On Twitter:

Proud to be working with Google --> "Google closes Checkout, pushing thousands of merchants to Braintree" pandodaily.com/2013/05/20/goo…

— William Ready (@williamready) May 20, 2013

On the web:

• Square will challenge PayPal with its own peer-to-peer cash service - GigaOm - "We reached out to Square to get more details on the mysterious service, but the company isn’t revealing any more details for now."
• Google closes Checkout, pushing thousands of merchants into Braintree’s arms - PandoDaily - "For customers without their own way to process payments in-house, Google has partnered with Braintree, Shopify, and Freshbooks to offer discounted migration programs."
• Email Money to Friends With Square Cash (But Only if You Work For Twitter, Pinterest or Box) - AllThingsD - "Ultimately, this could be a faster way of getting more people to link up their checking accounts to Square’s service…"
• Bitcoin 2013 in review - CoinDesk - "The more than 1,000 Bitcoin enthusiasts who converged on San Jose were an impassioned bunch — some fired with the excitement of getting in on something big the ground floor…"
• ATM Cash-Outs: A Major Escalation - Portals and Rails - "This highly sophisticated and coordinated attack is a game changer for the security controls of all types of card management applications." Google I/O payment announcements: is a revolution with no insurgency possible? - TekFin (Yann Ranchere) - "The more interesting announcement was in my view Google Instant Buy…"
• How Amazon's Rising Headwaters Could Threaten Google - ReadWrite - "I’m convinced the day will come — sooner rather than later — when Amazon unleashes its data and announces itself as an advertising powerhouse."
• Google takes lessons from PayPal, Apple’s Passbook to drive mobile wallet adoption - Mobile Commerce Daily - "Google Wallet Objects is similar to Apple’s Passbook in that it enables developers to integrate their loyalty programs and offers into Google Wallet…"
• Apple retail revenues per visitor reach new record - Asymco - "In the US, on a sales per square foot basis, Apple retail continues to perform twice as well as Tiffany & Co…"
• NFC mobile payments – fixing the big issues - Mobile News - "The widespread introduction of NFC-based mobile payments could be delayed for years as retailers, operators and finance firms continue to disagree on how best to implement the system and the logistics of making payments."
• Mobile Payment Startup Payvia Buys Mogreet To Add Messaging-Based Marketing To Its Payment Platform - TechCrunch - "Payvia says that it has the largest direct carrier connected messaging and mobile payments platform in the U.S..."
• GrubHub to Merge With Seamless as Food Orders Go Mobile - Bloomberg - "Food-delivery sites and mobile applications are gaining in popularity as more people order their meals online..."
• Harnessing the Remittance Boom - "Adding up the cost of the transfer, travel, and time, remittances are far too expensive for people living in poverty."

On the wires:

• Intuit Realigns Organization to Accelerate Growth - "The new structure comes as the company increases its focus on two strategic outcomes: being the world’s small business operating system, and providing winning solutions to do the nations’ taxes in the U.S. and Canada."
• Tabbedout Now Offers Google Wallet as a Payment Option - "For a limited time, when a user pays with Google Wallet in the Tabbedout app, they'll get $7 off their next tab."
• Huntington Bank Introduces Commercial Card Featuring Payables Automation and Monthly Rebates
• NCR and LevelUp to Take Mobile Payments to More Restaurants - "NCR understands what it takes to help restaurants keep pace with technology, and by integrating LevelUp, we are helping them get the great tools they need to run their businesses better."
• PayAnywhere Launches Phase Two of Aggressive Retail Channel Rollout - "The partnership takes the PayAnywhere mobile point of sale (mPOS) solution beyond the big box retailers the company announced partnerships with in 2012…"
• CorFire™ and OLO Partner on Integrated Mobile Commerce Solution for Restaurants - "Instead of requiring separate mobile apps for mobile payment and mobile ordering, this integration will provide brands with a one-stop shop for all forms of mobile customer engagement through the industry’s proven, best-of-breed providers."

On Twitter:

We're hosting a payments meetup at @gumroad with talks by @airbnb and @square —come by! gumroad.com/meetup

— Sahil Lavingia (@shl) May 17, 2013

On the web:

• The future of Bitcoin: 3 predictions from experts - GigaOm - "Casares explained how some people in his country are using “old Android phones” to acquire and exchange Bitcoins at a time when the government is clamping down on the trade in U.S. dollars."
• Inside Mastercard’s Social Command Center - Digiday - "For Mastercard, diffusing social in the organization, ironically, meant centralizing it."
• High-Profile VCs Caught up in Bitcoin Mania - PEhub - "As big as the bitcoin opportunity is, it is equally rife with risk."
• Black-hat bitcoin’s days are numbered - Quartz - "Bitcoin has a lot of problems as a currency—its tendency for spasms of crazy volatility, most notably—but fewer as a payments system."
• Bitcoin’s consumerization continues with Perk, a rewards platform and Web browser for normal people - PandoDaily - "Now the only problem is figuring out how to get bitcoin into the hands of the masses."
• Google in Payments: Why Yesterday was BIG News - FinVentures (Tom Noyes) - "Osama and the Google team have done great work getting this out to market. Congrats."
• T-Mobile’s Twitter Account Explains Why Carrier Won’t Support Google Wallet - TmoNews - “We’re supporting ISIS, the wireless payment standard for mobile devices.”
• Square launches faster card swipe machine - Taking Charge - "Sure, we could make payments work better, but why should we when everyone really seems to like plastic?"
• Moving Upstream, PayPal and Square Make a Play for the Local Merchant’s POS - Street Fight - "The gist of PayPal’s and Square’s long-term aspirations is fairly clear: create a two-sided network with a consumer-facing mobile wallet on one end and a merchant processing network on the other, creating a system that gives them control over the entire payment stack."

On the wires:

• International Payment Networks Facing Emerging Threat from Domestic Competition and m-POS - "…the real threat comes when the successful m-POS solution providers follow the PayPal model and enable their own digital wallets and P2P transactions which could completely cut the international networks out of the equation.”
• What is the Killer App for Mobile NFC? It May Not Be Payments, Executives Agree at the 2013 NFC Solutions Summit - "When asked the question "Is NFC dead?" compared to alternate technologies such as cloud payments, Glenbrook Partners Consultant Allen Weinberg stressed that all these technologies are still in the early days and it is too soon to make judgments on what mobile commerce technologies will be the winners and losers. "At the end of the day, we don't have a widespread, commercialized anything yet," he said."
• sweetgreen rewards App an Immediate Success - "Representing the first white-label app from LevelUp, sweetgreen rewards has been an immediate success, allowing guests to earn dollars that can be redeemed at any of sweetgreen's 17 locations and offers various perks that can be unlocked over time…"

On the web:

• Lessons From the New York ATM Heist - Steptoe Cyberblog - "This case should be a wake-up call to anyone who underestimates the sophistication and determination of today’s cyber-criminals."
• QFPay, The Square of China, Is Processing Close To $400M Per Year - TechCrunch - "They have 30,000 merchants all over China and recently picked up funding from Sequoia China…"
• Ahead of I/O, Google Wallet Drops Plans to Introduce a Physical Card - AllThingsD - "The dumping of the physical card plan was certainly abrupt, since it had actually been built into the new update of Google Wallet..."
• Barclaycard takes on Groupon with 'daily deals' - Telegraph - "Barclaycard is aiming to stand above other loyalty and deals offers by offering this personalised service…"
• Cover Raises $1.5M From OATV And Others To Bring Uber-Like Payments To Restaurants - TechCrunch - "Users simply check in to a restaurant at the start of their meal, and when it’s time for them to pay the final bill, it’s immediately charged to their credit card."
• Lessons from the Mcommerce Summit: State of Mobile Commerce 2013 - Mobile Commerce Daily - "Why does engagement matter? Because it drives customer satisfaction, utility and value."
• It’s Official: Foreign Bitcoin Operators Servicing Texas Residents Must Obtain a Texas Money Transmitter License - Contrarian Compliance - "As of May 1, the state of Texas became the second US state to explicitly require foreign-located money transmitters (including Bitcoin exchangers and administrators) to obtain a state money transmitter license if their customers are residents of Texas."
• US Regulator’s Confusion Around Bitcoin Is Exactly Why No One Wants Them Involved - The Genesis Block - "To many people besides Mr. Chilton, bitcoin’s legal color is not as clear: bitcoin still lives in the grey area between a currency and a commodity…"

On the web:

• California Sues JPMorgan Chase Over Credit Card Cases - NY Times - "JPMorgan Chase … deluged the courts with dubious lawsuits to collect soured credit-card debt."
• How hackers allegedly stole “unlimited” amounts of cash from banks in just hours - ArsTechnica - "Prosecutors didn't identify the payment processors except to say one was in India and the other in the United States."
• PayPal exec aims to “obliterate passwords from the face of the planet” - ArsTechnica - "Our intention is to really obliterate, within a certain number of years, both passwords and PINs..."
• One good reason to accept Bitcoins: It screws credit card companies - Pando Daily - "Merchants should enjoy it while it lasts."
• Mobile Gift Card App Gyft Partners With BitPay To Start Accepting Bitcoin Payments In Its Android App - TechCrunch - "Bitcoin is hard to use today, and that’s a good thing. There are still bugs and it is too risky for the average consumer."
• WePay Debuts Veda, An Intelligent Risk Engine That Leverages Social Media Data To Prevent Merchant Fraud - TechCrunch - "A traditional credit score only shows a sliver of who you are, but an online profile allows us to assign our users a more accurate ‘WePay credit score’ based on their personal history of verified, social data."
• No big bang for mobile payments - Business Spectator - "Key to this is understanding that mobile payments are not a vertical market. Players must understand how the different participants in a payment system – the merchant, issuer, and consumer – can all benefit through mobile."
• Adam Smith, Paul Krugman and Bitcoin - Tomorrow's Transactions Blog - "There won't be a single world currency (whether the Dollar or the Remibi) and there won't be a single virtual currency (whether Bitcoin or MintChip). There will be lots of currencies and we will all be better off because of it."
• Free banking at risk as EU wants us to bank anywhere in Europe - Telegraph - "European proposals that would allow Britons to switch to a bank account in another country could hasten the demise of free banking, experts have warned."
• Mobile Payments Service Wins Bill and Melinda Gates Innovator Award - eCommerce Bytes - "Boleto is a unique barcode payment ticket that contains the customer's unique purchase data and Trak's bank information."

On the wires:

• Eight Members Of New York Cell Of Cybercrime Organization Indicted In $45 Million Cybercrime Campaign - "A four-count federal indictment was unsealed in Brooklyn charging eight defendants with participating in two worldwide cyberattacks that inflicted $45 million in losses on the global financial system in a matter of hours."
• Value-Based Payment Models Expected to Reach Tipping Point by 2018 - "Transitioning to payment models that base compensation on outcomes requires physicians and health plans to exchange new kinds of information – different than what is required under today’s predominant fee-for-service arrangements."
• Retailers, Listen Up: High Rates of Mobile Shopping Cart Abandonment Tied to Poor User Experience - "While the majority of smartphone and tablet owners (68%) have attempted to make a purchase on their device, two-thirds (66%) failed to complete a transaction due to obstacles encountered during checkout."
• First Data Releases April 2013 SpendTrend® Analysis - "Year-over-year dollar volume growth increased 5.1% in April, a slowdown from March’s 6.0% growth."

On the web:

• India: Oxigen ties up with NPCI to unveil instant remittance service OxiCash for unbanked people - TechCircle.in - "OxiCash is a mobile wallet service through which people can make money transfers to any bank and also receive funds using the IMPS (Immediate Payment Service) platform of the NPCI…"
• Google Wallet chief leaves the company - VentureBeat - "Osama Bedier, the head of Google Wallet is out, according to several sources."
• Gay Bankers, Once Silent, Speak of Progress — and Hurdles - American Banker - "No one should be afraid to come to work every day as who they are, and no one should have to check who they are at the door…"
• PayPal’s John Lunn reveals how online retailers are using consumer data to beat high street stores - The Next Web - "…find out which startups are helping online retailers to maintain this market dominance, and what physical retailers should do next to fight back."
• Why mobile wallets alone will fail - Cyriac Roeding (shopkick CEO) - "The problem with mobile payments is that payment isn't a problem in the shopping world."
• Off The Schneid - AVC - "I've led a new venture investment for USV, which closed a few weeks ago and was announced last night. The company is Coinbase and my blog post announcing the investment is on the USV blog."
• Purchase, Deposit, and Bank from a Smartphone with Paidpiper - Programmable Web - "Paidpiper represents a new player to the field with a slightly different value proposition over some of its competitors."
• CardFlight Partners With Stripe And Launches SDK To Become The ‘Stripe Of Real-World Payments’ - TechCrunch - "Enter CardFlight, which is launching with an encrypted, Square-like card reader of its own, as well as an SDK and APIs that will allow developers to create apps and take “card-present” payments on their mobile apps."
• EMV Takes Center Stage on Day Two of THE Tech EVENT - Convenience Store News - "Several speakers stressed in today’s standing-room-only session that EMV is a set of guidelines, not standards."
• Prepaid Cards for Jobless Benefits - The Members Group - "…42 states in the U.S. now direct deposit monthly unemployment benefits to out-of-work consumers on reloadable prepaid cards…"
• Discover Card's Email Balance Alert is a Thing of Beauty - NetBanker - "The message is nicely laid out with plenty of white space and it's chock full of links to get more information."

On the wires:

• MasterCard to Power Nigerian Identity Card Program - "This program is the largest roll-out of a formal electronic payment solution in the country and the broadest financial inclusion initiative of its kind on the African continent."
• Wells Fargo Adds Bankers, Launches New Secured Credit Products to Help More Small Businesses - "Wells Fargo’s new Business Secured Credit Card also helps new businesses establish and rebuild business credit…"
• Tabbedout and Future POS Expand Partnership to Bring Unrivaled Merchant Marketing Solution to All Future Fusion Merchants - "This new partnership means that the Tabbedout merchant marketing solution, Periscope, is now available in the 4,000+ Future POS merchant locations that use the Future Fusion software in their restaurants, bars, and hotels…"
• Elavon Names Simon Haslam President and Chief Executive Officer - "Simon’s experience and passion for growth and innovation make him the best individual to lead Elavon as we continue to extend our global reach and the value we deliver to our customers."
• Barclays Uses Nuance Voice Biometrics to Identify Customers by the Sound of their Voice - "No longer will customers need to answer intrusive security questions in order to verify their identity. By simply speaking with an agent, a customer’s voice is verified using Nuance voice biometrics technology, making the authentication process quick, secure and transparent."

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in conjunction with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta has just published a new report titled "U.S. Mobile Payments Landscape – Two Years Later."

Based upon ongoing meetings of the Mobile Payments Industry Workgroup (MPIW) convened by the Federal Reserve, the report updates an earlier paper from 2011. It examines changes in the evolution of mobile POS retail payments over the past two years, characterized by an expanding fragmented market environment and frequent technology innovations.

“There have been some notable changes in the mobile payments area in the last two years,” said Marianne Crowe, Vice President of the Payment Strategies Group at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and co-author of the report.

“For instance, the mobile device has become a pivotal driver in creating a dynamic marketplace that is bringing diverse companies and sectors together, both as competitors and collaborators and across traditional boundaries of industry and technology.”

The paper concludes that while the market is still nascent, progress is being made towards achieving benefits within this ecosystem such as improved security and fraud reduction, cost efficiencies, value-added services, revenue and monetization opportunities, and data privacy.

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…"

Glenbrook's Scott Loftesness will speaking on Monday, May 6, at Experian's Vision 2013 Conference in Carlsbad, California.

Scott will be helping to moderate a panel titled "Wallet Wars — Payments beyond 2013" that will be discussing the impact of mobile on payment business models and profitability for financial institutions, wireless providers and emerging players.

Speakers include Cherian Abraham (Experian), Pete Donat (First Data), Paul Moreton (Capital One), Ken Moy (MasterCard) and Chris Gardner (Paydiant).

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:

• China's UnionPay Payment Network Launches Its First Card Issued in the U.S. - WSJ - "The UnionPay prepaid card will be sold online and in bank branches in major U.S. cities..."
• Mobile Commerce Isn’t Just About Payments - ZDnet UK - "When consumers get added value from their purchase transactions, their mobile phones become not only their conduit into the digital world, but also a kind of concierge, simplifying their lives."
• CBA's clever Kaching ambitions - Business Spectator - "By enabling so many types of payment through a mobile phone, Commonwealth Bank is teaching its customers that if they want to make a payment – in any situation – they should use the Kaching app."
• Starbucks generates 10pc of US revenue from mobile - Mobile Commerce Daily - "Every week, Starbucks is seeing close to four million mobile payment transactions…"
• Chip cards are fundamentally flawed - The Bankwatch Blog - "Sometimes when I read the debates on chip, PIN and EMV I feel I am listening to the Flat Earth Society."
• Future of payments does not need Mastercard or Visa - banking chief - HumanIPO - "The “gorillas” of Mastercard and Visa will in the future no longer be needed because of the direction of banking and payment solutions in the cloud…

On the wires:

• Barclaycard Germany Signed Multi-Year Contract for Debit and Credit Cards with Gemalto

Over on our Payments Views, Glenbrook's George Peabody shares his observations about the confluence of EMV chip card migration, mobile devices and authentication in the US market.

While EMV injects dynamic data into the payment message (as well as clear text PANs), it is an otherwise mostly static, single purpose platform. Compare that to the mobile device, which combines static data (SIM serial number, etc.) with recognizable configuration profiles for device fingerprinting, context-specific dynamic data such as location plus application-specific PIN or biometric entry. And that all happens before the payment transaction takes place.

On the web:

• Nate Silver: What Big Data can't predict - Fortune - "It's important to know, too, that there's a difference between how good we are relative to our potential and how intrinsically predictable something might be."
• Two-factor or not two-factor? That is the security question - InfoWorld - "The case for two-factor authentication would appear to be a slam dunk. But not all security experts praise the solution as a remedy for all security ills."
• PayPal President Makes Surprise Commentary About Bitcoin: “We’re kinda thinking about it” - Silicon Angle - "It’s too far out to speculate on how PayPal would enable this, but if they did it could bring about an accessibility revolution overnight."
• PayPal Sees $20 Billion in Mobile Transactions - Bloomberg video interview with PayPal's David Marcus
• Visa and Fandango Mobilize Buying Movie Tickets - AdWeek - "If consumers opt in for the GPS-enabled Tixpress, they'll see a virtual marquee with movies that are showing nearby. With a couple of taps, they can view showtimes and purchase tickets if they've synced up Fandango app with their Visa account."
• Banks Should Act More Like Apple: Cap One's Innovation Chief - Bank Technology News - "The bank is additionally trying to learn lessons from other industries. It's been looking at, of all categories of companies, newspapers for inspiration..."
• Bitcoin takes an important step toward becoming part of every web browser on the planet - "Bitcoin just took an important step closer to becoming the universal, open, distributed payments glue that binds the world of digital money, anonymous transactions, and extra-governmental currencies together."
• Why banks FAIL at partnerships in mobile finance - "In summary, a bank now has to partner to deliver mobile finance. That means that the bank that used to do everything itself is now just part of a mixed value chain of solution providers covering hardware manufacturers, network operators, payments processors, information service providers and more."
• Smartphones Finally Surpass the Feature Phone - NY Times Bits Blog - "Manufacturers shipped 418.6 million cellphones, 216.2 million of which were smartphones, says IDC."

On the wires:

• Coming Soon!

Earlier today, we noticed a couple of tweets about a new service from Capital One known as Spark Pay.

Turns out that Spark Pay is the latest entrant in the market of providing card acceptance to small merchants using a smartphone or tablet. Spark Pay and its encrypting card reader allow small merchants to "start accepting all major credit cards immediately." The Spark Pay app is available on Android and iOS (iPhone and iPad).

Spark Pay is offering two pricing plans to merchants: a Pro Plan and a Go Plan. "The Pro Plan Pro offers a lower per swipe fee of 1.95% per swipe for Visa®, MasterCard®, and Discover® cards plus a $9.95 monthly fee. The Go Plan offers 2.70% per swipe for Visa®, MasterCard®, and Discover® cards with no monthly fee."

We expect to hear more about Spark Pay soon.

On the web:

• Possible Fed Successor Has Admirers and Foes - NY Times - A look at Janet L. Yellen, Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, by Binyamin Appelbaum.
• Federal Judge Threatens to Hold Merchant Trade Groups in Contempt Over Swipe-Fee Websites - WSJ - Judge John Gleeson is irritated about the website: http://merchantsobject.com/
• The Future of Mobile Payments: How to Make Sure You’re Ready
• PW Interview: Amber Feng, Stripe API, The Payment Web - Programmable Web - "Before Stripe, online payments mainly consisted of decades-old banking infrastructure grafted onto the web, resulting in an exceedingly complex process for businesses and a cumbersome experience for their customers..."
• Tesco: NFC payments are too complex and offer too few benefits - NFC World - "NFC was revolutionary 10 years ago but I think it just might have passed its sell-by date…"
• The Redesigned US$100 Note - coming October 8, 2013
• NACHA Positions the ACH Network To Be a P2P Payments Player - Digital Transactions - "...NACHA last August submitted an ACH P2P payments proposal for for comment last August and gave it final approval March 7."
• NACHA PAYMENTS 2013: Highlights from Day One and NACHA PAYMENTS 2013: Day Two Highlights - GXS' All About B2B Blog - Patty Hines
• 2013 Advanced Payments Report - Edgar Dunn - "The Advanced Payments Report 2013 … is based on a review of the global payments landscape, surveys of payments industry stakeholder opinion…"
• Total System Services Management Discusses Q1 2013 Results - Earnings Call Transcript - "…on the issuing side of our business, we kicked off what I would describe as our most significant business and technology initiative since, really, the launch of TS2."
• American Express streamlines expense tracking via mobile app - Mobile Commerce Daily - "The ReceiptMatch program is being rolled out for American Express Open business card users…"
• Prepaid Popularity on the Rise - The Members Group Blog - "The American Bankers Association study also found that more than 50 percent of U.S. FIs currently offer, or plan to offer, prepaid or reloadable debit cards."
• Visa Survey: Prom Spending Surges 33% Nationwide - "Prom season spending is spiraling out of control as teens continuously try to one-up each other…"

On the wires:

• Tabbedout Launches Powerful Merchant Marketing Tool 'Periscope' - "Periscope gives merchants the ability to monitor customer use of Tabbedout, review their customer's purchase history, collect and respond to guest reviews and create mobile marketing campaigns…"
• CPI Card Group Expands EMV Card Manufacturing Capabilities to Support EMV Migration in the U.S. - "The migration to EMV in the U.S. is unprecedented in terms of size and scale."
• Consult Hyperion joins Open Identity Exchange - "OIX is a non-profit trade organization driving the adoption of new and existing online identity products and services through the development of trust frameworks and listing services."
• FactorTrust Launches Underbanked Index - "Every three months, the Underbanked Index will provide a range of data points including demographic, loan behavior, seasonal effects and others, to help shed light on underbanked consumers."
• Too Busy to Save Money: Research at Stanford Graduate School of Business Examines Why Consumers Pass Up Store Discounts - "Seiler's look at individuals' purchases over time likewise suggests they're trying to minimize search costs."
• PULSE and fisoc Announce Agreement to Provide Buzz Points Rewards Program to Financial Institutions - “In this digital age, our solution enables PULSE to offer its financial institution participants a fully turn-key rewards program. This will provide a distinct advantage to PULSE in the highly competitive debit industry.” (See: Buzz Points)
• NCR Introduces Anti-Skimming Technology to Help Banks Increase Consumer Trust and Reduce Costs - “There were approximately 20,000 skimming incidents in the United States last year. The average cost per incident approached $50,000 and skimming costs across a U.S. bank’s entire ATM network is equivalent to about $2,500 per ATM each year."

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

On the web:

• Silicon Valley firms claim new California data disclosure bill is “overbroad” - ArsTechnica - "If passed, the bill would allow an unprecedented amount of access to individuals to find out what companies know about us."
• The Man (Jack Dorsey) Who Made the Cash Register Obsolete - Inc. - "One guiding philosophy at Square is that technology should be so intuitive that no one stops to question how difficult it must have been to create. That philosophy is paying off."
• With Tablets, Businesses Ring Up at More Fanciful Cash Registers - New York Times - "With the advent of tablets, particularly the iPad, many stores have traded in their clunky cash registers for mobile devices."
• "Bankalytics" – Banks and Analytics - BankInnovation - "I feel the future of banks depends on how relevant they stay to the target market, based on how they analyse the Big Data in their databases."
• Bitcoin’s Last Mile Problem - TechCrunch - "The world needs Bitcoins to exist, even if the mass of humanity doesn’t use it."
• Online Sales-Tax Bill Could Get Senate Votes This Week - Storefront Backtalk - "The bill, known as the “Marketplace Fairness Act,” would allow states to require online retailers to collect sales tax, even if the e-tailer doesn’t have a physical presence in the state."
• Dunkin’ Donut email campaign showcases ongoing mobile payment endeavors - Mobile Commerce Daily - "Mobile payments are on the rise. And, this campaign helps the company solidify its place in the space."
• Are You the Weakest Link? - Retail Payments Risk Forum - "A basic tenet of security that we often mention in Portals and Rails is that experienced criminals attack the weakest points in the system."
• Small Banks Lead the Innovation Agenda: Are They Making the Elephants Dance? - "Today, we are witnessing numerous instances of smaller players spawning innovations across social media, self-service channels, mobile banking, pricing, payments etc. to deliver customer delight."

On the wires:

• American Express OPEN Simplifies Expense Tracking for Small Business with Launch of ReceiptMatch
• Clear2Pay and Earthport partner on low value clearing - "With the OPF Earthport Connect module, clients of the Open Payment Framework (OPF) will have out of the box connectivity to Earthport’s global payments infrastructure in over 50 countries."
• Consumers Want a More Seamless and Personalized Customer Experience From Their Bank - Cisco - "Overall, the report demonstrates consumer interest in more personalized, timely and valuable connections with banks…"
• ACI Worldwide Paves the Way to True Enterprise Payments with Universal Payments Platform - "The Universal Payments Platform is a solution that provides purpose-built payments functionality to orchestrate all aspects of payments processing for any payment type, any channel, any currency and any network."
• With Consumer Optimism Rising, Chase Blueprint Unveils New Initiative to Reinforce Positive Spending Habits - Drawing upon the expertise of Chase and respected experts, the Resource Center for Mindful Spending is a free knowledge center available at Chase.com/MindfulSpending.
• USA Technologies To Demonstrate Two New Cashless Payment Devices at NAMA OneShow - "The ePort G9 represents a redesigned, feature-rich offering for USAT’s popular JumpStart program. It will include all of the functionality of USAT’s NFC-enabled ePort G8, plus new features…"
• Boulder Valley Credit Union Introduces Tyfone Mobile Banking Financial Services - "One Tyfone client has reported more than a 10 percent mobile adoption from non-PC bankers, which in turn increases the ROI for the financial institution."

On the web:

• M-Pesa fraud losses less that 1% - Safaricom - "Chief executive Bob Collymore said the money lost in M-Pesa fraud averages 0.006 per cent of the amount transacted which currently stands at Sh2 billion daily."
• Bitcoin Buzz Draws Western Union, MoneyGram - Fox Business
• Credit Unions: Reinvent P2P Lending - Ron Shevlin - "I’m just thinking about how smaller FIs are going to compete with the big ones for the coveted lending market."
• Fewer Bank Accounts May Lead to More Savings, Study Finds - NY Times Bucks Blog - "In this research, we demonstrate that individuals allocating their earnings to a single account saved more than those who spread their earnings across multiple accounts…"
• A new way to pay restaurant bills - Seattle Times looks at the "RAIL" payment system...
• The real opportunity for payment startups: simplicity - VentureBeat (Jon Soberg) - "Intermediaries, paperwork, antiquated systems, processes, and regulations still play a prominent role in today’s ecosystem."
• US PIN Debit Consolidation - Tom Noyes - "I have a strong bet that the US banks will consolidate around a single PIN provider within the next 18 months."
• Adam Davidson Explains Bitcoin To Stephen Colbert (video) - Planet Money
• Visa Europe is holding its Insights 13 Conference today - follow the news in Visa Europe's Twitter feed. See pictures from the conference on Visa Europe's Pinterest board.
• “Mobile is the end game”: VeriFone discusses the future of payments as a service - My-Retail Media - "Ultimately, retailers' business is about making a sale. You either need to take a payment or redeem that value to a retailer."
• Bitcoin exchange BitFloor halts operations, shuts down - CNet - "Bitcoin exchange BitFloor announced Wednesday it is closing its trading operations and plans to return its remaining funds to its users."

On the wires:

• DeviceFidelity Adds Multiple NFC Patents to its Extensive Portfolio, Totaling 40 Granted and Allowed Patents Worldwide - "DeviceFidelity’s extensive portfolio of patents covers the implementation and management of NFC technology, security and unique miniaturization and amplification solutions…"
• Moneris Solutions and LightSpeed to Provide Integrated Mobile Payment Solutions for Canadian Retailers - "Our partnership with Moneris represents an important milestone in Canadian retail, which has been newly empowered by mobile, iPad(R) and Mac solutions that engage customers in an interactive and re-energized shopping environment…"
• Mobile Users Well Aware of Fraud but, for Many, Convenience Trumps Security Concerns - "Users may be willing to accept risk now in favor of convenience, but this tolerance will weaken as fraud continues to grow."
• Alliance Data Reports Record First-Quarter 2013 Results - "Revenue increased 18 percent to $1.05 billion while adjusted EBITDA increased 18 percent to $357 million for the first quarter of 2013."

Visa Europe has announced two additions to its Visa Personal Payments mobile service that will enable consumers to make instant transactions from their mobile phone to any Visa cardholder in Europe, in any European currency.

The Multi-Currency feature, to be available by the end of 2013, allows payments to be sent and received across borders, bringing international money transfers to mobile devices. Immediate Payments, launching in the UK this week with other markets to follow later in the year, makes it possible for consumers to receive money sent via Visa Personal Payments in a matter of minutes.

Sandra Alzetta, Senior Vice President, Visa Europe, said:

"Mobile payments have the potential to fundamentally change the way that people pay and are paid. The new Multi-Currency and Immediate Payments features combine the convenience of mobile device use with the ability to send money to 460 million Visa cardholders across Europe, solving a problem that millions of consumers face every day – giving money to another individual easily and securely."

Visa Personal Payments is a person-to-person payments service that enables anyone with a Visa credit, debit or reloadable prepaid card to accept payments from another Visa card without needing to share any account details.

On the web:

• Walmart Joins NRF, Ends Longest-Running Retail Feud Ever - StorefrontBacktalk - "According to one person familiar with the players involved, what changed is the nature of some of the legislation that Walmart is now pushing, such as interchange and tax considerations for E-Commerce."
• The case for digital tender - FT Alphaville - "…Central banks should issue their own e-money instead of leaving it in the hands of private companies."
• Gavin Andresen, Bitcoin Architect: Meet The Man Bringing You Bitcoin (And Getting Paid In It) - Huffington Post - "The mission is really to create a stable worldwide currency for the internet."
• Yay, hiss! Cards' mag stripe 'fingerprint' may foil thieves - Taking Charge Blog - "It turns out there's a similar lo-fi static attached to your credit card's magnetic stripe that, much like my vinyl mixtape, has long gone unheard and unappreciated."
• Champ at the Bitcoin (Comic) - AllThingsD
• Prepaid Debit Cards More Popular, Despite Fees - NY Times Bucks Blog - "One of the more frustrating fees on the cards is a charge for calling customer service."
• Bitcoin Isn’t the Only Cryptocurrency in Town - Technology Review - "Several others are also surging in popularity and value, and they claim to offer technical improvements that make them better suited to mainstream use."
• Eat Out Kenya Launches Partnership with KopoKopo, Safaricom - Yummy - "MPESA should be an option that every restaurant offers, especially when KopoKopo have streamlined the management and reporting process."
• The business case for EMV in the USA, yet again - Consult Hyperion's Tomorrow's Transactions Blog - "…I might go a little further and say that if cross-sector authentication solutions are developed reasonably quickly, then the issuers might be much better off shifting to the "something present" (SP) model sooner rather than later…"
• PayPal Extends Seller Protection Provision Off eBay - EcommerceBytes.com - "It appears not all sellers are covered for off-eBay protections yet, as PayPal rolls out coverage through the year, so look for a letter in your email inbox."
• Miura: we’ll ship 500,000 chip & PIN readers this year - Mobile Money Revolution

On the wires:

• Steve Elefant: A Pioneer in Payments, Point of Sale and Electronic Commerce Joins GoPago to Lead Strategy - "I have looked at all of the solutions and without a doubt, GoPago has the most robust cloud-based commerce, point-of-sale and mobile ordering platform on the market today."
• WorldPay and Intershop partner to deliver eCommerce solution with extensive payment processing and risk functionality - "The integration will provide retail merchants with a complete eCommerce solution with extensive payment processing, global customer reach and risk functionality."
• Mercury Leader Joins ETA Mobile Payments Committee - "In this role, Nayfack will develop best practices in mobile commerce with industry peers to enable merchants and consumers to navigate technological “ease-of-use.”

On the web:

• CMU students show fingerprints may be way to buy - "With PayTango, a swipe of the finger links users' personal information to their credit or debit card in less than 15 seconds, making for a quick and easy-to-use system."
• Do Cyberattacks Threaten Confidence in Our Payment Systems? - FRB Atlanta Retail Payments Risk Forum
• Atlanta a Key Talent and Business Market for Square's Payments Business - MidtownPatch - "The company, which launched its Atlanta presence by hiring eight former Google Inc. engineers, expects to have a staff of 35 infrastructure engineers and customer support staff by the end of the year."
• Alipay Launches Sound Wave Mobile Payments System In Beijing Subway - Techcrunch - "Alipay has launched a new payment system in the Beijing subway that uses sound waves to connect smartphones with ticketing machines."
• American Express mobile advertising campaign generates 95pc view-to-completion rate - Mobile Commerce Daily - "A big part of American Express’ mobile and digital initiatives center around narrative storytelling, from both marketing and consumer perspectives."
• The real cause of the Bitcoin bubble and burst - Financial Services Club Blog - "Bitcoin is an experiment. Treat it like you would a promising Internet start-up company: Maybe it will change the world, but recognize that investing your money or time in new ideas is always risky."
• Consultation on a new payments regulator for the UK - Consult Hyperion's Tomorrow's Transactions Blog - "Will PayCom work? It's impossible to say, since I don't know what it is supposed to do."
• Will Bitcoins make you rich? - Sydney Morning Herald - "…indeed, I don't care at all for Bitcoin as a currency. Instead, I wanted to buy Bitcoins as pure, shameless speculation. I wanted a chance to ride a rocket ship."

On the wires:

• Discover Card Leads the Way in Customer Loyalty for the 17th Consecutive Year - "Discover has managed to create the highest levels of loyalty by leveraging real, emotional category values…"
• UL first lab selected to provide testing for mPOS solutions for the Visa Ready Partner Program - "UL was selected as the first lab to guide mPOS solution providers who want to ensure their products are ‘Visa Ready’ through all of the certification processes required by Visa."

On the web:

• Why Banks Love Debit Cards Again - TIME.com
• Dwolla Taken Offline by DDoS attack - MobilePaymentsToday.com
• What You Need to Know About Credit Card Processing (Five Part Series) - NYTimes.com
• Seamless’s SEQR Skips Visa, MasterCard to Battle Google Wallet - The Washington Post
• How An Unregulated Virtual Currency Became A Billion Dollar Market -TechCrunch
• PayPal of Russia 'Oiwi' Aims to Raise $100 million in a U.S. IPO - Internet Retailer
• Taiwan Plans To Let Local Banks Issue China Unionpay Cards - Reuters

On the wires:

• Cars.com Signs With 41st Parameter
• Bango Hits 100 Operator Connections with Global Bill-to-Mobile Service
• Alibaba Group and MasterCard Sign MOU to Enhance e-Commerce Environment
• IDT and Fiserv Announce Strategic Agreement to Expand Availability of International Calling Services and Walk-in Bill Payments
• Digital River Expands Its Global Online Payments Portfolio with Prepaid Payment Solution, paysafecard

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.

On the web:

• 'Cover' Automates Restaurant Payments, Enabling Diners to Eat and Leave - Springwise
• PayPal Co-Founder Gets Back Into Payments Startups With 'Affirm' - San Jose Mercury News
• Coupon Clipping Declines As Shoppers Get Savvier - NBCnews.com

On the wires:

• Fortumo Launches Payments on Windows Phone
• Payment Processor i2c Takes Money Management to the Next Level
• TIO Networks Surpasses 1 Million Transactions Across All TIO Wallet Members
• hyperWALLET Announces New Payment Services and Expanded Global Payments Network
• BofA Merrill Launches Dodd-Frank Payments Solutions for Financial Institution Clients
• Zeevex Partners with Valve to Provide Cash-Based Consumers More Purchasing Options

NOOK Media, the eBook subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, has announced in-app purchasing is coming soon to NOOK through a partnership with mobile payment provider Fortumo.

For customers, in-app purchasing offers greater access to the most popular games and free apps on NOOK, and gives them the flexibility to buy extra levels, coins and other upgrades to make the app experience even better. And with the integration of Fortumo’s one-click checkout, once a customer has registered for in-app purchasing there’s no need to enter long credit card numbers before each payment. They simply click “Pay” and the purchase is completed in seconds.

Heartland Payment Systems and LevelUp announced they are partnering nationwide on the first national roll out of a mobile payment solution.

“The biggest challenge facing mobile payment companies right now is scale,” said Chris Mahl, LevelUp’s chief revenue and strategy officer. “LevelUp has been able to reach 1 million users and 5,000 merchants relatively quickly, but we need even wider consumer and merchant adoption before LevelUp hits the mainstream. Our partnership with Heartland Payment Systems will allow us to fire up our growth rate as we begin a phased roll-out with Heartland’s impactful sales force selling LevelUp and our white-label solutions to businesses and consumers across the country.”

Heartland will distribute LevelUp's mobile payment and loyalty platform to merchants; LevelUp will use Heartland for processing.

On the web:

• What's Next in Mobile Payments? - Portals and Rails
• Remote Mobile Shoppers and Their Payment Preferences - EcommerceBytes.com
• Booming Swedish IT Startup 'Klarna' Eyes PayPal's Home Turf - Reuters
• Payouts For Startups Gets Easier With New Braintree Service - TechCrunch
• Stripe Partners With Parse To Integrate Mobile Payments For App Developers - TechCrunch
• Walmart Expanding iPhone Checkout System to More Stores and Android - AllThingsD
• Cash Registers Fade Away As Smartphones, Tablets Take Over - Green Bay Press Gazette
• Where's George?: The Trail Of $1 Bills Across The U.S. - NPR
• Facebook to Move From Credits to Local Currency Payments in Q3 2013 - Facebook Blog

On the wires:

• NCR Launches Aloha Mobile to Make Everyday Easier for Restaurants
• MasterCard Smart Data App Helps Eliminate Paper Receipts for Corporate Cardholders
• Mobivity and CheckAlt Partner to Develop Mobile Check Acceptance Solutions
• BitPay Exceeds $2 Million in Transactions Month-to-Date, Lowers Fees for All Merchants
• Zuora Unveils Z-Business for Media, Helping Media Companies Use Paywall 2.0
• Swap Launches Dynamic Digital Payments Platform -- The eWallet Cloud Solution
• Net Element Expands its Mobile Payments Business to 39 More Countries

Starbucks introduced a new cross-channel, multi-brand reward program at its annual meeting. They also took a minute to discuss the adoption they've seen with their mobile payments initiative.

In January 2011, Starbucks became the first national retailer to offer its own mobile payment technology combined with a world-class loyalty program, and the company now generates over three million mobile transactions each week in the U.S. alone – accounting for approximately 10% of total U.S. tender (Starbucks card, broadly, represents 1 in 3 transactions in the U.S.). New mobile users report that they are embracing the Starbucks mobile payment experience because of the benefits they receive and because it enables them to track their loyalty status in an interactive and engaging way directly on their mobile device.

AJB Software Design has announced availability of FIPay Mobile, a new app that allows smartphone users to pay for gas purchases while remaining in their car. Hughes Car Wash, a Petroleum & C-Store retailer based in Edmonton, Alberta is the first customer.

“The Hughes MobilePay application, powered by our FIPay suite of products, is an example of how petroleum merchants can quickly deploy mobile applications with minimal new investment or configuration,” said Eric Wong, Director, Special Projects, AJB Software Design. “On miserable days, when it’s too hot, rainy or cold, or when it’s late at night, consumers can sit and pay in the safety and comfort of their car, while the fuel dispenser refills their gas tank.

On the web:

• March Madness on the Hardwoods, Mobile Madness in the Payments Arena - Portals and Rails
• Capital One Offers $20 Incentive to Try ShopSavvy Mobile Wallet - NetBanker

On the wires:

• Western Union and Woodforest National Bank Sign Multi-Year Agreement

On the web:

• RBS and NatWest Launch Visa-based Mobile P2P Transfers (UK) - Guardian
• Google Organizationally Moves Google Wallet Inside Google Advertising Group - WSJ.com
• Intuit Rolls Out Mobile POS Solution In Europe, Starting First In The UK - TechCrunch
• Mobile Payments from Western Union Make It Easier To Pay Bills - Mobile Commerce News
• UnionPay To Widen Global Issue Of Single-Branded Cards - chinadaily.com.cn
• PayPal Debuts PayPal Here "Register" App for iPad - AllThingsD

On the wires:

• BBVA to Start JCB Merchant Acquiring in Spain
• eLayaway Integrates PepperJam Exchange Network and Welcomes Dazadi to its eLayawayMALL
• Virgin Atlantic Airways further strengthens payment security with Semafone