettle Expands To Spain, Taking Total Markets To Seven - TechCrunch
• The Interchange Fee Cap: One Year Later - Portals and Rails

On the wires:

• Bango Launches Carrier Billing for Google Play
• Intuit GoPayment Unveils New Features to Help Small Businesses
• Seamless Enters into Agreement with Nordic Service Partners
• IdentityMind Releases Anti Fraud add-on Module for Zen Cart
• Payment Alliance International and Planet Payment Announce Strategic Partnership
• EUFISERV Expands European and Global Coverage with PULSE Global ATM Network
• EVO Payments International Acquires PowerPay
• Cardtronics Canada Growth Continues With Acquisition