Citigroup has announced that its Global Transaction Services unit is expanding its premier cross-border payment solution, WorldLink® Payment Services (WorldLink), into eight new countries for local payments.

This expansion sees the traditional Automated Clearing House (ACH) offering increase from 21 countries, primarily in Europe, to 29 countries spanning Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Over on our sister blog, Payments Views, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson has posted some thoughts on NACHA's recent Request for Comment about its proposed rule change to support "Expedited Processing and Settlement" of ACH transactions.

On the web:

• What’s in Their Wallets? - AllThingsD
• Goodbye, Paper Savings Bonds - New York Times
• BillGuard’s ‘Anti-Virus’ For Bills And Credit Cards Is Now Free - TechCrunch
• Prospects for Same-Day ACH Brighten As Software Emerges And NACHA Eyes Rules - Digital Transactions

On the wires:

• Bayern Card-Services (BCS) Protects Credit Cards with FICO Fraud Solution
• New Aite Group Report on Cross-Border Consumer Money Transfers
• Souheil Badran is Named SVP and GM of Digital River World Payments

S1 and Fundtech have announced a definitive agreement to combine businesses through a stock-for-stock merger, creating an industry leader in transaction banking solutions. Fundtech operates the world's largest SWIFT service bureau. The combined company will be headquartered at S1's headquarters in Atlanta and will be called Fundtech.

On the web:

• More Hurdles Crumble for Same-Day ACH Payments - American Banker
• Is a National Data Breach Notification Law on the Horizon? - Portals and Rails
• FinovateSpring 2011 Demo Videos are Now Online - Finovate
• Durbin 'Ripple' for Community Banks - BAI Banking Strategies
• Little Interest Among U.S. Consumers for Mobile Wallets - Computerworld
• Mobile Payments Startup Calls it Quits, Hires Auctioneer to Sell Off Assets - dBusinessNews

On the wires:

• Turkish Bank Kuveyt Turk’s ATMs to Dispense Gold
• MICROS Simphony Certified to Elavon’s Fusebox Payment Gateway
• TapBase Introduces the Tap Mobile Payments, Loyalty and Rewards Platform
• Coolidge Corner Merchants Association to Offer PXT Money App as Member Benefit
• PAY.ON Continues to Cover Latin America: New Cooperation with DineroMail

Two-thirds of small businesses in the United States don’t offer Direct Deposit to employees, according to a new study from NACHA and eCom Advisors. "That is just over three million companies that are still issuing payroll by check and 18 million employees who don’t have the option to be paid electronically."

On the wires:

• Fees For Most Prepaid Cards Higher Than Basic Checking Accounts
• VeriFone and Hypercom Announce Agreement to Sell Hypercom’s US Payment Systems Business
• J.P. Morgan Treasury Services Ranks First in ACH Originations for 2010
• FIS Introduces New Terminated Originator Database for Risk Mitigation
• Viewpointe’s Services for Third-Party Senders Help Meet New NACHA Requirement
• Laru Corporation to Introduce ACH Vision RDFI at Payments 2011

On the web:

• Techworld: MasterCard Australia Outlines EMV-based Card Security Roadmap
• Portals and Rails: Atlanta and Boston Fed position paper promotes U.S. adoption of mobile payments
• The Asset Magazine: China Construction Bank and China UnionPay Offers Dual Currency Credit Card

Heartland Payment Systems has announced that it has added Automated Clearing House (ACH) functionality to its Express Funds check management platform, which is powered by transmodus. "The consolidation of the ACH feature with Express Funds allows businesses to process all check transactions — paper, online and over-the-phone — from one location in a cost-effective way."

On the wires:

• Vesta and Jibe Mobile Deliver Integrated Mobile Payments Application
• Banks Launch Integrated Mobile Banking Solution from First Data
• VeriFone’s VeriShield Total Protect Integrated with ISD’s Card Data Security Suite
• iSmartCheck Identifies Why Merchants Need to Add Electronic Checks to Their Payment Options
• Naked Facts Report: QR Code Use Explodes by 1200% in the Last Half of 2010

On the web:

• BAI Banking Strategies: Crossing Borders with ACH
• Bank Systems & Technology: Debit Card Fee Caps May Be No Big Deal
• Wall Street Journal: KT to Become Largest Stakeholder in BC Card in Korea
• Inside Mobile Apps: Android Opens Up More NFC Access for Developers
• RCR Wireless: DoCoMo and KT announce NFC Joint Venture in Asia/Pacific
• RFP Connect: Ukash Extends Its Presence into Brazil and Argentina
• Wall Street Journal: Chargebacks Create Small-Business Headaches
• WebProNews: PayPal Digital Goods Payment Product Released

Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners:

• First Data Announces Big Brand Additions to its eGift Social Marketplace
• American Express to Eliminate Foreign Currency Transaction Fees on U.S. Platinum and Centurion Cards
• WesPay and Northwest Clearing House Association announce intention to merge operations
• Visa Europe launches new contactless payment solution for London’s black cabs

• New York Times: Fed Proposes Rules to Cut Debit Card Fees
• BusinessWeek: Ingenico Gets EU1.44 Billion Offer From Undisclosed Buyer
• globeandmail.com: Rising Credit Card Fees Raise Merchants' Ire In Canada
• Bloomberg: American Express to Buy Munich-based Loyalty Partner

Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners:

• New Aite Group Report on Open Payment Platforms
• MoreMagic Solutions Provides the Technology Behind Voilà and Unibank’s Mobile Money Service in Haiti
• Secure Vault Payments Network Adds Checkgateway
• iQmetrix Partners With Bill Payment Processor TIO Networks

• TechCrunch: Fortumo lets Android Developers Offer In-App Carrier Billing via SMS
• Portals and Rails: Numbers don't back up fears about WEB and TEL
• Wall Street Journal: Banks Look to Prepaid Cards to Replace Lost Revenue
• New York Times: Gift Cards With Bells and Whistles
• TechCrunch: Google Bought Stealthy Mobile Payments Startup Zetawire

Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners:

• New Mercator Report on Co-Branded Consumer Credit Cards
• Credit Unions Continue to Move Item Processing In-House
• Bling Nation Taps Merchant360 to Support Rapid Growth
• SmsCoin Now Connects 87 Countries

• Business Insider: Eric Schmidt (Google CEO) Shows Off New 'Nexus S' Payment System
• Wall Street Journal: The New Bank Fees — Lenders' Latest Tricks
• Mobile Marketing: CreditCall Launches Smartphone Chip & PIN Payments Trial in UK
• iStockAnalyst: China to Stop Issuing Magnetic Stripe Cards After 2015
• The Bozeman Daily Chronicle: Layaway Back In Style
• MIT Technology Review: Connecting Credit Cards with the Social Web
• Portals and Rails: Retail Payments Risk Forum publishes white paper on mobile payments
• Treasury & Risk: ACH Settlement Accelerates
• AZcentral.com: Denver Card-Processing Firm Wins Battle for Phone Number

NACHA—The Electronic Payments Association has announced that its membership has approved a new rule on mobile ACH payments as part of the NACHA Operating Rules. The Mobile ACH Payments Rule establishes a framework for companies and financial institutions that are accepting, or intend to process, mobile-initiated ACH debit payments from consumers. READ MORE »

The Federal Reserve Board has announced posting rules for a new same-day automated clearing house (ACH) service that will be offered on as an opt-in, same-day settlement service for certain ACH debit payments through the FedACH service effective August 2, 2010. According to the Fed, "FedACH customers may opt-in to this service by completing a participation agreement. The service will be limited to transactions arising from consumer checks converted to ACH and consumer debit transfers initiated over the Internet and phone." SameDay forward debit transfers will post to institutions' Federal Reserve accounts at 5:00 p.m. ET and SameDay return debit transfers will post at 5:30 p.m. ET. Details are in this Federal Register notice.

ProPay has announced that it has added encryption and tokenization of Automated Clearing House (ACH) data (bank routing and account numbers) to its suite of ProtectPay services. "ProPay’s ACH encryption and tokenization solution removes the need for organizations to store, transmit, or process sensitive ACH payment data on initial and subsequent transactions. After ProPay captures, encrypts, and processes the ACH data, the data is replaced with a token which organizations can use for future transactions against the data." READ MORE »

NACHA has announced the recipients of its 2010 Payments System Awards at its PAYMENTS 2010 conference. The awards recognize outstanding individuals and organizations for their superior leadership, innovation, and excellence in the development, implementation, or advancement of electronic payments. This year's awards recipients include:

• The 2010 George Mitchell Payments System Excellence Award: Richard R. Oliver, Executive Vice President, Federal Reserve System
• The 2010 Kevin O'Brien ACH Quality Award: PayChex, Inc. and Tarrant County Tax Assessors Office
• The 2010 NACHA PayItGreen® Award: Fiserv, Inc.
• The 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award: Peter J. Kight, Founder, CheckFree Corporation, now part of Fiserv, Inc.

"It is because of the efforts and vision of this year's award recipients and others like them that the ACH Network remains one of the most efficient, safest, and greenest payments networks in the world," said NACHA President and CEO Jan Estep. "Their commitment to excellence, innovation, and quality is what makes the ACH Network what it is today. We are pleased to recognize their outstanding contributions to the industry by honoring them with these distinguished awards." READ MORE »

Attendees at NACHA's PAYMENTS 2010 conference in Seattle are tweeting their comments using the hashtag #payments2010. Follow them on Twitter - including Glenbrook's Erin McCune!

FIS has announced results of research by eCom Advisors that it commissioned along with NACHA and PayPal finding that "demand for electronic person-to-person (P2P) payments and transfers is growing rapidly and the interest of making these and other payment transactions through an ePayment Portal is strong as well. In fact, the study found that of those who were interested in the Portal concept, 70 percent would be likely to use P2P payment services within that Portal." READ MORE »

NACHA has issued its annual lists of the top 50 originating and receiving financial institutions of automated clearing house (ACH) payments for 2009. The NACHA top 50 originating financial institutions accounted for 88.3 percent of the total ACH transaction volume and 95.9 percent of the commercial (non-federal government) ACH transaction volume in 2009. Those in the top 50 on the receiving side accounted for 55.6 percent of the total ACH transaction volume in 2009.

JP Morgan Chase again topped the list of originating FIs - although Wells Fargo and Bank of America (#2 and 3 respectively) had significantly higher growth rates vs. Chase's decline of 7% in originating volume. READ MORE »

NACHA has reported that ACH payment volume increased by more than 475 million transactions in 2009, bringing year-end total transaction volume to 18.76 billion, a 2.6 percent increase over 2008 activity.

According to NACHA, "year-over-year comparisons demonstrated strong volume increases in ACH native electronic payments — Direct Deposit, consumer Internet transactions, and B2B transactions — and in back office check conversion. In addition, NACHA is reporting a continued positive trend in risk mitigation, witnessed by the ongoing decline in the unauthorized debit volume." READ MORE »

In a post on PaymentsViews.com titled "ACH and the Future of Electronic Payments: BAI Convenes the Ultimate ACH Panel", Glenbrook's Erin McCune describes the "dream panel" that discussed ACH at the BAI Payments Connect conference in Orlando this week. The panelists were: Jan Estep (CEO NACHA), Rich Oliver (EVP Retail Product Manager, Federal Reserve), Rossana Salaris (SVP Payments Products, The Clearing House), and Stephanie Sturgis-Griffin (CEO Pariter Solutions); the moderator was Fred Brothers of eCom Advisors.

An article titled "Same-day ACH provides faster payments "across the pond" in the Payments and Rails blog published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta takes a look at the faster payments now possible in the UK following implementation of the Faster Payments Service.

NACHA has announced that Twitter co-founder and Square CEO Jack Dorsey and Square chairman Jim McKelvey will be the keynote speakers at the opening general session of PAYMENTS, the annual conference of NACHA—The Electronic Payments Association. This session will take place at 9:15 a.m. Pacific on Monday, April 26, 2010, at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center in Seattle. READ MORE »

More than 170 million poor people worldwide receive regular payments from their governments, but the potential to use these payments to increase financial inclusion is largely untapped, according to "Banking the Poor via G2P Payments," a new Focus Note from CGAP and the U.K.’s Department for International Development (DFID).

Pioneering programs in Brazil, India, Mexico, and South Africa are providing financial services, such as savings accounts and electronic money transfers, to poor recipients of government transfers. But the Focus Note finds that worldwide fewer than one-quarter of government-to-person (G2P) payments to the poor land in a financially inclusive account—i.e., one that enables recipients to store funds, make or receive payments from other people in the financial system, and is accessible, in terms of cost and distance.

Some of us will remember that years ago in the US, it was G2P payments (for Social Security, etc.) that helped jump start the ACH system and helped make receiving funds via ACH nearly ubiquitous with banks.

The FBI issued a press release earlier today highlighting concerns about an increase in ACH-based fraud targeting online banking credentials of small businesses, governments and school districts.

From the press release: "Within the last several months, the FBI has seen a significant increase in fraud involving the exploitation of valid online banking credentials belonging to small and medium businesses, municipal governments, and school districts. In a typical scenario, the targeted entity receives a “spear phishing” e-mail which either contains an infected attachment, or directs the recipient to an infected website. Once the recipient opens the attachment or visits the website, malware is installed on their computer. The malware contains a key logger which will harvest each recipient’s business or corporate bank account login information. Shortly thereafter, the perpetrator either creates another user account with the stolen login information or directly initiates funds transfers by masquerading as the legitimate user. These transfers have occurred as both traditional wire transfers and as ACH transfers." READ MORE »

RBS WorldPay has announced that National Payment Card Association (NPCA) debit cards can be processed by RBS WorldPay. According to RBS WorldPay, "NPCA offers merchants a card acceptance solution with significantly lower transaction fees than traditional credit or debit cards." READ MORE »

Over on PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson writes about the Same Day ACH session at this week's Association for Finance Professionals conference in San Francisco.

Carol writes: "The same day ACH proposal has most typically been talked about as a service which will apply to check conversion transactions – to enable electronics to clear as fast as paper would (don’t you love that). But I had not realized before that the Fed is also talking about this applying to WEB transactions. This would mean all those alternative-payment schemes for eCommerce could clear faster than card transactions!" Click to read more!

Intuit has soft-launched a new Intuit PaymentNetwork, calling it a "new and affordable way to send and receive payments over the Internet" for individuals and small businesses." A comprehensive set of help and support Q&A is available online.

For small businesses, the Intuit PaymentNetwork provides a low-cost payment alternative to credit cards for receiving payments - charging 50 cents per payment received irregardless of the amount (subject to certain limits). There are no monthly charges, equipment or set-up costs.

For individuals sending funds, you can send to anyone who is a member of the Intuit PaymentNetwork. If they're not already a member, they can join to receive their funds. At the present time, individuals can't receive funds.

More details available on the Intuit Small Business United blog.

In her latest post titled "Countdown to IAT: Are You Ready?" on our sister site PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Erin McCune examines the new International ACH format – IAT – and accompanying NACHA rule changes that take effect next month on September 18th. If you are not sure how IAT affects you and your company, read on.