On the web:

• iPads as Cash Registers Are About to Go From Novelty to Norm - Wired - "Such numbers suggest that checking out by phone or tablet is nearing that magical inflection point at which technology tips from novel and surprising into “unsurprising because it’s everywhere.”"
• Material Histories of Debt and Payment - Anthropology News - "Through commentaries, we seek to forge unexpected and generative connections across the history of payments and payments artifacts, and between actors and institutions that study, make, collect and use payments artifacts."
• Preliminary EU ruling finds Google's Motorola guilty of abuse of standard-essential patents - FOSS Patents
• Wendy’s trials mobile payments with commerce-enabled app - Mobile Commerce Daily - "Once the card is loaded with money, the payment is triggered by consumers swiping their finger across the screen. A unique, one-time code is then revealed on the screen that consumers can read to a Wendy’s employee."
• Canada: Rogers gets closer to starting banking business - Financial Post - "The company said Friday afternoon the Minister of Finance has issued letters patent incorporating Rogers Bank."

On the wires:

• Ink from Chase Enhances Jot Mobile Application with Receipt Capture Capability - "Jot sends small business owners a push alert within seconds of making a purchase with their Ink card. Customers can immediately tag these purchases to custom categories on a mobile device or online."
• New RushCard Initiatives Aim for Best-in-Industry Transparency - "With our new disclosures, it’s now easy for the average customer to understand all of the fees associated with our cards, including those fees levied by other companies…"

Placecast announced the launch of ‘Card-Linked ShopAlerts’, which are mobile offers tied to nearby store locations using geofencing technology that consumers redeem by simply swiping their linked credit or debit card at the store.

“Location-based card-linked offers are the holy-grail of mobile marketing,” says payments industry expert Dickson Chu who has led initiatives at Citibank, PayPal and Living Social. “Placecast is enabling the delivery of an offer to a consumer who is near a store and highly likely to make a purchase. Retailers and brands get closed-loop performance marketing where they can measure the ROI of their mobile campaign where it counts – in the real world.”

Placecast launched Card-Linked ShopAlerts in beta with card issuers this spring. To date, over 550 merchants have delivered card-linked offers using the platform with restaurants emerging as the top-performing category.

Apple today announced key features of iOS 6, including an wallet-like app called "Passbook" that will be used to hold "boarding passes, movie tickets, retail coupons, loyalty cards, and more", all things that it refers to as "passes".

Quick summary of key features: The app uses 2D barcode technology to present passes to the merchant, merchants can update things like "available balance" and " current points" in the background, and geolocation technology is used for relevancy within the Passbook app.

Apple demonstrated how the available balanced on your Starbucks card would be updated automatically within Passbook upon completion of a purchase. In related news, Apple also announced they now have over 400 million cards on file in iTunes.

BOKU announced that it is expanding its payments technology to cover retail point-of-sale with BOKU Accounts.

“BOKU Accounts brings together the best parts of mobile payments and technology, leveraging NFC, smartphones and global payment networks for a better consumer experience.” Said Mark Britto, BOKU CEO. “We are leveraging the power of the device in your pocket to improve every transaction you make, anywhere in the world, and helping our MNO partners expand into the off-line world, while bringing tremendous value to their subscribers and merchants alike.”

Fiserv has announced the 'Mobiliti' suite of products for mobile banking, mobile alerts, and mobile payments.

Mobiliti unites the functionality of Mobile Money from Fiserv and BankAnywhere from the recently acquired M-Com within a single product suite, and will replace both of those product brands. Mobiliti is available in multiple distinct versions tailored for use by financial institutions of varying sizes within both the United States and international markets.

Mobiliti supports all three major mobile access modes -- SMS, mobile browser, and downloadable app.

On the wires:

• Creativity Pays - Introducing Cleeng, the First Social Alternative to Paywalls
• hyperWALLET Announces Partnership with WIP (Wireless Industry Partnership)
• ACI Worldwide and Integrated Research Launch Payment Service Management for Fraud Prevention
• AuraPortal Launches the First BPM Software with a Seamlessly Integrated e-Commerce System
• Stream Media Raises Series A Funding to Provide Global Payment Platform for Mobile In-App Transactions
• LexisNexis Releases New Comprehensive, Hosted Collections Platform

On the web:

• TechCrunch: Tradeshift Integrates PayPal into its Free Invoicing Platform
• GigaOM: Phones Becoming Frontline in Credit Card Fraud Battle
• Digital Transactions: With Signed Merchants Onboard, ISIS Looks at Transit, Fast Food, and Groceries
• iNewp.com: Mobgets Exposes Verified by Visa Flaws on Mobile Devices
• Vator.tv: Danny Shader Interview on PayNearMe's Consumer Demographic (Video)
• Digital Money: Davd Birch's Impression on GSMA Mobile World Congress
• MIT Technology Review: The New Money - Square Profile

ClairMail has announced a new mobile fraud management solution for banks and their customers to oversee and quickly respond to fraudulent transactions directly through the mobile channel.

ClairMail's Fraud Solution works with existing FI fraud systems and processes to help mitigate card, Direct Deposit Account (DDA), online banking and identity fraud by leveraging all the capabilities of the ubiquitous mobile device and the robust alerting and orchestration capabilities of the ClairMail platform.

TMG (The Members Group) has announced it is expanding its portfolio of products to include mobile banking and transaction alerting solutions. TMG says it has partnered with MShift - "leveraging their technology to bring to the table a holistic device, carrier and content agnostic mobile banking solution for FIs." TMG is also making available a transaction alerting service enabled by Visa that can also serve as a mobile fraud-detection measure. The goal of this new alert service is to enable consumers to be an active part of the fraud monitoring process. READ MORE »

Wells Fargo and Visa have announced the rollout of Rapid Alerts for Wells Fargo Visa credit cardholders enabling consumers to better manage and track their spending while providing them with near real-time detection of potentially fraudulent activity. Rapid Alerts by Wells Fargo are enabled by Visa's transaction alerts platform. Alerts are sent on behalf of Wells Fargo directly from VisaNet - typically within seconds of a transaction occurring. Rapid Alerts are triggered when the transaction meets certain criteria previously selected by the Wells Fargo Visa account holder and delivered via text message or e-mail. READ MORE »

Chase has announced rolling out two new free mobile banking features: "customers now can receive a text message the moment their checking account balance falls below a pre-selected amount – and then instantly transfer funds by sending a text-message reply as short as four keystrokes." Chase says it is currently sending out 725,000 low-balance alerts each week. READ MORE »

Travelex has announced an agreement with Monitise to launch mobile services for its 1.75m global Cash Passport cardholders. Cash Passport, a prepaid travel money card available in seven currencies, offers a secure and convenient way to carry money overseas. Cardholders can use their Cash Passport to pay for things and withdraw cash, just as they would with any other card, but without charges for use overseas.

Travelex and Monitise are developing an application which can be downloaded to the cardholder’s handset, allowing them to check their balance at any time, reload the card by mobile and also set up other alerts. The service will launch next year with a low balance alert, reminding cardholders to reload. READ MORE »

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 »