On Twitter:

Proud to be working with Google --> "Google closes Checkout, pushing thousands of merchants to Braintree" pandodaily.com/2013/05/20/goo…

— William Ready (@williamready) May 20, 2013

On the web:

• Square will challenge PayPal with its own peer-to-peer cash service - GigaOm - "We reached out to Square to get more details on the mysterious service, but the company isn’t revealing any more details for now."
• Google closes Checkout, pushing thousands of merchants into Braintree’s arms - PandoDaily - "For customers without their own way to process payments in-house, Google has partnered with Braintree, Shopify, and Freshbooks to offer discounted migration programs."
• Email Money to Friends With Square Cash (But Only if You Work For Twitter, Pinterest or Box) - AllThingsD - "Ultimately, this could be a faster way of getting more people to link up their checking accounts to Square’s service…"
• Bitcoin 2013 in review - CoinDesk - "The more than 1,000 Bitcoin enthusiasts who converged on San Jose were an impassioned bunch — some fired with the excitement of getting in on something big the ground floor…"
• ATM Cash-Outs: A Major Escalation - Portals and Rails - "This highly sophisticated and coordinated attack is a game changer for the security controls of all types of card management applications." Google I/O payment announcements: is a revolution with no insurgency possible? - TekFin (Yann Ranchere) - "The more interesting announcement was in my view Google Instant Buy…"
• How Amazon's Rising Headwaters Could Threaten Google - ReadWrite - "I’m convinced the day will come — sooner rather than later — when Amazon unleashes its data and announces itself as an advertising powerhouse."
• Google takes lessons from PayPal, Apple’s Passbook to drive mobile wallet adoption - Mobile Commerce Daily - "Google Wallet Objects is similar to Apple’s Passbook in that it enables developers to integrate their loyalty programs and offers into Google Wallet…"
• Apple retail revenues per visitor reach new record - Asymco - "In the US, on a sales per square foot basis, Apple retail continues to perform twice as well as Tiffany & Co…"
• NFC mobile payments – fixing the big issues - Mobile News - "The widespread introduction of NFC-based mobile payments could be delayed for years as retailers, operators and finance firms continue to disagree on how best to implement the system and the logistics of making payments."
• Mobile Payment Startup Payvia Buys Mogreet To Add Messaging-Based Marketing To Its Payment Platform - TechCrunch - "Payvia says that it has the largest direct carrier connected messaging and mobile payments platform in the U.S..."
• GrubHub to Merge With Seamless as Food Orders Go Mobile - Bloomberg - "Food-delivery sites and mobile applications are gaining in popularity as more people order their meals online..."
• Harnessing the Remittance Boom - "Adding up the cost of the transfer, travel, and time, remittances are far too expensive for people living in poverty."

On the wires:

• Intuit Realigns Organization to Accelerate Growth - "The new structure comes as the company increases its focus on two strategic outcomes: being the world’s small business operating system, and providing winning solutions to do the nations’ taxes in the U.S. and Canada."
• Tabbedout Now Offers Google Wallet as a Payment Option - "For a limited time, when a user pays with Google Wallet in the Tabbedout app, they'll get $7 off their next tab."
• Huntington Bank Introduces Commercial Card Featuring Payables Automation and Monthly Rebates
• NCR and LevelUp to Take Mobile Payments to More Restaurants - "NCR understands what it takes to help restaurants keep pace with technology, and by integrating LevelUp, we are helping them get the great tools they need to run their businesses better."
• PayAnywhere Launches Phase Two of Aggressive Retail Channel Rollout - "The partnership takes the PayAnywhere mobile point of sale (mPOS) solution beyond the big box retailers the company announced partnerships with in 2012…"
• CorFire™ and OLO Partner on Integrated Mobile Commerce Solution for Restaurants - "Instead of requiring separate mobile apps for mobile payment and mobile ordering, this integration will provide brands with a one-stop shop for all forms of mobile customer engagement through the industry’s proven, best-of-breed providers."

On the web:

• M-Pesa fraud losses less that 1% - Safaricom - "Chief executive Bob Collymore said the money lost in M-Pesa fraud averages 0.006 per cent of the amount transacted which currently stands at Sh2 billion daily."
• Bitcoin Buzz Draws Western Union, MoneyGram - Fox Business
• Credit Unions: Reinvent P2P Lending - Ron Shevlin - "I’m just thinking about how smaller FIs are going to compete with the big ones for the coveted lending market."
• Fewer Bank Accounts May Lead to More Savings, Study Finds - NY Times Bucks Blog - "In this research, we demonstrate that individuals allocating their earnings to a single account saved more than those who spread their earnings across multiple accounts…"
• A new way to pay restaurant bills - Seattle Times looks at the "RAIL" payment system...
• The real opportunity for payment startups: simplicity - VentureBeat (Jon Soberg) - "Intermediaries, paperwork, antiquated systems, processes, and regulations still play a prominent role in today’s ecosystem."
• US PIN Debit Consolidation - Tom Noyes - "I have a strong bet that the US banks will consolidate around a single PIN provider within the next 18 months."
• Adam Davidson Explains Bitcoin To Stephen Colbert (video) - Planet Money
• Visa Europe is holding its Insights 13 Conference today - follow the news in Visa Europe's Twitter feed. See pictures from the conference on Visa Europe's Pinterest board.
• “Mobile is the end game”: VeriFone discusses the future of payments as a service - My-Retail Media - "Ultimately, retailers' business is about making a sale. You either need to take a payment or redeem that value to a retailer."
• Bitcoin exchange BitFloor halts operations, shuts down - CNet - "Bitcoin exchange BitFloor announced Wednesday it is closing its trading operations and plans to return its remaining funds to its users."

On the wires:

• DeviceFidelity Adds Multiple NFC Patents to its Extensive Portfolio, Totaling 40 Granted and Allowed Patents Worldwide - "DeviceFidelity’s extensive portfolio of patents covers the implementation and management of NFC technology, security and unique miniaturization and amplification solutions…"
• Moneris Solutions and LightSpeed to Provide Integrated Mobile Payment Solutions for Canadian Retailers - "Our partnership with Moneris represents an important milestone in Canadian retail, which has been newly empowered by mobile, iPad(R) and Mac solutions that engage customers in an interactive and re-energized shopping environment…"
• Mobile Users Well Aware of Fraud but, for Many, Convenience Trumps Security Concerns - "Users may be willing to accept risk now in favor of convenience, but this tolerance will weaken as fraud continues to grow."
• Alliance Data Reports Record First-Quarter 2013 Results - "Revenue increased 18 percent to $1.05 billion while adjusted EBITDA increased 18 percent to $357 million for the first quarter of 2013."

On the web:

• Remittance Provider Xoom Closes First Day On NASDAQ Up 59% From IPO Price - TechCrunch
• Passbook Passes Now Support NFC… If You Use Them On Android - Cult of Android
• Ticketmaster To Offer Digital, Mobile Ticket Transfer - MobilePaymentsToday.com

On the wires:

• SIX Payment Services Is A Founding Member Of UnionPay International
• Finsphere Releases Key Findings Following Location-Based Analytics Trial

Payza has announced a new service, SimplySendBD, to facilitate money transfers to Bangladesh.

This new low-cost, convenient and fast online service will enable Payza members to send money to friends and family in Bangladesh, regardless of whether or not they have a Payza account. Earlier this year, Payza became the first online payment processor to be licensed by the country’s central bank, Bangladesh Bank. According to the bank’s estimate, there was more than $14 billion in remittances that entered the country in 2012.

Glenbrook is pleased to announce availability of a new private payments workshop on Global Payments.

Focused particularly on cross-border payments, the course is designed to help payments professionals understand this rapidly changing, and highly lucrative, sector of the industry. The Global Payments course is an addition to Glenbrook's extensive list of available private workshops.

Glenbrook's Global Payments course is available as a one-day or two-day session, and can be conducted in person at your premises and/or via a private webinar to reach your global staff groups. The agenda includes:

• Overview: Key Concepts, Regulation, Foreign Exchange
• Country Payments Systems - Commonalities and Differences, Key Country Focus
• Cross-Border Payments: Wires, ACH, Cards, Money Transfer Systems
• Cross-Border Use Cases - Supplier Payments (B2B), Cross-Border eCommerce, Global Payouts (B2C and G2C), International Remittances

Private workshop clients can choose particular countries they are interested in for the "Key Country Focus" section, as well the particular use cases they want to concentrate on.

Interested? Please take our global payments survey to give us your general feedback. And contact Glenbrook's Elizabeth McQuerry to discuss scheduling a Global Payments workshop for your company.

Over on Payments Views, Glenbrook's Elizabeth McQuerry has posted her analysis of the recent Atlanta Fed symposium the approaching February 7, 2013 deadline for compliance with the new Section 1073 rules of the Dodd-Frank Act.

While all the industry providers at the conference asserted that they will be “ready” (many noting that any code changes must be completed by the end of October before the year-end freezes), there was much discussion about degrees of compliance. “Degrees of compliance” is an interesting concept in payments, where often, decision engines generally make yes-no decisions.

On the web:

• Remittances: Over The Sea And Far Away - The Economist
• Meet Google's New NFC Payment Card, Beba - The Next Web

On the wires:

• NYSE Euronext To Acquire Corpedia Corporation
• U.S. Bank Releases a Cobranded Credit Card App for Android
• GoPayment Uses Geolocation to Help Small Businesses Determine Local Sales Tax
• SelectCore to Offer Third-Party Gift Cards Through Retail Network
• Scoutmob Lands $3.25 million in Financing and First Data 'OfferWise' Integration

Over on Payments Views, our sister blog, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson reflects back on her recent trip to the Mobile Money Americas conference in Mexico City.

There is a tremendous attitude of optimism here, and what appears to be a shared belief that these systems can, with proper regulatory support, provide real social good – helping in particular unbanked consumers to get access to ways of keeping, saving, and moving money securely.

The full post, Mobile Money in the Americas: Regulation, Infrastructure and Business Models, is available now.

Over on Payments Views, Glenbrook's Jacqueline Chilton summarizes and reacts to the CFPB Final Remittance Rule that has been issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. "This rule has considerable implications with both intended and potentially unintended consequences."

On the web:

• Bank of America's "Irregular Credit Card Activity" Alert - NetBanker
• Square Now Processing $4 Million In Mobile Payments Per Day - TechCrunch
• Reg E Expected to Add New Consumer Protections for Remittance Transfers - Portals and Rails
• Taulia Raises $8.5 Million To Help Companies Pay Their Invoices Early - TechCrunch
• Survey: Bank Customers Quick to Sign Up for Debit Rewards - But Slow to Redeem - COLLOQUY
• txtNation Release Direct Operator Billing for Easier Mobile Payments - Mobile Europe
• Properly Handling PayPal in Bangladesh - The Financial Express (Op Ed)

On the wires:

• MRC Board Election Results
• IFX Forum Ready to Lead Collaboration on Remittance Standards
• New York MTA Selects VeriFone TransitPAY for Bus Tracking Solution
• Alibaba Group, Yahoo!, and SoftBank Reach Agreement on Alipay

On the web:

• What’s in Their Wallets? - AllThingsD
• Goodbye, Paper Savings Bonds - New York Times
• BillGuard’s ‘Anti-Virus’ For Bills And Credit Cards Is Now Free - TechCrunch
• Prospects for Same-Day ACH Brighten As Software Emerges And NACHA Eyes Rules - Digital Transactions

On the wires:

• Bayern Card-Services (BCS) Protects Credit Cards with FICO Fraud Solution
• New Aite Group Report on Cross-Border Consumer Money Transfers
• Souheil Badran is Named SVP and GM of Digital River World Payments

On the web:

• PayPal Enables Peer-to-Peer Payments on Android With NFC - AllThingsD
• Arab Financial Services (AFS) Signs Multi-year Fraud Detection Deal - Trade Arabia
• Bringing Trust Back to the Table: Adyen and Mobile Payments - Forbes
• Mobile Banking Company (Tyfone) Talks about its Flagship Memory Card - TMCnet

On the wires:

• iSend Expands Mobile Top-Up Service Reach with Tigo El Salvador and Tigo Guatemala
• MetraTech's Metanga Taps Scribe for Online Billing Integration for Azure ISVs
• Xsilva Systems Rebrands as LightSpeed, Opens APIs for Developers
• Fiserv Renews Debit Processing Contract with Heartland Financial
• New Aite Group Report on Card Security Risks

The Federal Reserve Board has requested public comment on "a proposed rule that would create new protections for consumers who send remittance transfers to recipients located in a foreign country... The proposal is being made under Regulation E (Electronic Fund Transfers) pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act."

On the wires:

• PaymentVision Announces 3.0 Universal Payment Processing Gateway
• iSend Expands International Payment Service into Canada and UK

On the web:

• Google Checkout Blog: Google In-App Payments for the Web
• Springwise: Social Vending Lets Users Buy Drinks for Friends Remotely
• Bank Info Security: Banks Want Their Own .bank Top-Level Domain (TLD)
• Digital Transactions: Durbin Regs Will Take Effect, Though Possibly a Little Late And with Caps ‘Modified’ (ETA Conference Recap)

Utiba has announced a new initiative targeting the international mobile remittances market. "The new initiative offers a neutral corridor routing and currency exchange clearinghouse for mobile-to-mobile and traditional money remittances."

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released its initial analysis of cross-border monetary transfer data.

Monetary transfers, commonly called "remittances," refer to personal transfers of money to and from relatives or friends who are living abroad. This report presents initial results on the occurrence, frequency and amount of transfers sent and received. This supplement is noteworthy because it was the first time questions on monetary transfers were included in a federally sponsored, nationally representative survey.

MoneyGram International and Visa have announced the launch of MoneyGram’s first cash-to-Visa card program enabling consumers to transfer money from MoneyGram locations in the United States directly to the Visa accounts of recipients outside of the United States. At launch, the new program will enable funds to be received on Visa-branded credit and debit cards issued by Banco Industrial, a Visa bank and MoneyGram agent in Guatemala. READ MORE »

RegaloCard has announced that Burger King, one of the leading fast food chains in El Salvador, has joined the RegaloCard Mobile Payment Network. RegaloCard is a prepaid gift card that immigrants can buy in the United States. The RegaloCard redemption PIN is then delivered instantly via mobile payment technology to the person they choose in Latin America, to make purchases at leading local retailers. READ MORE »

Global Payments has announced that it has signed an agreement to sell its DolEx- and Europhil-branded money transfer businesses to an affiliate of Palladium Equity Partners, LLC. Under the terms of the agreement, Global Payments will receive proceeds in the range of $85 million to $110 million based on the operating performance of the business determined at the time of closing, which is subject to customary regulatory approvals including the consent to the transaction by the issuers of money transfer licenses in many of the states and countries where DolEx or Europhil currently operates.

MasterCard has announced that starting in 2010, MasterCard's financial institutions will have the capability to offer MasterCard cardholders money transfers from any MasterCard or Maestro card to any other MasterCard or Maestro card. According to MasterCard, "this global card-to-card money transfer service will expand the usability and value of MasterCard products and global payments network by providing its customers with a convenient and cost-effective money transfer platform enabling person-to-person payments and cross-border remittances." READ MORE »

MoneyGram International and Affinity Global Services have announced an agreement "that will enable mobile money transfer receives in important markets around the globe, bringing greater convenience and extending the benefits of MoneyGram services to a new category of consumers. The MoneyGram and Affinity Global Services alliance will allow consumers to use MoneyGram’s agent network of over 180,000 locations around the world to send money to an account associated with a mobile device." READ MORE »

Western Union and Fifth Third Bank have announced an agreement to offer the Western Union global money-transfer service at Fifth Third’s more than 1,300 banking center locations in 12 states. The Western Union global money-transfer service, a new service offering for Fifth Third accountholders and walk-in consumers, will be available in the next several months. READ MORE »

Over on CGAP's Technology Blog, Olga Morawczynski, a doctoral candidate at the University of Edinburgh, writes about Kenya's M-Pesa and what most of us don't know about M-Pesa. She credits much of its success not to the usual suspects we've heard about but rather to Sagentia, a technology consultancy firm based in Cambridge. As often happens with innovations, it was the small dedicated team working with the two big players that provided the focus to get things done!

Western Union has announced the launch of a Digital Vendor Program intended to extend the reach and accessibility of Western Union Money Transfer services to mobile finance initiatives in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

"Establishing a strong mobile vendor program is a critical step in the delivery of our 'Western Union Anywhere' service proposition," said Matt Dill, SVP and Head of Western Union Digital Ventures. "By collaborating on a global level with proven mobile platform providers, we believe we can simplify deployments for our mobile partners and introduce a more consistent Western Union experience for consumers." READ MORE »

TSYS has announced that it has signed an agreement with TransCash Corporation to launch a prepaid money transfer card. The prepaid card will initially be launched in France during Q3 2009 and will be sold by Midi France Telecom. To coincide with the agreement, TSYS has opened a new office in Paris to support the company’s expansion into France. READ MORE »

Sybase 365 has announced that it will team with Swisscontact, the Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation, to provide development of Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) and Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) services in emerging markets. READ MORE »

Western Union and Fidelity National Information Services have announced an agreement to offer Western Union global money transfer services to FIS' more than 8,500 banking institution clients throughout the United States. The signing of FIS is an important step in Western Union's North America "go-to-market" strategy to continue its expansion into the banking channel. As Western Union expands its service offerings, in an effort to strongly position money transfers to consumers, it looks to tap into consumer banking channels including: Cash-to-Cash, Account-to-Cash, and Account-to-Account. READ MORE »

Western Union has introduced a new way to send money within the U.S. using its prepaid card platform coupled with an Overnight Home Delivery service featuring Western Union's new MoneyWise Visa prepaid card. READ MORE »

Western Union and U.S. Bank have announced an agreement to offer the Western Union global money-transfer service in 2,791 U.S. Bank branch offices across 24 states. The agreement will connect consumers to more than 334,000 Western Union Agent locations worldwide. READ MORE »

Citibank N.A. has announced the launch of Citi Online Remit, a new online money transfer service to India.

Citi Online Remit provides Non Resident Indians (NRIs) the facility to transfer funds to India from any US Checking/Savings account or using a US Credit/Debit Card as a direct transfer into the beneficiary’s Bank account or as a draft couriered to the beneficiary’s mailing address in India.