On the wires:

• Survey: Card Fraud Experts Warn Against Looming Mobile Payment Fraud Risk
• SecurityMetrics Introduces Network Threat Sensor to Simplify PCI-DSS Compliance
• TSYS Signs Merchant Services Agreement With Caledon Card Services
• NXGEN International Partners with Elavon to Expand European Footprint
• PayCommerce Offers Cloud-Based SMB Payment Suite Reseller Subscription Plan
• Elastic Path Launches Ecommerce on the Google Cloud
• Carta Worldwide Integrates MasterCard Mobile Over-the-Air Provisioning Service (MOTAPS)
• OpenCuro To Demonstrate New Online Payment System at FinovateSpring 2011

On the web:

• NPR: Banks, Retailers In Lobbying Race Over Debit Fees
• TechCrunch: Sequent Software Raises Funding, Aims To Simplify NFC Mobile Payments
• American Banker: ProPay s Zumogo Mobile Payment App Gets Social
• FierceFinance: Bank of America Ponders New Ways to Charge Overdraft Fees (via SMS Opt-In)
• CNET: Intuit Eyes NFC for Mobile Payment System
• GoMo News: India's Interbank Mobile Payment Service Finally Includes Merchants

Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners:

• Aria Systems Raises $20 Million to Help Global 2000 Companies Monetize New Recurring Revenue Streams
• MoreMagic Certified by Western Union as a Mobile Money Transfer Vendor
• As Layaway Grows in Popularity, More Merchants Are Using eLayaway to Manage Their Programs
• New FFIEC Guidelines Likely to Address Root Causes of Online Bank Fraud
• SafetyPay Partners With JetPay to Offer Secure Online Payment Solution
• Nestlé USA Selects Data Impact to Expand Electronic Invoicing and Payments with Its Customers

• Washington Post: Retailers offer financial services to 'unbanked'
• New York Times: Letter to the Editor: Bank Overdraft Rules
• FierceMobileContent: Isis CEO: Mobile payments making 'good progress,' but no specifics yet
• SmartMoney.com: Will That Be Cash, Credit or Phone?
• Fortune: A Twitter Guy Takes on Big Banks
• SPVA Blog: Secure POS Vendor Alliance (SPVA) 2011 Board of Directors

A recent national poll by the Consumer Reports National Research Center has found that 22% of bank customers holding an ATM or debit card have chosen to opt-in to debit card overdraft protection. "A large majority of poll respondents said they wanted the same right to choose whether to be covered by fee-based overdraft programs for check transactions."

Most bank customers don't pay overdraft fees, according to a new survey released by the American Bankers Association. According to the survey, 77% of consumers said they did not pay any overdraft fees in the previous 12 months, while 21% said they paid one or more. 2% said they did not know whether they paid an overdraft fee.

A new survey commissioned by the ABA shows 46% of bank customers report they did - or will - opt in to their bank's overdraft program, saying they are willing to pay a fee for the service to ensure that debit card transactions will be approved even if their account is overdrawn. Prior to the new federal regulations (effective 8/15/2010) no permission was required to provide and charge customers for overdrafts.

According to a recent study by Moebs Services, merchants are now charging $30 as a median fee in comparison to $25 in 2009, surpassing what banks charge for NSF fees.

“This is the highest percent increase we have ever seen national retail merchants charge consumers for writing a bad check,” said Michael Moebs, CEO and economist at Moebs $ervices, a national economic research firm based in Lake Bluff, IL. “Retailers’ fees now surpass those of banks and credit unions median fee of $27 for an NSF.”

According to a recent Mintel Comperemedia consumer survey, awareness of the new Reg E overdraft legislation is surprisingly high with 60% of online adults aware of the upcoming changes.

But "Most consumers are unable to define exactly what Reg E will cover, making banks' efforts to promote it that much more difficult," comments Susan Wolfe, VP of financial services at Mintel Comperemedia. "In other words, consumers are aware that changes are coming to their overdraft programs, but are not exactly sure what it means for them."

Consumers who are frequent users of overdraft (OD) fees at banks and credit unions could save money by bridging their cash gap with a 14- day payday advance loan, rather than paying checking account OD fees, according to a recent national study by Moebs Services.

“The average amount overdrawn on checking accounts by about 70% of consumers, according to the General Accounting Office and the FDIC, is less than $100,” said Michael Moebs, economist and CEO of Moebs $ervices. “Consumers who use a payday advance loan for $100 or less will pay an average of $17.97, which is 33 percent less than the $27.01 it costs for an overdraft of that same amount from a checking account,” he explained.

U.S. Bank has announced a new overdraft policy that includes a reduced fee of $10 for overdraft transactions that are $20 or less. The pricing change takes effect this August. READ MORE »

Bank of America has announced that "beginning this summer it will only authorize single debit card transactions at the point of sale if a customer has enough money in their account at the time. This change will help customers by reducing the likelihood they may inadvertently overdraw their account and thus eliminate unexpected overdraft fees on these transactions. Customers will still have the choice to link their checking account to another account through Overdraft Protection to cover these types of transactions." READ MORE »

In an article titled "New overdraft rules: Worst of both worlds?", MSNBC's Bob Sullivan writes about overdraft fees - and the new rules scheduled for July implementation as announced by the Federal Reserve. Sullivan writes: "But it should come as no surprise that there's a catch. In fact, there are lots of them."

In an article titled "Banks Roll Out New Check, Card Fees", Robin Sidel wrote for the Wall St. Journal's Saturday edition about steps that banks are taking to deal with up to $50 billion in lost revenue in 2010 as a result of changes to credit card and checking account legislation and regulatory requirements.

In her "Color of Money" personal finance column in today's Washington Post, Michelle Singletary writes about 2010 being the "Year of Consumer Power" - reflecting on the legislative (The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009) and regulatory (overdraft fees) changes that are scheduled to take place as 2010 plays out.

A few weeks back, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson issued a challenge - asking "What Are the Best Ways for Banks to Replace Lost Overdraft Fee Income?" She was looking for creative ideas from the community on how bankers should deal with perhaps their most significant financial challenge ahead.

Today, Carol has summarized the results of her search for ideas in a new post on PaymentsViews.com titled "No News is Bad News?". She writes:

We got very few ideas at all, and none from bankers! The no-news-from-banks could, of course, be because banks are keeping their well-laid plans a deep and dark secret. Or it could be …. there are just no good ideas?"

Read her full article here.

In an article titled "Consumer Fees: The Hits Keep Coming", Maria Aspan writes for the American Banker about how bankers are scrambling to deal with the assault on various banking and credit card fees - noting that "the banking industry has been shaken out of its complacent reliance on consumer fee income." Aspan quotes Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson:

Overdraft fees for bankers are like heroin — they know it's bad for them (particularly in building the trust relationship with customers that they want), but the revenue just feels so good," Carol Coye Benson, a managing partner in the consulting firm Glenbrook Partners LLC, wrote in a November blog post. "The Fed's new rules are detox."

Google's Insights for Search provides some handy tools for exploring what topics folks have been searching for over time. For example, here's a graph of search activity over the last five years on the subject of overdraft fees. Needless to say, they become a very hot search term (and consumer issue) in 2009!

Here's a less dramatic example - this time for interchange fees.

Finally, one of my favorites - gift cards - look at this seasonality!

In an article titled "Prepaid vs. Checking: Fairer Fight?", Maria Aspan writes for the American Banker about the state of the prepaid card business in the US - and how the upcoming checking account overdraft fee reforms could affect the prepaid card industry.

In an article titled "Debit-card use grows, but risks still an issue", Chuck Strickler writes for The Columbus Dispatch about debit cards - how they help consumers stay in control but also how they're different than credit cards.

In an article titled "One debit-card overdraft can trigger an avalanche", Los Angeles Times personal finance columnist Kathy Kristof writes about how one overdraft was turned into four overdraft fees when one consumer's bank (Chase) reordered the payments posting to her checking account. Kristof goes on to note that Chase has announced it plans to eliminate that practice "in the first few months of 2010".

Last week, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson posted an item on PaymentsViews.com titled "Payments Views Challenge: What Are the Best Ways for Banks to Replace Lost Overdraft Fee Income?". Today's the last day to share your ideas.

Over on our sister blog PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson asks "What Are the Best Ways for Banks to Replace Lost Overdraft Fee Income?".

She writes: "Bank income from debit card overdraft fees is variously estimated as $25 billion to $38 billion annually. The recently announced Federal Reserve Bank regulations requiring opt-in procedures will result in a gigantic hit to retail bank P&Ls, as we wrote about recently."

Do you have some ideas for what retail bankers should be doing to respond to the revenue impacts? You can share them here.

The US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs is holding a hearing this afternoon on the subject of "Protecting Consumers from Abusive Overdraft Fees: The Fairness and Accountability in Receiving Overdraft Coverage Act". The witnesses will be: Mr. Mario Livieri, Consumer, State of Connecticut; Mr. Michael Calhoun, President, Center for Responsible Lending; Mr. Frank Pollack, President and CEO, Pentagon Federal Credit Union; Mr. John Carey, Chief Administrative Officer, Citibank NA; and Ms. Jean Ann Fox, Director of Financial Services, Consumer Federation of America. READ MORE »

Over on our PaymentsViews.com blog, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson reflects on yesterday's announcement by the Federal Reserve of new rules prohibiting banks from charging overdraft fees on debit card and ATM transactions without first obtaining consumer opt-in. Carol speculates on what retail banks will do to deal with the potential loss of overdraft fee revenue that could result.

The Federal Reserve Board has announced final rules that prohibit financial institutions from charging consumers fees for paying overdrafts on automated teller machine (ATM) and one-time debit card transactions, unless a consumer consents, or opts in, to the overdraft service for those types of transactions.

Before opting in, the consumer must be provided a notice that explains the financial institution's overdraft services, including the fees associated with the service, and the consumer's choices. The final rules, along with a model opt-in notice, are issued under Regulation E, which implements the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and are effective July 1, 2010. READ MORE »

In its SEC 10-Q filing today, Wells Fargo estimated that the impact of its new overdraft fee policies will be a $300 million after tax reduction in its fee revenue for 2010.

Quoting: "We recently announced policy changes that will help customers limit overdraft and returned item fees. We currently estimate that these changes will reduce our 2010 fee revenue by approximately $300 million (after tax), although the actual impact could vary due to a variety of factors including implementation timing and customer behavior in response to the policy changes."

Congressional proposals to rein in abusive overdraft practices are long overdue, Center for Responsible Lending executive Eric Halperin told the House Financial Services Committee today (full testimony). Halperin, who is director of CRL's Washington office, gave full support to legislation aimed at reforming bank overdraft programs, which cost consumers $23.7 billion last year and are among the most predatory lending products on the market.

"Charging people a $35 fee for a small, debit card transaction is unacceptable," said Halperin, director of CRL's Washington office. "It doesn't save them bounced check fees, it simply skims money from their account and puts them in a bind."

Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP today announced the filing of a series of nationwide class action lawsuits against Bank of America, Wachovia, U.S. Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Citibank in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami for abusive overdraft fees. READ MORE »

Senator Chris Dodd has announced the The Fairness and Accountability in Receiving (FAIR) Overdraft Coverage Act, a new bill he is introducing to "protect Americans from excessive checking account overdraft fees." READ MORE »

Last week, WAMU's DIane Rehm hosted a program focused on Consumer Credit Protections - including overdraft fees. Participants included Kathleen Day, Center for Responsible Lending, Diane Casey-Landry, Chief Operating Officer, American Bankers Association, and Nancy Trejos, Washington Post Personal Finance Writer. I was surprised at some of the lack of understanding about how debit cards actually work - as expressed by one participant in particular on this program!

A strongly worded New York Times editorial today titled "Bleeding Holders of Debit Cards Dry" notes that several banks last month announced changes to their overdraft policies - but says those changes aren't enough. Citing yesterday's report from the Center for Responsible Lending that estimated that "banks and credit unions raked in nearly $24 billion in overdraft income in 2008" and noting that "American families now spend more on overdraft fees every year than on books, breakfast cereal or fresh vegetables and only slightly less than they spend on major appliances," the editorial advocates stronger Congressional action.

The Center for Responsible Lending has published a new study finding that US banks and credit unions collected nearly $24 billion in overdraft fees last year, an increase of 35 percent from two years earlier. READ MORE »