On the web:

• This Guy Is Selling His Book Exclusively Via Bitcoin - Business Insider - "He convinced me (plus subsequent research) that Bitcoin has many features that make it attractive not only as a potential future currency but as a replacement for all contract law."
• Amazon Launches Amazon Coins Virtual Currency On Kindle Fire, Gives $5 In Free Coins To All Users - TechCrunch - "Amazon today is finally taking Amazon Coins, is new virtual currency, live on the Kindle Fire in the U.S."
• Thieves Stole $45 Million From ATMs Because The U.S. Uses Absurd 40-Year-Old Technology - PopSci - "The chief vulnerability of the EMV system? IT STILL HAS MAGNETIC STRIPES."
• New Android Boss Finally Reveals Plans for World’s Most Popular Mobile OS - Wired - "I have a secret project which adds four hours every day to the 24 hours we have."

On the wires:

• Amazon Coins Now Available for Kindle Fire Customers - "For customers, Amazon Coins is an easy way to purchase apps and in-app items on Kindle Fire, and for developers it’s another opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increased monetization."
• Blaze Mobile Awarded Three Key Patents for NFC Mobile Payments - "Blaze Mobile, a leader in mobile payment solutions, has recently been awarded three key NFC Mobile Payment patents."

On the web:

• A senior executive lifts the veil on some of Amazon’s plans - Internet Retailer - "...one of the e-retailer’s top executives provided a glimpse into some of the e-retailing giant’s plans in such areas as payments, lending and fulfillment."

On the wires:

• MasterCard Incorporated Reports First-Quarter 2013 Financial Results
• Visa Inc. Reports Fiscal Second Quarter 2013 Net Income of $1.3 billion or $1.92 per diluted share
• Tranzlogic Partners With Payment Services Leader Signature Card Services - "Tranzlogic’s first-of-its-kind data analytics and marketing technology transforms a merchant’s credit card transaction data into actionable customer intelligence."
• New U.S. Bank Tool FlexControl Helps Credit Card Customers Take Control of Their Finances - "U.S. Bank customers can now use a free online tool that puts them in control of their credit card payments and avoid interest charges."
• Moneris Solutions Completes US Visa, MasterCard and American Express EMV Testing Requirements - "As the leading Canadian payment processor, we are pleased to bring our EMV knowledge and capabilities to the US market and to have received this important certification."

On the web:

• Other Drivers of Debit Consolidation - Tom Noyes - "The paradigms of debit and credit networks are ripe for disruption."
• Amazon Issued Patent To Make Mobile Purchases Anonymous - Storefront Backtalk
• Podcast: FIs Can Serve More Customers with Prepaid Cards - The Members Group Blog - "Konrad pointed out that although prepaid cards were once targeted to mostly underserved consumers, interest in them has now broadened to include customers with access to credit cards and other traditional banking products."
• Tracking your card purchases: Big data becoming big business - Taking Charge Blog - "Making money off of credit card users' purchase histories is an idea that's been floating around the business world for a while."
• Browser pays - Consult Hyperion's Tommorow's Transactions Blog - "...I remain convinced that there may be a way forward on this and perhaps the Mozilla API will stimulate more thought and perhaps make for a sea change in web economics."

On the wires:

• Dr. Gavin Michael Joins JPMorgan Chase As Head of Digital for Consumer and Community Banking - "Gavin has more than 20 years of experience across Retail Banking technology, including governance, organization, strategy, and innovation."

On the web:

• Fed Survey Shows Growth in Mobile Banking, Payments - "Americans are increasingly using their mobile phones to access bank accounts, credit cards, and other financial accounts…"
• Bitcoin Investors Hang On for the Ride - WSJ
• Why Libertarians and gold hoarders love Bitcoins - PandoDaily - "What kind of people use Bitcoins, the digital currency designed by cryptographers to be untraceable?"
• Microsoft Account Gets More Secure - The Official Microsoft Blog - "This release enables optional two-step verification for your entire Microsoft account."
• Amazon Patent Describes A Mobile Payment System That Keeps Transactions Anonymous - TechCrunch - "The patent describes a way to sub in unique identifiers for information like name and email address…"
• Zuora: Faster Time to Commerce? Check Out Our New REST APIs - "Zuora has introduced 22 new REST API calls focused on enabling website commerce integrations."
• Authentication a barrier to online commerce for most people - Computing.co.uk - "Inadequate authentication and the plethora of user names and passwords people need to remember is a rising barrier to online commerce"

On the wires:

• NACHA’s Council for Electronic Billing and Payment to Launch Industry Evaluation of the QR Encoding for Consumer Bill Pay Guidelines - "Industry input is vital as we work to establish a single QR code specification so consumers can easily view and pay bills from a mobile device…"
• First Data Enhances its Vision Payment Solution’s Global Capabilities with VisionPLUS® Flex - "In a single platform, the VisionPLUS Flex solution supports issuing and acquiring of credit, debit, prepaid, consumer and commercial cards for private label, American Express®, JCB, MasterCard® and Visa® global brands, as well as consumer loans."
• American Express Reports First Quarter EPS of $1.15, up 7% From A Year Ago; Revenues and Cardmember Spending Rise, Credit Quality Remains Excellent - "We are off to a strong start in 2013, thanks to our ability to grow revenue in a slow growth economy, control expenses and maintain a strong balance sheet…"
• New Sign-up Process - payleven Opens Doors to Private Individuals in UK - "Today marks a major milestone for payleven on that journey as we have solved two long-standing problems faced by the payments industry- designing a simple, instant signup process and empowering individuals as merchants."
• Toshiba Integrates Isis SmartTap™ into ACE Point-of-Sale - "Integration of Isis SmartTap with the ACE POS platform can fundamentally transform the way consumers and retailers interact at the POS."
• MCX Selects Gemalto for Mobile Commerce Platform - "The initial MCX wallet, which will be primarily barcode and cloud-based, will run on Gemalto’s Allynis Mobile Payment platform."
• Fiserv Makes Real Time Person-to-Person Payments a Reality with Popmoney Instant Payments - "We believe real-time payments are increasingly important to consumers in many day-to-day situations, and that includes sending money to people they know or owe."
• ACI Worldwide Empowers Financial Institutions to Increase Efficiency of Card Issuing and Account Management - "ACI Issuer is designed to help financial institutions lower operating costs with expected reductions in new product development, long-term maintenance and infrastructure costs."
• Western Union Continues to Expand in Mexico - "We see a great opportunity to expand in Mexico through existing and new Agent relationships such as Bancoppel…"

Amazon has announced 'Amazon Coins', a new virtual currency for purchasing apps, games and in-app items on Kindle Fire.

“Developers continue to report higher conversion rates on Amazon compared to other platforms,” said Paul Ryder, Vice President of Apps and Games for Amazon. “Now we have another new way to help developers reach even more of our millions of customers. Amazon Coins gives customers an easy way to spend money on developers’ apps on Kindle Fire in the Amazon Appstore—and we’re giving customers tens of millions of dollars in Amazon Coins to get started. Developers who aren’t yet in the Amazon Appstore will want to make sure their apps have been submitted and approved by April 25 so they’re ready for customers to start spending their Amazon Coins.”

More details area available at http://www.amazon.com/amazon-coins. As a reference for comparing virtual currency schemes, see the Glenbrook Virtual Currency Report from February 2012.

Amazon has announced an In-App Purchasing service that enables developers to let customers use their Amazon accounts to purchase virtual goods and currencies from within Mac, PC and Web-based games.

“We’re passionate about making game developers successful, and we’ll continue to build services that make monetization easier and remove undifferentiated heavy lifting from developers,” said Mike Frazzini, Director Amazon Games. “Game developers build games that are used across multiple platforms and mediums. In-App Purchasing for Mac, PC and Web-based games is our latest service that helps game developers grow their business and increase their customer-base. For years, Amazon has focused on making the online shopping experience as frictionless as possible, and we are excited to share this expertise and technology so that game developers can offer customers this same great experience.”

On the web:

• Highlights from a Conference on Technology and Payments - Portals and Rails
• The Need For Mobile Money Spawns A Startup Ecosystem Across Africa - TechCrunch
• EU Takes Belgium to Court Over Electronic Money Providers - WSJ.com

On the wires:

• Chase Customers Can Get Debit Cards Instantly in Branches
• Amazon Makes It Simple for Unity Developers to Add In-App Purchasing to Their Games
• Fuel Rewards Network Launch Helps Dallas-Fort Worth Consumers Save at the Pump
• Payza Payment Gateway Licensed for Inbound Foreign Remittances in Bangladesh
• Transact24 Moves Its Prepaid Card Portfolio to CashFlows to Provide Global Issuing Services
• Blackhawk Network to Offer Univision MasterCard Prepaid Card at Select Retailers

On the web:

• How the Illicit Economy Would Work in a World without Cash - Slate Magazine
• Amazon Enlists Poste Italiane to Deliver Goods, Collect Payment - Internet Retailer

On the wires:

• Forever 21 Enlists Accertify to Fight Fraud
• Visa Europe backs Mobile Money Network

On the web:

• Visa’s Saunders Downplays Merchant-Cost Concerns For Digital Wallet - ISO and Agent
• Report: 798 Daily Deal Sites Folded In The Last 6 Months Of 2011 - TechCrunch
• Amazon Pulls Plug on PayPhrase Service - Mashable

On the wires:

• Valero Corner Stores Get New ATMs and Program Manager in Cardtronics
• Businesses Can Capture Signatures, Easily Calculate Taxes and Tips Using New Sage Mobile Payments 2.0

On the web:

• Blaze Mobile Wins NFC Sticker Patent - NFC World
• Philippine Bank to Issue China UnionPay Cards - Cards & Payments Asia
• Core Changes Help Chase Accept Amazon Points As Dollars - American Banker

On the wires:

• USAA’s Deposit@Mobile App Available on iPad 2
• Citi Cards and American Airlines Introduce New Elite Traveler Credit Card
• NYCE Payments Network Adds Record New Participants in the First Half of 2011

On the web:

• An "Open" Perspective on Near Field Communications - ReadWriteWeb
• Card.io Enables Card Data Capture with Phone Camera - PCMag.com
• Eric Schmidt: Mobile Payments at Retail to Explode - CNET News
• Survey: Discounts and Coupons Will Drive Adoption of Mobile Payments - NFC World
• Apple Is Now Pimping Square’s iPad App In A 'How-To' Video - TechCrunch
• Itautec Unveils 3-D ATM in Brazil - ATM Marketplace

On the wires:

• Chase Upgrades Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card by Adding Amazon Shop with Points
• Optum EFT Solution Makes Health Care Payments Faster and Cheaper
• SponsorPay Introduces Offer-Based Monetization Suite For Publishers

On the wires:

• Despite Exemption, Small Issuers Expect Significant Decline in Interchange Revenue After Implementation of Durbin Amendment Provisions
• Verizon Wireless and USA Technologies Partner to Deliver Industry-Leading Cashless Payment Services, M2M Solutions for Vending and Automated Retail Industries
• Zuora Delivers New Invoicing Flexibility and Amendment Previews to April ‘11 Release
• New Junpier Research Report on Mobile Ticketing for Transport Markets

On the web:

• Amazon Payments Blog: Amazon Payments Launches in Germany
• New York Times: Possible Sony PlayStation Network Card Data Breach
• MIT Technology Review: Your iPhone Can Buy Your Groceries

On the wires:

• J.P. Morgan’s Order-to-Pay Network Crosses 100,000 Supplier Threshold
• NRF Welcomes Consumer Groups’ Support for Swipe Fee Reform
• Near Field Communication Forum Announces New Members (including CSR, Google, and Intel)
• New Mercator Report on Prepaid Card Market in China
• The VoiceCash Single Prepaid MasterCard (Germany)

On the web:

• NFC World: Amazon Planning NFC Payments and Marketing Service?
• SmartMoney: The New Best Credit Cards
• Vending Times: Cashless Payments Go Mainstream In Unattended POS Markets
• TechCrunch: Social Payments Enabler WePay Celebrates First Birthday

On the wires:

• NRF Welcomes Bernanke Promise to Complete Swipe Fee Reform Regulations by Summer
• PapayaMobile Integrates Android's In-App Billing Solution Into Social Gaming Network
• Jack Henry & Associates Expands Internet Banking Solutions
• Pulse Retail Partners with YESpay to Offer Integrated EMV Managed Payment Service
• 3i Infotech Extends Electronic Billing and Payments Strategy With New Partnership and Services
• SHAZAM Enables PaySecure Internet PIN Debit across Eligible Issuer Base

On the web:

• Wall Street Journal: U.K. Consortium Launches Pay By Mobile
• Amazon Payments Blog: Checkout by Amazon Launches in the UK
• Springwise: Free mobile banking network launched in South Africa
• ReadWriteweb: NFC in 2011: Wells Fargo Tests Mobile Payments in San Francisco
• Herald Sun: MasterCard Pushes for More tap-and-go Terminals in Australia
• Bloomberg: Microsoft Is Said to Plan Mobile Payments in Phone Software
• VentureBeat: NFC Is Way Overhyped, Says Sybase

Amazon Payments today announced a new Checkout by Amazon capability that lets Amazon users make purchases on a merchant's site using their Amazon.com account credentials without leaving the merchant's site. Consumers can now access their Amazon address book and payment methods directly on a merchant's site without being redirected back to Amazon.

"These enhancements to Checkout by Amazon reflect the feedback we've received from merchants who want to offer Amazon.com customers the convenience of using their account information with a more streamlined buying experience," said Baris Cetinok, General Manager of Amazon Payments.

Yodlee has announced that Amazon Payments has implemented Yodlee's InstantAccountVerification™ technology to simplify how customers add and verify bank accounts to their Amazon Payments accounts. Yodlee's patented account verification technology verifies a person's account information, ownership, and balance in real-time. READ MORE »

Want to save money on your holiday purchases? Amazon is offering a Cashback promotion if you sign up and use its new PayPhrase feature when you purchase now and your order is shipped by 12/31/09. With the promotion, you can 5% CashBack at Amazon.com and 10% CashBack at PayPhrase-accepting merchants across the web.

Some nifty discounts are available - almost any way you want to pay online.

Both PayPal and Google Checkout are serving up discounts for purchases this holiday season. Here's PayPal's Deal page - and here's Google Checkout's Deal page.

Not to be outdone, Amazon Payments is also offering special holiday deals if you shop with Amazon Payments.

American Express also has its Daily Wish specials promotion underway this week while Discover is promoting special discounts along with a 5% cashback offer. And, if you'd prefer to just pay with Visa or MasterCard, they have their discount pages as well.

With just a few extra clicks while shopping online this holiday season, you can find some valuable savings!

Over on our sister PaymentsViews.com site, Glenbrook's Russ Jones takes a look at Amazon's just introduced PayPhrase checkout feature.

Jones writes:

I’ve long argued with Glenbrook colleagues that payment cards today are too spend-centric and too easily abused. Maybe the banking industry could learn something from Amazon about both convenience and security."

Amazon Payments has announced Amazon PayPhrase, an easy-to-remember shortcut for consumers paying on Amazon.com and other websites. "With Amazon PayPhrase, online shoppers simply choose their own customized phrase — such as “Knick Knack,” “Home Sweet Home,” or “Jake’s Allowance” — and then enter that phrase along with a PIN to quickly preview their order and complete their purchase. PayPhrase allows Amazon.com customers to checkout across the web with their preferred payment and shipping methods stored at Amazon.com, but without having to share sensitive payment information with multiple websites."

All websites accepting Checkout by Amazon, including DKNY, Jockey, Patagonia, Buy.com, J&R Electronics, and Car Toys, will be offering PayPhrase as a checkout option. Amazon.com customers can create their PayPhrase and start using it today by visiting http://www.amazon.com/payphrase. An introductory video is available that explains the service. READ MORE »

Amazon Payments LLC, an Amazon.com company, has announced the availability of the Amazon Mobile Payments Service (Amazon MPS) - saying it provides "developers, merchants and distributors of mobile applications an easy way to process payments from mobile devices and extend Amazon’s 1-Click checkout experience to their customers. Amazon MPS enables tens of millions of Amazon customers to use the existing payment and shipping information in their Amazon.com accounts to make purchases from their mobile devices. To get started using the Amazon Mobile Payments Service, visit http://amazonpayments.com/mps." READ MORE »

Amazon Web Services 2009 Startup Challenge includes a prize from Amazon Payments for the AWS Start-Up Challenge finalist with the most creative monetization strategy and use of Amazon Payments solutions. Winner of the Amazon Payments prize will go home with $10,000 in combined cash and Amazon Payments credits. Details here.

Amazon Payments has introduced a free processing offer (through 9/30/09 - subject to certain conditions) for new users of its various payment services.

Amazon Payments has just published a new best practices guide for Checkout by Amazon.

Following yesterday's fee change announcement by Google Checkout, Glenbrook's Scott Loftesness has just posted a look at pricing across the three major online payment providers over on PaymentsViews.com.

What is PaymentsViews.com? It's our newest online site for payments professionals - devoted to analysis, commentary and opinions beyond just the news of the day we cover here on PaymentsNews.com.

CircleUp, a group messaging service for membership Web sites, has launched SmartPay - calling it "a powerful new service for online payments made among members of groups and teams. SmartPay runs on the SmartMessage Platform, an innovative messaging service operating across multiple channels, partner destinations and platforms."

"SmartPay is a service that lets members of teams and groups collect money using credit or debit cards for expenses like coach and teacher's gifts, team banners, group photos, event t-shirts, group transportation, group parties and more that have traditionally been paid with cash and checks." READ MORE »

TwitPay, the Twitter-based person-to-person payments service, has announced that it's exiting its beta phase and will be moving "real money" starting today using Amazon Payments.

Working with Amazon Payments, we’ve built a new version of Twitpay that means we don’t have to be the middle-man for your cash. That’s good for you as a user because you don’t have to trust us with your money, you just have to trust Amazon. It’s good for us as a service because it allows us to focus on adding new features and focus on the core of our business."

Amazon.com has announced that the Amazon Flexible Payments Service (Amazon FPS) is now out of beta and also easier to use with Amazon FPS Quick Starts. Using FPS, developers can enable your applications with common payment transactions such as one time payments, recurring payments and pre-payments in hours rather than days. Amazon is also offering free payment processing for a limited time to developers who build an application using Amazon FPS. More info on the Amazon Payments Blog.

Amazon Payments will be holding a webinar this Tuesday, January 13th, beginning at 10 AM Pacific exploring Checkout by Amazon.

[Update: Amazon Payments is also active on Twitter.]

Amazon.com's Payments Team has launched a new blog - the Amazon Payments Blog. Baris Cetinok of the team writes "Our team will post here on this blog on a regular basis – our goal is to share with you the latest news, thoughts, ideas, and inspirations about Amazon Payments. ... We will share stories of consumers, merchants, and developers using Amazon Payments to pay or to get paid." [Editor's note: We've just added the Amazon Payments Blog to our list of other banking and payments-related blogs.]