A new survey by the American Bankers Association (ABA) reports on current consumer preference for various banking channels –– online banking is preferred by 36% of customers, followed by traditional branches (25%), ATMs (15%), mail (8%), and telephone (6%). Mobile, as the newest channel, is preferred by 3% of customers.

Wells Fargo has announced the launch of new mobile banking applications for Android, BlackBerry, and Palm. Wells Fargo customers may choose the Mobile Banking services that best suit their needs from a menu of options on Wells Fargo's newly expanded Mobile Banking Resource Center.

"We are listening and responding to our customers by broadening our mobile banking services," said Arah Erickson, head of Wells Fargo Retail Mobile Banking. "Our goal is to make it even more convenient for customers to access their account information – anytime, anywhere – helping them save time and providing peace-of-mind. Wells Fargo Mobile Banking makes it fast, easy, and secure for customers to stay in touch with their finances.”

What is BankSimple all about? For some insights, listen to this edition of The Pipeline podcast by Dan Benjamin. In this edition of his excellent podcast series, Dan interviews Alex Payne - who recently left Twitter to join BankSimple as co-founder and Chief Product & Technology Officer. Some fascinating insights into what BankSimple is all about. (You can request to join BankSimple on this page. You can follow Alex Payne on Twitter: @al3x).

Fiserv has announced the results of its most recent Consumer Billing and Payment Trends survey which has tracked online consumer bill payment habits since 2001. According to the company, "the 2010 survey shows online banking, bill payment and e-bill usage continues to grow, and that the online bill payment population has changed significantly during the last decade. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of households that use online banking increased more than six-fold (to 72.5 million), and the number that use online bill payment increased nearly eight-fold (to 36.4 million). Online bill payers now represent a wide cross-section of the U.S population, and women have edged out men as the primary users of the service." An overview of the 2010 Consumer Billing and Payment Trends survey results can be downloaded at http://www.fiserv.com/trends.htm. READ MORE »

Guardian Analytics has announced closing $9 million in Series C funding led by Sutter Hill Ventures with participation by existing investor Foundation Capital. According to the company, "the Series C funding will be used to accelerate product innovation and capitalize on the growing demand for fraud prevention solutions that can protect financial institutions and their customers from today's sophisticated cybercrime." READ MORE »

Wells Fargo today commemorates the 15-year anniversary of online banking. On May 18, 1995, Wells Fargo became the first bank in the nation to give customers free Internet access to current balances in their checking, savings, line of credit and credit card accounts. The service showed customers’ transaction histories for checking and savings accounts. Today, Wells Fargo serves 17.2 million combined active online customers who visit more that 2 billion times per year. READ MORE »

Fiserv has announced ZashPay, a new person-to-person payments service that "will allow consumers to tap into a community where they can quickly send or receive money using their existing online banking accounts. With ZashPay, consumers will be able to send money to anyone they know using only an e-mail address or mobile phone number. The payment will be deducted directly from the sender’s banking account and deposited directly into the recipient’s account in as little as one business day, utilizing the same secure processes as a typical online banking transaction." Fiserv has also launched a Facebook page for ZashPay. READ MORE »

Gemalto has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Todos AB from investors led by 6AP, a fund belonging to the Swedish National Pension system. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, and employing 80 people worldwide, Todos AB is a provider of strong authentication solutions for internet banking. READ MORE »

Are you getting an Apple iPad this weekend? We are!

Right out of the box, Payments News should look great on the iPad in the Safari browser viewed in landscape mode. We're looking forward to holding Payments News "in our hands"! We'll be enhancing Payments News even more for our new iPad-equipped readers! - stay tuned!

And, if you're with a financial institution doing new things for/with iPad's, be sure to let us know! We're looking forward to a seeing next-generation online experiences on this device - and want to feature your innovations!

The UK Payments Council has released new data on fraud losses for the full year 2009 that show that "total fraud losses on UK cards fell by 28 per cent between 2008 and 2009 to £440.3 million – a decrease of £170 million on the previous year’s total."

According to the Council, "the combined force of industry initiatives such as: chip and PIN; the increasing use of sophisticated fraud detection tools by banks and retailers; and the work of the DCPCU , the banking-sponsored special police unit, have all helped contribute to this fall. It is the first time that card fraud has decreased since 2006." READ MORE »

Firethorn Holdings has announced that it has expanded its mobile banking solution to allow consumers to now manage their checking, savings and credit card accounts with more than 3,700 U.S. financial institutions using a single mobile application. Firethorn says that "consumers can now go to http://www.mobilebanking.com to download the updated Mobile Banking application directly to their mobile devices and enroll their accounts with these newly added financial institutions. The application is available on a variety of smartphones and feature handsets offered by wireless operators working with Firethorn." READ MORE »

In an article titled "Cybercrooks stalk small businesses that bank online", Byron Acohido writes for USA Today about how small businesses are being targeted by fraudsters seeking to gain online banking account userid's and passwords. According to Acohido, "the American Bankers Association and the FBI are advising small and midsize businesses that conduct financial transactions over the Internet to dedicate a separate PC used exclusively for online banking."

The growing use of branchless banking, including mobile phone banking, is inevitable in most countries. But it's far less certain whether large numbers of the unbanked poor will use these alternative channels for financial services beyond payments, such as savings and credit. So says "Scenarios for Branchless Banking in 2020," a new report from CGAP, a microfinance group based at the World Bank, and the U.K.'s Department for International Development (DFID). READ MORE »

The FBI issued a press release earlier today highlighting concerns about an increase in ACH-based fraud targeting online banking credentials of small businesses, governments and school districts.

From the press release: "Within the last several months, the FBI has seen a significant increase in fraud involving the exploitation of valid online banking credentials belonging to small and medium businesses, municipal governments, and school districts. In a typical scenario, the targeted entity receives a “spear phishing” e-mail which either contains an infected attachment, or directs the recipient to an infected website. Once the recipient opens the attachment or visits the website, malware is installed on their computer. The malware contains a key logger which will harvest each recipient’s business or corporate bank account login information. Shortly thereafter, the perpetrator either creates another user account with the stolen login information or directly initiates funds transfers by masquerading as the legitimate user. These transfers have occurred as both traditional wire transfers and as ACH transfers." READ MORE »

Mazooma, a real-time online debit payment solution for U.S. consumers, has announced that PETCO has signed an agreement to integrate the Mazooma solution on its Web site, PETCO.com. According to the two companies, "PETCO will now be able to provide a real time, bank authenticated debit payment option for its U.S. consumers, allowing online shoppers to easily and securely pay for their purchases with cash." READ MORE »

MasterCard Worldwide has announced the launch of MasterCard Money Manager™ - calling it "a new, interactive financial management tool that enables MasterCard cardholders to quickly and efficiently monitor debit card spending for themselves and members of their household. Using the web-based tool, consumers have the ability to review signature and PIN-based MasterCard transactions by merchant category, and create customized categories, making it easy to identify spending patterns and compare actual spend to an allocated budget." READ MORE »

Plastyc has introduced iBankUp, a new online banking service that enables "GenY consumers to save money and keep their credit history clean by giving younger, Web-savvy people constant financial oversight and control with no risk of incurring credit card debt or overdraft fees." READ MORE »

Intuit has announced TurboTax for Online Banking, "a new offering designed to help financial institutions bring more value to customers – and increase deposits – by turning their online banking site into a valuable tax resource." Available for Digital Insight financial institutions to offer in the upcoming tax season, TurboTax for Online Banking won a Best of Show award at Finovate 2009, a conference showcasing the best new innovations in financial and banking technology. READ MORE »

A survey commissioned by VeriSign's Messaging and Mobile Media Division (in collaboration with Fiserv and M-Com) of more than 500 U.S. mobile phone users finds that financial institutions should mine the untapped market of offline-banking consumers as a potential target audience for mobile banking and payment services.

According to the survey, sixty percent of consumers not currently using online banking would be interested in using at least one mobile banking service if it was offered during a typical month. The survey also shows that non-online-banking consumers are heavy users of traditional bank channels: nearly two-thirds reported contacting their financial institution once a week or more through one or more bank channels such as contact centers and interactive voice response systems. These are among the most costly customer service channels. READ MORE »

Today's UK card fraud report was surprisingly positive - with card fraud losses down 23% for the first half of 2009 vs. 2008. However, there was much worse news with respect to online banking fraud - which spiked up 55% in the same period. READ MORE »

Fiserv has announced survey results on how consumers' financial activities have been impacted by the prolonged recession and how financial institutions can help them gain a greater sense of control of their finances. Overall, consumers surveyed indicated a desire for robust online banking functionality that allows them to closely monitor and manage their finances, combined with proactive alerts and reminders from their financial institution. READ MORE »

Fiserv says that more than two million U.S. households adopted online banking and bill payment during the last year, according to a recent consumer survey. "A total of 69.7 million households, representing four out of five households with Internet access, now use online banking services, primarily to access balance and account history and transfer money between accounts. In addition, 64.4 million households pay at least one bill online, either at a bank website or directly at a company website." READ MORE »

Gemalto has announced commercial launch of the Ezio Optical TAN, a unique optical authentication reader for online banking access that is specially designed for the German market. According to the company, "the reader, the size of a credit card, fits in a wallet along with the banking card. Users present the device in front of their computer screen and optical sensors capture the data they would normally enter from the reader keypad to carry out and sign online transactions. No software needs to be installed to use the device." READ MORE »

ThreatMetrix has unveiled a new mobile security application for smartphone users called SafeAndSurf - a web browser that securely stores a smartphone user's personal data until he or she is ready to sign-on to a social network, execute an online banking transaction, or complete an ecommerce purchase. According to the company, "SafeAndSurf is the only mobile security application to safeguard a smartphone user's personal information and also allow the user to automatically insert that information to transaction data fields, a combination that allows consumers to shop, bank and play on their smartphones more safely and easily." SafeAndSurf is available today for use on the Apple iPhone. READ MORE »

After 17 years in the personal financial management software business, Microsoft has announced that it is withdrawing from that market:

With banks, brokerage firms and Web sites now providing a range of options for managing personal finances, the consumer need for Microsoft Money Plus has changed. After suspending annual updates of Money Plus in 2008, Microsoft is announcing today that we will no longer offer Microsoft Money Plus for purchase after June 30, 2009.

More details here.

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

Andera has announced that it has entered into a strategic relationship with Digital Insight, an Intuit company and an outsourced provider of online banking and financial management capabilities to banks and credit unions in the United States. This agreement enables Digital Insight to provide Andera’s online account opening and funding solutions to its client financial institutions. READ MORE »

Wesabe has announced that Delta Community Credit Union, the largest credit union in Georgia, is its charter Wesabe Springboard customer. Using Wesabe's Springboard offering, Delta Community Credit Union will have full access to Wesabe's suite of applications, including account management, goal setting/tracking, community forums, widgets, and merchant tips and comparisons. READ MORE »

VeriSign has announced its VIP Access for Mobile application is now available in the Apple iTunes App Store. The application turns the iPhone into a dynamic VIP one-time-password (OTP) credential that can be used in conjunction with a username and password to strengthen the security of online accounts. See Glenn Fleishman's review on TidBITS. READ MORE »

New research released today by HSBC Direct shows that 49 percent of the online population conducts most, if not all, of its banking via the Internet, up nearly 23 percent from early 2007. READ MORE »