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On the web:

• BofA Joins Chase, Citibank in Simplifying Checking Disclosures - latimes.com
• Biggest Names in Mobile, Payments Can't Hasten Pay-With-Your-Phone Future - Wired.com
• U.S. Bank to Process Electronic Invoices for Order Express' International Money Transfers - Bank Systems & Technology
• Reddit Is Getting A Dwolla and Stripe-Powered Fundraising Button - Fast Company

On the wires:

• Spreedly Makes Dwolla an Option for E-Commerce Sites - American Banker
• Contis Group Expansion Results in End-to-End Prepaid Service Capabilities
• MoneyGram Expands Relationship with Vietcombank, Adds New Service
• Interac Flash Provides Esso Customers With More Convenience
• WePay Introduces: Copy, Paste, Payments
• MoneyGram Expands UnionPay’s Global Emergency Cash Services

Chase has unveiled a revised summary guide for Chase Total Checking that makes its terms and conditions easier to understand for consumers. Chase collaborated with the Pew Health Group’s Safe Checking in the Electronic Age Project to develop a simple disclosure form.

““Our research shows the median length of the checking account disclosures at the nation’s ten largest banks is 111 pages. This volume of highly technical information makes it difficult for consumers to know how their checking account operates,” said Susan Weinstock, director of Pew’s Safe Checking in the Electronic Age Project. “We applaud Chase for being the first large bank to adopt our model disclosure box and are urging other financial institutions to do the same.”

Chase’s new disclosure form can be found at www.chase.com/clearbanking. The Pew Health Group also issued a related announcement.

"One hundred eleven pages. That is the median length of the checking account disclosures consumers are supposed to read and understand before opening an account at any of the 10 largest banks, according to documents analyzed in a new report from the Pew Health Group's Safe Checking in the Electronic Age Project."

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has announced that it is retiring the paper Social Security check for millions of baby boomers and others applying for federal benefits, "a move that will save taxpayers $1 billion over the next 10 years. Beginning May 1, 2011, anyone newly applying for Social Security, Veterans Affairs or other federal benefits will need to choose an electronic payment method – paper checks will no longer be an option."

On the wires:

• Columbus Water Works Enhances Consumer Payment Choice with Secure Vault Payments
• Bill.com Receivables Officially Launches
• Prepaid Card Processor i2c Expands International Presence
• Visa Completes Acquisition of PlaySpan

On the web:

• Wall Street Journal: Checking Will Stay Free, Says PNC Bank
• Digital Transactions: Cumbersome Paperwork Rule Will Go Away in April for Visa Fraud Chargebacks
• Inside Mobile Apps: A Google In-App Payments Solution for the Web Appears Slated For Launch in May

Bankrate's 2nd annual Credit Union Checking Study reveals that free checking accounts are alive and well at many of the nation's top credit unions.

"Bankrate.com found that 96% of the nation's largest credit unions offer a checking account that is free, or can become free with minimal effort," said Greg McBride, CFA, senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com. "Even with continued declines in the prevalence of free checking, it remains within the grasp of most Americans and credit unions are a viable option."

According to a recent study by Moebs Services, merchants are now charging $30 as a median fee in comparison to $25 in 2009, surpassing what banks charge for NSF fees.

“This is the highest percent increase we have ever seen national retail merchants charge consumers for writing a bad check,” said Michael Moebs, CEO and economist at Moebs $ervices, a national economic research firm based in Lake Bluff, IL. “Retailers’ fees now surpass those of banks and credit unions median fee of $27 for an NSF.”

Check fraud seems so old fashioned these days. But as this story points out, "these hackers got the account information in an unusual way: They broke into three websites that specialize in a little-known type of business — archiving check images online."

Chase has announced rolling out two new free mobile banking features: "customers now can receive a text message the moment their checking account balance falls below a pre-selected amount – and then instantly transfer funds by sending a text-message reply as short as four keystrokes." Chase says it is currently sending out 725,000 low-balance alerts each week. READ MORE »

U.S. Bank has announced a new overdraft policy that includes a reduced fee of $10 for overdraft transactions that are $20 or less. The pricing change takes effect this August. READ MORE »

In an article titled "Under Attack! Threats to Deposit Accounts: an Interview with FICO Fraud Solutions", Glenbrook's Jacqueline Chilton talks with Mike Urban, FICO Senior Director of Fraud Solutions, about how criminals are enhancing their margins in ATM and debit card fraud.

Bank of America has announced that "beginning this summer it will only authorize single debit card transactions at the point of sale if a customer has enough money in their account at the time. This change will help customers by reducing the likelihood they may inadvertently overdraw their account and thus eliminate unexpected overdraft fees on these transactions. Customers will still have the choice to link their checking account to another account through Overdraft Protection to cover these types of transactions." READ MORE »

USAA has announced that its bank customers using mobile devices on the Android platform now can deposit checks using their phones. USAA’s Mobile App for Android, introduced over the weekend to the Android Market, offers access to banking, insurance and stock-trading services as well as USAA’s popular Deposit@Mobile feature. That feature allows eligible members to instantly deposit checks simply by submitting an image of the front and back of an endorsed check via the phone. READ MORE »

Torrance Community Credit Union (TCCU) of Torrance, California has announced that it will enable its members to "deposit checks directly to their accounts through their iPhone camera devices, effective immediately. Checks will be processed electronically, end-to-end, through the credit union’s partnerships with Eastern Corporate Federal Credit Union (EasCorp) of Burlington, Massachusetts and Innovative Technology, Inc. (INTECH) of Omaha, Nebraska. Torrance Community CU becomes one of the first financial institutions in the United States to offer this service." READ MORE »

In an article titled "New overdraft rules: Worst of both worlds?", MSNBC's Bob Sullivan writes about overdraft fees - and the new rules scheduled for July implementation as announced by the Federal Reserve. Sullivan writes: "But it should come as no surprise that there's a catch. In fact, there are lots of them."

In an article titled "New Features, and Fees, for Checking Accounts" in the New York Times Bucks blog, Jennifer Saranow Schultz writes about Fifth Third Bank's pricing strategies involving packaging services together in lieu of providing free checking. She asks: "What services would you be willing to pay for if only your bank would offer them? Or would you rather just have free checking?"

In an article titled "Banks Roll Out New Check, Card Fees", Robin Sidel wrote for the Wall St. Journal's Saturday edition about steps that banks are taking to deal with up to $50 billion in lost revenue in 2010 as a result of changes to credit card and checking account legislation and regulatory requirements.

In her "Color of Money" personal finance column in today's Washington Post, Michelle Singletary writes about 2010 being the "Year of Consumer Power" - reflecting on the legislative (The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009) and regulatory (overdraft fees) changes that are scheduled to take place as 2010 plays out.

A few weeks back, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson issued a challenge - asking "What Are the Best Ways for Banks to Replace Lost Overdraft Fee Income?" She was looking for creative ideas from the community on how bankers should deal with perhaps their most significant financial challenge ahead.

Today, Carol has summarized the results of her search for ideas in a new post on PaymentsViews.com titled "No News is Bad News?". She writes:

We got very few ideas at all, and none from bankers! The no-news-from-banks could, of course, be because banks are keeping their well-laid plans a deep and dark secret. Or it could be …. there are just no good ideas?"

Read her full article here.

In an article titled "Consumer Fees: The Hits Keep Coming", Maria Aspan writes for the American Banker about how bankers are scrambling to deal with the assault on various banking and credit card fees - noting that "the banking industry has been shaken out of its complacent reliance on consumer fee income." Aspan quotes Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson:

Overdraft fees for bankers are like heroin — they know it's bad for them (particularly in building the trust relationship with customers that they want), but the revenue just feels so good," Carol Coye Benson, a managing partner in the consulting firm Glenbrook Partners LLC, wrote in a November blog post. "The Fed's new rules are detox."

Google's Insights for Search provides some handy tools for exploring what topics folks have been searching for over time. For example, here's a graph of search activity over the last five years on the subject of overdraft fees. Needless to say, they become a very hot search term (and consumer issue) in 2009!

Here's a less dramatic example - this time for interchange fees.

Finally, one of my favorites - gift cards - look at this seasonality!

In an article titled "Prepaid vs. Checking: Fairer Fight?", Maria Aspan writes for the American Banker about the state of the prepaid card business in the US - and how the upcoming checking account overdraft fee reforms could affect the prepaid card industry.

In an article titled "Debit-card use grows, but risks still an issue", Chuck Strickler writes for The Columbus Dispatch about debit cards - how they help consumers stay in control but also how they're different than credit cards.

In an article titled "One debit-card overdraft can trigger an avalanche", Los Angeles Times personal finance columnist Kathy Kristof writes about how one overdraft was turned into four overdraft fees when one consumer's bank (Chase) reordered the payments posting to her checking account. Kristof goes on to note that Chase has announced it plans to eliminate that practice "in the first few months of 2010".

The UK Payments Council has announced that "the Payments Council Board has agreed to set a target date of 31st October 2018 to close the central cheque clearing. Cheque use is in long-term, terminal decline. The Payments Council was faced with the choice of either managing the decline to ensure that personal and business cheque users have alternatives easily available to them; or to stand back and let the decline take its course. It has decided that its active involvement can help prevent confusion and deliver cheque alternatives that are acceptable to cheque users. The Payments Council wants to ensure that consumers and businesses are not left high and dry when the closure of the clearing occurs." READ MORE »

The US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs is holding a hearing this afternoon on the subject of "Protecting Consumers from Abusive Overdraft Fees: The Fairness and Accountability in Receiving Overdraft Coverage Act". The witnesses will be: Mr. Mario Livieri, Consumer, State of Connecticut; Mr. Michael Calhoun, President, Center for Responsible Lending; Mr. Frank Pollack, President and CEO, Pentagon Federal Credit Union; Mr. John Carey, Chief Administrative Officer, Citibank NA; and Ms. Jean Ann Fox, Director of Financial Services, Consumer Federation of America. READ MORE »

Over on our PaymentsViews.com blog, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson reflects on yesterday's announcement by the Federal Reserve of new rules prohibiting banks from charging overdraft fees on debit card and ATM transactions without first obtaining consumer opt-in. Carol speculates on what retail banks will do to deal with the potential loss of overdraft fee revenue that could result.

The Federal Reserve Board has announced final rules that prohibit financial institutions from charging consumers fees for paying overdrafts on automated teller machine (ATM) and one-time debit card transactions, unless a consumer consents, or opts in, to the overdraft service for those types of transactions.

Before opting in, the consumer must be provided a notice that explains the financial institution's overdraft services, including the fees associated with the service, and the consumer's choices. The final rules, along with a model opt-in notice, are issued under Regulation E, which implements the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and are effective July 1, 2010. READ MORE »

In its SEC 10-Q filing today, Wells Fargo estimated that the impact of its new overdraft fee policies will be a $300 million after tax reduction in its fee revenue for 2010.

Quoting: "We recently announced policy changes that will help customers limit overdraft and returned item fees. We currently estimate that these changes will reduce our 2010 fee revenue by approximately $300 million (after tax), although the actual impact could vary due to a variety of factors including implementation timing and customer behavior in response to the policy changes."

SunTrust Banks and Moneta Corporation have announced that "SunTrust has selected Moneta’s online payment service to offer clients an additional payment option when they shop with select online retailers. The service is currently being provided free to select SunTrust clients as an initial pilot program." READ MORE »

Congressional proposals to rein in abusive overdraft practices are long overdue, Center for Responsible Lending executive Eric Halperin told the House Financial Services Committee today (full testimony). Halperin, who is director of CRL's Washington office, gave full support to legislation aimed at reforming bank overdraft programs, which cost consumers $23.7 billion last year and are among the most predatory lending products on the market.

"Charging people a $35 fee for a small, debit card transaction is unacceptable," said Halperin, director of CRL's Washington office. "It doesn't save them bounced check fees, it simply skims money from their account and puts them in a bind."