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.

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 »