The Mobey Forum has just released a new white paper title "The MPOS Breakthrough: How the Power of Mobile has Disrupted Payments".

The paper begins:

"Little more than three years after the December 2009 launch of Square, MPOS has redefined merchant card acceptance at the point of sale (POS), by both rewriting the rules on who can accept card payments and vastly simplifying their means to do so."

Discover has announced that it has signed contracts with 50 merchant acquirers to help extend PayPal’s in-store acceptance to more than 2 million merchant outlets by the end of 2013. The relationship between PayPal and Discover to expand PayPal's acceptance was announced last August.

“With the signing of 50 merchant acquirers to date, we are well on our way toward helping PayPal reach its goals of acceptance at millions of physical locations in the U.S.,” said Diane Offereins, president of payment services at Discover.

“Our relationship represents the unique abilities we have to leverage our payments assets and infrastructure to work with emerging payments leaders like PayPal, and we’re proud of the progress we’ve made in such a short time.”

On the web:

• Trustev Tackles E-Commerce Identity Fraud With An Online Fingerprint Made From Social Signals And More - TechCrunch - "Trustev … has developed a product to tackle online fraud using an algorithmic system of social signals, behavioral data and transaction history…"
• PayPal expands further into stores, but Wal-Mart holds out - Reuters - "PayPal's expansion into brick-and-mortar stores gives the company access to a market that is roughly ten times the size of the online payments sector..."
• Payments Network Dwolla Raises $16.5 Million Series C From Andreessen Horowitz & Others, Expands To San Francisco- TechCrunch - "The legacy payments networks in existence today are bogged down with outdated technology, slowing progress…"
• Payment Services Firm Qiwi Eyes $100 Million In IPO - Investors.com - "Qiwi is a leading provider of next-generation payment services in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States."
• RetailNext Raises $15 Million More to Track Your Every In-Store Move - PE Hub - "Our focus is on taking analytics happening online and providing it to physical retailers."
• It's Time for Better Online Authentication Solutions - Portals and Rails (FRB Atlanta) - "Improving authentication techniques and requiring their use are critical to better mitigate online account takeover risks."
• The Elephant in the Payments Room - American Banker - Jon Matonis - "Disruption in the unit of account is the way to disrupt the payments space."
• 4G will boost mobile payment uptake, says MasterCard - V3 - "The rise in 4G networks will help usher in a new wave of innovative mobile payment services for businesses to offer customers…"
• Chase Visa deal and SDWOANAF: where potential and confusion meet - Mobile Payments Today

On the wires:

• The UnionPay Travel Prepaid Card Launched by The Bancorp - "Though the card is targeted to those planning to travel to Asia, the card will be accepted within the US wherever UnionPay cards are accepted."
• ROAM Releases RP350x: World’s First PCI-PTS certified Chip and Signature Mobile Card Reader - "The reader provides a low cost solution for enabling Chip and Sign payment acceptance…"
• VeriFone Enables Channel Partner Success with New EMV-Capable, Portable and Mobile Payment Solutions - "VeriFone is committed to enabling channel partner success in a rapidly evolving market by providing EMV-capable, portable and mobile solutions…"
• TriSource Solutions Introduces First End-to-End Merchant Aggregation Processing Solution During ETA - "The increased functionality of our merchant acquiring platform can get PSPs and PFs up and running in record time…"
• Leaf Announces a Better Way to Sell Merchant Credit Card Processing - "Leaf’s open approach to payments offers a seamless reseller option for our partners to empower their sales teams with a new, competitive solution…"

On the web:

• PayPal Hits The Mall: eBay's Baby Takes On Google, AmEx And Apple At Cash Registers - Forbes (Clare O'Connor) - "The aim is for shoppers to be able to use PayPal at the cash register in two million stores by the end of 2013."
• Banks Urged to Put Limits on Payday-Style Loans - NY Times Dealbook - "Federal regulators on Thursday admonished some of the nation’s largest banks for offering payday-style loans, short-term costly credit tied to customers’ checking accounts."
• Google Think Insights: The Customer Journey to Online Purchase - "This tool helps you explore and understand the customer journey to improve your marketing programs."
• CGAP: Exploring Alternative API Product Concepts - "CGAP’s work in Applied Product Innovation (API) aims to understand how customer-centric design methodologies … could be tailored to branchless banking in order to achieve better financial service offerings for the poor."
• Medagate's health card combines incentives with functionality - Drug Store News - "...enables employers and health plans to combine a member/employee healthcare funding purse with a restricted-spend purse for targeted items and incentives…"
• Bank Customers Want A Seamless Experience (My Foot) - Snarketing 2.0 - "Consumers want things to work. Period."
• Banks use mobile phone history to determine credit rating - Springwise - "Cignifi’s new platform offers what it claims is the first to deliver credit and marketing scores for consumers without credit histories using mobile phone behavior data."
• Online Shopping, With Sales Tax Added - NY Times Bucks Blog - "Shoppers will now have to figure in sales tax when they are deciding whether it is better to buy a particular item online or in a brick-and-mortar store."
• The Mysterious World of Bitcoin: Does It Have Staying Power? - Knowledge @ Wharton - "Bitcoin has all the hallmarks of a classic speculative bubble..."
• Are QR codes losing their magnetism? - Mobile Marketer Daily - "Brands don't want to place a generic black and white box all over their creative…"
• Infographic: Mobile Devices Overtake Daily Life - "On average, people check their phones 150 times a day or every 6.5 minutes…"

On the wires:

• GateCrafters Now Offers Bill Me Later Payment Option - "We hope this option will give customers more peace of mind when purchasing big ticket items."
• Co-Op to Offer Enhanced Member Control of Cards Via New Mobile Card and Alert Product - "…the product to be offered by CO-OP will provide a range of services, including allowing members to set controls and alerts based on their preferences, such as transaction type, merchant, location and thresholds."
• Blackhawk Announces First Quarter 2013 Financial Results Consistent With Estimates Provided in Prospectus - "Demand for our prepaid products was strong during the first quarter as load value reached $1.6 billion, up 23% year-over-year..."
• Merchant Warehouse and LevelUp Announce $1 Million Development Fund - "LevelUp and Merchant Warehouse want to give more merchants the opportunity to extend the reach of their brand and tap into a wealth of customer data to help them grow their businesses."
• Accenture Survey Identifies Actions to Increase Consumer Adoption of Mobile Payments - "For mobile payments to achieve widespread adoption, consumers must be educated about the fact that mobile payments are secure and more convenient than other payment options."
• TSYS Merchant Solutions to launch TSYS Multi-Currency Solutions - "Pay in Your Currency, gives eligible international customers the choice of paying in their home currency at the point of sale, offering significant benefits to TSYS merchants and their customers."
• WorldPay, VeriFone Expand Efforts to Bring NFC/EMV-Ready Payment to Merchants - "VeriFone and WorldPay collaborate in crucial areas to deliver the right payment solutions to merchants…"

On the web:

• Interview: MasterCard's Vision for a Cashless, Cardless, World - AdAge Digital - "Masterpass extends the idea of 'a world beyond cash' to be inclusive of 'a world beyond plastic.'"
• The best interface is no interface - Cooper - "As Jack Dorsey of Square explains, 'NFC is another thing you have to do. It’s another action you have to take. And it’s not the most human action to wave a device around another device and wait for a beep. It just doesn’t feel right.'"
• The Real Significance of the Bitcoin Boom (and Bust) - Time.com - "Once alternative currencies are frictionlessly available on the Internet, every laptop will become its own Cayman Island. However the current boom-and-bust plays out, Bitcoin is the beginning of something, not the end."
• Why Bitcoin crashed, and how Ripple might avoid the same fate - Gigaom - "That single point of failure is the most popular Bitcoin currency exchange, MtGox."
• Rakuten.com Shopping adds a new digital wallet payment option - Internet Retailer - "Online marketplace Rakuten.com Shopping announced this week it has added a digital wallet service called MasterPass to the handful of alternative payment options offered."
• Retail Sales Unexpectedly Fall - Reuters - "Retail sales fell 0.4 percent during the month, the Commerce Department said on Friday. That was below analysts' expectations that sales would be flat."
• How does Bitcoin work? - The Economist - "Unlike traditional currencies, which are issued by central banks, Bitcoin has no central monetary authority."
• MCX Makes Its Case for a Merchant-Led Mobile Wallet - PaymentsSource - "As the Merchant Customer Exchange asserts its position in the mobile wallet market, it emphasizes that the path to a consumer’s physical wallet runs through retailers."
• America’s Most Profitable Export Is Cash - NY Times Economix Blog - "Measured in dollar terms, there is 42 percent more cash in circulation today than five years ago."

On the wires:

• CLEAR and Visa Offer Expedited Travel for Visa Signature Account Holders - "Visa Signature account holders can enroll to receive discounted pricing on CLEAR membership with a six-month free trial plus $60 off the annual renewal rate of $179."
• Elavon and Banco Santander Close Deal to Deliver Merchant Services in Spain - "The agreement establishes the JV, Santander Elavon Merchant Services, 51% of which will belong to Elavon and the remaining 49% to Santander."

Square as announced new simple pricing for small businesses - a flat $275 monthly fee for merchants who process up to $250,000 per year and for transactions up to $400 in value.

“For 62 years, merchants have suffered complicated, expensive processing fees. Square is the first company to rethink electronic payment pricing with the merchant in mind. We are giving merchants affordable, predictable pricing, ” said Square CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey. “With one monthly price, merchants know that the sales they’ve processed in a day is the same amount deposited in the bank.”

Doing the math, Square's new flat fee pricing will save fees for merchants who do over $100,000 annually in swipe payment volume as compared to its standard 2.75%/swipe fee. For example, a merchant doing $200,000/year will have an effective discount rate of 1.375%. Manually-entered card transactions are not included in the flat fee - they continue to be priced at 3.5% + 15 cents per transactions.

Cielo, the largest merchant acquirer in Brazil, has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Merchant e-Solutions (U.S.) for $670 million.

The advanced technology developed by MeS will provide Cielo with greater process automation (back office), flexibility and agility in developing new products and, consequently, will enable a lower time-to-market for new products and services. In addition, with the acquisition of MeS, Cielo gains a physical presence in Silicon Valley, a hotbed of technological innovation and currently the epicenter of the digital revolution in payments.

While vague on specifics, Visa has announced to investors that it is changing its acquiring side fee structure in April.

First, Visa will lower variable acquirer processing fees for all Visa-branded products and across all merchant segments, including small merchants. Second, we are expanding acquirer and merchant incentives to further lower merchants’ processing costs. Third, Visa is implementing a new Fixed Acquirer Network Fee that will be assessed to acquirers based on both the merchant’s size and its number of locations.

Digital Transactions News talked to a number of sources and was able to piece together a more complete picture.

Office Depot has announced the launch of Office Depot Merchant Services, an electronic payment processing service for small and medium-sized businesses.

In partnership with Century Payments, Office Depot is the first office supply retailer to provide a private branded solution to enable small and medium-sized businesses with direct access to accept electronic payments via all major debit and credit cards at the point-of-sale. Businesses can now conveniently accept payments using a variety of cutting-edge equipment options that will allow companies to process payments from a retail location, through the Internet or with a mobile device.

Office Depot Merchant Services website has all the details.

TSYS has announced that it has acquired the remaining 49% interest in First National Merchant Solution (FNMS) from First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO). The company will be rebranded as TSYS Merchant Solutions. TSYS formed a joint venture with FNBO in April 2010, when it acquired a 51% controlling interest in the direct merchant acquirer and transaction processor. FNMS is ranked as the 10th-largest merchant acquirer in the U.S. by dollar volume in 2009.

Credicard, a wholly-owned Brazilian subsidiary of Citigroup, and Elavon have announced a binding agreement to establish a joint venture creating a merchant services company that will offer a full suite of payment solutions to the Brazilian marketplace. "The new company will be branded as “Elavon” and will be supported with the launch of a sales force with national coverage, as well as in-market operations, technology and product resources."

Global Payments and "la Caixa," the largest retail bank in Spain, have announced they are forming a merchant acquiring and payment processing joint venture in Spain.

"la Caixa", headquartered in Barcelona, was founded over a century ago, and is the market leader in Spanish merchant acquiring with over 150,000 merchant outlets. "la Caixa" also has the largest consumer banking footprint in Spain with more than 5,000 branches, 10.5 million customers and a 21 percent market share in merchant acquiring.

Discover has announced that it has signed a merchant acquirer agreement with First National Bank Alaska, furthering is growth in merchant acceptance.

The agreement with First National Bank Alaska also marks a significant milestone for Discover, representing the completion of a multi-year effort to secure agreements and implement merchant acquiring programs with all of the top 100 merchant acquirers in the United States.

Atos Origin today announced the acquisition of Venture Infotek, the leading independent player in the Indian payments market. Created in 1991, Venture Infotek operates in merchant acquiring, card processing, loyalty programs, government benefits programs on behalf of the Indian banks and major retailers. Venture Infotek operates in the major cities of India.

GDS Link has announced that is has been selected by RBS WorldPay to incorporate its DataView360 decisioning technology for better portfolio segmentation and merchant fraud identification. According to the company, "with DataView360, clients can implement and manage their fraud-based rules for several business functions, including screening for fraudulent transactions or generating knowledge-based questions and answers." READ MORE »

CoreLogic Credco has announced the introduction of OneCheck, a suite of merchant verification and risk mitigation products, provided through a newly established merchant services division. According to the company, "OneCheck is the industry’s most flexible and competitively priced suite of merchant verification solutions available. It instantly collects, sorts and combines hundreds of decisioning data elements into an easy-to-read comprehensive report – all in a single transaction. The result is a consolidated one-source solution for fast, reliable risk mitigation and merchant prequalification." READ MORE »

India's Economic Times is reporting that the State Bank of India "has selected US-based Elavon Incorporation and Visa International as its joint venture partners for merchant acquiring business." See also this article in The Hindu Business Line. It reports that SBI will retain a 51 percent interest in the jV called SBI Payment Services Pvt Ltd.

Merchant e-Solutions (MeS) has announced it has completed the acquisition of the Columbus Bank and Trust (CB&T) merchant business from Synovus. As part of the acquisition, MeS and Synovus have agreed to a 10-year joint marketing agreement to provide payment processing services for new Synovus bank merchant customers. READ MORE »

Global Payments has announced that Jeffrey S. Sloan, Managing Director, Partner and Global Head of the Financial Technology Group at Goldman, Sachs & Co., has been appointed the President of Global Payments Inc. Mr. Sloan has led Goldman Sachs' investment banking activities for the worldwide payments industry over the last decade. Mr. Sloan will be responsible for the Company's lines of business in North America, as well as all worldwide business development activities. He will report to Paul R. Garcia, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and will assume his new role on June 1, 2010. READ MORE »

TSYS has announced that Mark D. Pyke has been named president of TSYS Acquiring Solutions. Prior to joining TSYS Acquiring Solutions, Pyke served as president of Bank of America Merchant Services in Louisville, KY.

TSYS has announced a joint venture agreement with First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO) to form a new company, First National Merchant Solutions, LLC (FNMS). The new alliance gives TSYS a top-10 presence in the merchant acquiring market in the United States. TSYS will acquire 51 percent ownership of FNMS for approximately $150.5 million, while FNBO will control the remaining 49 percent. FNMS had net revenue of $93 million in 2009. The transaction is expected to close April 1, 2010. A presentation on the new joint venture is available. READ MORE »

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "The Economics of Debit Acquiring". The report "provides an overview of the costs associated with enabling merchants to accept debit cards for payment. This report evaluates EFT network pricing trends and provides an in-depth analysis on the implications these trends will have on acquirers. This report also offers the U.S. market share for the top companies in payment acquiring, discusses ways in which share can be measured, and analyzes PIN debit's role in skewing market share depending on which metric is used."

Elavon and Santander have announced the establishment of a joint merchant services alliance in Mexico. According to Elavon, "the alliance establishes a new global foothold for Elavon in a burgeoning credit card market and capitalizes on an existing relationship with Santander in Spain, the UK and Puerto Rico." READ MORE »

Elavon, the merchant acquiring subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp has announced the introduction of Fusebox - calling it a "next-generation hosted payment gateway that provides secure multi-point connectivity across a merchant’s enterprise." READ MORE »

• Gift Card Mall(TM) Now Available on Amazon.com
• The PayPal Blog: Cool New App Using PayPal (Shutterfly's Wink)
• SunTrust Introduces Daily Budgeting Application for Facebook
• NYTimes.com: Weather Keeps Some Bankers Away From Obama Talk
• UniRush Renews TSYS Agreement
• Just in Time for the Holidays, Fiserv Awards One Million UChoose Rewards® Points Worth $10,000 to Ten Lucky Cardholders in YOU WIN Sweepstakes
• MarketWatch: Visa, Mead Johnson to join S&P 500 index
• BankCard USA Launches 5 Point Service Guarantee Program
• ID Analytics Hosts Webinar to Discuss New Study on Links Between Change of Address and Fraud
• WSJ.com: Citi's Statement on TARP Repayment
• Times Online: Advent International readies £3bn RBS offer

Transparent Financial Services (TransFS) has announced the launch of its TransFS Card Terminal, "an iPhone app that provides businesses with credit card acceptance capabilities in virtually any location. TransFS Card Terminal™ is the first iPhone app of its kind to be free of cost and provide complete freedom of choice in credit card processor selection." TransFS has also made the source code of the application available as open source software. READ MORE »

TD Merchant Services has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire certain MasterCard merchant acquiring accounts from First Data in Canada. Concurrently, First Data will acquire a small number of VISA accounts from TD. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in December. The transaction is not expected to be material to TDBFG’s financial results.

The acquired accounts will become part of TD Merchant Services, which already provides Visa and Interac payment processing services and Point of Sale terminal solutions to all of these customers today. “Acquisition of these MasterCard merchant accounts will ensure our clients have a single source for their payment processing needs,” says Jeff van Duynhoven, President, TD Merchant Services. READ MORE »

As part of its agreement with the UK government announced today, the Royal Bank of Scotland has agreed to participation in a revised Asset Protection Scheme that, among many other conditions, requires RBS to divest itself of several businesses over the next four years including its Global Merchant Services unit. According to RBS, its Global Merchant Services unit "is the fourth largest provider of global card payment services, enabling over 5 billion card transactions to be made each year. It meets the rapidly changing and increasingly sophisticated needs of clients to accept card payments on a global, efficient and secure basis."

First Data has announced a relationship with Yahoo! Inc. to provide merchants with "easy-to-implement eCommerce solutions for small and mid-size merchants eager to extend their businesses to the Internet. First Data will provide merchants with point-of-sale terminals and payment processing services to complement Yahoo! Merchant Solutions and Web Hosting subscription-based products, which allow small businesses to set up their online stores and catalog web sites with simple design tools and tracking features." READ MORE »

In an article titled "TransFS Launches Comparison Site for Credit Card Processing Fees", TechCrunch profiles TransFS - one of a new breed of websites designed to help businesses comparison shop among various merchant acquirers and ISOs for the best deal that matches their needs. TransFS collects information from the merchant and then gathers bids from providers to present back. The TransFS blog provides a steady stream of helpful, merchant-related articles as well.

Another new entrant into this space is Payments-R-Us (www.paymentsrus.com) that focuses on online merchant payment solutions. Unlike the auction process managed by TransFS, Payments-R-Us offers a free "suggester" based upon the merchant answering some basic questions about their business. Payments-R-Us also has a collection of reference materials helpful to online ecommerce merchants.