Visa has announced financial results for the Company's fiscal 1Q 2012 which ended December 31, 2011. Highlights include:

• Payments volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, for the three months ended September 30, 2011, on which fiscal first quarter service revenue is recognized, was a positive 13% over the prior year at $971 billion.

• Payments volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, for the three months ended December 31, 2011, was a positive 11% over the prior year at $994 billion.

• Cross-border volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, was a positive 13% for the three months ended December 31, 2011.

• Total processed transactions, which represent transactions processed by VisaNet, for the three months ended December 31, 2011, were 13.6 billion, a positive 8% increase over the prior year.

A webcast replay is available on the Visa investor website.

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

Overall year-over-year dollar volume growth was 7.0% in January, while overall transaction growth was 7.2%. Mild winter weather nationwide resulted in lower energy demands, providing consumers with additional income to spend at retailers.

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

A new study released today by NACHA and PayItGreen says nearly 30% to 40% of consumers who receive their financial statements and bills online also receive paper versions. The study finds that this trend surprisingly exists primarily among Gen Y and Early Adopters.

FiTeq Technologies announced the launch of "the first payment card that incorporates an approved EMV payment applet in combination with the FiTeq Energizer Stripe enabling a unique cryptogram (FiTeq Transaction Specific Code) to be created within the magnetic stripe data packet for each transaction."

Virtual Piggy announced the release of its mobile iOS app, which allows parents and kids to manage their Virtual Piggy accounts on their Apple phones and tablets.

“Kids are very comfortable with e-commerce and over a third of kids 8-11 now have their own mobile device and that number is rising,” said Virtual Piggy Executive, Catherine Williams. “The Virtual Piggy app brings our secure online payment method to the platforms where kids spend the majority of their time.”

Fiserv has announced new redemption options for its award-winning UChoose Rewards program. "UChoose Rewards supports both consumer and small business market segments for both debit and credit card programs. It is an innovative program that allows financial institutions to select from merchant-funded, issuer-funded or a blended rewards programs."

Visa announced that it has extended its issuer processing platform, Visa DPS, to offer mobile services that are fully managed by Visa and can be accessed with any mobile device, any mobile channel, and with any eligible debit, credit or prepaid account.

“The services offered by Visa DPS are a one-stop solution for Visa clients who want to serve their customers through the mobile channel without making significant investments in hardware, software or mobile expertise,” said John Partridge, President, Visa Inc. “Through our ongoing investments in Visa DPS, our clients can not only take advantage of Visa’s scale and expertise in payments processing, but also have the opportunity to easily implement Visa’s extensive roadmap of mobile innovations – from mobile banking, to NFC payments, and to our digital wallet, V.me.”

Gemalto has announced its in-branch Dexxis EMV instant issuance card solution for U.S. banks, designed to "streamline and accelerate EMV migration. Dexxis instant issuance allows banks to immediately issue and activate initial and replacement cards directly at the physical bank branch location, rather than sending personalized cards to end users via postal mail."

MasterCard Worldwide and Silver Tail Systems announced a new exclusive relationship that will focus on combating online fraud.

“Online fraud resulting from malware, viruses and criminal-controlled bots is a serious concern for both merchants and consumers,” says Johan Gerber, Group Head, Global Network Products for MasterCard Worldwide. “With the increased sophistication of these fraud attacks, merchants are finding it more difficult to distinguish between good customers and criminals. Our relationship with Silver Tail Systems allows us to extend beyond the traditional fraud detection methods and provide merchants with a strong defense against fraud, while improving the consumers’ online experience.”

On the web:

• Girl Scouts Adds Mobile Payments to Drive Cookie Sales - Mobile Commerce Daily
• German P2P Lender Auxmoney Sees Growth - Peer to Peer Lending News
• Here’s How PayPal Is Pitching Mobile Payments to Major Retailers (Slideshow) - AllThingsD
• Facebook Teams up With Bango for Mobile Payments - PCWorld

On the wires:

• Plastic Jungle and InComm Announce Strategic Gift Card Partnership
• Ceridian Introduces Virtual Terminal Enabling Web-based Transactions
• New Aite Group Report on Big Four U.S. Payment Card Networks
• Heartland Handles Nearly 44,000 Transactions as Official Concessions Processor of Super Bowl
• Computop Paygate 5.0 To Expand Support for International Payments

Mozido announced the launch of the 'Genius Wallet', a global mobile wallet platform for the unbanked and banked.

"Our Genius Wallet(SM) brings every mobile phone user, including the unbanked, into a secure, convenient, and efficient financial ecosystem," says Greg Corona, CEO, Mozido LLC "It offers opportunity and hope for a huge population worldwide, empowering them to enjoy a broad range of banking and financial services often for the first time, using their mobile phone."

In December, Mozido and MoneyGram struck a partnership to include MoneyGram remittance transfer services for approved Mozido mobile wallet applications.

The US Federal Reserve has reported its latest G.19 Consumer Credit statistics - finding that "consumer credit increased at an annual rate of 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Revolving credit increased at an annual rate of 4.5%, and nonrevolving credit increased 9.0%. In December, consumer credit increased at an annual rate of 9.25%."

On the web:

• BC Global Looms as Alternative to Visa For Korean Buyers - Korea Times
• Dwolla Raises $5m Series B Round led by Union Square Ventures (Video) - Silicon Prairie News
• Accel, SV Angel, Y Combinator Put $1.5M In Online Bank Payments Platform GoCardless - TechCrunch

On the wires:

• Text2Pay Mobile Payments Wizard - Easy as 1 2 3!
• mopay and paymentez Forge Strategic Mobile Payments Partnership
• The Perfect Pairing: Wine Enthusiast Uncorks eGift Card Program
• CoVantage Credit Union Deploys Tyfone Mobile Wallet Services to Its Members
• Transcepta Procure-to-Pay Network Selected to Simplify Accounts Payable for Manheim

Fiserv announced that its ACCEL/Exchange payments network had "another record-setting year, processing more than 1.5 billion transactions in 2011, an increase of nearly 29% over 2010. ACCEL/Exchange payments network from Fiserv is one of the fastest-growing payments networks in the industry, supplying the infrastructure for financial institutions to give cardholders around-the-clock access to their demand deposit account funds at ATMs and the point of sale."

MasterCard announced fourth quarter and full-year results for the Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa (APMEA) region. "For the quarter ending 31 December 2011, the region drove strong growth in gross dollar volume (21.8%), purchase volume (23.5%), purchase transactions (18.2%), cash transactions (18.4%) and cards issued (12.3%), versus the same period in 2010."

Visa announced that U.S. financial institutions have reported issuing an estimated one million Visa-branded, EMV chip-enabled cards as of December 31, 2011.

"Migrating the U.S. market to chip will help build an infrastructure for accepting NFC mobile payments, enhance international acceptance and reduce fraud," said Stephanie Ericksen, head of authentication product integration, Visa Inc. "Since announcing our roadmap last year, we have seen strong interest among U.S. issuers large and small to invest in chip technology, as today's milestone shows. The progress is all the more significant considering that just 18 months ago, there were no Visa-branded EMV contact chip cards issued in the U.S."

Visa also introduced "Visa Chip Services, a suite of new and existing solutions to help issuers implement programs using EMV chip technology, including NFC-based mobile payments."

On the web:

• To Sign Merchants, Square Heads to Campus To Recruit a Sales Force - Digital Transactions
• PayPal Says It's Business as Usual a Month After President Resigns - AllThingsD
• Self-Checkout Footprints Get Smaller For Retail - Point of Sale News
• Citigroup Gets Approval to Issue China Credit Cards - WSJ.com

On the wires:

• Datacard Group Announces an Equity Investment and Strategic Partnership with DeviceFidelity
• INSIDE Secure Chosen by Leading Smartphone Manufacturer
• Navigant Credit Union Selects Acumen from Fiserv