Visa has announced the North American rollout of its new transaction alert service allowing card issuers to provide near real-time alerts to Visa account holders throughout the U.S. and Canada.

According to Visa, "the service enables consumers to better manage and track their spending while providing them with an early warning system for potential fraudulent activities. Alerts are sent on behalf of participating issuers directly from VisaNet, Visa’s global processing network, typically within seconds of a transaction occurring. Alerts are triggered when the transaction meets certain criteria the account holder has selected and are delivered directly to the account holder via email, SMS text message or the Visa Mobile application. Visa’s transaction alerts let consumers monitor their accounts for unusual activity and take immediate action if they believe a potentially fraudulent transaction is taking place." READ MORE

An Adeptra survey of US consumers has found that "the majority of US consumers want their credit card issuer to call them on their cell phones to alert them of possible suspicious transactions. When asked if they had more faith in their card issuers' abilities to prevent fraud or resolve fraud should it happen to them, consumers favored slightly towards the ability to prevent fraud, with 6% stating they had a greater confidence in fraud prevention over fraud resolution." READ MORE

International mobile banking solution provider, M-Com, announced today that it now has reached the milestone of 50 distinct one and two-way SMS (text messaging) alerts live in the market, the broadest range in the industry. M-Com has found that alert capabilities are increasingly in demand by consumers, as they provide relevant and timely information on account activity.  

“We are delighted to be leading the market when it comes to the breadth and range of one and two-way text message alerts being delivered to consumers by our financial institution customers,” comments M-Com CEO and Founder, Adam Clark.  “The research and M-Com’s proof points around the world demonstrate that the demand for such alerts is from both online consumers and those that have limited access to online banking channels.”

Javelin Strategy & Research has released a new report that shows how it believes that financial institutions must create a Customer-Driven Architecture (CDA) that gives customers what research shows they want most: financial control. According to Javelin, "with many consumers’ finances in shambles, today’s economy is the perfect time to finally put customers in charge. The seven attributes of CDA outlined in the report shows bankers how to prioritize technology investments in order to achieve iPhone-like monetary control." READ MORE

Clickatell has introduced the new Clickatell SMS Receipts service that enables anytime, anywhere alerts between financial service providers and their customers to help fight fraud. READ MORE

Clickatell has announced that "top US financial institutions and technology providers who serve the FI market including Visa, S1 Postilion, and RSA Data Security are trusting Clickatell to provide actionable financial alerts and notifications to millions of cell phones via SMS." READ MORE

Visa has announced it is launching four new programs to deliver payments and services via mobile devices. Two commercial mobile payments programs, in Brazil and Korea, along with two mobile offers and transaction notification pilots in the United States, add to more than a dozen pilot and commercial programs enabled by the Visa mobile platform around the world. READ MORE

Visa has announced that it and eight North American financial institutions – PNC Bank, SunTrust Bank, U.S. Bank, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo in the United States, and Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank Financial Group, and Vancity in Canada – have agreed to initiate a pilot program with up to a total of 2,000 participants to test the delivery of real-time notification alerts on Visa accounts. READ MORE