Barclays announced that it has launched Europe’s first person-to-person service for sending and receiving money using mobile phone numbers.

Antony Jenkins, Chief Executive, Barclays Retail and Business Banking said: “Barclays Pingit could revolutionise the way people send and receive money. For friends splitting the cost of dinner, repaying a borrowed £10 or people sending money to a son or daughter at university, it’s free, quick, convenient, secure, and easy to use. You can send and receive money in seconds, without having to enter account details.

The Barclays Pingit service will be available to current account customers of all UK banks and building societies, not just those with Barclays current accounts. Full details are at http://www.barclays.co.uk/pingit.

TSYS announced that both its front-end authorization and capture as well as back-end clearing and settlement platforms are now enabled to process American Express OnePoint transactions.

“This is a mutually beneficial agreement for both TSYS and our clients to expand our processing and merchant portfolios respectively,” said Eric Barth, senior director, product management, TSYS. “For the first time, TSYS will be able to offer our clients complete processing services for all card brands with the convenience of a single deposit and one billing statement to merchants.”

On the web:

• Banking Partners Force Paxum to Drop Bitcoin Due to ‘Potential Risk’ - Betabeat

On the wires:

• Anybill Addresses Growing Demand for Tax Compliance Payment Services

NetSpend, a leading provider of general-purpose reloadable (GPR) prepaid debit cards, has announced the launch of the PayPal Prepaid MasterCard.

"PayPal has chosen us to be the exclusive program and distribution manager and processor for their GPR card," said Dan Henry, chief executive officer of NetSpend. "We are marketing the PayPal prepaid card online and through our direct mail channels. Through this relationship, we are able to offer the prepaid card to PayPal's 106 million active users."

SpyderLynk, creator of SnapTag, has announced its new Snap-to-Buy technology will be deployed in Glamour’s March issue, and through its Glamour Apothecary “shop-able” Wall.

Snap-to-Buy SnapTags transform the way consumers shop for products they see in print advertisements. It is the first integrated solution that combines social media, print media and mobile allowing consumers to complete a purchase from a single mobile based technology platform. Consumers simply snap or scan the “Buy it Now” SnapTag to purchase an advertised product. Consumers enter their credit card information once, which is then saved in a fully-encrypted ‘mobile wallet’ that can be used to make future “Snap-to-Buy” purchases from their specific mobile device.

In related news, Billing Revolution has rebranded itself to buck and announced it is the mobile payment enabler behind Snap-to-Buy.

The Boston Fed has published a Public Policy Discussion Paper entitled "Effects of Credit Scores on Consumer Payment Choice".

This paper investigates the effects of credit scores on consumer payment behavior, especially on debit and credit card use. Anecdotally, a negative relationship between debit card use and credit score has been reported; however, it is not clear whether that relationship is related to other factors, such as education or income, or whether it is a mere correlation. We use a new consumer survey dataset to examine whether this negative relationship holds after controlling for various consumer characteristics, including demographic and financial characteristics, consumers' perceptions toward payment methods, and card reward status.

On the web:

• Integrating Tablets and POS Software For Retail - Point of Sale News
• La Caixa Goes Top of Wallet with PayPal Instant Account Creation - PayPal Blog
• Google Wallet Reopens for Prepaid Cards, Adds Transfer Block - SlashGear

On the wires:

• Plano Bê Launches 2Pay: The Brazilian Answer to Square and iZettle
• Evolution1 Continues Leadership in Ever-Changing Healthcare Market
• 16% of Commercial Banks Now Processing Payments Through Aptys’ PayLOGICS Platform
• TransEngen Strengthens Position as Payments Leader for Healthcare
• InspirePay Adds Support for Dwolla and PayPal

On the web:

• NFC vs. Cloud-based Payments: Which Will Reach Scale First? - Mobile Commerce Daily
• Could Google Wallet be Google's Next Failure? - CNET

On the wires:

• Paytoo Mobile Wallet Brings the Fiesta to Mexico
• Century Bank Partners with Invoice Cloud to Offer Customers e-Billing Technology
• MetraTech's Metanga to Monetize Cloud Banking Application for Temenos
• WePay Rang in 2012 With Over One Payment Per Minute

InComm announced that it has acquired Medagate Corporation, the company that powers OTCNetwork, the only national closed loop over-the-counter (OTC) healthcare benefits payments platform.

Medagate's technology platform supports several applications that enable retail and healthcare to intersect at the point of sale, enabling insured health plan members as well as Medicare and Medicaid members to access and spend their monthly healthcare benefits in an easy and familiar manner.

All current employees of Medagate will remain with the company, with its existing management continuing to run the day-to-day operations.

ThreatMetrix and TransUnion have announced a collaborative effort to incorporate features and functionality from their respective fraud prevention platforms.

“Today’s reality is that device identity is a critical component of a person’s overall online identity. The combination of personal and device identity verification now available through the TransUnion and ThreatMetrix platforms is good for consumers in that it can prevent unauthorized transactions if their online identity has been compromised,” said TransUnion’s Jeff Brown, vice president, Identity Risk Solutions.

appMobi has announced public beta availability of playMobi, a cross-platform HTML5-based game development, deployment, and monetization SDK.

playMobi enables cross-platform in-app purchasing with its 1Touch in-app payment system. When a player makes a purchase, playMobi automatically completes the transaction using the correct in-app-purchase backend system, based on the device in use. When running on iOS, playMobi uses iTunes; on Android, Google Payments; on Facebook, Facebook Credits; and on the Open Web, PayPal.

More information is available from the appMobie website, www.appmobi.com.

On the web:

• Time for Cash to Cash Out? - WSJ.com
• Proxama, ARM Partners for M-Payments - NFCNews
• PayPal Trials QR Code Payments in Singapore - The Next Web
• Google Wallet Suspends Prepaid Credit Card Function - PCWorld
• PayPal Exec Woos Big Retailers With Pricing and Data Sharing - Reuters
• Food, Dining Especially Vulnerable to Card-Data Breaches, Report Finds - Digital Transactions

On the wires:

• txtNation Launches Rebranded Mobile Billing Gateway
• YESpay Launches Mobile StoreManager with NFC Support

Visa has announced financial results for the Company's fiscal 1Q 2012 which ended December 31, 2011. Highlights include:

• Payments volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, for the three months ended September 30, 2011, on which fiscal first quarter service revenue is recognized, was a positive 13% over the prior year at $971 billion.

• Payments volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, for the three months ended December 31, 2011, was a positive 11% over the prior year at $994 billion.

• Cross-border volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, was a positive 13% for the three months ended December 31, 2011.

• Total processed transactions, which represent transactions processed by VisaNet, for the three months ended December 31, 2011, were 13.6 billion, a positive 8% increase over the prior year.

A webcast replay is available on the Visa investor website.

First Data has released its First Data SpendTrend analysis for the full month of January 2012 compared to January 2011.

Overall year-over-year dollar volume growth was 7.0% in January, while overall transaction growth was 7.2%. Mild winter weather nationwide resulted in lower energy demands, providing consumers with additional income to spend at retailers.

SpendTrend tracks same-store consumer spending by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT cards and checks at U.S. merchant locations.

A new study released today by NACHA and PayItGreen says nearly 30% to 40% of consumers who receive their financial statements and bills online also receive paper versions. The study finds that this trend surprisingly exists primarily among Gen Y and Early Adopters.

FiTeq Technologies announced the launch of "the first payment card that incorporates an approved EMV payment applet in combination with the FiTeq Energizer Stripe enabling a unique cryptogram (FiTeq Transaction Specific Code) to be created within the magnetic stripe data packet for each transaction."

Virtual Piggy announced the release of its mobile iOS app, which allows parents and kids to manage their Virtual Piggy accounts on their Apple phones and tablets.

“Kids are very comfortable with e-commerce and over a third of kids 8-11 now have their own mobile device and that number is rising,” said Virtual Piggy Executive, Catherine Williams. “The Virtual Piggy app brings our secure online payment method to the platforms where kids spend the majority of their time.”

Fiserv has announced new redemption options for its award-winning UChoose Rewards program. "UChoose Rewards supports both consumer and small business market segments for both debit and credit card programs. It is an innovative program that allows financial institutions to select from merchant-funded, issuer-funded or a blended rewards programs."

Visa announced that it has extended its issuer processing platform, Visa DPS, to offer mobile services that are fully managed by Visa and can be accessed with any mobile device, any mobile channel, and with any eligible debit, credit or prepaid account.

“The services offered by Visa DPS are a one-stop solution for Visa clients who want to serve their customers through the mobile channel without making significant investments in hardware, software or mobile expertise,” said John Partridge, President, Visa Inc. “Through our ongoing investments in Visa DPS, our clients can not only take advantage of Visa’s scale and expertise in payments processing, but also have the opportunity to easily implement Visa’s extensive roadmap of mobile innovations – from mobile banking, to NFC payments, and to our digital wallet, V.me.”

Gemalto has announced its in-branch Dexxis EMV instant issuance card solution for U.S. banks, designed to "streamline and accelerate EMV migration. Dexxis instant issuance allows banks to immediately issue and activate initial and replacement cards directly at the physical bank branch location, rather than sending personalized cards to end users via postal mail."

MasterCard Worldwide and Silver Tail Systems announced a new exclusive relationship that will focus on combating online fraud.

“Online fraud resulting from malware, viruses and criminal-controlled bots is a serious concern for both merchants and consumers,” says Johan Gerber, Group Head, Global Network Products for MasterCard Worldwide. “With the increased sophistication of these fraud attacks, merchants are finding it more difficult to distinguish between good customers and criminals. Our relationship with Silver Tail Systems allows us to extend beyond the traditional fraud detection methods and provide merchants with a strong defense against fraud, while improving the consumers’ online experience.”