Looking back at 2007, here are the most read news stories posted to Payments News this year:

1. Capital One Poised to Shake-Up Merchant Co-Brand Card Market (May 28, 2007)
2. Bank of America's Accolades American Express Card (June 11, 2007)
3. Fair Isaac Adjusts FICO 08 Scoring (June 5, 2007)
4. Visa's Mobile Platform Initiative (February 23, 2007)
5. A Customer's Look at How Banks Maximize Overdraft Fees (April 28, 2007)
6. Revolution Money - Formerly GratisCard (September 24, 2007)
7. Some Thoughts re: Capital One's Decoupled Debit Card (July 17, 2007)
8. Visa Launches Mobile Platform (January 8, 2007)
9. GSMA, MasterCard Pilot Mobile-based Global Money Transfer (February 12, 2007)
10. Cards for Teens from Plastyc's UPside Prepaid Visa Debit Card (March 5, 2007)
11. Capital One Acquires NetSpend for $700 MM (August 7, 2007) - Note: Capital One subsequently decided not to proceed with this acquisition

Last week's top 11 most popular stories on Payments News were:

1. Google's SMS Text Message Payment Patent Application
2. Diebold's Patents on Mobile Phone - ATM Interactions
3. Aite Group's The State of Mobile Banking 2.0
4. Sending Remittances via Mobile Phones
5. Mercator - A Look at Alternative Payment Services
6. Mobile Web Design - Book Recommendation for Mobile Bankers
7. Yodlee - Moving Money
8. Consumer Reports - The Best and Worst Credit Cards
9. Danal Appoints Steve Klebe VP of Sales & Business Development
10. Discover Gift Cards Now For Sale at Malls
11. Channels: Branch, ATM or Online?

Last month's top 11 most popular stories on Payments News were:

1. Capital One Acquires NetSpend for $700 MM
2. First Data, mFoundry Team for Mobile Banking, Mobile Payments
3. Amazon Flexible Payments Service
4. PayPal Introduces PayPal Pay Later
5. Green Dot Enables Cash-based Rent Payments
6. Amdocs Mobile Banking Solution
7. 2007 Card Issuers Identity Safety Scorecard
8. A Look at U.S. Online Credit Card Services
9. Moving Money - Yodlee FundsTransfer
10. A Look Inside PayPal Merchant Services
11. Online Small-Business Strategies of the 30 Largest U.S. Banks

Last week's Top 11 Most Popular News Stories on Payments News were:

• TextPayMe Update
• MasterCard, Citi Consumer Trial of Contactless Payments
• TextPayMe - The Real Story
• Visa's OATH-based Dynamic Pass Code Display Card
• Bank Investor Presentations
• January's Top 11: Most Read New Stories
• Visa To Split Up Overseas Divisions
• Western Union, A Cinderella Story
• CheckFree: A Payments Revolution 25 Years in The Making
• Nova Buys First Horizon Merchant Services Business
• India: Buy Local Train Ticket By SMS!

Whenever you're looking for a posting here, you can search Payments News using the search box over in the sidebar on the right side of the page.

This week, the top 11 most popular search keywords on Payments News have been: mastercard ipo, certegy, bidpay, washington mutual mastercard, american express red card, secured mastercard, citibank ipod, charlie fote, hello kitty credit card, financial institution shared assessments program and sitekey.

Note: Throughout the day, as Payments News happens, this post is updated.

• WSJ: Diebold Could Be a Cash Machine For Investors Willing to Wait It Out
• SYSPRO Announces SYSPRO CyberStore to Automate B2B, B2C Sales

January's Top 11 Most Popular News Stories on Payments News are:

• BillMonk: Social Money - This innovative social money startup captured most of the "buzz" on Payments News this month!
• MasterCard's IPO Looms - There was no real news later in the month about MasterCard's progress towards an initial public offering.
• Online Banking: How Safe Is Your Money? - This story does a nice job of summarizing the issues and opportunities around stronger authentication for access to online banking.
• First Data Weighs Sell-Off Of Card Issuer Processing Unit - This story turned out to be uninformed speculation - as on Thursday FDC instead announced plans to spin off its fast-growing Western Union business.
• Visa's New Logo Makes Official Debut - At the start of 2006, Visa USA formally introduces the new, clearer Visa design launched earlier by other Visa regions around the world.

Last week's Top 11 Most Popular News Stories on Payments News are:

• BidPay Fails: What Are The Lessons Learned?
• PayPal's Consumer Advertising
• iPayment Agrees To Buyout By CEO
• Instant Card Issuance
• Bill Me Later: Big Plastic's Online Challenger

This week's Top 11 Most Popular News Stories on Payments News are:

• Tom Peters Interviews Eric Jackson, Author of "The PayPal Wars" - Management guru Tom Peters has fun interviewing PayPal Wars author Eric Jackson.
• When PayPal Becomes the Back Office, Too - A look at how small businesses are using PayPal's payment capabilities.
• Citi Launches New American Express Credit Cards - Over a year after announcing their card issuing alliance, Citi prepares to launch five new American Express-branded cards in January.
• Risky Business: Managing Electronic Payments in the 21st Century - The Philidelphia Fed's Payment Card Center publishes a summary of a recent conference on electronic payments.
• Contactless Payments Outlook for 2006 - A commentary from MasterCard on what's shaping up to be a big year for contactless payments in 2006.

This week's Top 11 Most Popular New Stories on Payments News are:

• Glenbrook's QuickTake: TextPayMe- Glenbrook's Russ Jones does a quick analysis of the just announced TextPayMe SMS-based mobile payment service.
• First Data's Card Unit "Up In Air" - Last week's Omaha World-Herald story on FDR - before the layoffs in the card issuer servicing unit announced on Friday.
• TextPayMe Announces SMS-based Money Transfer - Redmond, WA-based TextPayMe launches beta of new mobile payments service.
• YeePay Launches Telephone Payment Service in China - Beijing-based YeePay launches new telephone payment service with major banks in China.
• New Bankruptcy Law Backfiring On Credit Card Issuers? - The law of unintended consequences may be at work for credit card issuers.