On the web:

• Malka, Rickards Debate Bitcoin Utility, Longevity - Bloomberg TV - "Micky Malka, founder and general partner at Ribbit Capital, and James Rickards, senior managing director at Tangent Capital Partners, debate the advantages, disadvantages and longevity of bitcoin, an alternative currency."
• Payments – Wrapping, Rules, Acquiring and Tokens - FinVentures (Tom Noyes) - "The exec summary of this blog: don’t ever bet your business on someone else’s rules… particularly if they themselves don’t own them."
• UK Consumers Warm to Mobile Payments - eMarketer - "Awareness of places where UK consumers can use mobile payment technology has more than doubled during the past year..."
• Banks Turn to Fees to Make Mobile Pay - Bank Technology News - "Yet evidence is starting to mount that retail banking fees, so unpopular in areas like checking accounts, may be palatable for mobile banking services."
• 5 Things I Learned Reading Visa's Annual Report - Motley Fool - "I knew Visa was the biggest player in the industry, but I didn't realize that by most measures, it's nearly twice the size of rival MasterCard."
• What It’s Like to Work Inside Jack Dorsey’s Brain - "Square wants work to be anything but punching the clock. It wants life at the office to be a designed experience."
• Moving cheques into the fast lane - Canadian Payments Association - "Through a multi-year project, the CPA has created the opportunity for Canadian financial institutions to exchange and clear images of cheques electronically..."

On the wires:

• Dynamics ePlate® Card Continues To Shatter 1% Credit Card Reward Status Quo - "Known by early adopters as the card that "lights up," the ePlate® card is equipped with two "Experience™ buttons" that literally light up when pressed, giving cardholders a more active role in deciding which rewards they want to earn and when."
• Dream. Dare. Do…American Express Launches the #PassionProject - "Today, American Express kicked off a new program designed to enable, inspire and encourage people to pursue their passion projects."
• Amazon Announces Amazon Birthday Gift – A New Way to Make Gift Giving Simple, Social and Fun - "Amazon Birthday Gift lets you join a social gift that will grow as more friends participate, which makes giving and receiving birthday messages on Facebook even more fun."
• Citibank Small Business Pulse® Reveals Three-Year High in Owners’ View of Business Conditions - "Nearly half of small business owners (48%) rate conditions as good or excellent, up from 43% in May 2012 and twice the rate three years ago (24%)."

Upcoming from Glenbrook:

• Summer Camp! - A special summer session of our popular Payments Boot Camp - in Half Moon Bay on August 6th and 7th... Also, an optional half day course on Data In Payments - August 8th, also in Half Moon Bay. Join Carol, Scott and Russ for lively, interactive sessions - register now!
• Follow Glenbrook Partners on LinkedIn! -

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 Twitter (follow us: @paymentsnews):

Banks,merchants,3rd parties all want to control mobile wallet experience. Don't consumers want to control their own experience?#PAYMENTS2013

— gschmeltzer (@gschmeltzer) April 23, 2013

Metaphor of the day: USAA exec compares MCX to the boat in "Life of Pi" #payments2013

— Aaron McPherson (@aaronmcpherson) April 23, 2013

Why can't the US have an FPS? They have laser beams and transistors and things don't they, same as us? #NACHA

— Dave Birch (@dgwbirch) April 23, 2013

50+% of all deposits are via mobile says Andrew Collins from USAA #payments2013 @chyppings

— Lanny Byers (@lannybyers) April 23, 2013

On the web:

• How Not to Install an ATM Skimmer - Krebs on Security - "Experts in the United States and Europe are tracking a marked increase in ATM skimmer scams."
• Macworld’s Transcript of Tim Cook’s Remarks on Today’s Earnings Call - Daring Fireball - "So he’s not talking about a new iPad or iPhone, he’s talking about an entirely new leg on the stool."
• Apple's Tim Cook on Mobile Payments: 'It's In Its Infancy' - MacRumors - "While he didn't address the topic directly, he did note that the mobile payments were "just getting started" and still "in its infancy."
• Payment Platform Startup ZooZ Raises $2M Series A To Add Product Functionality & Build Global Presence - TechCrunch - "The startup says that its user-friendly checkout platform helps prevent cart abandonment by frustrated mobile shoppers." (Zooz website)
• Passbook is standard for mobile wallets: Sumotext exec - Mobile Commerce Daily - "What I do like [about Apple] is that they didn’t wait for all of the payment stuff to shake out…"
• How Apple and Amazon Will Shape Mobile Payments - Bank Systems & Technology - "Although Apple already has a bridgehead into the payments business thanks to iTunes, experts seem to think Apple will refrain from entering the mobile payments business."

On the wires:

• The Center for Financial Services Innovation Awards $2.5 Million to Promote Financial Capability - "The eight organizations funded this year offer fresh perspectives on the industry’s efforts to foster positive financial behavior and provide concrete mechanisms for meeting consumer needs in new ways…"
• U.S. Bank Employees Testing Voice Command Feature on FlexPerks Visa Mobile App - "…allows U.S. Bank FlexPerks® Travel Rewards Visa Signature® customers to use their voice to view account balances, search transactions and make a payment on their accounts in the FlexPerks mobile app."
• ROAM Launches ROAMPay™ X4 - a new Mobile Point of Sale Application - "ROAMpay X4 is designed to help businesses of all sizes and geographies extend their traditional point of sale infrastructure onto Android and iOS-based smartphones and tablets."
• Vindicia and GlobalCollect help digital media distributors extend reach internationally
• Discover Financial Services Reports First Quarter Net Income of $673 Million or $1.33 Per Diluted Share - "Discover delivered strong profitability and growth in the first quarter, which combined with our outlook allowed us to increase our dividend by 43%..."
• Chase Sapphire Preferred Gives Cardholders New Reason to Celebrate Fridays - "The First Friday Favorites Facebook app, now available on Chase Sapphire’s Facebook page, allows consumers to interact with top restaurant lists in 17 U.S. cities by making reservations directly through OpenTable…"
• Fiserv Introduces Processing Services for Positive Pay and Account Reconciliation Solution - "ARP/SMS from Fiserv allows for immediate correction and updating of transactions as well as files and reports for real-time positive pay reporting, helping corporate customers gain tighter control over disbursements."
• ACI Worldwide Completes Expansion of Online Banking from the Desktop to the Mobile Device - "The solution delivers features to iPhone and Android smartphones previously limited to the desktop including personal financial management tools, integrated bill payment and account-to-account transfers."
• VeriFone Helps China PnR Address Growing Payments Complexity with POS Estate Managed Services Contract

The use of mobile phones to access a bank account, credit card, or other financial account became more prevalent in the Unites States last year, according to the Federal Reserve Board's latest report entitled, "Consumers and Mobile Financial Services 2013".

Mobile devices have increasingly become tools that consumers use for banking, payments, budgeting, and shopping. The Board's report looks at how consumers access their bank's services using mobile phones ("mobile banking"), at their payment for goods and services using mobile phones ("mobile payments"), as well as their use of mobile phones to inform their shopping decisions.

The full report can be downloaded here.

Monitise and Visa Europe have announced that they are further strengthening their partnership via a new three-year commercial agreement spanning the development and deployment of Mobile Money payments and mobile commerce solutions for Europe’s leading financial institutions. The investment provides Visa Europe with licence rights to all aspects of Monitise’s mobile technology. "The new relationship incorporates minimum revenues to Monitise of €45 million over the first three years with the potential for greater revenues as certain user generated thresholds are achieved."

Visa announced the launch of a new plug-and-play mobile money platform that will make it easy and cost-efficient for financial institutions and mobile operators to offer mobile financial services to consumers.

The global platform is the world’s first bank-grade managed service for mobile money – meaning it allows Visa to host and fully manage all aspects of a mobile money program on behalf of the provider, from user interface design to consumer enrollment, transactions processing, authorization, clearing and settlement. The new service can enable domestic-only or globally interoperable mobile money services.

The new platform is built on Fundamo’s technology, the mobile money technology acquired by Visa in 2011.

FIS announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the remaining 78% interest in mFoundry.

“mFoundry has a well-earned reputation for innovation, powerful vision and agile development and delivers one of the most advanced mobile platforms in the market today,” noted Gary Norcross, FIS president and chief operating officer. “Consumers have adopted the mobile channel faster than any other delivery channel in existence, and delivering industry-best mobile solutions is a vital focus area for FIS. Our goal is to provide the solutions that underpin an organization’s ability to best reach and serve its customers, and the addition of mFoundry plays a key role in that strategy.”

mFoundry's mobile platform has more than 850 clients including some of the largest banks, credit unions, payments processors, and retailers in the US. mFoundry built the original Starbucks Card mobile app.

Over on Payments Views, Glenbrook's Allen Weinberg has a post about "Green Dot's New Mobile-Optimized Bank Account". Allen went to the product launch event and came away thinking that GoBank is not only a new brand almost a new product category. "What I found most interesting was Green Dot’s focus on the 'unhappily banked' and those new to the banking system, like my two teenage sons."

Green Dot has announced GoBank, "the first bank account designed from scratch to be opened and used on a mobile device. Launching in limited release, with general availability to come later this year, GoBank is fast, fair and feature-rich, allowing consumers to interact with their money in a way that’s immediate, intuitive and intimate. In addition to GoBank’s consumer-friendly pricing model of no overdraft fees or penalty fees and no minimum balance requirements, GoBank makes it easy to send and deposit money, build a budget and find an ATM, with a massive network of more than 40,000 fee-free ATMs." And don't forget the FDIC insurance.

Website is located at http://www.gobank.com/.

On the web:

• C-Store Group Decries Card Costs at Pump - Digital Transactions
• PayDragon Takes On Mobile Payments With LA Market Trial - socalTECH.com
• Startup 'Leaf' Aims To Overhaul The Payments Experience For Local Merchants - TechCrunch
• Pay by Phone: More Merchants Embrace Direct Mobile Billing – USATODAY.com
• Facebook Credits: The Gaming Currency of the Future - EContent Magazine
• Online and Mobile Banking Create Many Front Doors - Portals and Rails

On the wires:

• Seamless Launches LA Market Expansion
• New Mercator Report on Debit Processing Solutions
• Jumio Taps Into $154 Billion of Worldwide Processing Volume in Q1
• InComm Removes Gift Cards from All Stores in New Jersey, Effective June 30
• Gas Retailers Gained a $1 Billion Subsidy from Durbin, With No Evidence of Lowering Gas Prices
• ShopNBC Turns to Litle & Co. for Payments Management & Intelligence Services
• NewNet Launches Enhanced Mobile Broadband Payments Gateway
• New Juniper Report on Mobile Money Transfer & Remittances
• Allied Wallet Adds Support For Diners Club

On the web:

• Best Buy Needs ‘Integrated’ Mobile Plan CIO Report - WSJ.com
• Intuit Acquires M-Payments Provider AisleBuyer - PaymentsSource
• Mobile Card-Processing Machines for Marketers on the Road - New York Times
• Book corner - “Money, Real Quick - The Story of M-PESA” - Tomorrow's Transactions
• Discover extends mobile strategy with new iPad app - Mobile Commerce Daily
• Is mobile the way we'll all be paying? - The Telegraph (UK)
• A Look Into Card Brand Network Enhancements - Litle Blog

On the wires:

• Smart Card Alliance Announces New Certification Training for Payments Industry
• First Data Releases March 2012 SpendTrend
• FIS Launches Prepaid Travel EMV Cards
• Vindicia Expands Usage Billing Support
• U.S. Bank Introduces Ace Rewards Visa Application for iPhone

Over on Payments Views, our sister blog, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson reflects back on her recent trip to the Mobile Money Americas conference in Mexico City.

There is a tremendous attitude of optimism here, and what appears to be a shared belief that these systems can, with proper regulatory support, provide real social good – helping in particular unbanked consumers to get access to ways of keeping, saving, and moving money securely.

The full post, Mobile Money in the Americas: Regulation, Infrastructure and Business Models, is available now.

Monitise announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Clairmail for $173 million.

Currently, the combined businesses provide world-leading mobile money services to 13m registered end consumers via some of the world’s leading financial institutions such as the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, two of the largest card issuers in the US, Lloyds TSB, PNC Bank, U.S. Bank and Fifth Third Bank among others. Together the combined technology platforms process billions of transactions a year and over US$10bn of payments and transfers on a current weekly annualised basis.

On the web:

• How the Illicit Economy Would Work in a World without Cash - Slate Magazine
• Amazon Enlists Poste Italiane to Deliver Goods, Collect Payment - Internet Retailer

On the wires:

• Forever 21 Enlists Accertify to Fight Fraud
• Visa Europe backs Mobile Money Network

The U.S. Federal Reserve has released the findings from an online survey, conducted in December 2011 and January 2012, examining the use of mobile technology to access financial services and make financial decisions.

One out of five American consumers used their mobile phone to access their bank account, credit card, or other financial account in the 12 months ending in January 2012 and an additional one out of five indicated they would likely use mobile banking at some point in the future.

The full "Consumers and Mobile Financial Services" report is located here.

H&R Block Bank and mobile payments provider Wipit have announced a partnership to provide mobile financial services to "cash preferred customers".

"The underbanked consumer represents an entirely different market opportunity for merchants. We're excited about our partnership with H&R Block and the tremendous value we can jointly offer cash preferred consumers and the merchants who serve them," said Wipit, Inc. CEO Richard Kang.

Wipit also announced an investment by H&R Block. The Wipit website is at http://www.wipit.me/.

Oberthur Technologies has entered into agreement to acquire MoreMagic Solutions, a mobile financial services solutions provider, based in Waltham, MA.

Xavier Drilhon, CEO of Oberthur Technologies: “The acquisition of MoreMagic is fully in line with our growth strategy notably in our Solutions business and more specifically in the NFC eco-system. The complementarities between our respective technological bricks and Oberthur Technologies’ TSM expertise will perfectly fit the needs of our clients, in both mature and developing countries.”

This acquisition remains subject to the consultation of employees work council and other customary approvals, including from relevant antitrust authorities.

TIO Networks has announced it will launch a cloud-based wallet platform, TIO Wallet, designed to help the estimated 60 million Americans who have limited access to mainstream financial products.

“Finally, a Wallet designed from the ground up to meet the evolving needs of the underbanked consumer,” said Hamed Shahbazi, Chairman and CEO of TIO Networks. “The vast majority of TIO’s $1B worth of transactions per year, support the underbanked marketplace. We know what is important to this customer and are proud to serve them.”

MasterCard has announced a global initiative called the MasterCard Mobile Money Partnership Program to help financially-underserved consumers gain access to financial services through their mobile phones.

“With about five billion mobile phone users worldwide, this program provides powerful, smart and convenient new payment options to people through a device that’s already in the palm of their hands today,” said Mung Ki Woo, Group Executive, Mobile, MasterCard Worldwide. “Our approach is to work with all leading players in the Mobile Money ecosystem to bring the benefits of electronic payments to those who otherwise wouldn’t have access to formal financial services. Comviva, Sybase 365 and Utiba are key strategic platform partners to help implement this vision.”

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.”

Mozido announced the launch of the 'Genius Wallet', a global mobile wallet platform for the unbanked and banked.

"Our Genius Wallet(SM) brings every mobile phone user, including the unbanked, into a secure, convenient, and efficient financial ecosystem," says Greg Corona, CEO, Mozido LLC "It offers opportunity and hope for a huge population worldwide, empowering them to enjoy a broad range of banking and financial services often for the first time, using their mobile phone."

In December, Mozido and MoneyGram struck a partnership to include MoneyGram remittance transfer services for approved Mozido mobile wallet applications.

Fiserv announced the results of a survey of the mobile banking and payment plans of top-tier financial institutions.

The in-depth survey, conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Fiserv in September 2011, evaluated the plans of 10 banks and credit unions that in total hold more than one-third of all U.S. deposit accounts. The results revealed that these financial institutions are moving beyond the basics to deliver increasingly sophisticated mobile capabilities. Transactional services such as remote deposit capture and mobile person-to-person payments will account for the bulk of mobile investment in 2012. However, despite a nearly unanimous commitment to expand overall mobile functionality, institutions remain split on plans to support mobile point-of-sale payments.

A white paper detailing the survey results can be downloaded from the Fiserv website.

MasterCard and Telefónica have announced they are forming a joint venture to offer mobile financial solutions for 65 million Vivo consumers in Brazil. "The initiative will create a mobile wallet allowing consumers to make payments via their mobile phones as well as transfer funds, pay bills and make online purchases."

m-Via announced the launch of the Boom mobile money service. "Boom members can use their mobile phone to make money transfers of any size from $5 to $1000, as well as make purchases and withdrawals at participating Boom Merchants and Boom ATMs."

Boom launch partners include 7-Eleven(R) Inc. (powered by PayNearMe Inc.), the Allpoint(R) ATM Network, the Diconsa retail network in Mexico, and PayXchange. Through these partners, Boom Members have access to more than 15,000 U.S. cash load locations, 23,000 Boom merchants in Mexico, and over 150,000 Boom ATMs in the U.S. and Mexico, and another 650,000 ATMs in more than 150 countries.

comScore has announced its recent analysis of mobile financial services usage in the U.S. showing that "32.5 million Americans accessed mobile banking information on their devices at the end of Q2 2011 in June, representing 13.9% of all mobile users. The study also revealed that 12.7 million mobile users reported using banking apps, showing a notable increase of 45% from Q4 2010."

Pageonce has announced a mobile bill pay service that gives consumers remote control over when and how they pay their bills.

The award-winning Pageonce Money & Bills already lets users automatically track all types of bills -- from rent and mortgage, utilities, and cell phone to credit cards -- and alerts them when a bill is due. Now Pageonce gives users the option to pay immediately from their choice of accounts with a few taps on their smartphone. Pageonce makes paper bills, checks and stamps, and logging into several different websites for online bill pay, obsolete -- helping users save time and avoid annoying late and overdraft fees.

Mitek Systems hgas announced an innovative application for the financial services industry that enables consumers to switch bank credit card accounts as simply as “Point, Shoot and Transfer" using Mitek Mobile Balance Transfer.

The mobile application enables a bank’s customer to use a smartphone camera to take a picture of a competitor’s credit card payment coupon. The customer transmits the information to the bank, which then can offer the customer a better interest rate to incent the customer to open a new credit card account and transfer an existing balance.

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.

Citibank has unveiled its first-ever consumer banking app designed specifically for iPad.

“Our iPad app is all about listening to our clients and understanding that they need their digital banking experience to be more engaging and dynamic – beyond the standard static tables you find with other iPad apps,” said Tracey Weber, Head of Internet and Mobile Banking, North America Consumer Banking, Citi. “We’re offering a whole new way of banking, with enhanced visuals and interactive tools. We’re focused on continually offering modern solutions that help put ease into our clients’ financial lives, wherever and whenever.”

On the web:

• Using Facebook Credits as Ecommerce Sales Incentives - AuctionBytes
• PSECU's Remote Deposit Honor System - NetBanker
• 18 Fun Facts About Credit Cards - MSN Money
• 10 Reasons I'm Cancelling My Credit Cards - SmartMoney.com
• California Replacing Unemployment Checks with Debit Cards - Bakersfield.com
• Korean Govt To Credit Card Firms: We’re Watching You - Wall Street Journal
• Tapjoy Scores $30M to Boost Mobile App Monetization - FierceMobileContent
• Blaming the Fed’s Durbin Rule, Tempo Payments Prepares to Shut Down - Digital Transactions

On the wires:

• Spendvision’s new eMoney Module Enables Businesses to Track and Manage NFC Transactions
• Regions Bank Introduces Personal Pay to Send and Receive Electronic, P2P Payments
• CoVantage Credit Union Selects Tyfone to Deliver Next Generation Mobile Wallet Services
• U.S. Bank and Monitise Americas Introduce Free Mobile Banking Service for ReliaCard Visa Cardholders