Fiserv announced it will be adding MoneyGram’s money transfer services to the menu of money movement options available to financial institutions and consumers through the Popmoney, Fiserv's person-to-person payments product.

“With Popmoney, financial institutions can provide their customers with a faster, easier and more secure way to send and receive money from their bank or credit union accounts,” said Neil Platt, senior vice president and general manager of payments, CashEdge Division, Fiserv. “Working with MoneyGram will allow Fiserv to enhance the Popmoney service with cross-border and cash payment options, and expand consumer choices for managing their money.”

Fiserv has announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire CashEdge for $465 million.

CashEdge adds to Fiserv’s capabilities in areas such as account-to-account transfer, account opening and funding, data aggregation, small business payments, and person-to-person (P2P) payments. Both companies are in-market today with financial institution-centric P2P services that enable payments to be made from one account to another, Fiserv with ZashPay® and CashEdge with Popmoney®. This combination should accelerate Fiserv’s ability to provide new capabilities such as P2P money request, and small business electronic invoicing and remittance.

Visa has announced that consumers in the U.S. will soon be able to receive and send funds to any eligible Visa credit, debit or prepaid account, anywhere in the world.

The new Visa personal payments service, which eliminates the inefficiencies of cash and checks for payments between individuals, was made possible through technical enhancements to VisaNet, Visa’s global payments processing network, and through the introduction of a new Visa transaction type that allows financial institutions to accept incoming funds.

On the wires:

• Discover and InteliSpend Prepaid Solutions Announce Prepaid Issuing Agreement
• Fiserv Signs IBERIABANK for Turn-Key Debit Solution
• Pay-O-Matic Renews Contract with Prepaid Processor FSV Payment Systems
• CashEdge Signs Deal With Huntington to Provide Popmoney P2P Payments
• New Mercator Report on Prepaid BIN Sponsorship Opportunities for Financial Institutions

On the web:

• CreditCards.com: Credit Cards Magnetic Stripes Get Smarter
• Wall Street Journal: American Express Teams Up With Foursquare
• Inside Facebook: Facebook Credits GetBalance API Helps Developers Dynamically Price Virtual Goods
• TechCrunch: Why Payments Are Hard, Even For Apple And Google
• Wall Street Journal: Banks Look to Replace Lost Debit-Card Fees
• Portals and Rails: Moving to Chip-and-Pin: The Price of Foresight versus the Cost of Hindsight

NYCE has announced that it will begin offering CashEdge Popmoney to its more than 3,000 financial institution clients. But instead of using ACH, the normal Popmoney funds transfer method, the NYCE Payments Network "will provide the ability to transmit the funds between the sender’s account and the receiver’s account in real-time, resulting in the immediate availability of funds."

Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners:

• SafetyPay Partners With One of Brazil’s Largest Banks, Banrisul

• Portals and Rails: Nonbanks and Payments Innovation: Because That's Where the Money Is
• Ars Technica: The Security Gadget that UK Bankers Want Squelched
• Wall Street Journal: Students Still Targets of Credit-Card Offers
• Today Show: Consumers' Love of Credit Cards to Return
• The Green Sheet: The Convergence of Traditional and Alternative Payments
• SiliconIndia Magazine: Playspan: Leading Innovation in the Global Payment Industry
• Zachs: No Job? No Credit Card

CashEdge has announced that Fifth Third Bank will launch Popmoney, CashEdge’s person-to-person email and mobile payments service, to its customers. The service will be offered online through Fifth Third’s online banking platform www.53.com beginning in mid-2011.

CashEdge has announced it expanded the capabilities of its Popmoney P2P payments service to provide users with various options for sending gifts of cash or prepaid gift cards.

Popmoney's gift card service, the first of its kind in the industry, enables bank customers to send retailer gift cards from their bank accounts. Customers can send gift cards to a recipient by email, mobile number or mailing address. Banks offering Popmoney can provide the option to their customers through a simple upgrade of the service.

MoneyGram and CashEdge have announced that they plan to integrate their respective money transfer and payment services platforms so that "recipients of Popmoney payments would be able to direct receipt of their funds to any of MoneyGram's 200,000 retail agent locations in more than 190 countries. This would enable Popmoney customers to send money to recipients who can then direct the funds to be picked up at an international MoneyGram location, to recipients who may lack a traditional bank account, or to those who simply prefer to withdraw funds as cash." READ MORE »

CashEdge has announced the launch of Popmoney for Small Business, the "first electronic invoice and payment solution designed specifically for small business customers of financial institutions." Popmoney for Small Business provides businesses with the unique capability to pay vendors and employees electronically using only an email or mobile number.

CashEdge and U.S. Bank have announced that they are partnering to launch CashEdge's person-to-person (P2P) online and mobile payments service, Popmoney, later this year. According to the two companies, "U.S. Bank will offer Popmoney to its mobile banking customers through usbank.com and the downloadable mobile banking application, the U.S. Bank Mobile Wallet. U.S. Bank is the first large U.S. bank to offer a mobile P2P solution that enables users to send money directly from their bank account to anyone with an email address, mobile phone number and a bank account." READ MORE »

CashEdge has announced that Bank of the West has launched Popmoney™, CashEdge’s person-to-person (P2P) payments service. CashEdge says that "Popmoney is the first payments service to allow bank customers the ability to send money from their bank account, using a recipient’s email address, mobile phone number or bank account information. Popmoney provides support for text messaging, WAP and downloadable mobile applications."

Bank of the West is waiving fees on the Popmoney service until the end of June. After that, fees charged to senders will be $3.00 for "Standard Delivery" (3 business days) and $10.00 for "Next Day Delivery". READ MORE »

ClairMail has announced an agreement with CashEdge to provide financial institutions with connectivity to CashEdge's Popmoney through the ClairMail platform. As a result of the relationship, ClairMail customers will have the ability to provide consumers with a secure, consistent mobile banking and P2P payments experience. READ MORE »

CashEdge has announced today two U.S. banks are the first in the nation to launch POPmoney, its new email and mobile person-to-person (P2P) payments service that is offered through banks. According to the company, "five additional financial institutions have signed on to launch the service in early 2010, demonstrating strong momentum for the innovative new P2P payments service." From the list of participating banks shown on the POPmoney.com website, it appears the first two banks are First Hawaiian and PNC. READ MORE »

CashEdge and Firethorn have announced a strategic relationship to bring to market an integrated mobile person-to-person (P2P) payments solution integrating CashEdge's POPmoney P2P payments service with Firethorn's Mobile Wallet solution. According to the companies, "the integrated mobile P2P solution will enable financial institutions to offer their customers the ability to send electronic payments using CashEdge's POPmoney from within their Firethorn mobile banking application, by simply using the email address or mobile phone number of the recipient. This comprehensive mobile P2P banking solution will give consumers greater control over their finances, enabling them to pay other people whenever and wherever they want." READ MORE »

CashEdge has announced results from its fourth annual Consumer Online Banking Survey saying it "demonstrated an increasing demand for simple, secure person-to-person (P2P) payment services and the preference by consumers to get these services from their financial institution, rather than an independent service such as PayPal. Conducted annually by CashEdge, the study examines the behavior and preferences of more than 850 consumers nationwide aged 18 years and older who use online banking capabilities." READ MORE »

On PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson takes a look at CashEdge's new POPmoney person-to-person money transfer service. Carol interviewed CashEdge's Neil Platt, SVP & General Manager - US Banking, about the new service.

CashEdge has announced the launch of POPmoney - calling it "the first person-to-person payments (P2P) service for banks, enabling banks to provide simple and secure P2P payments from their online or mobile banking applications." READ MORE »

CashEdge has announced that it facilitated the acquisition of more than $4.5 Billion in assets for its financial institution clients during 2008 through its online account opening and funding products – OpenNow/FundNow and OpenNow/FundNow Express, an increase of more than 27 percent from 2007. READ MORE »

CashEdge has announced the launch of Small Business Me-to-Me Transfers, an online funds transfer product designed specifically to help financial institutions meet the needs of small businesses. READ MORE »

CashEdge has introduced Intelligent Money Movement -- what the company calls "an enhanced version of the Company's money movement platform that provides consumers and small businesses simple, seamless access to conduct electronic money movement through online and mobile banking applications." READ MORE »

CashEdge has announced "the launch of OpenNow/FundNow Express, an online account opening and funding solution designed specifically to enable small/mid-sized banks and credit unions to offer the same advanced online opening and funding account capabilities available at larger financial institutions." READ MORE »

CashEdge has announced that it executed more than $38 billion in account-to-account transfers in 2007 - "a 300% percent increase over 2006 volume. The transfers were initiated by consumers through CashEdge's money movement solutions that are currently in use at nearly one-third of the top 75 banks in the United States."

CashEdge has announced that "CashEdge usage data for online payment, invoicing and collections during 2006 and through the first quarter of 2007, reflects the growth in adoption that was predicted by BAI's Small Business Payment Strategies research study in 2006, Aite Group's April 2006 survey of small businesses, and CashEdge's 2006 Small Business Survey. In June 2006, Bank of America became the first U.S. bank to offer electronic invoicing presentment and payment (EIPP) to small-business customers (through its Online Business Suite) and reports that the service has been extremely successful."

Verid has announced that CashEdge will integrate Verid's Knowledge Based Authentication (KBA) technology into CashEdge's online account opening and funding solutions to enhance the depth and quality of its risk management capabilities using Verid's industry-leading KBA process, already in use at eight of the top ten financial institutions.

CheckFree has announced three new services powered by CashEdge. CheckFree Online Open and CheckFree Online Fund that are designed to help consumers establish and fund new accounts, in a matter of minutes. An automated decision-making engine processes the applications based on the financial institution's unique business rules for managing risk, while flagging any exceptions for manual review. CheckFree Online Transfer enables financial institutions to simplify the transfer of funds between accounts and create new revenue streams by extending their online offerings to include fee-based, intra- and inter- institution fund transfer services between accounts held at more than 23,000 banks, credit unions and brokerages.

CashEdge announced this morning that the Los Angeles Firemen's Credit Union, a credit union serving firefighters and their families in the state of California, is using CashEdge's OpenNow and FundNow services. OpenNow/FundNow enables prospective credit union members to securely open and fund a new account in real-time through the credit union's website.

Approximately 95 percent of new online account applicants drop out between enrollment and funding. By offering a single-session solution, CashEdge enables financial institutions to increase dramatically account completion rates among this valuable member-base. Online members are particularly attractive because they are less costly to acquire and more profitable, maintaining higher account balances, utilizing more services and exhibiting higher overall account activity.

Lavonne Kuykendall reports in today's American Banker on Citibank's new signature-free account opening process for new checking accounts via its web site. READ MORE »