The latest Federal Reserve G.19 Consumer Credit report is out for the month of August 2009 showing that consumer credit outstanding overall decreased at an annual rate of 5-3/4 percent in August 2009. Revolving credit outstanding decreased at an annual rate of 13 percent, and nonrevolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 1-1/2 percent. The rate of decline in revolving consumer credit is the steepest reported in several years.

Visa has announced Visa IntelliLink Spend Management – calling it "a new global information tool that provides extensive reporting and expense management capabilities for organizations of all sizes on a single scalable platform." READ MORE

Visa has released its annual global Commercial Consumption Expenditure (CCE) index estimating that global commercial spending grew to $90.2 trillion in 2008. The annual Visa CCE report provides standardized tracking of business and government spending globally and is recognized as an industry benchmark for measuring commercial spending. READ MORE

Earthport, a global payments utility, has announced the launch of a global payments service for IBM’s Global Expense Reporting Solution (GERS) offering. The new global payments service, utilizing Earthport’s technology and Universal Payments Network, will extend the existing IBM GERS solution to include the final settlement of employees individual expense reports. It will be marketed to new and existing IBM GERS clients. READ MORE

Paymetric, a provider of enterprise payment acceptance solutions, has announced an $8 million second round of financing. Palomar Ventures led the round with a $5 million infusion which was complimented by existing investor Austin Ventures’ participation of $3 million. READ MORE

Transactis and Klik Technologies have announced they will begin offering "the industry's first-ever turnkey, end-to-end, hosted receivables solution for billers, major banks and other financial services companies."

Klik and Transactis are partnering to provide an integrated payment processing portal "enabling billers, major banks and other financial services companies to efficiently process high volume, highly complex transactions. Klik will offer Transactis' BillerExpress™ suite of EBPP solutions, including BillMail ("push" email billing), under its KliknPay brand offering." READ MORE

Bank of America and Bottomline Technologies have announced a strategic relationship to "advance the growth of Bank of America’s market-leading electronic network for payment and invoice automation. Bottomline Technologies will acquire Bank of America's PayMode product, operations and vendor network. The two companies are entering into a multi-year agreement to operate and enhance this innovative Software as a Service (SaaS) offering. In addition to continuing to market PayMode to new clients, Bank of America will retain existing PayMode client relationships and join Bottomline’s Strategic Advisory Council. The bank will also have an equity interest in the company via warrants for one million Bottomline shares." READ MORE

Visa and U.S. Bank have announced Syncada – a joint venture that the two companies say "provides a business-to-business (B2B) network for corporations and governments to process and track invoices, make and receive payments around the world, and have payables or receivables financed through local and global financial institutions." As part of the joint venture, Visa said it has made a capital investment in Syncada. READ MORE

J.P. Morgan has announced the launch of Total Settlement, an electronic payment solution that helps businesses simplify the payment of supplier invoices and lay the foundation for complete order-to-pay automation. According to the bank, "Total Settlement consolidates Automated Clearing House (ACH), commercial card, wire, and standard paper check payments in a single file, eliminating the extra effort in accounts payable involved with processing multiple payment types. A self-service web portal for suppliers provides valuable payment status information, remittance details and allows suppliers to maintain their own contact and payment-related information." READ MORE

Newly available over on our PaymentsViews.com sister site is a new Glenbrook research brief titled "Credit Card Acceptance for B2B Payments" by Glenbrook's Erin McCune and Carol Coye Benson.

This new research brief is based findings from a series of interviews conducted with business-to-business suppliers about credit card acceptance conducted earlier this year. There's a form in the article for you to request a download of the report.

Last week in New York City, Glenbrook's Erin McCune and Carol Coye Benson hosted an "Opportunities in B2B Payments" workshop - attended by product strategists from card networks, NACHA, The Clearing House, major banks, processors, software and service providers and payments start-up companies. In a post over on PaymentsViews.com, Carol takes a look at the key takeaways from last week's workshop.

If you're interested in learning more about Glenbrook’s Payments Education program, visit here. In addition to our popular public Payments Boot Camps, we offer private workshops on site at your location based on special topics (such as last week's “Opportunties in B2B Payments”) or drawn from our core Payments Bootcamp curriculum, or customized in a combination you can tailor to meet your needs.

J.P. Morgan’s Treasury Services business has announced it is offering ISO 20022 payment initiation and reporting capabilities. ISO 20022 is the core message standard for SEPA and represents the next generation of SWIFT message formatting. J.P. Morgan says it is one of the first to adopt this new messaging standard format that allows clients to integrate core treasury, payable and receivable applications with banking and other financial partners. READ MORE

Western Union has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Canada-based Custom House, Ltd., a provider of business-to-business international payment solutions for small and medium enterprises. The US $370 million cash transaction is expected to close in the third quarter 2009, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. READ MORE

First Data has launched PayCargo, a first global online freight payment system for the maritime shipping industry. According to FDC, "the proprietary solution PayCargo offers allows shippers, carriers and freight brokers of all sizes to settle accounts faster and more safely than ever before. The PayCargo system is an electronic invoice presentment and payment (EIPP) tool that helps reduce the cost of approving and disputing payments. It also helps prevent expensive demurrage and storage charges that often result from inefficient payment processes and procedures." READ MORE

Glenbrook's workshop on New Opportunities in B2B Payments will be held in New York City on May 27th and 28th. This two-day session explores a market that is now breaking wide open: the traditionally paper-based world of business-to-business (B2B) payments. READ MORE

J.P. Morgan's Treasury Services business has announced that it has gone live with the first phase of enhancements to its international mass payments operating platform. According to the company, "the enhancements will deliver immediate benefits to clients using the bank's Global ACH service, including later cut-off times for receipt of payment instructions and intelligent routing which automatically selects the most expeditious route if a cut-off is missed." READ MORE

Menlo Park-based Glenbrook Partners has announced that Erin McCune has joined the firm as a partner.

"As a respected thought leader on treasury management issues and business-to-business payments, she broadens Glenbrook’s strategy practice to encompass corporate clients and the financial institutions that serve them." READ MORE

CSC has announced that it has formed an alliance with direct debit solution provider Sentenial to offer a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) direct debit software-based payment solution. According to CSC, "the offering will enable European banks to provide corporate and public sector customers with a comprehensive SEPA direct debit service ahead of the November 2009 target date set by the European Payments Council. SEPA is an initiative of the European banking industry that aims to make cross-border electronic payments as fast, secure and efficient as domestic payments within one country." READ MORE

Wells Fargo and Oracle have announced the release of the Wells Fargo Adapter -software that quickly integrates Wells Fargo treasury management services with the Oracle E-Business Suite financial applications. READ MORE

BankServ has announced that its DepositNow remote deposit service has added the capability for small businesses to be paid directly from emailed invoices. READ MORE

AurionPro Solutions Ltd. and IP Commerce have announced they are forming a joint venture called PriorityCommerce to build payment-enabled applications tailored to the needs of small and medium businesses in the U.S. READ MORE

Visa has announced the introduction of Visa Accounts Payable (AP) Automation, a new service Visa says is "designed to help large and mid-sized businesses reduce costs associated with expense management, purchasing and accounts payable processes." A Visa white paper is also available online. READ MORE

Citi has announced the launch of Citibank Paylink for Cards - calling it "an end-to-end electronic payment solution for corporations, financial institutions and public sector clients, that combines the capabilities and benefits of a purchasing card with the control and consistency of a traditional electronic payment process." READ MORE

Visa has released results of a global survey finding that "74 percent of respondents are satisfied with their commercial payment card programs. Currently, 50 percent of respondents currently use commercial payment cards to make payments as part of their overall cash management strategies. In the next 12 – 18 months, 52 percent of survey respondents intend to reduce reliance on checks and 45 percent plan to increase their use of commercial card programs." READ MORE

Tomorrow, Wells Fargo is announcing enhancements to its CEO Mobile service, a browser-based mobile banking service for its corporate banking customers that remains unique among major financial institutions in the US. Users of CEO Mobile can now initiate and approve federal tax wires and see which self administration dual control items they can act on from their mobile devices. READ MORE

New research from TowerGroup titled "Check, Please! Checks Still the Most Common Noncash Payment Type in the United States" concludes that while the rapid adoption of electronic payments is driven by the desire of payers (both businesses and consumers) for faster, easier, and more efficient ways to make purchases and pay bills, B2B payments remain the last bastion of checks - making up nearly 60 percent of US check dollar value. These persistent challenges in making and receiving electronic payments are a main reason why average US check values are increasing faster than any other payment type, even as the numbers of checks themselves decline. READ MORE

MasterCard Worldwide has announced the integration of its MasterCard Payment Gateway with iPayables’ electronic invoice delivery capabilities to provide expanded payment solutions to corporations and financial institutions. According to MasterCard, "the combined offering provides a complete procure-to-pay solution that supports settlement using a MasterCard payment card account or electronic funds transfer (EFT)." READ MORE

BB&T has announced Vault360, a new service that will allow the bank to accept and process large cash or check deposits from commercial clients operating anywhere in the continental United States. READ MORE

Wells Fargo -- saying it is "the only provider of browser-based mobile banking for commercial customers" -- has announced the addition of wire transfer services and image positive pay functionality to its CEO Mobile service. READ MORE

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