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.

m-Via, a new mobile money remittance company, has posted a "sneak peek" of its new offering which will be launched at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas later today. m-Via says it is "the first solution for remitting money via ANY mobile phone from the USA to Mexico, South America and the Philippines. m-Via will only be sold via wireless retailers in the United States beginning in January."

A briefing paper titled "International Remittances" by Terri Bradford, Payments System Research Specialist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, describes some of the means by which individuals remit funds internationally -- informal networks, money transfer operators, financial institutions and other options -- and discusses some of the factors that may influence the choice of provider.

James Mbugua reports for the Nairobi Star that "four big local banks [in Kenya[ have formed an "ad hoc committee" to try and get M-PESA stopped." M-PESA, a mobile payments service offered by Safaricom, has been very successful - "The problem for the banks seems to be the extraordinary popularity of M-PESA. Launched in March 2007, it now has over 5,000,000 registered users and almost 5,000 registered outlets." [Editor's note: Hat tip to Dave Birch!]

Monitise and NatWest have announced a commission-free international mobile phone payment transfer service between the bank's customers’ current accounts in the UK and their PKO BP accounts in Poland. READ MORE »

eCommLink, and Rechargeplus Global have announced a "global alliance that combines the companies’ prepaid debit platforms with mobile and merchant applications to serve the needs of the growing international money transfer market. Hundreds of billions of dollars are sent home each year by migrant workers, often to places with little or no banking and technology infrastructure. Providing a means for the recipient to access and utilize these funds can be a challenge, especially when there may not be a local bank or money transfer store for hundreds of miles." READ MORE »

Vodafone, Safaricom and Western Union have announced that they will partner to pilot a cross-border Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) service between the U.K. and Kenya. This service will enable customers to send cross-border remittances from select locations directly to Safaricom mobile subscribers in Kenya generally in minutes. READ MORE »

The Migration and Remittances Team at the World Bank has published a paper titled "Outlook for Remittance Flows 2008‐2010" . From the abstract: "After several years of strong growth, remittance flows to developing countries began to slow down in the third quarter of 2008. This slowdown is expected to deepen further in 2009 in response to the global financial crisis, although the exact magnitude of the growth moderation (or outright decline in some cases) is hard to predict given the uncertainties about global growth, commodity prices, and exchange rates."

MoneyGram International and Cardtronics have announced that MoneyGram money transfer and ExpressPayment urgent bill payment services will be offered through 2,250 advanced-function ATMs located at 7-Eleven, Inc. convenience stores in the U.S. beginning in late 2008. READ MORE »

Privier , a charlotte, NC-based company, has announced ATMSend, calling it "the world's 1st 'no-card', 'no-bank account', cash-to-cash ATM remittance service ... aimed at targeting the U.S 106 million unbanked users." READ MORE »

Western Union has announced that it has created an alliance with Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E. ("Orascom Telecom"), one of the largest mobile operators in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, to work together to introduce mobile remittance services in select markets. According to the companies, "the services aim to make low-principal, high-frequency remittances more convenient to the millions of consumers who send money every day." READ MORE »

Juniper Research has announced a new report titled "Mobile Payment Markets Strategies & Forecasts 2008-2013" that concludes that "purchases via mobile devices of digital and physical goods, contactless NFC (Near Field Communications) transactions and money transfers will together generate transactions worth over $600bn globally by 2013." According to Juniper, this figure represents the gross value of all the items being purchased or the value of money being transferred. READ MORE »

TowerGroup has released a new report titled “Disruptive Technology Spawns Market Revolution: The Ascent of Mobile Remittances into the Mainstream” finding the "accelerating investments being made in ubiquitous mobile payment platforms will be a disruptive industry force. As a consequence TowerGroup believes the emerging revolution occurring for sending and receiving remittances may well undercut existing fee structures and traffic volume of incumbent brick-and-mortar money transfer operators, which already appear to be under pressure in this current economic climate." READ MORE »

Visa has announced the extension of its Visa MoneyTransfer service to millions of cardholders. "With the launch of Visa Money Transfer in Indonesia and the expansion of a program in Singapore, Visa is making it easier and more secure for people in 13 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia to send and receive funds." READ MORE »

In an article titled "Why Africa Is Banking on Cellphones", Mail & Guardian Online reports on the growth of mobile banking and how, for people in the developing world, the arrival of mobile banking -- or m-banking -- is potentially revolutionary.

"We wanted to offer something that would work," explained Mung Ki Woo, who heads Orange's m-payments division. "Instead of giving people a plastic card, why not use something many people already have: a cellphone? And instead of doing transactions at a bank branch, why not let people go to their local retailer to deposit and withdraw cash?"

Al Hammond blogs on the NextBillion.net blog of the World Resources Institute about comments made at the recent Cairo conference on mobile banking and, in particular, the experience of M-PESA in Kenya. "The dominant use of M-PESA by Kibera residents is to transfer money home to their native rural villages, underscoring the importance of internal remittances in virtually all developing countries. ... M-PESA is competing successfully with more traditional means of remittances. Many users say the service is faster, safer-less chance of theft or "lost" money-and could be sent directly to their home village."

Wireless operator Orange is testing in the Ivory Coast a new money transfer system: Orange Money. Strategies Telecom & Media interviews Marc Rennard, executive director in charge of Orange’s operations in Africa, Middle-East and Asia. about Orange Money. As we've seen previously with M-PESA in Kenya, the mobile operators are focusing much of their mobile payments initiatives on markets where a large majority of the population is unbanked.

Affinity Mobile has announced that adoption of the mobile wallet features enabled by its MADE platform is growing rapidly. According to Affinity, 'following the nationwide launch of Trumpet Mobile, Trumpet subscribers are quickly taking advantage of the mobile wallet capabilities with almost 50 percent of customers activating a mobile wallet at the point of sale.' READ MORE »

paybox and Globe Telecom have announced they are teaming up to extend the reach of their remittance network solutions and offering overseas Filipinos worldwide a cheaper and more convenient way to send money home. READ MORE »