MasterCard and Western Union have announced a global agreement to cooperate on prepaid cards and money transfers.

MasterCard and Western Union have been working together to provide prepaid card services for the past year. The expanded global relationship makes MasterCard the preferred brand for Western Union-sponsored prepaid programs around the world and makes Western Union the preferred money transfer service for MasterCard. Consumers will have access to a global network to transfer and load funds onto prepaid cards. Western Union and MasterCard prepaid cardholders will be able to reload their prepaid cards at MasterCard rePower locations as well as at participating Western Union® Agent locations.

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.

The Mobile Money Exchange has a great visual tool that nicely illustrates the proliferation of mobile money deployments around the world.

This tool was originally developed by the GSMA Mobile Money for the Unbanked team (covering the countries under their remit) and has been extended to include all worldwide mobile money deployments.

Gemalto has announced that "NetOne, a leading network operator in Zimbabwe, is deploying Gemalto’s LinqUs solution for Mobile Money Transfer, which comprises of the server, user application, as well as system integration services. The offer, being marketed as the OneWallet service, works on 100% of the handsets and will enable all NetOne subscribers to perform secure and convenient money transfer using their mobile phone. In particular, it provides the unbanked with access to secure banking services."

On the wires:

• Verifi Selected by Marketing Architects for Real-Time Fraud Analysis
• New eLayaway 2.0 Beta Release Enhances Both Merchant and Consumer Experience
• Panini First to Market with RDC Solution for Apple Macintosh Users
• Parago Announces Surging Rebate Activity in 2010
• New BCG Report - 'Global Payments 2011'
• Crédit Agricole Selects Gemalto for Its Mobile Contactless Payment Program in Nice
• New Juniper Research Report - Mobile Money Transfer & Remittances
• Guardian Analytics Finishes 2010 with Record Growth in Customers and Revenue

On the web:

• Wall Street Journal: Fed Proposes Implementation Of Two Dodd-Frank Provisions
• TechCrunch: BillGuard Raises $3M To Track Hidden Fees, Billing Errors On Credit Card Bills
• PayPal Blog: PayPal teams with Points.com to turn airline miles into cash
• codebutler: New 'FareBot' Android App Can Harvest Data from Public Transit Cards
• O'Reilly Radar Report: ePayments: Emerging Platforms, Embracing Mobile, and Confronting Identity

Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners:

• Wells Fargo Desktop Deposit Service Processes $1 Trillion
• MoneyGram Significantly Expands Presence in India with 4,200 New Agent Locations
• New Mercator Report on Smartphone Use of NFC Technology Beyond Payments
• Onebip Partners with Online Games Publisher OGPlanet

• Mashable: Why Your Smartphone Will Replace Your Wallet

Western Union has announced the launch of account-based money transfer (ABMT) services to two new Asia-Pacific markets, Korea and India. The new offering build on agreements with Western Union’s existing agents in the two countries: Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) and the State Bank of India (SBI).

In related news, MoneyGram announced it has signed two national post offices to its growing international agent network -- the Kazakhstan Post and the Moldova Post

And in even more related news, Standard Chartered Bank, India's largest international bank, has announced the launch of its online remittance service, Transfer2Home, that enable customers to transfer money to India from USA, UK, UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong and Bahrain.

MoneyGram International and Visa have announced the launch of MoneyGram’s first cash-to-Visa card program enabling consumers to transfer money from MoneyGram locations in the United States directly to the Visa accounts of recipients outside of the United States. At launch, the new program will enable funds to be received on Visa-branded credit and debit cards issued by Banco Industrial, a Visa bank and MoneyGram agent in Guatemala. READ MORE »

RegaloCard has announced that Burger King, one of the leading fast food chains in El Salvador, has joined the RegaloCard Mobile Payment Network. RegaloCard is a prepaid gift card that immigrants can buy in the United States. The RegaloCard redemption PIN is then delivered instantly via mobile payment technology to the person they choose in Latin America, to make purchases at leading local retailers. READ MORE »

RushCard has announced the availability of a new card-to-card funds transfer feature that allows RushCard members to "instantly transfer money at a fraction of the cost they'd pay to move money through leading wire transfer services. A RushCard member can now transfer funds to another member's card at a low, flat rate, and they can transfer funds between their own RushCards for free. Transfer fees with other services can be eight to ten times higher to move the same amount of money." READ MORE »

In an article titled "Nokia, Yu and Obopay join region’s cash transfer market", Michael Duma writes for The East African that "Obopay has partnered with Kenya’s fourth mobile network, Essar Telecom Kenya (ETK) and mobile handset maker Nokia, to launch a money transfer services called yuCash — to be carried out under the Obopay platform."

CashEdge has announced today two U.S. banks are the first in the nation to launch POPmoney, its new email and mobile person-to-person (P2P) payments service that is offered through banks. According to the company, "five additional financial institutions have signed on to launch the service in early 2010, demonstrating strong momentum for the innovative new P2P payments service." From the list of participating banks shown on the POPmoney.com website, it appears the first two banks are First Hawaiian and PNC. READ MORE »

Western Union and InComm have announced an agreement to offer the Western Union GoCashSM service, a new U.S. in-lane prepaid money-transfer service from Western Union. READ MORE »

Mobile Money Ventures (MMV) and CPNI Inc. (CPNI) have announced they will be partnering to offer financial institutions "a comprehensive solution that integrates CPNI's mobile commerce solutions into MMV's mobile financial services platform. The multifaceted relationship will combine CPNI's PATsend remote mobile payment technology into MMV's next generation mobile platform, with the opportunity to integrate PATbuy mobile purchases in the next phase." READ MORE »

Global Payments has announced that it has signed an agreement to sell its DolEx- and Europhil-branded money transfer businesses to an affiliate of Palladium Equity Partners, LLC. Under the terms of the agreement, Global Payments will receive proceeds in the range of $85 million to $110 million based on the operating performance of the business determined at the time of closing, which is subject to customary regulatory approvals including the consent to the transaction by the issuers of money transfer licenses in many of the states and countries where DolEx or Europhil currently operates.

MasterCard has announced that starting in 2010, MasterCard's financial institutions will have the capability to offer MasterCard cardholders money transfers from any MasterCard or Maestro card to any other MasterCard or Maestro card. According to MasterCard, "this global card-to-card money transfer service will expand the usability and value of MasterCard products and global payments network by providing its customers with a convenient and cost-effective money transfer platform enabling person-to-person payments and cross-border remittances." READ MORE »

Visa has announced that is has extended the global reach of its Visa Money Transfer Service to greater China and the United Arab Emirates, two of the world's most active territories for international remittance. Visa has also launched a new managed service, available initially in Canada and the U.S., that makes it easier for a financial institution to offer Visa Money Transfer to its customers. READ MORE »

Fiserv has announced plans for a new personal payments service that it says "will enable individuals to quickly and easily send or receive money person-to-person using their existing online banking relationship. The service will be made available to the more than 3,100 financial institutions in the Fiserv online payment network, linking users with their friends, family, neighbors and colleagues." READ MORE »

FIS has announced that it is integrating PayPal's person-to-person (P2P) payment system into the FIS online bill payment application for financial institutions. FIS says that "by integrating paperless P2P functionality into its online bill payment application, FIS empowers banks and credit unions to simultaneously solve for a real consumer need and drive increased transaction activity at the online channel." READ MORE »

CashEdge and Firethorn have announced a strategic relationship to bring to market an integrated mobile person-to-person (P2P) payments solution integrating CashEdge's POPmoney P2P payments service with Firethorn's Mobile Wallet solution. According to the companies, "the integrated mobile P2P solution will enable financial institutions to offer their customers the ability to send electronic payments using CashEdge's POPmoney from within their Firethorn mobile banking application, by simply using the email address or mobile phone number of the recipient. This comprehensive mobile P2P banking solution will give consumers greater control over their finances, enabling them to pay other people whenever and wherever they want." READ MORE »

MoneyGram International and Affinity Global Services have announced an agreement "that will enable mobile money transfer receives in important markets around the globe, bringing greater convenience and extending the benefits of MoneyGram services to a new category of consumers. The MoneyGram and Affinity Global Services alliance will allow consumers to use MoneyGram’s agent network of over 180,000 locations around the world to send money to an account associated with a mobile device." READ MORE »

Javelin Strategy & Research has released a new report - Mobile Person-to-Person Payments: Mounting Telco Activity in a Mobile Channel Segment That Financial Institutions Can’t Afford to Lose - that finds that "financial institutions must act now to implement person-to-person mobile solutions before carriers capture the market."

Javelin says "that conditions are growing ripe for potential widespread consumer use of mobile devices to send payments between one another: smartphones are now used by 17 percent of consumers, mobile banking is used by many, and use of the internet for banking and shopping has been common for years. These are just some of the conditions that have created an increased likelihood that consumers will soon begin to use mobile person-to-person (P2P) transfers." READ MORE »

Western Union and Fifth Third Bank have announced an agreement to offer the Western Union global money-transfer service at Fifth Third’s more than 1,300 banking center locations in 12 states. The Western Union global money-transfer service, a new service offering for Fifth Third accountholders and walk-in consumers, will be available in the next several months. READ MORE »

Over on CGAP's Technology Blog, Olga Morawczynski, a doctoral candidate at the University of Edinburgh, writes about Kenya's M-Pesa and what most of us don't know about M-Pesa. She credits much of its success not to the usual suspects we've heard about but rather to Sagentia, a technology consultancy firm based in Cambridge. As often happens with innovations, it was the small dedicated team working with the two big players that provided the focus to get things done!

CashEdge has announced the launch of POPmoney - calling it "the first person-to-person payments (P2P) service for banks, enabling banks to provide simple and secure P2P payments from their online or mobile banking applications." READ MORE »

Western Union has announced the launch of a Digital Vendor Program intended to extend the reach and accessibility of Western Union Money Transfer services to mobile finance initiatives in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

"Establishing a strong mobile vendor program is a critical step in the delivery of our 'Western Union Anywhere' service proposition," said Matt Dill, SVP and Head of Western Union Digital Ventures. "By collaborating on a global level with proven mobile platform providers, we believe we can simplify deployments for our mobile partners and introduce a more consistent Western Union experience for consumers." READ MORE »

Here's the press release on the launch of a new mobile money transfer and payment service in Canada called Zoompass.

"Canada’s three leading wireless operators, today launched Zoompass, a breakthrough mobile money transfer and payment service. Zoompass gives Canadians a fast and convenient way to send and receive money securely using their mobile phone. The service is enabled through the Zoompass application on the mobile phone which combines an easy-to-use interface with an integrated contact manager that redefines how users send and receive money. Zoompass is a better way to pay than cash, cheque, or wire transfer." READ MORE »

TSYS has announced that it has signed an agreement with TransCash Corporation to launch a prepaid money transfer card. The prepaid card will initially be launched in France during Q3 2009 and will be sold by Midi France Telecom. To coincide with the agreement, TSYS has opened a new office in Paris to support the company’s expansion into France. READ MORE »

Sybase 365 has announced that it will team with Swisscontact, the Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation, to provide development of Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) and Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) services in emerging markets. READ MORE »

Western Union and Fidelity National Information Services have announced an agreement to offer Western Union global money transfer services to FIS' more than 8,500 banking institution clients throughout the United States. The signing of FIS is an important step in Western Union's North America "go-to-market" strategy to continue its expansion into the banking channel. As Western Union expands its service offerings, in an effort to strongly position money transfers to consumers, it looks to tap into consumer banking channels including: Cash-to-Cash, Account-to-Cash, and Account-to-Account. READ MORE »