On the wires:

• Despite Exemption, Small Issuers Expect Significant Decline in Interchange Revenue After Implementation of Durbin Amendment Provisions
• Verizon Wireless and USA Technologies Partner to Deliver Industry-Leading Cashless Payment Services, M2M Solutions for Vending and Automated Retail Industries
• Zuora Delivers New Invoicing Flexibility and Amendment Previews to April ‘11 Release
• New Junpier Research Report on Mobile Ticketing for Transport Markets

On the web:

• Amazon Payments Blog: Amazon Payments Launches in Germany
• New York Times: Possible Sony PlayStation Network Card Data Breach
• MIT Technology Review: Your iPhone Can Buy Your Groceries

Bank of America has announced new purchasing card and travel card capabilities that enable its clients to issue and settle in local currencies throughout Europe. READ MORE »

Citi has announced the launch of Citibank Paylink for Cards - calling it "an end-to-end electronic payment solution for corporations, financial institutions and public sector clients, that combines the capabilities and benefits of a purchasing card with the control and consistency of a traditional electronic payment process." READ MORE »

The U.S. Postal Service has selected U.S. Bank to provide purchasing cards and Voyager fleet cards under the new General Services Administration (GSA) SmartPay2 contract. READ MORE »

The US Government Accountability Office has published a report titled "Governmentwide Purchase Cards - Actions Needed to Strengthen Internal Controls to Reduce Fraudulent, Improper, and Abusive Purchases" concluding that 'internal control weaknesses in agency purchase card programs exposed the federal government to fraud, waste, abuse, and loss of assets. When testing internal controls, GAO asked agencies to provide documentation on selected transactions to prove that the purchase of goods or services had been properly authorized and that when the good or service was delivered, an individual other than the cardholder received and signed for it. Using a statistical sample of purchase card transactions from July 1, 2005, through June 30, 2006, GAO estimated that nearly 41 percent of the transactions failed to meet either of these basic internal control standards.'

Richard Gamble writes for Treasury & RIsk Magazine about purchasing cards and a shift in how they're being used that improves their effectiveness. Gamble writes "for years, banks marketed purchasing cards as a stand-alone product that worked best when a company could get as many suppliers as possible to accept it." But suppliers often balked at participating, leading to only partial success. Instead, Gamble reports that the "next generation of payments automation will have “a single user interface on the front end, but four pipes on the back end” that will deliver payments by card, check, ACH or wire."

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Purchasing Cards, Integrated Procurement Solutions, and the Commercial Card Market" that "examines new levels of sophistication in the domestic commercial credit space with respect to purchasing card programs, and supporting solutions such as Electronic Invoice Presentation and Payment (EIPP).

AOC Solutions has announced that "Commerce Bank has selected its Encompass technology to meet the unique needs of the bank’s Purchase, Fleet and Travel Card customers. Encompass is redefining the commercial card market and offering businesses more ways to integrate card payments into their purchasing and payables systems."

Elise Castelli reports for the Federal Times on the GSA's SmartPay 2 purchasing card program - intended to replace the existing 3 million US government purchase cards provided by Bank of America, Citibank, J.P. Morgan Chase, Mellon Bank and U.S. Bank. Bids were due into GSA on January 22 for the replacement program.

Karen Kroll writes for Business Finance Magazine about some new uses of corporate purchasing cards - including for capital expenditures and travel and entertainment expenses.