Guardian Analytics has announced FraudMAP ACH, a new product that automatically analyzes ACH batches and transactions and prioritizes the highest risk payments for review.

"With ACH transaction volumes growing and criminals more eloquently tampering with ACH files, financial institutions are expending significant resources monitoring for fraudulent transactions and in many cases failing," said Craig Priess, founder and vice president of Products and Business Development at Guardian Analytics. "This is not a sustainable model. FraudMAP ACH fundamentally changes both the manner in which and how successfully a financial institution manages ACH payments risk."

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

On the web:

• Facebook Adds New Payment Options for Facebook Credits - Inside Social Games
• Court Favors Customer over Bank in ACH Fraud Suit - Bank Info Security
• Mobile payments: Who needs NFC anyway? - Computerworld
• Cheques Set to be Given a Reprieve in UK - Business Matters
• American Express to help retailers drive loyalty, sales via social deals - Mobile Commerce Daily

On the wires:

• eWise and Affirmative Technologies Partner to Accelerate the Adoption of Secure Vault Payments
• mFoundry Passes 400 Customer Milestone

On the wires:

• MasterCard Partnership with BP / Aral brings Contactless Technology to Forecourts
• New Juniper Research Report on NFC Mobile Payments
• Vindicia Adds Heatwave Interactive and Idea Fabrik as Online Game Clients
• eWise Secures $14 Million in Financing Led by Wellington Partners

On the web:

• CSnews: MurPay 'Pay-by-Text' Taking Off for Murphy Oil USA
• POS News: The Disintermediation of the Point of Sale Industry
• Bank Info Security: Legal Ruling Favors Bank over Business on ACH Fraud
• TechCrunch: Paygr Combines Facebook And PayPal in a Marketplace for Local Buying And Selling

Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners:

• New Aite Group Report on US Mobile Payments Market
• Moneybookers Group Rebrands to Become 'Skrill'
• Major Retailers Add PhoneFactor to Protect Credit Card Data
• Elavon to Market VeriFone’s PAYware Mobile Solution for iPhone
• UMB Bank to use ACH Alert To Protect Business Accounts from ACH Fraud (PDF)
• New VRL Financial Report on Prepaid in Sub-Saharan Africa
• AllTrust Networks' Check Database Now Available via Web Browser
• Voltage Security and PwC Form Joint Business Relationship for Information Risk Management
• PayPal to Use Axiomatics’ Intelligent Access Management Solution

• MIT Technology Review: When Mobile Phone Payments Go Social

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 »

The Association for Financial Professionals reports results from its 2008 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey concluding that" "payments fraud continues to challenge treasury and finance professionals, with almost one third of respondents to a new AFP survey reporting that incidents of fraud increased in 2007 compared to 2006."

Memento has introduced a solution to address the escalating Automated Clearing House (ACH) fraud problem. The company says that "through proactive monitoring and detection, Memento Security, the company’s flagship platform, quickly identifies fraudulent activities that include identity fraud, kiting, reverse phishing, insider fraud and counterfeiting."

Separately, Memento announced that Shirley Inscoe and Mike Mulholand have joined the company. Inscoe, former Senior Vice President of Enterprise Payments Strategy at Wachovia, will be Memento’s Director of Financial Services Solutions. Mulholand, former Vision Risk Product Marketing Manager at banking and payments technology provider Metavante, has been named Director of Fraud Solutions Strategy.