InComm announced that it has acquired Medagate Corporation, the company that powers OTCNetwork, the only national closed loop over-the-counter (OTC) healthcare benefits payments platform.

Medagate's technology platform supports several applications that enable retail and healthcare to intersect at the point of sale, enabling insured health plan members as well as Medicare and Medicaid members to access and spend their monthly healthcare benefits in an easy and familiar manner.

All current employees of Medagate will remain with the company, with its existing management continuing to run the day-to-day operations.

On the web:

• Why Mobile Payments Still Haven’t Revolutionized Retail - VentureBeat
• Personal Finance Platform HelloWallet Raises $12M From Morningstar - TechCrunch
• PayPal Formally Open Home Depot "POS" Pilot Program - PayPal Blog

On the wires:

• American Express Launches Social Media Show + Tell
• Green Dot Will Launch AARP Foundation Prepaid MasterCard
• Payment Data Systems Announces "Debit Only" Payment Product Offering
• Euronet to Deploy ATMs in German Airports, Tourist Hubs and Military Base Locations
• SHAZAM Launches Adaptive Payment's Pentagon Mobile Payment Application
• RushCard Announces Plan to Reduce and Simplify Fees, Enhance Customer Benefits and Help Consumers Achieve Financial Freedom
• Green Dot Acquires Prepaid Processing Assets of eCommLink

On the web:

• Starbucks Launches ‘pay by app’ for iPhone Users in UK - Telegraph
• Spindle Plans Mobile Payment Product for Small Banks - American Banker
• Square Expands Retail Partnerships to Include OfficeMax And UPS Store Locations - TechCrunch
• PayAnywhere Lets You Build Payments Acceptance Into An App Of Your Own - Business Insider
• Is what you see what you get? Proposed Pricing Disclosures for Electronic Remittances - Portals and Rails
• State Bank of India Drops Plan for Merchant Acquiring JV with Visa, Elavon - The Times of India
• Top 7 Card Readers For Smartphones: Apple, Android, and Blackberry - Mobile POS News
• The Future of Self-Service Checkout - STORES.org
• The State of ACH Fraud - Bank Info Security

On the wires:

• New Mercator Report on India's Prepaid Card Market
• SunGard Closes Syntesys Acquisition to Offer Expanded SWIFT Connectivity and Services
• Chase Partners with Southwest Airlines to Enhance Ultimate Rewards Travel Options for Cardmembers
• U.S. Bank Implements Secure Vault Payments for Nebraska Online Child Support Payments

As part of its GoPayment mobile payment offering, Intuit has announced the launch of the Intuit GoPayment Prepaid Visa Card.

“The GoPayment Card adds new value to those using GoPayment. In addition to helping them get paid, we’re helping them make payments,” said Chris Hylen, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Payment Solutions division. “This is just the beginning. Intuit will roll out new, innovative features for GoPayment that help users make payments in a variety of ways.”

MasterCard and Western Union have announced a global agreement to cooperate on prepaid cards and money transfers.

MasterCard and Western Union have been working together to provide prepaid card services for the past year. The expanded global relationship makes MasterCard the preferred brand for Western Union-sponsored prepaid programs around the world and makes Western Union the preferred money transfer service for MasterCard. Consumers will have access to a global network to transfer and load funds onto prepaid cards. Western Union and MasterCard prepaid cardholders will be able to reload their prepaid cards at MasterCard rePower locations as well as at participating Western Union® Agent locations.

On the web:

• For Banks, Tech Frontier Fraught With Pitfalls - Wall Street Journal
• Apple, Not Carriers, Will Drive NFC Growth - Rethink Wireless

On the wires:

• New Packaged Facts Report on Private Label Credit Card Industry
• Eastern Bank Chooses Elan Financial Services to Launch New Credit Card Program
• ViVOtech Contactless EMV and NFC Payment Software Powers Tri-Reader 3 for Cubic Transportation Systems
• NetSecure Announces Free Kudos Mobile Credit Card Terminals for Non-Profits and Charities
• Navy Federal Boosts Credit Card Rewards for Over a Million Members; Powered by Cartera Commerce
• Failsafe Payments Adds SafetyPay to CertoConnect
• Transaction Wireless to Power Buffalo Wild Wings Gift Cards
• New Mercator Report on Prepaid Industry

On the web:

• Simply Tap Mobile Payment Service Rolled Out by UK Retailers - Computer Weekly

On the wires:

• AmEx Launches American Express for Target Prepaid Card in More Than 1,000 U.S. Target Stores
• Chase Paymentech Launches of Safetech Fraud Tools in Europe

On the web:

• Big Banks Blink On Debit-Card Fees - WSJ.com
• Why Banks Want to Wean You Off Debit Cards - msnbc.com
• Amazon Awarded Patent for Smart Gift Card with Parental Control - PCWorld
• The Future of Money in a Webbed-up World (multiple articles) - New Scientist
• Cards, Cards and More Cards: The Evolution to Prepaid Cards - Federal Reserve Bank of St.Louis
• MasterCard Lands Huntington Debit Cards, Seeks To Grow Share - WSJ.com

On the wires:

• New Aite Group Report on Online Fraud Mitigation
• Fortumo Releases Cross-Platform Mobile Payments for HTML5 Apps
• MoneyGram International Signs Agreement with Cumberland Farms to Launch MoneyGram Xpress In-lane Money Transfer Service

On the web:

• BofA, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Sued by ATM User Over Fees - Bloomberg
• USPS Eyes Prepaid Card Market - MyBankTracker.com
• Whole Foods Stores Stop Accepting Checks - Raleigh Durham News & Observer

On the wires:

• Durbin to Wells Fargo: Your Numbers Don't Add Up
• Bethpage Federal Credit Union Announces “No Fee” Free Checking Guarantee
• Western Union and Societe Generale International Retail Banking extend Global Money Transfer Agreement
• Chase Strengthens Partnership with United’s MileagePlus to Offer Ultimate Rewards Cardmembers Expanded Travel Flexibility
• New Report from Mercator on Online Bill Management

Earlier this year, "the Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia hosted a workshop to discuss insolvency risk in the network-branded prepaid-card value chain, and, in particular, whether the insolvency of a key participant in the value chain poses a threat to consumers and banks." Philip Keitel has recently published a paper (PDF) that summarizes the information presented at the workshop.

On the web:

• Mobile Wallets Move Closer to Reality - eMarketer
• Mobile Payments Are Going to Explode This Holiday Season, PayPal Says - ReadWriteWeb
• Why Mobile Payments Might Still Be A Few Years Away In A Few Years - paidContent.org

On the wires:

• AsiaPay partners with Smart for Safer Online Payments in Philippines
• BillMyParents and MasterCard Educate Parents of Teens About the Benefits of Prepaid Cards
• Euronet and wipit to Launch Mobile Payment Service Targeting the Cash-Preferred Consumer
• Mercator Announces Eighth Annual Closed-Loop Prepaid Market Assessment

The Federal Reserve has released a set of frequently asked questions (and answers) about "General-Use Prepaid Cards and Circumvention and Evasion". Given the Regulation II exemptions for certain reloadable prepaid cards, there seems to be a lot of industry questions about what exactly can be done with a general-use prepaid card and still have the card considered exempt from Regulation II interchange caps.

On the web:

• RIM Waits on Carrier Plans for NFC with new BlackBerry Line - FierceWireless

On the wires:

• ViVOtech Ships EMV Payments and NFC mCommerce-Ready Reader
• Sprint Selects American Express for Rebate Cards
• Citi Renews Credit Card Issuing Relationship with Shell
• Yardi PAYscan Mobile (for Mobile Invoicing) Available at Apple’s App Store
• Citi Introduces the New ThankYou® Rewards App
• Dynamics Announces Manufacturing and Personalization Facility for Electronic Stripe Cards

The Dodd-Frank Act requires the U.S. Federal Reserve to report annually to congress on the "use of general-use prepaid cards in federal, state, and local government-administered payment programs and the interchange transaction fees and cardholder fees charged with respect to the use of such general-use prepaid cards." The Fed has published its first report.

PrepaYd, Inc. has announced that it has entered into a agreement with Sprint to become a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) and will be able to provide its own branded wireless services using the Nationwide Sprint Network.

“The prepaid debit card business is in a Hyper Growth phase right now. Our customer base and the customers we market towards understand the benefits of prepaying for services. We believe Prepaid Wireless is a perfect product for us to offer and it fits our company’s long term business development plans,” stated Rick Galasieski, SVP PrepaYd, Inc and President of PrepaYd Wireless, Inc.

On the web:

• Citigroup Confirms $2.7 Million Stolen by Hackers - Wall Street Journal
• NFC Market Trial Fails, Says ANZ Bank - ZDNet Australia
• Banking Industry Now Seeking Swipe Fee Implementation Delay - Convenience Store News
• Bank Lobbyist To Fed: Go Easy On Us - Forbes
• How Debit Card Swipe Fee Changes Will Cost You, the Consumer - TIME.com
• What Are You Signing Away With a Signature Instead of a PIN? - Portals and Rails
• Spat between Visa and China UnionPay spills into BC Card in Korea - ChinaDaily.com
• PayPal Hits 100 Million Active Users - TechCrunch

On the wires:

• Paymate Acquires ACT Merchant Services
• CashPlus: Prepaid MasterCard Helping Councils to Cut Costs
• ViVOtech Closes $24 Million In Additional Series C Funding
• ActivePath Drives Paperless Adoption in Brazil for Global Top 3 Credit Card Issuer

On the web:

• ABA Seeks ‘Grace Period’ on Fed Swipe Fee Rules - ETA
• American Express Prepaid Lineup Looks Like Overkill - American Banker

On the wires:

• Ping Identity Fuels Growth with $21M in Financing
• Citi Ventures Makes Strategic Investment in Mobile Billing Company Billing Revolution
• Elavon Introduces SAFE-T Suite Point-to-Point Encryption and Tokenization Solution
• Chase Card Services Adds EMV Chip Technology to Its J.P. Morgan Select Visa Signature Card
• NetSecure Technologies Introduces Kudos Credit Card Acceptance Solution in Canada
• New Aite Group Report Merchant Funded Card Incentives
• 2ergo develops new mobile payment system for PizzaExpress (UK)
• Ally Bank Adds P2P Payments to Suite of Services

American Express has announced a reloadable prepaid card with no activation or maintenance fees.

“We created a simple, transparent and easy-to-use everyday payment card to address a real pain point that consumers have with existing prepaid products in the market that are laden with fees and confusing terms including monthly and maintenance fees,” said Dan Schulman, group president of American Express’ Enterprise Growth Group.

AccountNow, the reloadable prepaid provider, has announced it is merging with Ready Financial Group. The combined company will continue to operate using both brand names. Jim Jones, AccountNow CEO, will be the CEO of the combined company to be known as AccountNow. Will Tumulty, Ready CEO, will become Chief Marketing Officer of the combined firm.

On the web:

• PayPal Ready to Seek E-commerce Gold in Russia - Telegraph
• Google Wallet "one of the biggest investments we've made at Google" - NFC World
• New Wal-Mart Kiosks Present Subtle, But Real, Threat to Banks - American Banker
• Thoughts on Google Wallet - NetBanker
• Avoiding Security Missteps in a World of Pervasive Data Collection - Portals and Rails
• Women's Guide to Success in Payments - LINC Northern California

On the wires:

• Accel Partners Leads $50 Million Investment in YapStone
• New Mercator Report on Global Prepaid Market
• E-Commerce Merchants Prepare for Issuer Response to Durbin Legislation
• BookIt.com Sells Travel Packages Using PayPal 'Parallel' Payments
• Fiserv and Dollar Bank Expand Partnership to Streamline Lending Operations, Support the Customer Experience

On the wires:

• Axioma Launches Enhanced Global and Regional Risk Models
• Electronic Payment Exchange and Sprint Extend Relationship through Co-Marketing Deal
• Beanstream Introduces New Global Transaction Product Suite Allowing Merchants to Accept Payments From Around the World
• Global Payments Canada Teams with Precidia for Semi-Integrated EMV Solution for ECRs
• SEGA Chooses PlaySpan for Monetization of MLB Manager Online
• Contis Group Acquires GTP Financial Services for European Prepaid Push

On the web:

• New York Times: How to Avoid Credit Card Problems Abroad - Practical Traveler
• Dow Jones: Verifone Looks To Advances In Mobile Payment
• China Daily: PayPal to End Partnership with Alibaba
• New York Times: New Russian ATM’s Are Built to Detect Lies
• ComputerWorld: MasterCard Warns Skimming Hole Will Be Open For Years

InComm has announced that it is teaming up with Don Quijote, Japan's largest discount store chain, to launch a suite of point-of-sale activation (POSA) prepaid products utilizing InComm's Fastcard technology at all of its retail locations.

While most retailers in North America regularly use POSA technology to enable display merchandising of gift and prepaid cards, the Don Quijote launch represents the first roll out of this technology in the major discount store industry in Japan.

On the wires:

• InComm and Unik Become Partners in Brazil
• NCR Lets You Talk to a Teller Through the ATM
• Tabbedout Certified on Dinerware POS System
• Telemundo, mun2 and Western Union to Offer Co-Branded MasterCard Prepaid Cards
• Square and SCORE Team Up to Provide Free Resources for Small Businesses
• Aramor to Offer Secure Vault Payments (SVP) to Merchant Clientele

On the web:

• New York Times: Picking the Right Credit Card for Travel Perks
• AuctionBytes: ShopSavvy Exec Discusses Mobile Commerce, Product Feeds, and Digital Wallet (Video Interview)
• GigaOM: Why Winning Over Merchants Will be Key To Mobile Payments

On the wires:

• TNS Unveils New TNSPay Capabilities
• Telcel Mexico Selects Vesta Corporation to Launch New Recharge Functionality
• Shift4 Brings a Higher Standard of Payment Processing to Microsoft Dynamics RMS Users

On the web:

• Portals and Rails: Dispelling the Myths about Mobile Banking and Payments
• VentureBeat: Why does NFC matter? Does tap beat swipe for mobile payments?
• Bloomberg: AT&T, Verizon Wireless to Open Venture to All Payment Networks
• All Facebook: Forrester Says Facebook Commerce Won’t Take Off
• Mobile Commerce Daily: Survey Says Majority of Smartphone Users have Bought Physical Goods via Mobile

On the wires:

• FreedomPay Opens World’s Most Flexible Payment Gateway to Independent Developers
• 10 Million UK Consumers Using Mobile Commerce but 83% Have Experienced Problems
• New Aite Group Report on Network Branded Prepaid Cards
• SIMalliance Open Mobile API boosts Smartphone Application Security
• MasterCard SpendingPulse March 2011 Retail Report
• Visa Europe: Q1 UK Expenditure Index

On the web:

• BBC: NFC Trials for Payment in UK Shops
• Slate: Paying With Your Phone Is Awesome, Because... Because.

Recent white papers:

• Bell ID: Six Myths Preventing EMV Migration in the United States
• First Data: The Marketing Side of Tokenization (PDF)
• SJB Research: NFC Business Models (registration required)
• Ensenta: Agile Risk Management for Remote Deposit Capture

On the wires:

• Fees For Most Prepaid Cards Higher Than Basic Checking Accounts
• VeriFone and Hypercom Announce Agreement to Sell Hypercom’s US Payment Systems Business
• J.P. Morgan Treasury Services Ranks First in ACH Originations for 2010
• FIS Introduces New Terminated Originator Database for Risk Mitigation
• Viewpointe’s Services for Third-Party Senders Help Meet New NACHA Requirement
• Laru Corporation to Introduce ACH Vision RDFI at Payments 2011

On the web:

• Techworld: MasterCard Australia Outlines EMV-based Card Security Roadmap
• Portals and Rails: Atlanta and Boston Fed position paper promotes U.S. adoption of mobile payments
• The Asset Magazine: China Construction Bank and China UnionPay Offers Dual Currency Credit Card

On the wires:

• J.P. Morgan’s Order-to-Pay Network Crosses 100,000 Supplier Threshold
• NRF Welcomes Consumer Groups’ Support for Swipe Fee Reform
• Near Field Communication Forum Announces New Members (including CSR, Google, and Intel)
• New Mercator Report on Prepaid Card Market in China
• The VoiceCash Single Prepaid MasterCard (Germany)

On the web:

• NFC World: Amazon Planning NFC Payments and Marketing Service?
• SmartMoney: The New Best Credit Cards
• Vending Times: Cashless Payments Go Mainstream In Unattended POS Markets
• TechCrunch: Social Payments Enabler WePay Celebrates First Birthday

HP has announced new services that provide banking clients with "a flexible, secure, self-service and cost-effective payment delivery solution for prepaid cards. HP Prepaid Card Services are an extension of the HP Cards and Payments Services portfolio, which supports an extensive range of debit, credit and now prepaid options, including the capability to use multiple currencies on a single card."

On the wires:

• Western Union, Seven Bank to Introduce International Money Transfers in Japan
• Union Plus and Rev Worldwide Partner on Prepaid Cards for Working Families
• MoneyGram Reveals Strong Results from New Fraud Prevention Tool
• CreditCall Rolls Out End-to-End Encryption Technology
• Study Finds That Identity Theft Protection Services Can Help Mitigate Incident Costs

On the web:

• TechCrunch: Offermatic Raises $4.5 Million From Kleiner Perkins
• MSNBC: The credit card of the future: It 'talks' to you
• Reuters: Senate Must Act First on Debit Card Fees Say Bachus
• TechCrunch: Square’s Jack Dorsey Responds to VeriFone’s Security Hole Allegation

Fiserv has announced that it "has acquired prepaid card processing and other technologies developed by Maverick Network Solutions, a Delaware-based provider of advanced prepaid and reward and incentive card programs. The Delaware start-up and its employees became part of the Fiserv Card Services group on March 1, 2011."