PaymentOne has announced a direct carrier billing relationship with Telefonica Germany. "Telefonica Germany is part of Telefonica SA, a leading provider of broadband and mobile services and the second largest carrier group in the world. The mpass system -- driven by Telefonica Germany, Telekom and Vodafone -- enables merchants to accept direct carrier billed payments for virtual, digital and physical goods."

VeriFone has announced a "new direct distribution relationship for retailers, acquirers and processors in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Austria and Switzerland. These organizations will now be able to obtain products, services, support and value-added solutions directly from VeriFone."

Telefónica Germany, Telekom and Vodafone have announced they will "register their payment service 'mpass' as its own company, and have signed a letter of understanding to this effect. The new company is due to begin operating as early as this year."

Dr. Peter Walz, Member of the Management Board and Director of Wholesale & Strategy at Vodafone Deutschland: 'For many years now we have offered an interoperable payment product across all networks with payments via the phone bill. This is now being continued in the shared mpass activities. Retailers want standardised solutions and that is what we are giving them with mpass.'

The new initiative will move mpass transactions from the online payments world to NFC-enabled offline POS world.

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

On the web:

• South Korea Announces Major Push on Open NFC Payment Services - Reuters
• Thieves Found Citigroup Site an Easy Entry - New York Times
• Mobile Payments and Mental Accounting - TIME.com
• The Tuesday Podcast: Inside The Credit Card Black Market - NPR Planet Money

On the wires:

• NFC Over-the-Air and Over-the-Wire Provisioning Patent Awarded to Tyfone
• Mexico Banking Leader BBVA Bancomer Orders 10,000+ Hypercom Optimum Payment Systems
• SafetyPay Selected By BorderJump as Preferred Payment Solution for Cross Border Transactions
• Retail Decisions (ReD) Launches Truly Multi-Lingual Fraud Prevention
• FICO Will Protect 1 in 3 German Credit Cards from Fraud
• AisleBuyer Raises $7.5 Million in Series E Round

The Mobile Money Exchange has a great visual tool that nicely illustrates the proliferation of mobile money deployments around the world.

This tool was originally developed by the GSMA Mobile Money for the Unbanked team (covering the countries under their remit) and has been extended to include all worldwide mobile money deployments.

On the wires:

• J.P. Morgan’s Order-to-Pay Network Crosses 100,000 Supplier Threshold
• NRF Welcomes Consumer Groups’ Support for Swipe Fee Reform
• Near Field Communication Forum Announces New Members (including CSR, Google, and Intel)
• New Mercator Report on Prepaid Card Market in China
• The VoiceCash Single Prepaid MasterCard (Germany)

On the web:

• NFC World: Amazon Planning NFC Payments and Marketing Service?
• SmartMoney: The New Best Credit Cards
• Vending Times: Cashless Payments Go Mainstream In Unattended POS Markets
• TechCrunch: Social Payments Enabler WePay Celebrates First Birthday

Telefónica O2 Germany and BOKU have announced a direct carrier billing relationship that allows O2 customers to use BOKU’s payment platform to purchase goods ranging from .09 Euros to 30.00 Euros.

“This agreement opens up the opportunity for BOKU merchants to offer payment for physical goods as well as virtual and digital goods,” said James Patmore, Managing Director, BOKU in EMEA. “Our partnership with O2 confirms our vision of evolving online mobile payments into a range of new vertical markets.”

On the wires:

• Every Major National Bank and Credit Union Trade Association Joins to Urge Fundamental Fundamental Revision of Federal Reserve's Debit Card Rule
• Retailers Say Federal Reserve Proposal to Lower Debit Card Swipe Fees Doesn’t Go Far Enough
• Digby Enhances Its Mobile Commerce Software Platform by Adding PayPal Mobile Express Checkout
• Affluent Consumers Are Finding eLayaway a Smarter Way to Plan and Pay
• New Aite Group Report on Trends in Bank-Supported, Business-Initiated Payments
• Wirecard Bank Partners With China UnionPay

On the web:

• SabDesi: PayPal Will Trial Several Payment Systems at Retail This Year
• Visa Blog: Speeding Up P2P Payments with New Visa Service
• Internet Retailer: PayPal Warily Eyes the Fed’s Forthcoming Debit Card Rule

On the wires:

• Logica signs deal to provide managed fuel cards service for Shell
• Fiserv Delivers Web and Mobile Self-Service Channels for Loan Servicing
• MyCommerce Rolls Out Revamped eCommerce Web Platform

On the web:

• Phone Beta: Deutsche Telekom announced rolling out mobile payments in 2011-2012
• CrunchGear: Video Interview: Boku’s Ron Hirson Describes Their Mobile Payments Service
• CNET: Mobile Phone e-wallets Get Closer to Reality | Mobile World Congress Review

Earlier this year, the Bundesbank published its findings regarding the payment behavior of consumers for retail purchases in Germany.

From the press release: "The majority of those surveyed stated that how they chose to pay was determined by the amount of cash they had available to them and the amount to be paid. Measured by the value of the transactions, cash accounts for a share of 57.9%, girocards for 25.5% and credit cards for 3.6% of all purchases. In terms of the number of transactions, cash accounts for a share of 82.5%, with girocards and credit cards accounting for 11.9% and 1.4% respectively. This is due to the fact that mainly small and medium-sized payment amounts are paid in cash."

The full study is available for download here.

Gemalto has announced commercial launch of the Ezio Optical TAN, a unique optical authentication reader for online banking access that is specially designed for the German market. According to the company, "the reader, the size of a credit card, fits in a wallet along with the banking card. Users present the device in front of their computer screen and optical sensors capture the data they would normally enter from the reader keypad to carry out and sign online transactions. No software needs to be installed to use the device." READ MORE »

Sybase has announced that it has acquired paybox solutions AG, a global leader in mobile payment solutions. "With this acquisition Sybase continues to bolster its Unwired Enterprise strategy by extending its leading mobile infrastructure to mobile payments." READ MORE »

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 »

At its 7th Annual Debit Conference, MasterCard Europe has announced what it calls "the emergence of a series of significant cross-border purchasing trends in Europe coinciding with the official launch of the Single Euro(pean) Payments Area (SEPA)."

First Data International has announced it is providing card processing services for the new VIsa prepaid card introduced by Dresdner Bank, part of the Allianz Group. According to First Data, "the Dresdner Prepaid Card combines the principle of prepayment made familiar in the mobile phone market with the payment functionality of a credit card. The card is not linked to a credit facility, and the customer defines the level of credit available on the card by making a deposit. To support the new card, First Data is providing processing and call centre services."