On Twitter:

Here's my new @paypal card - yes, PayPal is issuing cards. It's too cool to have an account number on it. #payments twitter.com/joxman/status/…

— Jason Oxman (@joxman) May 7, 2013

On the web:

• The Banking Industry's Tech Nightmares Are Coming True - Motley Fool - "In the end, big banks and credit card companies need to realize that their era of dominating global payments could be coming to an end."
• Google Wins a Surprising Design Patent for a New Tablet based Credit Card Reader - Patent Bolt - "Google's design patent is for what appears to be a commercial tablet computer with a built-in credit card reader."
• Visa Plants a Seed for Growth Abroad - Wall St. Journal - A look at Visa's efforts in Rwanda.
• In Tomorrow’s Retail Universe, the Destination Is ‘You’ - StreetFight - "Based on clues we can see all around us, it is my belief that retail, as we’ve known it for at least the last two millennia, is coming to an end."
• More regulation of Bitcoin is a good thing - Lightspeed Venture Partners (Jeremy Lieu) - "Am I naive, am I a tool of the government overlords, or is more regulation an inevitable part of the path towards widespread Bitcoin adoption?"
• US financial regulator: We could regulate Bitcoin “if we wanted” - Ars Technica - "The American financial regulator for derivatives trading has told multiple news outlets that it is considering new rules for Bitcoin."
• Showrooming: Retailers Fight Back With New-Fangled Apps & Old-School Marketing - "Retailers, it appears, are getting better at keeping customers buying in the store, no matter what they are finding on their phones and tablets."
• Protecting Seniors from Identity Theft - Google Public Policy Blog - "Google’s Good to Know site is designed to help educate consumers of all ages about online threats and tools they can use to protect themselves…"
• The Next Phase of Social Business is the Collaborative Economy - Jeremiah Owyang - "That’s where brands will rent, lend, provide subscriptions to products and services to customers, or even further, allow customers to lend, trade, or gift branded products or services to each other."
• Mobile Payments Marked by Fragmentation and Increasing Channel Convergence, Says Fed - "While the U.S. mobile payments market continues to gain taction, it has not grown as steadily as expected, and the likelihood of mass adoption is not high…"

On the wires:

• Payments Veteran to Lead North America Business Development for ReD - "25-year payment services veteran John Lees is the company’s new North America vice president of sales."
• American Express Organizational Announcement – Daniel T. Henry, Chief Financial Officer - "Over the last few months Dan Henry and I have been discussing his plans for the next chapter of his personal and professional life."
• New AARP® Credit Card from Chase Offers Customers Cash Back on Every Purchase, Every Time - "By receiving 3 percent cash back on gas station and restaurant purchases and 1 percent on all other purchases, the average family can easily earn more than $250 cash back every year just by using the card."
• CPI Card Group Awarded US Patent for Innovative Secure Card Packaging Technology Utilized in Its Ultra Secure Pack™ Products - "The technology allows CPI to offer a superior, tamper proof, cost effective product for point of sale card activation applications including open loop prepaid cards."
• AIRTAG Enables Magento E-Commerce Sites to Mobilize in Native Mobile Wallet Apps - "For all retailers starting to think about how they are going to go mobile, we have created a solution that significantly eases the transition to digital commerce, without sacrificing the user experience."

On the web:

• PayPal Buys Mobile App Developer Duff Research - Reuters
• FTC Issues Report On Mobile Payment Security, Privacy - MobilePaymentsToday.com
• First Financial, US Bank Launch First Photo Billpay Services - NetBanker
• eBay Opens Door into Russia with PayPal License - eCommerce Bytes

On the wires:

• WorldPay Acquires Card Payments Service Provider YESpay
• Western Union to Enable Government Payments in Haiti
• NCSOFT Adopts BilltoMobile for High-Conversion Mobile Payments
• NutraClick selects ReD Shield payment fraud prevention service
• Simplee's New Payments & Loyalty Platform Sets the Standard in Patient Billing

On the web:

• Square COO Predicts Monster 2013, Says Starbucks Is Just The Beginning - CNET News
• Wonga Launches 'Bill Me Later' Rival in UK - Telegraph
• The Fraud Triangle - Portals and Rails

On the wires:

• Fiserv Mobilizes UChoose Rewards
• CorFire Integrates PayPal to Enhance Mobile Commerce Services
• Fuze Network Processes More Than 3.5 Million Cash-to-Card Transactions
• VeriFone Acquires Two Major Players in New Zealand Payments Industry
• Live Gamer Partners With Openbucks to Expand Pre-Paid Payment Options
• PAY.ON Partners With ReD To Offer Integrated Payment and Fraud Prevention Services
• CardinalCommerce Partners With Virtual Piggy To Enable Under 21 Online Acceptance
• Payzur, Acculynk’s Debit-based P2P Solution, Gains Momentum
• TSYS Signs Long-Term Payments Agreement with Merrick Bank

On the web:

• McDonald's to Trial Cloud-based Mobile Payments in UK - Managed Hosting News
• PlaySpan Combines Subscriptions and Microtransactions into UltimatePay - Digital Media Wire

On the wires:

• Western Union Reaches 500,000 Agent Location Milestone
• Government E-Payments Adoption Improves Globally According to Economist Intelligence Unit
• YuuZoo Signs with Virtual Piggy to Provide Secure Online Payments for Under 18 Users
• TSYS Extends Payments Agreement With The Royal Bank of Scotland
• MoneyGram Now Available at All 10,000 Plus Mainland Bank of China Locations
• Wright Express Chooses ReD to Deliver Payment Fraud Protection
• Kount Fraud Insights: The Fraud Impact of Surging Mobile Payments
• PayPal APIs: Up and Running, 2nd Edition (O'Reilly & Associates)
• epay Extends PIN-on-Receipt Business to Xbox LIVE

On the web:

• Mobile Melee (Infographic) - Fast Company
• American Express Serves Up P2P "Pay Me Back" on Ticketmaster - NetBanker

On the wires:

• ReD Targets Previously Anonymous Cyber Criminals with New IP Intelligence
• Despegar Selects GlobalCollect as Preferred PSP to Drive Latin American Expansion
• Western Union and USAID Launch Second African Diaspora Marketplace with Small Business Workshops in Seven Cities
• QVC Selects CashStar to Power its New eGift Card Program

Retail Decisions (ReD)has announced the ReD Fraud Alert service, a new service which enables card issuers and merchants to exchange information in the fight against online payment fraud.

Using information normally exclusive to the issuer, ReD creates a channel to enable its merchants to use a customer’s full account profile to decide whether to accept or reject a transaction for items with a high ticket price.

On the web:

• Nokia Aims for Pan-India Coverage for e-Wallet This Year - Deccan Herald
• Five Ways Austin Can Springboard Mobile Wallet Adoption - Software Advice
• Square Wants Employees To Eat, Sleep And Brush Mobile Payments - Wall Street Journal
• USAA to Eliminate Debit Rewards But Keep Free Checking and ATM Fee Refunds - Bank Systems & Technology

On the wires:

• ReD Expands Payment Processing Capabilities to Meet Growing Need for Alternative Payments
• C-SAM and Multicard Partner to Roll out Mobile Payments in Netherlands
• Citi Renews Private Label Card Partnership with Office Depot

On the web:

• South Korea Announces Major Push on Open NFC Payment Services - Reuters
• Thieves Found Citigroup Site an Easy Entry - New York Times
• Mobile Payments and Mental Accounting - TIME.com
• The Tuesday Podcast: Inside The Credit Card Black Market - NPR Planet Money

On the wires:

• NFC Over-the-Air and Over-the-Wire Provisioning Patent Awarded to Tyfone
• Mexico Banking Leader BBVA Bancomer Orders 10,000+ Hypercom Optimum Payment Systems
• SafetyPay Selected By BorderJump as Preferred Payment Solution for Cross Border Transactions
• Retail Decisions (ReD) Launches Truly Multi-Lingual Fraud Prevention
• FICO Will Protect 1 in 3 German Credit Cards from Fraud
• AisleBuyer Raises $7.5 Million in Series E Round

FleetCor has announced that it has acquired the UK and Ireland fuel card businesses of Retail Decisions (ReD). The acquisition includes all of ReD’s fuel card operations in the UK and Ireland, including ReD’s network of UK fuel bunkering outlets. READ MORE »

Retail Decisions reports that the "online retail market received a double dose of good news as merchants kicked-off the 2007 Holiday season. Purchase value of goods sold on Black Friday was up 83% and on Cyber Monday was up 80% year on year."

Retail Decisions reports that online volumes surged 109% on a like for like basis on Black Friday. According to ReD, most online shoppers waited until the afternoon to begin their shopping. The peak shopping hour was between 3:00PM - 4:00PM and the peak shopping minute was 2:53PM.

According to a Reuters report, Retail Decisions Plc said yesterday it had agreed to a $314 million cash offer from RD Card Ltd, a private firm set up by Palamon Capital Partners.

Ben Harrington reports for the UK's Daily Telegraph on reports that Wright Express has entered the bidding to acquire Retail Decisions. Harrington also reports that Comdata and FleetCor as well as a private equity firm may be among other potential bidders for Retail Decisions.

According to a statement released yesterday, Retail Decisions says that "it has received an increased indicative proposal which may or may not lead to an offer being made to purchase the entire share capital of the Company. The Company has also received a number of other unsolicited approaches from third parties. In view of these events, the Board of Retail Decisions has concluded that it should engage in discussions with bona fide potential offerors in order to assess if an acceptable offer will be forthcoming."

First Data Corp. has announced an affiliation with Retail Decisions to provide an enhanced fraud detection solution for First Data's global online merchants.

Retail Decisions (ReD) has announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office has stated that it will re-examine the granting of US patent 6,029,154 that is the subject of an infringement claim by CyberSource against Retail Decisions.

The USPTO’s decision is in response to a re-examination request submitted by ReD, following the discovery (by ReD) of “prior art” that pre-dates the Cybersource patent.

US Patent 6,029,154, titled "Method and system for detecting fraud in a credit card transaction over the internet", was filed by inventor John Pettitt on July 28, 1997 and issued on February 22, 2000.