On the wires:

• CHARGE Anywhere Turns Google Nexus Phone into NFC Payment Acceptance Terminal
• hyperWALLET Announces Support for SEPA Credit Transfers across Europe
• Litle Vault PayPage Removes All Merchant Exposure To Card Data During Online Acceptance
• Accertify is Selected by Abercrombie & Fitch for Online Fraud Prevention
• Nine Credit Unions Select Fiserv for Account Processing
• Fifth Third Processing and Planet Payment to Launch 'Pay in Your Currency' on ATMs
• Heartland Delivers Wait Management and SMS Marketing Solution to Restaurants with Freshtxt

On the web:

• Springwise: Snap a Photo of a Bill, Then Click to Pay
• Mobile Commerce Daily: PayPal Mobile Payments Growth
• Mashable: Starbucks Card Mobile Is a Hit: 3 Million People Pay Via Phone App
• New York Times: As Phones Become Wallets, Many Have Hands Out

The January 2011 EPC Newsletter, from the European Payments Council, features a number of articles on Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) migration. Articles include a preliminary assessment of the "proposal for a Regulation establishing technical requirements for credit transfers and direct debits in euros" and a best-in-class case study of SEPA migration in the Netherlands.

Headline News is compiled by Glenbrook Partners:

• Voila & Unibank Receive All Regulatory Approvals to Launch First Mobile Money Solution in Haiti
• Zuora Delivers Z-Payments 3.0 Subscription Billing Solution
• Sentenial and ING launch SEPA mandate management solution for corporates across Europe

• PayPal Blog: Payments – Coming to a TV Near You Soon?

The European Payments Council (EPC) has announced updated and enhanced versions of the SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) Scheme Rulebook and the SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) Scheme Rulebooks. November 1, 2010 marks an important target date for SEPA, as all banks in the euro area are now reachable for cross-border SEPA direct debits. READ MORE »

The European Central Bank has published the seventh in a series of progress reports on the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) (PDF). The bank reports in on progress over the last two years and provides guidance on the way forward in multiple areas -- SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) and SEPA Direct Debit (SDD), Cards, eSEPA (online payments), security, infrastructure, migration, and governance of retail payments and cash services.

Logica has announced a new solution that enables banks in the eurozone to deliver mandate management services for SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) payments to their corporate clients. Based on the flagship Logica All Payments Solution (LAPS), Logica Mandate Management provides the first single platform for both creditor and debtor mandates – saving costs and reducing time to market for banks.

On November 2, the European Payments Council (EPC) launches the SEPA Core Direct Debit Scheme and the SEPA Business to Business Direct Debit Scheme. The SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) Schemes enable bank customers – for the first time ever - to make and receive direct debits within and across 32 European countries collectively known as the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). READ MORE »

The European Payments Council (EPC), the coordination and decision-making body of the European banking industry in relation to payments, has announced that the SEPA Core Direct Debit Scheme and the SEPA Business to Business Direct Debit Scheme will launch on 2 November 2009. READ MORE »

J.P. Morgan’s Treasury Services business has announced it is offering ISO 20022 payment initiation and reporting capabilities. ISO 20022 is the core message standard for SEPA and represents the next generation of SWIFT message formatting. J.P. Morgan says it is one of the first to adopt this new messaging standard format that allows clients to integrate core treasury, payable and receivable applications with banking and other financial partners. READ MORE »

CSC has announced that it has formed an alliance with direct debit solution provider Sentenial to offer a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) direct debit software-based payment solution. According to CSC, "the offering will enable European banks to provide corporate and public sector customers with a comprehensive SEPA direct debit service ahead of the November 2009 target date set by the European Payments Council. SEPA is an initiative of the European banking industry that aims to make cross-border electronic payments as fast, secure and efficient as domestic payments within one country." READ MORE »

EUFISERV Payments has announced that the EUFISERV ATM Scheme is fully separated from its former processing business, in line with the SEPA requirements of the European Central Bank and the European Commission. READ MORE »

First Data Corp. has announced that it has signed an agreement with EUFISERV and its fifteen shareholders (including twelve European banks and banking organizations) to expand and develop the European inter-bank processing network managed by EUFISERV. The two companies said that "connecting the existing networks of EUFISERV and First Data will create the opportunity for customers to access more than 74,000 ATMs, 1.5 million POS merchants and to reach more than 165 million debit and credit card accounts in Europe." READ MORE »

Accenture has announced that it has opened a new facility at its research and development technology lab in Sophia Antipolis, France, dedicated to innovation in the rapidly growing global payments industry. The facility, called the Accenture Payments Innovation Showcase, focuses on original research and development in all facets of the payments business, including mobile communications and other point-of-sale technology, bank-to-corporate connectivity, processing, process models, biometrics, regulation such as the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) initiative, and security. READ MORE »

We're back at the Digital Money Forum in London for the day 2 agenda. This morning's topics are focused primarily on European payments issues - SEPA in particular in presentations by Charles Bryan and John Chaplin.

Aneace has done a great job on blogging the two SEPA sessions this morning. In particular, I enjoyed John Chaplin's eight SEPA predictions - along with the two "jokers" that could change everything.

WebMoney also presented on their ecommerce payment system based in Moscow. Colin blogs about WebMoney here.

At its 7th Annual Debit Conference, MasterCard Europe has announced what it calls "the emergence of a series of significant cross-border purchasing trends in Europe coinciding with the official launch of the Single Euro(pean) Payments Area (SEPA)."

Dave Bircb blogs about his experience trying to originate a SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) to from his bank in the UK to a colleague's bank in the Netherlands. "So, in summary, sending 50 euros to Amsterdam in the exciting new world of SEPA took two trips to the bank, cost £15 (ie, a transaction fee of 40%) and took three days. Next time, I'll use PayPal."

According to APACS, "from today (28 January) the new SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) Scheme will enable euro credit transfers to be made within a maximum of three days, and without any deductions from the principal amount. The customers who will benefit most are those larger businesses for whom it will make cross-border trade easier, and UK consumers who make regular euro payments because they may, for example, maintain properties abroad."

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has published two working papers related to patents and financial services. The first is titled "Business Method Patents for U.S. Financial Services" (PDF) by Robert M. Hunt and the second is titled "Intellectual Property Rights and Standard Setting in Financial Services: The Case of the Single European Payments Area" (PDF) by Robert M. Hunt, Samuli Simojoki, and Tuomas Takalo.

On his blog, Aneace Haddad has posted a presentation he's titled "Making MasterCard's Maestro the preferred debit brand in post-SEPA Europe" in which he discusses the features he thinks any debit product needs to create value for merchants. Aneace's is experimenting with using SlideShow's voice annotated presentation engine for this presentation.

In its Occasional Papers series, the European Central Bank has published a paper titled "The Economic Impact of the Single Euro Payments Area" (PDF) by Heiko Schmiedel. From the abstract: "...banks are expected to face downward pressure on their revenues as competition will increase across borders and as a result of new market entrants."

The European Central Bank has published the fifth in a series of progress reports on the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) (PDF). In particular, the bank has called on the banking industry to set up a rival debit card scheme to challenge the dominance of Maestro in the EU - saying "such a scheme would stimulate competition and would ensure the close involvement of European banks in the governance of the scheme. ... Any additional European debit card scheme should operate under EU law and should, accordingly, process personal data in line with EU data protection laws."

Voca and LINK have completed their merger and announced the launch of "Europe’s first independent pan-European payment service in partnership with 10 banks from across Europe."

MasterCard Europe has announced that it will delay the introduction of Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) fallback interchange rates for Maestro point-of-sale (POS) euro transactions, citing continued lack of clarity from competition authorities over interchange fees and opposition from some merchant associations.

Aneace Haddad of Welcome Real-time blogs about a potential unintended consequence of SEPA - that the elimination of national debit card monopolies could lead to a spiraling up of interchange fees as brands compete for issuance by banks. Haddad says "now that banks finally have a choice, it will be irresistible for them to choose the brand that offers the highest interchange. The old European national debit brands have never had to deal with this before."

Reuters is reporting on comments made by Visa Europe president and CEO Peter Ayliffe to the effect that any fundamental changes to the current credit card interchange fee structure in Europe (currently under consideration by the European Commission's competition commissioner) could put SEPA at risk.

The European Central Bank has published a progress report entitled “The Eurosystem’s View of a “SEPA for Cards” (PDF). "In this report, the Governing Council of the ECB provides its views on some critical issues concerning the migration of card schemes to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), and at the same time alerts the market to some developments which could be suboptimal for European citizens."

Dave Birch writes on the Digital Money Blog about how lots of folks want to get into the payments business - while those in the payments business don't find it such a great business. The grass is always greener, as they say! Dave explores the implications that the Single European Payments Area (SEPA) might have on this whole business of payments. Good stuff from Dave, as usual!

TowerGroup has announced a new research report titled "Prepaid Cards: A Critical Market Foundation of Europe's SEPA Plans" that concludes that a sharp rise in the deployment of prepaid products over the next 10 years will be key to supporting bank profitability. However, TowerGroup also "believes that European banks success will be elusive as long as the use of cash remains high - underscoring the need for a true debit-based alternative that does not include identity recognition as part of the electronic payment."

Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, gave a speech at the EFMA Cards and Payments Conference in which she looked at the future of retail payments in Europe. Among her comments, she says "the experience in Norway is a good indication that cards can become a good replacement for cash as long as they become a more convenient payment instrument than cash." Both the text and presentation slides (PDF) from her speech are available online. Her slides include one very interesting graph showing the consumer payment preferences in France based upon the amount of the purchase.

Compliance with the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) project is driving significant challenges in Europe, with payments industry executives at many of the largest financial institutions reporting much higher estimates of investment costs and fearing that business and technology resources will be stretched as a result, according to a recent Accenture survey.