On the web:

• Why Banks Love Debit Cards Again - TIME.com
• Dwolla Taken Offline by DDoS attack - MobilePaymentsToday.com
• What You Need to Know About Credit Card Processing (Five Part Series) - NYTimes.com
• Seamless’s SEQR Skips Visa, MasterCard to Battle Google Wallet - The Washington Post
• How An Unregulated Virtual Currency Became A Billion Dollar Market -TechCrunch
• PayPal of Russia 'Oiwi' Aims to Raise $100 million in a U.S. IPO - Internet Retailer
• Taiwan Plans To Let Local Banks Issue China Unionpay Cards - Reuters

On the wires:

• Cars.com Signs With 41st Parameter
• Bango Hits 100 Operator Connections with Global Bill-to-Mobile Service
• Alibaba Group and MasterCard Sign MOU to Enhance e-Commerce Environment
• IDT and Fiserv Announce Strategic Agreement to Expand Availability of International Calling Services and Walk-in Bill Payments
• Digital River Expands Its Global Online Payments Portfolio with Prepaid Payment Solution, paysafecard

On the web:

• PayPal’s Ambitious Plans For Stores - Internet Retailer
• UK-based ERN Raises $2M For 'Big Data' Card Analytics - TechCrunch
• ‎ As EMV-Debit-Durbin Problem Festers, a Solution May Be on Its Way - Digital Transactions
• UAE Exchange collaborates with ElectraCard Services to Launch 'gocash' Prepaid Travel Card - AfricanBrains
• SimplyTapp Proposes Secure Elements In The Cloud - NFC World

On the wires:

• VeriFone NFC Managed Services to Drive China Mobile Commerce Network
• FDIC Survey on How Banks are Working to Meet the Needs of Unbanked, Underbanked
• Voltage Secure Stateless Tokenization Advances PCI DSS Audit Scope Reduction
• Digital River World Payments Offers Online Merchants Full Card Acceptance Services for AmEx
• CARDFREE Releases Study on Fast Food Restaurants Gift Card Sales and Redemption
• Western Union Now Offering Two Options for International Travelers

On the web:

• Tello Launches PassTools To Help Businesses Build Their Apple Passbook Passes - TechCrunch
• AmEx Launches Integration With Apple’s Passbook - VentureBeat
• Starbucks: We'll Be Passbook-Ready Before October - CNET News
• Alternative Financial Services Grow, So Do the Unbanked and Underbanked - Portals and Rails
• WeChat App Aims at Social, Cash-Less Mobile Payments in China - Tech in Asia

On the wires:

• Digital River to Acquire LML Payment Systems in Canada
• Bango Goes Live With Facebook Mobile Payments
• AJB Announces Mobile Payments Strategy for Retailers
• Chase Cardholders Can Now Use Ultimate Rewards Points to Pay for Merchandise at Amazon.com
• Net Element Partners with Russia's MegaFon to Provide Payment Processing Services
• Paylane Launches World’s First 'Payments Just For Startups'
• Payza Market Share Skyrockets in Bangladesh

On the web:

• Chirpify is Building a Payments Company Around Twitter - American Banker
• Credit Cards No Longer Accepted At Medical Pot Dispensaries - MSNBC
• India’s Prizm Payments On Track To Hit $50B In Transactions - TechCrunch
• Inside Apple's Go-Slow Approach to Mobile Payments - WSJ.com
• Wal-Mart Said to Halt Amex Prepaid Card Pilot - American Banker

On the wires:

• C-SAM Extends Mobile Transactions Expertise Into User Experience
• Smart Card Alliance Launches 'EMV Connection' Website Dedicated to U.S. EMV Migration
• Brightwell Payments Acquires Directo and Expands Presence in U.S. Paycard Market
• UBPS to Acquire, Consolidate Three Payment Companies in Proposed $179 Million Transaction
• Virtual Piggy and Marmalade to Bring Youth Payments to the Gaming World
• Digital River White Paper on Global Spending Habits and Payment Preferences of Online Gamers
• Fifth Third Bank Launches RevLink Collect

Digital River announced that it enhanced its Digital River World Payments solution to include cloud-based subscription billing.

“More merchants are seeking end-to-end subscriptions solutions to meet the complex billing expectations of today’s connected consumers,” said Souheil Badran, senior vice president and general manager of Digital River World Payments. “The addition of our cloud-based subscription solution further strengthens our support of merchants throughout the entire payment and subscription lifecycle. We can now act as the single partner merchants rely on for payment-related services to help them drive continued recurring revenue growth across global markets.”

Digital River has announced 'Digital River Connect' to provides developers with access to its Global Commerce and Commerce Express application programming interfaces (APIs) and enables commerce-as-a-service (CaaS).

“An open and accessible API is a critical component of today’s digital ecosystems,” said James Gagliardi, Digital River’s vice president of product and innovation. “We’ve designed the Digital River Connect technology from the ground up to set the standard in this area. It combines the power and capabilities of our enterprise-level solutions with a new, easy-to-use interface that lets developers become productive quickly – fostering a rapid onboarding process with an integrated test console that lets developers learn about our APIs and start using them in a single, seamless experience.”

On the web:

• FBI Explores The Implications Of Bitcoin - Techdirt

On the wires:

• Paymetric, Inc. Deploys Secure Mobile Payments
• CardinalCommerce Has Processed Over One Billion Transactions
• Digital River Introduces The App Practice for Online Merchants
• Bill.com Integrates with NetSuite to Deliver Seamless Cloud-Based Financial Management
• Citi and American Airlines Announce the New CitiBusiness / AAdvantage World MasterCard
• Virtual Piggy Adds New Family-Friendly Merchants to Growing Roster of Partners

On the web:

• China Will Be No. 1 Mobile Payment Market By 2015 - Bank Systems & Technology
• Capital One Add Rewards to Mobile App, Includes Ability to Redeem for PREVIOUS Travel - NetBanker
• The Sign Of POS Hardware End Times: IBM Sells All Of Its Point Of Sales To Toshiba - StoreFrontBackTalk
• Google Wallet: We're In It For The Long Haul, Says Search Giant - NFC World
• No slowing down: Square processing $5 billion a year - GigaOM
• What Facebook Really Wants from Payments - American Banker

On the wires:

• Acculynk Announces Digital River World Payments as a New PaySecure Client
• PaySpan Introduces Virtual Card Reimbursement Solution for Healthcare Payers and Providers
• Heartland Payment Systems Unveils Latest Version of WaveRider Laundry Payment System
• PULSE Provides Participants Web-Based Access to Essential Account Data
• New Mercator Report on Tools for Managing Commercial Card Programs
• iovation Finds 60 Percent Increase in European Fraud Online
• 12 State and County Governments Join doxo

Digital River announced the launch of a cloud-based subscription billing and commerce service.

The offering, which is part of the Digital River Global Commerce enterprise solution, enables companies to sell their services and physical and digital products to online shoppers using fully customizable subscription models tailored to maximize revenue and customer satisfaction. Supported by a wide range of recurring billing terms and more than 20 global payment methods, companies can use the technology to automate the online sale of everything from access and membership fees to warranty periods, service contracts and physical product accessories.

On the web:

• Your Next Credit Card Is Your Last - Fast Company
• Wal-Mart, McDonald's Execs Sour on New Debit Rules - chicagotribune.com
• Starbucks Finds Success in Mobile Payments - TMCnet.com
• International Fraud Awareness Week is Here - Portals and Rails
• PayMate To Launch NFC Based Mobile Payments Product in India - MediaNama

On the wires:

• USA Technologies Maintains Branded Credit and Debit Rate Structure for Small-Ticket Markets
• Digital River Offers Enterprise Software Publishers New Revenue Channel
• Euronet Expands its Polish Network with ATM Acquisition from Diebold’s cash4you Network
• Wright Express Announces International Capabilities for Single-Use Virtual Payments
• Cubic Integrates Video Interface in Next-Gen Ticketing Machines
• 3 Point Alliance chooses Transactis as EBPP Partner
• New Celent Report on State of Remote Deposit Capture

On the web:

• House Lawmakers to Propose Repeal of Durbin Swipe-Fee Rule - BusinessWeek
• Lemon.com Lets You Store, Organize Your Receipts In The Cloud - TechCrunch
• Mobile Payments Looking at Turbulent Times - CNET Reviews
• $4.7 Billion in Digital Goods Will Pass Through PayPal This Year - Mashable

On the wires:

• PULSE and NETS Sign Long-Term Network Agreement to Increase POS and ATM Acceptance
• Digital River Extends Global E-Commerce Agreement with Nuance Communications
• Upromise by Sallie Mae Spreads Holiday Cheer with Increased Cash Back for College
• Western Union Business Solutions Online FX Service Now Available in France, Germany, Ireland and Italy

On the web:

• The Trillion-Dollar Question: Who Will Power Your Mobile Wallet? - Fortune
• Google Formally Launches In-App Payments for the Web - Google Commerce Blog
• PayPal Enhances Payflow Link With More Hosted Checkout Capabilities - PayPal Blog

On the wires:

• peerTransfer Continues to Gain Traction as Emerging Leader in International Student Payment Processing
• Digital River World Payments Receives Payment Services Directive License in Europe
• POS Vendors Announce Plans to Support FaceCash Mobile Payments

On the web:

• What’s in Their Wallets? - AllThingsD
• Goodbye, Paper Savings Bonds - New York Times
• BillGuard’s ‘Anti-Virus’ For Bills And Credit Cards Is Now Free - TechCrunch
• Prospects for Same-Day ACH Brighten As Software Emerges And NACHA Eyes Rules - Digital Transactions

On the wires:

• Bayern Card-Services (BCS) Protects Credit Cards with FICO Fraud Solution
• New Aite Group Report on Cross-Border Consumer Money Transfers
• Souheil Badran is Named SVP and GM of Digital River World Payments

Digital River has announced that PayPal is leveraging its Digital River World Payments solution to support local online payment processing in Brazil and Mexico. "This geographic expansion adds to the companies’ existing relationship, which now includes payment services across multiple continents."

Digital River recently announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 7,881,972 entitled, Electronic Commerce System and Method for Detecting Fraud.

As part of the dynamic cross-linking data techniques inherent in Transaction Defender, this technology uses transaction information given by customers during the online checkout process to make instantaneous fraud detection decisions. The technology continually scans data points delivered from more than 150,000 Digital River hosted global online stores to reveal new risk patterns and trends in real-time and quickly identify and stop fraud attacks through one central action.

Digital River has announced a "comprehensive stand-alone global e-payments solution for online merchants in markets, including e-retail, travel and entertainment, and online services. Designed to increase revenue and customer lifetime value, Digital River World Payments enables online merchants to manage the entire payment lifecycle through a single connection to a payment gateway, merchant account services or fully outsourced payment programs."

More information is available at www.digitalriverpayments.com.

Digital River has posted new position openings on our PaymentsJobs.com job board. These positions, based in the US, are for Senior Sales Executives to expand Digital River's footprint for its international payment processing and related back office services in North America. If you're interested in applying, be sure the checkout the full posting.

Is your company hiring? Are you in the market for qualified payments professionals? Post your openings for payments professionals on PaymentsJobs.com! Got multiple job openings to post? Contact me for a special discount!

Digital River has announced it has acquired fatfoogoo, a Europe-based, in-game and online commerce service provider. According to the company, "the combined forces of Digital River’s e-commerce solutions with fatfoogoo’s technology will offer game publishers and developers an unparalleled, single e-commerce connection to manage their online product sales both in-store and in-game." Digital River paid approximately $10 million for fatfoogoo plus an additional earn-out opportunity tied to performance. READ MORE »