First Data has announced that its binding corporate rules for data privacy have been authorized by the United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office, and are now approved by the data protection authorities in 18 European Union member states.

“Data privacy is fundamental to the success of our business, and we’re deeply committed to protecting the information entrusted to us by our clients and employees alike. We have high standards for data privacy, and this recognition from exacting European regulators demonstrates our global leadership in data protection compliance,” said First Data Chief Executive Officer Jonathan J. Judge.

On the wires:

• Axioma Launches Enhanced Global and Regional Risk Models
• Electronic Payment Exchange and Sprint Extend Relationship through Co-Marketing Deal
• Beanstream Introduces New Global Transaction Product Suite Allowing Merchants to Accept Payments From Around the World
• Global Payments Canada Teams with Precidia for Semi-Integrated EMV Solution for ECRs
• SEGA Chooses PlaySpan for Monetization of MLB Manager Online
• Contis Group Acquires GTP Financial Services for European Prepaid Push

On the web:

• New York Times: How to Avoid Credit Card Problems Abroad - Practical Traveler
• Dow Jones: Verifone Looks To Advances In Mobile Payment
• China Daily: PayPal to End Partnership with Alibaba
• New York Times: New Russian ATM’s Are Built to Detect Lies
• ComputerWorld: MasterCard Warns Skimming Hole Will Be Open For Years

SponsorPay, a virtual currency monetization platform in Europe, has announced that it has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Hasso Plattner Ventures. Team Europe Ventures also participated in this round. The Berlin-based company says it will use the investment to accelerate growth in international markets and further expand its leadership role in Europe. READ MORE »

ATM transaction flows under the Euro Alliance of Payment Schemes (EAPS), which unites European debit card schemes, have increased thanks to Consorzio Bancomat and Zentraler Kreditausschuss opening up the Italian and German processing gateways, SIA-SSB and CardProcess, under the EAPS framework to support their agreement to allow each other’s cardholders to withdraw cash from their respective ATM networks. READ MORE »

Visa Europe has announced that will cap its weighted average intra-regional MIF for immediate debit transactions at 20 basis points (0.2%) for four years. The same cap will apply to domestic immediate debit rates that defaulted to the intra-regional MIF rate before 10 March 2009 and continue to do so, and to domestic immediate debit rates set directly by Visa Europe. Visa Europe noted that "many of these countries have their own arrangements for setting domestic interchange or have few immediate debit card transactions, therefore the overall impact is limited." READ MORE »

Cardis Enterprises International has announced the European introduction of a low value payment solution with "a unique business model that provides a platform to drive cash replacement of everyday small payments."

Cardis says that its solution "offers a paradigm shift to the payment cards business model by introducing end-to-end transaction aggregation - an industry first. This allows for reduction of the per transaction cost by enabling many individual low-value payment transactions to be aggregated into a single (higher value) debit card transaction, without the need for per transaction reconciliation (or shadow accounting), posting or processing at any point in the value chain." READ MORE »

The European Payments Council (EPC), the coordination and decision-making body of the European payments industry, has published its EPC Annual Report 2009. "The EPC delivers the payment schemes and frameworks necessary to create the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). SEPA is an EU integration initiative in the area of payments designed to realise the completion of the EU internal market and monetary union. SEPA is currently defined as consisting of the EU 27 Member States plus Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Monaco. The EPC Annual Report 2009 highlights further substantial progress achieved in the following areas covered by the EPC work programme." READ MORE »

Visa Europe has published a new white paper titled "The Future of Everyday Payments in Europe - Who Cares?".

From the introduction: "Our overriding contention is that, to enable and accelerate further development everyday payments, more innovation will be essential. But we use the term “innovation” in its broadest sense. In some instances a big, sweeping change may be necessary. More often, a small tweak or a minor calibration can pay huge dividends."

An updated version of "Inside Fraud" published by Payments, Cards and Mobile and sponsored by Visa Europe is now available online.

The report finds significant variations in losses between France, Netherlands, Spain and UK with losses much higher on internet and international transactions. The report suggests there is an "urgent need to complete roll-out of EMV and continue implementation of online security measures."

Taking Visa Europe’s figures as a barometer for the region as a whole, card fraud losses fell from 0.07% (7 basis points) of card turnover in 2007 to 0.06% in 2008. But comparing national figures for France, Spain, Netherlands and the UK, losses ranged from fewer than 3 basis points of card turnover in Spain to 10 basis points in the UK.

Further, the picture is not static. In Holland, which historically had one of the lowest levels of card fraud in Europe, the loss rate has risen almost threefold during the last four years. With Dutch debit card transactions still 100% based on magnetic-stripe cards, losses continue to rise due to skimming. In contrast, UK figures for first half of 2009 show total card fraud losses down 23% to £232.8 million.

You can download the full report here.

On November 2, the European Payments Council (EPC) launches the SEPA Core Direct Debit Scheme and the SEPA Business to Business Direct Debit Scheme. The SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) Schemes enable bank customers – for the first time ever - to make and receive direct debits within and across 32 European countries collectively known as the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). READ MORE »

The European Payments Council (EPC), the coordination and decision-making body of the European banking industry in relation to payments, has announced that the SEPA Core Direct Debit Scheme and the SEPA Business to Business Direct Debit Scheme will launch on 2 November 2009. READ MORE »

PULSE, the Discover Financial Services business unit responsible for expanding global cash access for the company, has signed a long-term ATM acquiring agreement with TRIONIS, a European interbank processing network. TRIONIS is jointly owned by retail banks from nine European countries, the European Savings Banks Group, and First Data. READ MORE »

Ukash has announced that it is partnering with MasterCard and will help facilitate the launch of the MasterCard rePower service in Europe - a service that allows consumers to load cash onto their MasterCard and Maestro prepaid cards at Point-of-Sale (POS) locations. READ MORE »

EuroCommerce, an association of European retailers, has announced that it is lodging a new complaint against Visa Europe. In a press release, EuroCommerce said that "the fees, set by Visa and its member banks and imposed on retailers, constitute an infringement of European competition law. It was the imposition of exactly such fees which led the European Commission to rule against MasterCard in December 2007. EuroCommerce calls for the same robust decision against Visa." READ MORE »

In a press release today, the European Commission said it "can confirm that it has sent a Statement of Objections (SO) to Visa on 3rd April 2009. The Commission's preliminary view is that the multilateral interchange fees (MIFs) set directly by Visa restrict competition between banks for accepting consumer payment cards without benefiting consumers by contributing to technical and economic progress."

MasterCard Europe has announced that it had reached an understanding with the European Commission on interim interchange fees for cross-border consumer payments within the European Economic Area (EEA). New interchange fees will be set for these transactions while the company pursues its appeal of the Commission’s December 2007 decision regarding interchange. MasterCard Europe had temporarily reduced these fees to zero in June 2008 in order to ensure its conformity with the decision. READ MORE »

ChronoPay and Payvision have announced they have signed a contract forming strategic partnership. Through the partnership with Payvision, ChronoPay expands its presence in European countries offering eCommerce merchants more flexible, secure and multi-currency payment solutions - enabling Chronopay merchants to increase their online transaction volumes. READ MORE »

Diners Club International, a business unit of Discover Financial Services, in conjunction with Discover, and SIX Multipay, a leading Swiss-based payment services provider, have announced that they have signed a long-term merchant acquiring agreement. This is the first multi-country, acquirer agreement to further European acceptance of Diners Club and Discover Network cards. READ MORE »

Deutsche Card Services, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, has published the Pago Retail Report 2008. Among its findings: "In European online retailing, risks of non-payment are much lower for women than for men. This is indicated by a lower chargeback ratio, which describes the share of credit card transactions which had to be charged back after the cardholder rejected the transaction. At roughly 0.10%, female consumers' non-payment ratio for online purchases paid for by credit card is only half that of male customers (0.19%). One year before the opposite was true. " READ MORE »

First Data and American Express have announced a new merchant services agreement in Poland where First Data will become the exclusive merchant acquirer and merchant processor for American Express Card transactions in Poland. READ MORE »

The CNP Payment Forum (previously titled DRF EU) has announced its 6th annual conference to be held in Barcelona on May 11-13, 2009. 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 »

In an article titled "Visa Europe expects deal with EU on card fees soon", Huw Jones reports for Reuters about comments from Visa EU management indicating that they expect "to reach a deal with European Union competition authorities on its much disputed transaction fees this year."

First Data has announced signing a partnership agreement with WestLB to launch a new business, First Merchant Solutions, to provide card acceptance services for retailers in Germany and across Europe. "As part of this new venture, WestLB, a German regional state bank with a strong European presence, will provide the licenses and payment services infrastructure while First Data will provide a comprehensive range of merchant acquiring services." READ MORE »

Altair Financial Services International has announced that "it will work with MasterCard to deliver the first prepaid card programs in Europe using MasterCard rePower, the MasterCard point-of-sale reload service. The first prepaid programs to benefit from MasterCard rePower loading facility in the UK will be issued by Newcastle Building Society in Spring 2009." READ MORE »

The GSMA, the global trade body for the mobile industry, and the European Payments Council, which represents 8,000 banks in the European Union and EEA and Switzerland, have announced they will be working together "to accelerate the deployment of services that enable consumers to pay for goods and services in shops, restaurants and other locations using their mobile phones." READ MORE »

Wirecard and Experian have announced "a strategic alliance to create a unique product to provide risk management support to the rapidly growing European Internet payment market. The new product, hosted by Wirecard, gives clients access to sophisticated analytics, modelling and simulation technology at the point at which they make decisions on their customers. Fully integrated into Wirecard’s payment platform, the new service will help clients to increase the speed and quality of their decision-making during order acceptance and reduce their exposure to Internet fraud." READ MORE »

MasterCard Europe (MCE) has announced that "as of June 21, 2008 MasterCard is temporarily repealing its current MasterCard and Maestro intra-EEA cross-border consumer card interchange fees in conformity with the European Commission's December 19, 2007 decision. MCE said it will continue its dialogue with the Commission services about an interchange fee methodology that the Commission services believe is consistent with the decision. MCE also said it will continue to pursue its appeal of the decision to the European Court of First Instance, which it filed on March 1." READ MORE »

On the Digital Money Forum blog, Dave Birch posts about Harry Leinonen's paper titled "Payment Habits and Trends in the Changing E-Landscape 2010+" . From the foreward: "This book is the summary of a project undertaken in the Bank of Finland with the objective of discovering business and technological innovations, with which possibly new payment approaches could be introduced to the market and changes in future payment habits could be brought about. Payments habits have changed slowly in the past and therefore the time period selected for the study is 2010+, ranging to about 5–10 years beyond then. According to the findings we appear to be heading towards a new era in payment technology." READ MORE »