In his Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress today, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke concluded his remarks by discussing the rules that the Federal Reserve working jointly with the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration have proposed regarding unfair or deceptive practices for credit card accounts and overdraft protection plans.   » Continue Reading

eCommerce and mobile commerce solution provider, Mpayy, Inc. has announced that it has closed its Series B financing led by US Bancorp with participation from a number of private investors.   » Continue Reading

This afternoon's All Things Considered on NPR included a segment titled "Rising Bank Fees Squeeze Consumers" that focused on overdraft fees charged by banks on checking accounts. From the story: "Bob Hedges, founder of Mercatus, a consulting firm, said his research shows that the No. 1 reason consumers don't trust their banks is that they feel they're charged too many fees."

The Center for Responsible Lending has published a new report titled "Shredded Security - Overdraft practices drain fees from older Americans" that finds that "unauthorized overdrafts strip fees from Americans 55 and older at the level of $4.5 billion per year. Nearly $1 billion of that comes from people who are heavily dependent on Social Security income." The report also finds that "debit cards are the most frequent trigger for overdrafts even for people 55 and older – these debit card overdrafts are both extremely costly and easy to prevent if the banks were interested in discouraging them."

The ABA has issued a separate press release citing a separate study finding that "91 percent of Americans aged 55 and over have not paid overdraft fees in the last year."

Chase has announced Chase Exclusives - calling it "one of the banking industry’s widest ranging package of rewards" to encourage its checking account customers to expand their relationship with the bank. "Chase Exclusives provides all Chase checking accounts holders with better rates, more rewards and bigger discounts on nearly all other products offered through the branch."   » Continue Reading

U.S. Bank has announced it has partnered with Visa to issue debit cards with the Visa payWave feature to debit cardholders in California, Colorado, Missouri, and Utah.   » Continue Reading

WaMu has announced that it has passed the one million business checking account mark - reflecting double-digit growth in business checking, year over year.   » Continue Reading

Launched two and a half years ago, Bank of America's Keep the Change savings program has helped its customers save more than one billion dollars in customer round-ups and bank-matching funds, the bank announced today.   » Continue Reading

James Charles reports for Times Online (UK) that several of the largest UK banks are increasing monthly fees on current accounts by up to 20 percent in advance of a ruling by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) capping overdraft fees.

In an editorial yesterday titled The Fed Aims at Credit Cards, the New York Times responded to the Fed's announcement on Friday about rule changes to address what it called "unfair practices" by credit card issuers and retail bank overdraft fees. The editorial called the proposed rules a "modest step forward" and quoted Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York (author of her own "Credit Cardholder's Bill of Rights" legislation) saying "there are abusive, abusive, abusive practices going on now."

Earlier today, the Federal Reserve proposed new rules to prohibit unfair practices regarding credit cards and overdraft services. that would, among other provisions, protect consumers from unexpected increases in the rate charged on pre-existing credit card balances.

In addition, the proposed rules addresses practices in connection with a bank’s payment of overdrafts on a deposit account, whether the overdraft is created by check, a withdrawal at an ATM, a debit card purchase, or other transactions. The proposed rules require institutions to provide consumers with notice and an opportunity to opt out of the payment of overdrafts, before any overdraft fees or charges may be imposed on consumers' accounts.

The Fed has been joined in putting forth these proposed changes by the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration.

The Fed has provided a seventy-five day comment period - to approximately mid-July. Providing your comments to the Fed is easy:

• On the Fed's web site (scroll down to the bottom of the page to Regulation AA - click on submit comment)
• By email to: regs.comments@federalreserve.gov
• By fax to (202) 452-3819 or (202) 452-3102
• By regular mail to:

  Jennifer J. Johnson
Secretary, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
20th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20551

Be sure to reference Docket No. R-1314 in your written comments.

All comments will be public and can be viewed online on the Fed's web site. Pro or con - this is an important payment card industry issue worth your comments.

Adam Levitin writes on the Credit Slips blog about his take on the proposed Fed/OTS/NCUA Credit Card Regulations. "Some of the proposed rules are quite favorable for consumer interests. Others do not go far enough, however, and perhaps most importantly, there are several major issues that the proposed rules simply do not address."

Edward L. Yingling, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association, issued a press release today discussing the Federal Reserve's proposed rules regarding credit card practices and overdraft fees saying: “The Federal Reserve’s proposal is an unprecedented regulatory intrusion into marketplace pricing and product offerings. We are deeply concerned that these rules will result in less competition, higher consumer prices, fewer consumer choices and reduced consumer access to credit cards. In short, everyday consumers will bear the real cost of these proposals.   » Continue Reading

The Federal Reserve Board has announced proposed new rules to 'prohibit unfair practices regarding credit cards and overdraft services that would, among other provisions, protect consumers from unexpected increases in the rate charged on pre-existing credit card balances.' The Fed is acting in concert with the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration in pursuing these new rules.

"The proposed rules are intended to establish a new baseline for fairness in how credit card plans operate," said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. "Consumers relying on credit cards should be better able to predict how their decisions and actions will affect their costs."   » Continue Reading

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board has announced it has approved a joint proposed rule prohibiting credit card and overdraft service practices as unfair or deceptive under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.

The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) has announced it has approved a proposal to prohibit savings associations from engaging in unfair or deceptive acts or practices regarding credit cards and overdraft services that violate the Federal Trade Commission Act. The Federal Reserve Board and the National Credit Union Administration are expected to also approve the proposal shortly.

According to the OTS, the joint proposal addresses practices that have raised concern about fairness and transparency. For credit cards, the proposed rule would address: (1) unfair time periods for making payments; (2) unfair payment allocations; (3) unfair interest rate increases on outstanding balances; (4) unfair fees from credit holds; (5) unfair methods of computing balances; (6) unfair security deposits and fees charged to an account for the issuance of credit; and (7) deceptive offers of credit. For overdraft protection services on deposit accounts, the proposed rule would address: (1) a consumer’s ability to opt out of overdraft services; and (2) unfair fees for debit holds. A summary of the proposed rules is available online.   » Continue Reading

Christina Rexrode writes for the Charlotte Observer about the benefits of remote deposit capture to both businesses and consumers. But she notes that some large banks have no plans for introducing the service for consumers.

Washington Mutual has announced a new account opening experience that it says couples 100% online approval and opening, and eliminates the need to mail a traditional signature card. Rather than the signature card, the new customer 'uses the first check in their checkbook, which has been specially designed so that once written and processed, it is scanned and used to serve as the sample signature for the account.'   » Continue Reading

Consumer groups have been active in the US pointing out the overdraft charges that banks charge their checking account customers for non-sufficient funds. In the UK, the issue has been litigated and the BBC reports today that "the UK's biggest banks have lost a test case about overdraft charges." The Guardians headline reads "Customers in line for billions as banks lose unfair charges case." The court decision is available online .

The Center for Responsible Lending has published results from a survey titled 'Consumers Want Informed Choice on Overdraft Fees and Banking Options' conducted by Opinion Research Corporation that found 'respondents overwhelmingly prefer that debit card purchases be declined at the checkout if these would otherwise result in an overdraft fee.'   » Continue Reading

Jack Henry & Associates has announced that its Remote Deposit Capture solution has now been selected by 720 financial institutions. According to the company, the RDS solution, which enables commercial customers to scan, submit, and deposit checks electronically without leaving their place of business, has been implemented in 622 of these institutions and by approximately 11,000 merchants.   » Continue Reading

The Federal Reserve’s 2007 study of the composition of the check market released today shows that nearly 50 percent of checks written are consumer-to-business checks.   » Continue Reading

Wells Fargo has announced the Wells Fargo vSafe service, calling it "the first online storage solution from a financial institution that lets retail banking customers store and organize copies of important materials, such as financial statements, loan and tax documents, wills, passports, and birth, marriage and death certificates."   » Continue Reading

Obopay has announced that "customers can now use their existing bank accounts to send and receive money via their mobile phone. With Obopay's mobile money transfer, non- customers can pick up payments without signing up for Obopay. These innovations make it easier than ever for any bank customer to conveniently send and receive payments from their mobile phones."   » Continue Reading

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."   » Continue Reading

As covered by the Washington Post on Saturday, the Government Accountability Office has released a new report titled "Bank Fees - Federal Banking Regulators Could Ensure That Consumers Have Required Disclosure Documents Prior to Opening Checking or Savings Accounts" . The study had been requested by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit in the US House of Representatives.

In an article titled 'Banking Fees Are Rising and Often Undisclosed', Tomoeh Murakami Tse writes for the Washington Post's Sunday edition about a new report to be issued on Monday by the Government Accountability Office. 'The GAO report says the percentage of income at banks and thrifts derived from "noninterest sources," which include fees, rose to 27 percent in 2006 from 24 percent in 2000. Increased consumer use of electronic payments, as well as increased marketing of automatic overdraft protection programs, are likely contributing to the trend, the report says.'

Jeffrey Birnbaum writes for the Washington Post about legislation that is pending in the US Senate that would "prevent a small Texas company called DataTreasury from collecting damages from banks for infringing on its patented method for digitally scanning, sending and archiving checks."

In an post titled "Scanning Your Money to the Bank", Saul Hansell of the New York Times comments on Fiserv's announcement earlier this week of remote deposits from home using scanners.

CheckFree (now part of Fiserv) has announced a new remote deposit capture product that allows retail customers to electronically scan and deposit checks from any location with a PC, a scanner and an Internet connection. According to CheckFree, "it provides simple, easy-to-use functionality for the consumer without compromising the security, fraud identification or processing quality required by financial institutions."   » Continue Reading

Mitek Systems has announced ImageNet Mobile Deposit, calling it "the first mobile banking software that allow banks to accept paper check deposits and bill payments via camera-equipped mobile phones." Mitek will demonstrate ImageNet Mobile Deposit in booth #225 at the BAI-TransPay show beginning February 5, 2008 in Dallas at the Gaylord Grapevine Resort.   » Continue Reading

Mike Meyers writes for the Star-Tribune about the decline in paper check processing at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "The change is taking place at a geometric pace -- last year, 7 percent of the checks going through the Minneapolis Fed were electronic, this year the share rose to 35 percent, and next year, two-thirds of the transactions are expected to be composed of bits and bytes, not paper."

The California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) announced a new report that it says "reveals how the complicated and deceptive overdraft policies at California's biggest banks allow them to reap huge profits from their mostly working class account holders."   » Continue Reading

Financial institutions connected to the SVPCO Image Payments Network have begun forming new correspondent clearing relationships that are spurring the growth of image exchange among regional institutions and further reducing check processing costs.   » Continue Reading

Heartland Payment Systems has launched Heartland Express Funds, a bank-neutral remote deposit capture system. "Express Funds allows businesses to electronically deposit checks into bank accounts without physically transporting them to the bank – regardless of which bank or banks the business uses. Eliminating floats and holds, funds are available within 24 hours, and, in many cases, by the next-business morning."   » Continue Reading

Bankrate.com has published its Fall 2007 Debit Card Study - exploring debit card reward programs, fees for PIN debit usage, Capital One's decoupled debit, etc.

In an article titled 'Fewer Folks Getting Out Checkbooks', Michael Coit writes about the move away from the use of checks. "At Bank of the West, the fifth largest bank in California, check volumes have been cut in half since 1990 to 45 percent of all non-cash transactions today."

With the headline "Banking fees soar again in 9th Annual Checking Study", Bankrate.com has published the results of its latest survey of fees associated with bank checking accounts. Among its findings, the survey reported that "the average cost of a bounced check, often referred to as a nonsufficient funds fee, climbed 3 percent since last year's survey to a record high of $28.23."

In a new report titled "Billion Dollar Deal", the Center for Responsible Lending says that "millions of college students and other young adults aged 18 to 24 have become unwitting participants in overdraft loans that cost them nearly $1 billion a year in fees."   » Continue Reading

Moneta, a new online financial services company, has announced a new alternative to current forms of online payment that enables consumers to "make online payments directly from their checking or money market accounts using only a secure four-digit PIN." The company says that "merchants pay fees up to 50 percent below those charged by credit card companies and other online payment options." On its web site, Moneta lists Aloha Airlines, TigerDirect.com, Shoebuy.com, and AirTran Airways as participating merchants.   » Continue Reading

Consumer Reports has published an article titled "The dark secrets of debit" that explores the growth in debit card usage, explains the difference between signature and PIN-basd debit, and points out how banks are making money by not declining transactions but, rather, charging overdraft fees when funds aren't available in the consumer's account.

Sybase 365 has announced new research report titled "Mobile Opportunities for the Financial Sector" concluding that "U.S. consumers are obsessed with managing their personal finances. More than a third of U.S. consumers, dubbed 'nano-economists,' are able to state their bank balance at any given time, and an additional 42 percent typically know their bank balance to the nearest $200."   » Continue Reading

APACS has announced a new report finding that "the number of cheques written by individuals has halved from 2.0 billion to 1.0 billion in the last ten years. The Way We Pay 2007: UK Cheques reveals that in 2006 cheque volumes declined at their fastest ever rate, falling by eight per cent. Last year, only 54 per cent of adults made payments using cheques and only 47 per cent received a cheque payment. On average we now write 1.6 cheques a month and receive just one every two months, with half of adults no longer receiving any. For personal payments, cheques have fallen from one in four non-cash payments in 1996, to just one in 14 in 2006. In the retail sector the decline has been particularly rapid, with cheques accounting for just three per cent of all non-cash transactions."   » Continue Reading

Detroit Free Press columnist Susan Tompor writes about needing to be careful using debit cards - to avoid bank overdraft charges. She writes "in the last few years, banks and credit unions began allowing more debit card purchases to go through at checkouts as a convenience to consumers, even if there is not enough money in the checking account."

The American Bankers Association has announced results of a recent survey concluding that "sixty-five percent of consumers spend $3 or less in monthly fees for bank services such as checking account maintenance and ATM access." The ABA also reported that the "portion of consumers this year that pay no bank fees grew to 52 percent, a 9 percent increase from 2006."   » Continue Reading

Simone Baribeau writes for The Christian Science Monitor about how faster check clearing times are leading to situations where consumers believe checks they've deposited are good when they're not. "Federal law requires that banks tell consumers their funds are available, says Susan Grant, director of the National Consumers League's (NCL) fraud center, but nothing prevents a bank from telling customers that it may not have verified that the check has been honored."

Forrester's Mary Pilecki has published a new report titled "Coming Soon: Remote Deposit Capture For Consumers?" "With check writing quickly dwindling as a payments instrument, RDC for consumers might not have time to evolve into readiness for mass adoption, in which case it is likely to be a bridge technology relevant for a maximum of 10 years."

The press continues having a field day with the checking account overdraft fee/overdraft loan issue recently highlighted by the Center for Responsible Lending. In the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Péralte C. Paul explores the issue - saying "for those who are checkbook challenged when it comes to balancing the all-too-important checking account, that $4 Starbucks latte can end up costing that much plus another $30 in overdraft charges if the funds to cover it are lacking."

Jim Bruene blogs about Key Bank's new checking account promotion - "Open a Key Bank free checking account. Make two automated deposits of $100 or more and take home an Apple iPod nano worth $150." He notes that TD Canada Trust is doing something similar.

Michelle Singletary, personal finance columnist for the Washington Post, follows up on the "Out of Balance" report from the Center for Responsible Lending last week and says that "many users have discovered, the debit card has the same problem as its credit card cousin -- you can spend over your limit, causing yourself all kinds of financial havoc." She suggests that financial institutions should "restrain their fee frenzy".

The press is picking up on the Center for Responsible Lending's report on bank overdraft fees and overdraft loans. The CBS Evening News covered the story In an article titled 'Debit Cards' Hidden Fees" citing the study's conclusion that "the single largest use of overdrafts was using your debit card. And those debit card purchases are very small. If you were to calculate an annual percentage rate interest for that loan, it would usually be well into the five digits."   » Continue Reading

The Center for Responsible Lending has published a study titled "Out of Balance" (PDF) saying that "In a system enormously out of balance, consumers pay $17.5 billion in fees for $15.8 billion in abusive overdraft loans. In addition, the report finds that debit card overdrafts are now the single largest source of overdraft fees." See Jim Bruene's commentary on this issue.

Lydia Chen reports for the Shanghai Daily that "individuals and companies can now use checks to pay for things in any city across China as a check imaging system was put into use by the central bank." Previously, checks could only be used in China in the city where issued.

David Colker reports for the Los Angeles Times about how check fraud just won't go away - "U.S. banks lost $711 million because of check fraud in 2005, the most recent year the Federal Reserve studied the matter."

Cornerstone Advisors' Terence Roche writes for Gonzobanker about the new raid on retail bank revenues coming from the likes of Capital One with its new "Capital One decoupled debit card" product and HSBC/Tempo's new CVS-branded debit card. Earlier this week, we noticed that Sheetz has begun working with Capital One on its new debit card program.

Both of these innovative debit card products ride the ACH rails into the consumer's bank checking account - there's no need for the consumer to switch banks - rewarding the cardholder in the process with a much richer rewards program stimulating higher usage and frequency on the new entrants' cards vs. the bank's own traditional (and most likely unrewarded) debit card. Meanwhile, the retail banker is left with the costs of servicing the ACH-based payment and earns no revenue on the transaction itself.

A time for concern? Seems to us that retail bank payments strategists may want to be updating their board presentations! Read Roche's article and decide for your self!

The Sun's Financial Diary blog has a post comparing the various online checking plus savings account alternatives - and finds the richest combination of yields at Presidential Bank.

Wells Fargo has announced Wells Fargo Merchant Checking - an account for small business that combines "the convenience of a full-service business checking account with fast and secure credit and debit card processing at a flat, low discount rate. Merchant Checking allows small business owners to begin accepting credit and debit card payments and have access to funds as soon as the next business day in the associated business checking account - simultaneously meeting two core business needs."   » Continue Reading

US Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) have written to US banking regulators (PDF) about the practice of accepting and processing unsigned or “remotely created” checks.   » Continue Reading

HSBC Finance Corporation’s card and retail services business and CVS/pharmacy have announced they have entered into an agreement to offer a new CVS-branded Tempo Payment Network loyalty rewards payment card. Planned for a mid-2007 pilot launch at the retailer’s 141 Indianapolis-area stores, the CVS ExtraCare Plus card will provide CVS/pharmacy customers with a convenient and secure multipurpose rewards and payment solution that links the cardholder’s existing checking account to their existing ExtraCare account.   » Continue Reading

Celent has published a new report titled "State of Remote Deposit Capture: Entering the Mainstream" saying that , among financial institutions, RDC adoption has been astonishing—even faster than the Internet banking gold rush. In just two years, nearly a third of all US banks have adopted RDC solutions. Over 2,900 financial institutions have implemented (or are implementing) RDC through March 2007, corresponding to some 112,000 scanners. Based on aggregate vendor activity, Celent expects over 4,000 institutions will have solutions deploying nearly 250,000 devices by year end 2007.

Unisys has announced it will design and help implement a new electronic check and image processing system in a consulting, software and hardware agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, acting on behalf of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks.   » Continue Reading

HSBC Bank USA has announced HSBC Direct’s Online Payment Account, a new Online Payment Account product that offers instant fund transfers to and from the HSBC Direct Online Savings Account (OSA) and pays a current yield of 2.50% APY. According to HSBC, "this account allows customers to leave funds in the high-yield OSA longer, and fluidly manage their money so that they can maximize the value of every dollar, every day. Customers can also earn interest on money in the Online Payment Account used for everyday expenses, and then promptly move anything they do not spend back into high-yield savings, getting the most earning power from both."   » Continue Reading

Paul Craig writes for The News-Review from Roseburg, Oregon about how "a check won’t buy a Big Mac. It can’t necessarily be used to purchase a bagel, either." He also reports that "paying with cards is not only faster than writing a check, it actually leads to quicker service than using cash, since all a teller has to do is scan the card."

Kerry Miller reports for Business Week about a two-year-old company called National Payment Card that enables payments using a consumer's driver's license and a PIN - with the transaction linked directly to the consumers checking account. According to Miller, "NPC started piloting the patent-pending technology at a handful of gas stations in Texas this January. Since then the company has signed contracts to roll out the system to five regional convenience store chains starting in June."

Federal Reserve Governor Randall S. Kroszner spoke today at the 2007 Payments Conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. In his talk, titled "The Future of Payments: Challenges and Opportunities", he commented on the future of electronic check clearing: "Perhaps the greatest current opportunity in the retail payments system is for the banking industry to move rapidly to the electronic clearing of checks. As envisioned by Congress, Check 21 has created a strategic vision for moving the U.S. check clearing system into the new century. The historic infrastructure for paper check clearing is consolidating rapidly. Banks are changing their internal systems so they can accept deposits and collect checks electronically and are increasingly accepting their check presentments electronically."

Péralte C. Paul writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about whether banks should give depositors access to their own money faster. "The money strides out of your bank account, but it strolls in," said Jean Ann Fox, director of consumer protection at the Consumer Federation of America, a Washington-based advocacy group.

Wesabe's Marc Hedlund blogs about a post from a Wesabe member who describes his recent experience with overdraft fee policies at Wachovia Bank - they so irritated him that he's closed his checking account there. He says: "Wachovia was able to use these three methods (a) to create an "overdraft" where one didn't exist from a cash flow perspective by playing with timing; (b) manipulating the order of posting transactions to make those fees apply to four transactions instead of the two that may have been otherwise been overdrafts, assuming Wachovia's initial calculating based on transaction timing is proper; and (c) turning those four overdraft charges into seven by paying themselves overdraft fees before covering any other transaction, including those that come before there is any overdraft."

Péralte C. Paul writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about remote deposit capture. The article includes a nifty graphic explaining the process.

In a report titled "Report to the Congress on the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act of 2003" (PDF), the Federal Reserve reports "on the effect of the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act on the nation's check-collection system. Assesses the need for modifications to the funds-availability requirements established in and pursuant to the Expedited Funds Availability Act (EFAA). Based on the Board's extensive survey of the banking industry and supplemented with other information from official and industry sources."

Following ING Direct's general availability of it's new Electric Orange paperless checking account, Bankrate.com's Laura Bruce and Netbanker's Jim Bruene take a deeper look. Bruce notes that Electric Orange "has all the bells and whistles necessary to make a checkless account feasible for many people and, true to form, ING is sticking with its no-minimums policy to make this a free checking account."

ING Direct's web site now has information available about its new Electric Orange paperless checking account. The bank describes it by saying "America's first all–electronic, paperless checking account is going to change the way you do your banking. Earn a great rate, with online Free Bill Pay, easy access to cash, an Electric Orange MasterCard Debit Card and more – it provides the access and convenience of checking with the earning power of savings."

Laura Bruce writes for Bankrate.com about paperless checking accounts - among them ING DIRECT's Electric Orange checking account - soon to be generally available

Meena Thiruvengadam writes for the San Antonio Express-News about the merger announced in December of M&F Worldwide Corp., the parent company of San Antonio-based Clarke American, the nation's No. 3 check printer, with Atlanta-based John H. Harland Co., the country's No. 2 check printer, to become the largest check printing company in the US - larger than long-time No. 1 Deluxe Corp. The merger is still awaiting regulatory approvals.

Shaheen Pasha writes for CNNMoney.com about ING Direct's Electric Orange high-yield online checking account - saying that some industry analysts are skeptical of the service concept.

Jacksonville, FL-based EverBank launched a new marketing campaign today promoting its FreeNet checking account. The bank said "with rumblings of a new online check-less checking account set to launch by Internationale Nederlanden Groep (ING) DIRECT within the next few weeks, Jacksonville, Fla.-based banking leader EverBank today launched a new campaign which poses a five-word question to financial consumers - "What are you waiting for?" The account offers an introductory yield of 6.01% for the first three months, calling it the "highest yield for checking in the industry" according to Frank Trotter, president of EverBank Direct.

The Sun's Financial Diary blog reviews comments and experiences from readers using ING Direct's Electric Orange checking account.

USAA Federal Savings Bank has announced it is now "the largest nationwide bank to offer an easy-to-use, secure new service that enables its customers to deposit checks into their bank accounts using a home scanner and an Internet connection."   » Continue Reading

The Sun's Financial Diary blog - whose writer is an ING Direct account holder - writes about ING Direct's new Electric Orange account including some of the features included with it.

Ted Griffith reports for The Wilmington News Journal about ING Direct's "audacious" expansion plans - including its plans to introduce checking accounts dubbed "Electric Orange" on Feb. 1 of next year following a limited introduction to existing customers next month. Griffith reports the ING Direct plans to pay about 3 percent in interest on funds in the accounts - significantly higher than the average interest rates currently paid by other retail banks. Customers won't get checkbooks but will get an ING Direct debit card as well as be able to print checks as required on their home computers.

The Federal Reserve Board has announced its approval of a final rule regarding consumer authorization requirements when a person, such as a merchant, seeks to electronically collect a fee for checks or other items that are returned unpaid. The final rule clarifies that the requirement to obtain the con