On the web:

• Connect your loyalty programs, offers and more to Google Wallet with the Wallet Objects API - "Save anything to Google Wallet: Integrate your loyalty programs, offers and more into Google Wallet. Users can save these items directly to their Google Wallet for easy use."
• Fast and easy checkout for Android apps selling physical goods and services - Google Commerce - "...our new Google Wallet Instant Buy Android API … makes buying in native Android apps fast and easy."
• Google Is Rebooting Its Troubled Digital Wallet On The Web - ReadWrite - "Google has long aimed to become a payments player. It knows that many of its searches drive people to e-commerce sites where they conduct transactions. …"
• The Feds Are Cracking Down On Mt. Gox (Not On Bitcoin) - Forbes.com - "…the Department of Homeland Security has some issues with how Mt. Gox is running its American operations."
• Give me that old bitcoin religion - PandoDaily - "To engender this trust, and tamp down the threat of counterfeiting, it relies on an ingenious combination of transparency and anonymity."
• Surprise! Prepaid debit cards actually a good deal for consumers Red Tape Chronicles - "Prepaid debit cards, long synonymous with frustrating or even exploitative fees, are suddenly a pretty good deal."
• Mobile Payments Startup ZooZ Debuts In-Ad Payments (Yes, “Ad” Not “App”) - TechCrunch - "With in-ad payments, mobile users will be able checkout by tapping once on a visible banner ad within a mobile app…"
• Visa concessions on card fees: a step in the right direction - EuroCommerce - "EuroCommerce will continue to campaign for a regulation which removes excessive interchange fees, not only cross-border but also on all domestic markets."
• Payleven and MICROS spawn a cloud-based point-of-sale system with Chip & PIN support - The Next Web - "The cloud-based POS system works via 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi and comes with integrated Chip & PIN card payments functionality, as well as automatic sales and card history transactions reconciliation."
• UK's Faster Payments is five years old - Financial Services Club Blog - "The UK's Faster Payments Service (FPS) celebrated its fifth birthday on 8th May."
• Google Wallet’s high turnover - Mobile World Live - "Google has been losing its payments executives at a surprising rate since its launch in the autumn of 2011."

On the wires:

• Federal Court Reinstates $203 Million Judgment Against Wells Fargo For Misleading Consumers On Posting Of Debit-Card Purchases That Resulted In Unexpected Overdraft Fees - "The case before Judge Alsup was brought on behalf of California Wells Fargo customers who, from November 15, 2004 to June 30, 2008, incurred overdraft fees on debit card transactions as a result of the bank's practice of sequencing transactions from highest to lowest."
• Visa Cuts Europe’s Swipe Fees But Continues to Stiff U.S. Merchants & Consumers - Merchants Payments Coalition - "U.S. merchants and consumers pay the highest fees in the world to credit card companies and banks to swipe their cards because of unfair price-fixing within the industry."
• Monitise Launches MPOS Payment Service - "The new white-labelled mobile payment service helps banks, mobile operators and acquirers offer their business customers the ability to accept card payments on a mobile device..."
• CHARGE Anywhere Launches EMV MPOS Solution at BlackBerry Live - "In integrating a Bluetooth enabled EMV/Chip & PIN smart card reader with a BlackBerry smart phone, CHARGE Anywhere, continues to lead the way in providing secure, innovative payment solutions"
• Vantiv and NCR to Bring Powerful Mobile Point-of-Sale Solutions to Small Businesses - "The multi-year agreement will focus on developing exclusive new solutions and expanding both companies’ innovative technology platforms to deliver personalized customer experiences that help smaller merchants compete more effectively against larger competitors."
• Tyfone Connected Smart Card Solution Fixes Cyber Security and Biometric Vulnerabilities - "Tyfone’s CSC solution operates much like the traditional plastic smart card systems already in widespread use, but has a much smaller physical footprint and uniquely has the ability to connect to any mobile device, tablet or PC."
• New C-SAM Applet Development and Testing Services Enable Rapid Rollouts of NFC-Enabled Mobile Commerce Products and Services
• APWG Report: Mobile Device Crimeware Evolves into Global Criminal Marketplace in Response to Mobile Payment and Banking Expansion - "The sprawling mobile devices marketplace has spawned an industrialized mobile financial fraud plexus that today drives increasingly sophisticated criminal technical innovation to exploit the mobile devices explosion"

In a new article on PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson takes a step outside the box and shares some of her thoughts about "big actions that industry incumbents could take to strengthen their positions and the U.S. payments industry." Be sure to check out some of her thoughts - and share your comments!

Glenbrook's Erin McCune is attending the Finovate Spring 2013 conference being held today and tomorrow in San Francisco. She's live blogging from the conference on PaymentsViews.com and also actively tweeting her comments on Twitter.

A couple of interesting announcements were made today in the world of point-of-sale and next generation "cash registers":

• PayPal introduced a new "Cash for Registers" program - including offering "free credit, debit card, check, and of course PayPal processing for the remainder of the year to any qualifying U.S business turning in their dusty old cash register in exchange for a modern solution like PayPal Here (iPad, card reader, iPad stand, cash drawer, and printer)."

  See PayPal's David Marcus' blog post about the new program.

  Here's a TechCrunch story on the program.

• Square has announced Square Stand, calling it "beautiful new hardware for brick and mortar businesses that turns an iPad into a complete point of sale." Square Stand includes an integrated card reader that keeps information secure from swipe to payment, and easily connects to the hardware accessories businesses need, including a receipt printer, kitchen printer, cash drawer, and barcode scanner.

  Here's a TechCrunch story on Square Stand.

  Also, see this Fortune interview with Square CEO Jack Dorsey and Jesse Dorogusker, a former Apple exec who led the development of Stand: "A bamboo stand can be very beautiful and there's a lot of great craftwork out there, but it doesn't have the intelligence of this system."

• GroupOn also introduced "Breadcrumb POS, a free, easy to use, and reliable iPad point of sale that will blow your cash register away. It offers the functionality that cafés, health and beauty businesses and shop owners need." The company also said that "as of today we’re throwing in free processing on the first $5,000 in credit card transactions."

On Twitter:

For bitcoin to make it it needs to be banned by a few governments and critiqued by policy makers. Otherwise it will fade. #Antifragile.

— Nassim N. Taleb (@nntaleb) May 15, 2013

5 reasons the financial industry is ripe for disruption smrt.io/10N3isR > drawn from @coreemc @cfsinnovation report on #underbanked

— Arjan Schutte (@arjanschutte) May 15, 2013

On the web:

• What to watch as the bitcoin drama develops - PandoDaily - "If the promises of bitcoin could ever be unlocked – perhaps one of the biggest ifs in the tech world today – it’s about as big of a venture-style opportunity as you could imagine."
• Dept. of Homeland Security freezes accounts between Dwolla and bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox - PandoDaily - "…the Department of Homeland Security served the Dwolla mobile payment service with a court order requiring it to immediately cease all account activities with the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange."
• Square And PayPal Push The iPad-ification Of America's Small Businesses - ReadWrite - "Square, PayPal, and Groupon all made news today with the common goal of getting small businesses to junk their cash registers for Internet-connected devices…"
• Google Ventures invests in OpenCoin, the firm behind Bitcoin exchange Ripple - GigaOm
• Why Prepaid Cards Appeal to Hackers - Bank Technology News - "…overall, prepaid cards are as safe as any other payment instrument available to consumers..."
• Visa Europe Offers to Cap Credit-Card Fees to End EU Probe - Bloomberg - "…this will allow cheaper use of cards that are a payment system used in almost half of our total payments in the EU…"
• Compass Plus survey reveals industry expectations for contactless are overambitious - Bob's Guide - "Actively tracking the difference in opinion between industry experts and the general public has been an interesting experiment..."
• Lightspeed is anchoring a Bitcoin focused fund - Lightspeed Venture Partners - "It’s no secret that that I see the opportunity for Bitcoin to disrupt multi-billion-dollar markets and dramatically cut transaction costs for people around the world."
• Liberty City Ventures Launches $15 Million Fund To Invest In Bitcoin And Other Digital Currency Startups - TechCrunch - "It seems like everyone is talking about Bitcoin these days."
• Consumers, payments and unknown knowns - Tomorrow's Transactions Blog - "It’s hard in fact for non-industry ‘civilians’ to know what they want from a technology they barely understand. Furthermore, payments is boring – consumers don’t want to think about it."

On the wires:

• Vantiv to Bring Next Generation Point-of-Sale Redemption Technology to the U.S. Market with Visa Offers Platform - "Vantiv is the first U.S. acquirer to announce their intent to offer this technology to clients across the country..."
• TapBase Introduces NFC-Less Proximity Payments - "We’re very pleased to offer merchants and consumers the ability to perform proximity or ‘contactless’ transactions with their iPads and iPhones…"
• Square reinvents the register with Square Stand - "Square Stand gives merchants a remarkable new way to manage and grow their business, all for the price of a cash register."
• Leaf Unveils Second Generation of its Built-for-Business Tablet - "Leaf is on a mission to turn standard point of sale into point of smart interactions for small businesses…"
• FIS Study Shows Significant Revenue Opportunity for Large and Mid-tier Financial Institutions from Real-time Payments Offerings - "Offering real-time payments can help consumers better manage their financial lives, offer a differentiated banking experience and provide additional revenue streams for financial institutions..." - Report available here
• eftpos Announces Contract to Enable Mobile Payment Trials - "eftpos today announced it would begin mobile payments trials with selected Australian retailers in the next few months."
• Boku Partners with Swisscom to Offer Mobile Payments - "This agreement will bring direct-to-bill mobile operator billing as a payment option to more than 6 million customers, covering more than 60% of Switzerland’s mobile market."

Visa Inc. has announced enhancements to its Visa Offers platform that delivers targeted rewards to Visa cardholders.

Visa says that "the enhanced service has the potential to eliminate paper coupons, allowing consumers, who opt in, to earn points and discounts as well as redeem special offers instantly at checkout by simply using their enrolled Visa card."

Smarter commerce means having the right offer, delivered to the right customer at the right time,” said Jim McCarthy, global head of Products, Visa Inc. “Visa’s new real-time point-of-sale redemption platform is a great example of Visa’s ability to apply its processing and technology expertise to simplify the use of offers and discounts, bringing benefits to merchants, acquirers, issuers and consumers.”

• Fully Customizable Offer Content - Retailers and financial institutions can deliver offers that are tailored to individual customers, through email, web and mobile.
• Real-Time Offer Relevancy - The platform also provides retailers and issuers data insights and analytics to measure the point-of-sale redemption rate, allowing them to create customized and more relevant offers.
• Consumer Loyalty Qualification - Retailers and issuers can use real-time messaging capabilities to identify and uniquely reward loyal customers.
• Multiple Redemption Options - Support for real-time redemption of offers and rewards at the point-of-sale - complementing the existing statement credit capability.
• Support for Multiple Offers Programs - Supports both Visa-specific and third-party offer programs.

On the web:

• This Guy Is Selling His Book Exclusively Via Bitcoin - Business Insider - "He convinced me (plus subsequent research) that Bitcoin has many features that make it attractive not only as a potential future currency but as a replacement for all contract law."
• Amazon Launches Amazon Coins Virtual Currency On Kindle Fire, Gives $5 In Free Coins To All Users - TechCrunch - "Amazon today is finally taking Amazon Coins, is new virtual currency, live on the Kindle Fire in the U.S."
• Thieves Stole $45 Million From ATMs Because The U.S. Uses Absurd 40-Year-Old Technology - PopSci - "The chief vulnerability of the EMV system? IT STILL HAS MAGNETIC STRIPES."
• New Android Boss Finally Reveals Plans for World’s Most Popular Mobile OS - Wired - "I have a secret project which adds four hours every day to the 24 hours we have."

On the wires:

• Amazon Coins Now Available for Kindle Fire Customers - "For customers, Amazon Coins is an easy way to purchase apps and in-app items on Kindle Fire, and for developers it’s another opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increased monetization."
• Blaze Mobile Awarded Three Key Patents for NFC Mobile Payments - "Blaze Mobile, a leader in mobile payment solutions, has recently been awarded three key NFC Mobile Payment patents."

On the web:

• In A.T.M. Robbery Case, a Splashy Trail of Big Spending - NY Times - "The eight young men, according to law enforcement officials, had just pulled off the first of two thefts that would ultimately rank among the biggest in New York City history…"
• Exclusive: Indian card processor in $45 million heist is ElectraCard - sources - Reuters - "Experts in cyber security said the heists expose an Achilles heel in the global financial industry: prepaid debit cards."
• The Problem with Prepaid: $45 Million ATM Heist Edition - American Banker - BankThink - "This fraud scheme adds to the many reasons banks approach prepaid products with caution."
• How to Pull Off a $45 Million Global ATM Heist - TechNews Daily - "This specific attack requires a very high level of sophistication and perhaps some inside help."
• Mobile Gift Card App Gyft Partners With BitPay To Start Accepting Bitcoin Payments In Its Android App - TechCrunch - "Gyft is proud to be a pioneer in the bitcoin universe and we are excited about the possibilities for further innovation on our platform…"

Over on PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's George Peabody examines the recent attacks on two prepaid card processors which led to $45 million of cash being withdrawn from ATMs around the world over a very short period of time.

Last week, we looked at the history of card fraud losses in the UK from 2001 through 2011. This week, we're taking a look at the history of counterfeit card fraud in Canada on Interac cards - Canada's national debit card scheme - based on skimming.

Interac reports that these losses decreased to $38.5 million in 2012 - representing just 0.012 percent of domestic Interac card volume) from a high of $142 million in 2009. Interac also reports that the number of cardholders affected by this form of card fraud fell to 93,800 in 2012 from 238,000 in 2009.

Over the last few years, Canada completed a migration chip card technology - with essentially all cards now equipped with chip and nearly 90 percent of POS terminals upgraded to support chip.

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…"

Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) has announced the addition of several new merchants to its membership including Southwest Airlines, Brinker International, Inc. (parent company of Chili’s® Grill & Bar and Maggiano’s Little Italy®), Pacific Convenience & Fuels LLC and RaceTrac.

Southwest supports efforts to bring a competitive mobile-payments network to the market that also protects consumer and merchant data,” said Chris Monroe, Treasurer, Southwest Airlines. “We’re proud to join the growing list of outstanding merchants backing MCX.”

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."

Discover Financial Services and Ariba have announced Ariba® Pay™, a new service to be offered by Ariba that the companies say "is expected to transform B2B payments by eliminating paper transactions, providing better visibility into cash flow and producing rich remittance information that improves reconciliation processes for buyers and sellers."

AribaPay will provide a reliable and cost-effective way for buyers to create purchase orders, receive invoices and send payments, while sellers receive more-detailed remittance information – all in a fast, secure, electronic environment.

"Ariba and Discover are seizing the opportunity to digitize a share of the estimated $30 trillion in B2B payments that are still mostly made with paper checks,” said Roger Hochschild, president and chief operating officer for Discover.

“Discover is broadening its network capabilities and infrastructure and choosing diverse business partners like Ariba to move beyond facilitating payments to enabling and improving business commerce.”

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."

In an article titled "Bitcoin Startups Begin to Attract Real Cash", Sarah Needleman and Spencer Ante write for the Wall Street Journal about Coinbase, a San Francisco-based startup that is expected to announce Wednesday raising $5 million from venture investors led by Union Square Ventures.

The Coinbase web site says "Bitcoin Made Easy - Coinbase is the simplest way to buy, use, and accept Bitcoin."

Earlier Tuesday afternoon, Coinbase tweeted the news about its venture financing (see @coinbase on Twitter):

Proud to announce we have raised $5m led by Union Square Ventures: on.wsj.com/ZNVZQu

— Coinbase (@coinbase) May 7, 2013

Today the Federal Reserve reported on consumer credit for the month of March - reporting that revolving credit use by US consumers declined at a 2.4% annual rate to $846.2 billion - the first month of decline this year. Total consumer credit during March increased 3.4% with non revolving credit increasing 11.3%.

The Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) and Core Innovation Capital have jointly produced a new paper "Financial Technology Trends in the Underbanked Market" which highlights recent innovations in mobile technology, computing power, and data availability that are driving the development of products and services for underbanked consumers.

“The emerging trends detailed in this research represent tremendous potential for the financial services industry to engage more fully with underserved consumers in value-driven ways,” said Rob Levy, Director, Research, CFSI.

“Our goal is to provide guidance and leadership as entrepreneurs and innovators begin to capitalize on new technology and develop relevant, sustainable, and scalable strategies for meeting consumer needs.”

• Harnessing Social Networks
  
• Solving the Cash In/Out Problem
  
• Leveraging Big Data for Better Risk Management
  
• Scaling Up by Going B2B2C

The paper has been sponsored by Morgan Stanley.

On Twitter:

Here's my new @paypal card - yes, PayPal is issuing cards. It's too cool to have an account number on it. #payments twitter.com/joxman/status/…

— Jason Oxman (@joxman) May 7, 2013

On the web:

• The Banking Industry's Tech Nightmares Are Coming True - Motley Fool - "In the end, big banks and credit card companies need to realize that their era of dominating global payments could be coming to an end."
• Google Wins a Surprising Design Patent for a New Tablet based Credit Card Reader - Patent Bolt - "Google's design patent is for what appears to be a commercial tablet computer with a built-in credit card reader."
• Visa Plants a Seed for Growth Abroad - Wall St. Journal - A look at Visa's efforts in Rwanda.
• In Tomorrow’s Retail Universe, the Destination Is ‘You’ - StreetFight - "Based on clues we can see all around us, it is my belief that retail, as we’ve known it for at least the last two millennia, is coming to an end."
• More regulation of Bitcoin is a good thing - Lightspeed Venture Partners (Jeremy Lieu) - "Am I naive, am I a tool of the government overlords, or is more regulation an inevitable part of the path towards widespread Bitcoin adoption?"
• US financial regulator: We could regulate Bitcoin “if we wanted” - Ars Technica - "The American financial regulator for derivatives trading has told multiple news outlets that it is considering new rules for Bitcoin."
• Showrooming: Retailers Fight Back With New-Fangled Apps & Old-School Marketing - "Retailers, it appears, are getting better at keeping customers buying in the store, no matter what they are finding on their phones and tablets."
• Protecting Seniors from Identity Theft - Google Public Policy Blog - "Google’s Good to Know site is designed to help educate consumers of all ages about online threats and tools they can use to protect themselves…"
• The Next Phase of Social Business is the Collaborative Economy - Jeremiah Owyang - "That’s where brands will rent, lend, provide subscriptions to products and services to customers, or even further, allow customers to lend, trade, or gift branded products or services to each other."
• Mobile Payments Marked by Fragmentation and Increasing Channel Convergence, Says Fed - "While the U.S. mobile payments market continues to gain taction, it has not grown as steadily as expected, and the likelihood of mass adoption is not high…"

On the wires:

• Payments Veteran to Lead North America Business Development for ReD - "25-year payment services veteran John Lees is the company’s new North America vice president of sales."
• American Express Organizational Announcement – Daniel T. Henry, Chief Financial Officer - "Over the last few months Dan Henry and I have been discussing his plans for the next chapter of his personal and professional life."
• New AARP® Credit Card from Chase Offers Customers Cash Back on Every Purchase, Every Time - "By receiving 3 percent cash back on gas station and restaurant purchases and 1 percent on all other purchases, the average family can easily earn more than $250 cash back every year just by using the card."
• CPI Card Group Awarded US Patent for Innovative Secure Card Packaging Technology Utilized in Its Ultra Secure Pack™ Products - "The technology allows CPI to offer a superior, tamper proof, cost effective product for point of sale card activation applications including open loop prepaid cards."
• AIRTAG Enables Magento E-Commerce Sites to Mobilize in Native Mobile Wallet Apps - "For all retailers starting to think about how they are going to go mobile, we have created a solution that significantly eases the transition to digital commerce, without sacrificing the user experience."

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.

First Data Corporation has announced that EVP Ed Labry has been named by the board as the company’s Vice Chairman.

“Ed Labry has done more to help build First Data than any other person I know,” said Chief Executive Officer Frank Bisignano. “It gives us great pleasure to name Ed to this new role, where he will continue to engage with our strategic customers and with our topmost prospects to help us drive new sources of top-line revenue.”

Discover Financial Services has announced another partnership with a regional payment network - partnering with Network International, a payment solutions provider in the Middle East and promoter of the newly launched Mercury domestic card network.

The alliance will allow acceptance of Mercury Network Cards on Discover, Diners Club International and PULSE networks for international purchases and cash access outside of U.A.E.

“This alliance is another example of Discover’s flexibility, unique positioning in the market and ability to support and encourage domestic payment networks around the world,” said Diane Offereins, EVP and President of Discover Payment Services.

"By partnering with regional payment networks such as Network International, Discover is able to leverage its assets to grow volume and increase brand awareness in places like the U.A.E., one of the fastest growing economies in the world. We’re also providing our partners with customized solutions to help them achieve global reach and address localized preferences."

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…"

Act of Congress: How America's Essential Institution Works, and How It Doesn't

Today, in an article titled "How Barney Frank foiled the banking lobby to form a new financial watchdog", the Washington Post ran an excerpt from the book discussing the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the formation of which was a centerpiece of Dodd-Frank.

In our Chart of the Week last week, we looked at the relationship between the unemployment rate in the US and outstanding consumer revolving debt.

This week's chart of the week looks at the history of card fraud losses in the UK - as cited in the recent report "The U.S. Adoption of Computer-Chip Payment Cards: Implications for Payment Fraud" by Richard J. Sullivan of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. In the UK and a few other countries, these kinds of card fraud loss statistics are collected by the industry and shared publicly - unlike currently in the US.

Sullivan's article "examines how computer-chip cards work differently from magnetic-stripe cards, describes the security improvements offered by the chips, and reviews their mixed track record at defeating fraud in other countries."

The top dotted line in the chart represents the total card fraud losses on UK issued cards. The darker line below that represents fraud losses on IMOTO (Internet, mail order, and telephone order) card-not-present transactions while the third line below represents card fraud losses associated with counterfeit card transactions.

EMV chip card deployment took place in the UK during the shaded 2003-2006 time frame. Sullivan notes that the implementation of EMV initially helped reduce counterfeit card losses but that, because those cards still had magnetic stripes on them, fraudsters could still counterfeit them and use them at mag stripe acceptance locations outside the UK.

Sullivan goes on to comment:

After 2008, fraud losses with counterfeit cards and on IMOTO transactions declined. The decline was due to two factors. First, more merchants and ATMs on the European mainland had converted by that time to accept EMV payment cards, so fraudsters with counterfeit magnetic-stripe cards could no longer easily find locations where mag- netic-stripe cards were accepted, merely by crossing borders. Second, increasingly, merchants in the UK were adopting 3D secure systems for their IMOTO transactions."

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).

The Mobey Forum has just released a new white paper title "The MPOS Breakthrough: How the Power of Mobile has Disrupted Payments".

The paper begins:

"Little more than three years after the December 2009 launch of Square, MPOS has redefined merchant card acceptance at the point of sale (POS), by both rewriting the rules on who can accept card payments and vastly simplifying their means to do so."

On the web:

• Bitcoin vs. Ben Bernanke - WSJ - "The chief scientist for the digital currency talks about its appeal—and pitfalls—in a world of fiat money."
• Square sets its sights on Foursquare: 'We can do something better' - TheVerge.com - "Lots of apps and web services make recommendations for places to eat, drink, and shop, but Square is betting its payment data will give it a decisive edge."
• Mobile payment entrepreneurs need inspiration - Taking Charge (CreditCards.com) - "I thought about that dilemma earlier this week while reading the obituary of … Stanley A. Dashew … who was the first to come up with the idea of plastic cards in place of paper…"
• What's your mobile wallet recipe? - FastCasual - Commentary by Cardfree's Chuck Davidson - "…establishments that are competing in the mobile market space would be wise to build from their existing POS infrastructure…"
• Visa’s TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon Generates Fresh Thinking on Payment Security Education - Visa Viewpoints Blog - "Visa joined in on the fun by sponsoring the Disrupt hackathon, where 700 developers descended on New York City for a chance to win $8,500 from Visa."

On the wires:

• Ingenico Secures Deal With Heartland Payment Systems® for Heartland's Next Generation E3™ End-to-End Encryption and EMV Terminals

Lending Club has announced that Google has acquired a minority stake in the company as part of a secondary transaction whereby new and existing investors acquired shares from existing investors. Buyers include Google and existing investor Foundation Capital.

"Lending Club is using the Internet to reshape the financial system and profoundly transform the way people think of credit and investment," said Google’s David Lawee. "We are excited to be a part of it."

"Few companies have such an in-depth understanding of the Internet as Google," said Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche. "We believe our relationship with Google will be very helpful in better serving our customers. We couldn’t be more excited to have them on board."

[Editor's note: see also this TechCrunch story on this latest round of financing for Lending Club.]

On Twitter:

"What's our bitcoin strategy?!" - frantic email from bad VC to all of their portfolio company CEOs today.

— Matt Harris (@mattcharris) April 30, 2013

On the web:

• Peak Cash? - Tomorrow's Transactons Blog - "What do these figures tell us? They tell us that all around the world, the principal function of cash in developed economies is no longer to support commerce, but to support crime."
• Live @TechCrunch Disrupt NY – Fireside Chat with Fred Wilson - "What Fred is interested in for investments: New forms of payment and money (Dwolla) - there should not be fees of 3.5% every time someone wants/needs to transfer money…"
• IRS Takes A Bite Out Of Bitcoin - Forbes - "…the tax rules seem pretty clear. If you provide services or sell goods for Bitcoin, you have income…"
• Angel Investor, Spotify Fixer Shakil Khan Launches Coindesk, A Bitcoin Resource - TechCrunch - "I am just fascinated by the digital currency space.”

On the wires:

• Billers Receiving More Mobile Bill Payments, Have High Expectations for the Channel - Fiserv - "…the number of mobile bill payment transactions processed … tripled within the past 24 months, rising from about 4 percent of bill payment transactions to about 15 percent."