The growing use of branchless banking, including mobile phone banking, is inevitable in most countries. But it's far less certain whether large numbers of the unbanked poor will use these alternative channels for financial services beyond payments, such as savings and credit. So says "Scenarios for Branchless Banking in 2020," a new report from CGAP, a microfinance group based at the World Bank, and the U.K.'s Department for International Development (DFID). READ MORE

GoPayforit has announced that it has launched its new mobile, small payments service to enable bloggers and content owners to more easily sell content online. The company says that "by using GoPayforit, lower priced content can now be purchased by consumers in an easier, more manageable and less time-consuming way. GoPayforit allows bloggers and content owners to set up a payment service for their site by inserting one simple line of code. Once established, this enables consumers to debit money directly from their mobile phone bill (PAYG or contract) in order to make payments. UK mobile operators provide support for GoPayforit as a secure transaction platform as it is based on the tried and tested Payforit platform." READ MORE

An updated version of "Inside Fraud" published by Payments, Cards and Mobile and sponsored by Visa Europe is now available online.

The report finds significant variations in losses between France, Netherlands, Spain and UK with losses much higher on internet and international transactions. The report suggests there is an "urgent need to complete roll-out of EMV and continue implementation of online security measures."

Taking Visa Europe’s figures as a barometer for the region as a whole, card fraud losses fell from 0.07% (7 basis points) of card turnover in 2007 to 0.06% in 2008. But comparing national figures for France, Spain, Netherlands and the UK, losses ranged from fewer than 3 basis points of card turnover in Spain to 10 basis points in the UK.

Further, the picture is not static. In Holland, which historically had one of the lowest levels of card fraud in Europe, the loss rate has risen almost threefold during the last four years. With Dutch debit card transactions still 100% based on magnetic-stripe cards, losses continue to rise due to skimming. In contrast, UK figures for first half of 2009 show total card fraud losses down 23% to £232.8 million.

You can download the full report here.

Ingenico and HSBC Merchant Services have announce that they have extended their partnership and will be working together on a four year deal worth £13m. Ingenico was chosen by HSBC Merchant Services to supply its merchants with advanced services, including 37,000 new payment terminals within the UK. READ MORE

To mark the first anniversary of the UK card industry’s Be Card Smart Online initiative, The UK Cards Association is again running its online safety campaign – helping to remind consumers of the steps they can take to minimize their chances of being a victim of card fraud online. READ MORE

M2 Europe has teamed with fleet technology innovators, Airmax Group, to introduce a transit and corporate payments solution, the Airmax Scope Prepaid MasterCard. The Card combines the benefits of hosted data from vehicles with detailed payment reporting to provide comprehensive online fuel and expense management. READ MORE

PriceWaterhouseCoopers has published a new version of its Precious Plastic report for 2010 covering the card market in the UK. "2009 has been a watershed year for consumer credit in the UK, with both lenders and borrowers reassessing their balance sheets. Historically high levels of bad debt, a growing regulatory burden, continuing funding and capital constraints and the toughest macro-economic environment in a generation are placing unprecedented pressure on UK lenders. As a result, consumers will face a reduction in the availability of credit and an increase in its cost."

As part of its agreement with the UK government announced today, the Royal Bank of Scotland has agreed to participation in a revised Asset Protection Scheme that, among many other conditions, requires RBS to divest itself of several businesses over the next four years including its Global Merchant Services unit. According to RBS, its Global Merchant Services unit "is the fourth largest provider of global card payment services, enabling over 5 billion card transactions to be made each year. It meets the rapidly changing and increasingly sophisticated needs of clients to accept card payments on a global, efficient and secure basis."

Financial Fraud Action UK, the voice of the industry in the UK for financial fraud matters, (previously known as APACS) has published the latest payment industry fraud losses for the first half of 2009, in conjunction with The UK Cards Association and the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company.

By fraud category, here are the results:

• Card not present - £134m (down 18% vs first half 2008)
• Counterfeit cards - £46.3m (down 48%)
• Lost or stolen cards - £25.1m (down 6%)
• Card ID theft - £23.9m (up 23%)
• Card lost in post - £3.5m (down 33%)
• Total - £232.8m (down 23%)

The fraud to turnover rate on debit and credit cards amounted to 0.1 per cent in the first half of the year – reflecting the fact that around a tenth of a penny is lost to fraud in every £1 spent on cards. READ MORE

Elavon and Santander have announced the launch of a new alliance for merchant services in the UK. This alliance combines Elavon, a wholly owned subsidiary of US Bancorp, and Santander, one of the strongest and best capitalized banks in the world. "Jointly, Elavon and Santander’s strategy is to become one of the leading players in the UK acquiring market. The new alliance will enable Santander to leverage Elavon’s end-to-end control of the processing relationship; from risk and underwriting, to processing, funding and all customer support functions, whilst Elavon will dramatically increase their presence in the UK market by partnering with one of the most respected and fastest growing institutions in the UK." READ MORE

ReadWriteWeb takes a look at London's Oyster card, the RFID smart card used for electronic ticketing on London's public transport services.

Action to prevent criminals abusing new mobile phone technology, which allows them to be used like debit, credit and pre-pay cards, has been agreed by the UK government, mobile phone and card payments industries, Home Office Minister Alan Campbell announced today. READ MORE

Figures published by The UK Cards Association show that donations to charitable organisations on plastic cards reached £1.19 billion in 2008 – up from £1.01 billion in 2007 – an increase of 18%. In terms of the number of donations made on plastic cards there was an overall increase of 13% from 2007 to 2008. Donations on debit cards increased by 16% (up from 13 million in 2007 to 15.1 million last year) while credit card transactions rose 9% (9.6 million in 2007 to 10.5 million last year). READ MORE

O2 has announced it has partnered with NatWest to launch of O2 Money, a new business within O2 that the company says 'will seek to advance the increasing synergies between mobile and money. The first products from O2 Money, supported by NatWest, are two cash cards, designed to give people greater control of their money." READ MORE

Over on PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson takes a look at the UK's Faster Payments Service. Carol spoke with David McFarlane, Company Manager, CHAPS Clearing Company about FP - and said she was surprised by much of what he said: FP is not what you thought!

Barclaycard has announced that it plans to introduce a retailer rewards scheme in partnership with Welcome Real-time "that will enable Barclaycard customers to benefit from a retailer rewards scheme that is expected to encompass retailers ranging from sole traders to major high street names." READ MORE

Global Payments has announced that it has acquired the remaining 49% interest in its merchant services joint venture in the United Kingdom from HSBC Bank plc ("HSBC"). "In June 2008, Global Payments and HSBC formed a joint venture, HSBC Merchant Services, to provide payment processing services to merchants in the United Kingdom and Internet merchants globally. Under the terms of today's agreement, Global Payments will pay HSBC a total of USD$307.7 million in cash to acquire the remaining 49% ownership interest in this joint venture. In addition, HSBC will extend the current ten-year exclusive marketing alliance agreement whereby the bank provides merchant referrals and bank sponsorship to Global Payments to June 2019." READ MORE

Photo: AustinEvan

71% of all cash acquired by consumers came from cash machines

2.9 billion cash machine withdrawals were made last year - equivalent to 91 withdrawals per second

Cash payment volumes are forecast to fall by 27% over the next 10 years

If current trends persist, next year for the first time debit card spending will overtake cash spending by value in the UK. READ MORE

APACS has published its latest quarterly statistical release - reporting that in the first quarter were 1.9 billion plastic card purchases made in the UK totalling £94.2 billion compared to 1.8 billion purchases totalling £91.2 billion in the first quarter of 2008. The number of purchases was 4.0% higher than in 2008 Q1, and spending was 1.7% higher. Debit card usage continued to outpace credit cards - with debit cards accounting for 74.5% of all plastic card purchases in 2009 Q1 compared with 73.3% in 2008 Q1.

Auriemma Consulting Group has published research finding that British consumers are less likely to have credit card debt than they were before the credit crunch. "By the end of 2008, consumers users were 21% less likely to be burdened by credit card debt than they were at the beginning of the year. In Q1 2008, 63% of British consumers carried balances on their credit cards. By the end of 2008, the incidence of revolving debt on credit cards fell to just 50%." READ MORE

APACS has released new figures from the UK payments industry that give an authoritative overview of UK consumers’ spending habits last year.

The retail spending statistics, which cover all online and offline retail transactions in 2008, show that of a total £269.9bn spent by consumers, 43 per cent (£116.1bn) was by debit card, 32 per cent (£86bn) was by cash, 23 per cent (£60.7bn) was by credit card and only 3 per cent (£7.1bn) was by cheque."

In the UK, White Eagle (Europe) Plc and hiten have announced the launch of the hiten Prepaid MasterCard - calling it "a card that enables users to effectively and securely manage their money." READ MORE

The Carphone Warehouse, one of Europe's mobile phone retailers, and Monitise have announced a partnership "that will bring mobile financial services to millions of people at a time when they most need it. The alliance covers a wide variety of initiatives ranging from the pre-seeding of Monitise’s patented mobile money application on leading handsets, to 'in store' and 'online' promotions and incentives for consumers to get linked up to their money 24/7." READ MORE

UK card fraud loss figures released by APACS, the UK payments association, show that card fraud losses totalled £609.9m in 2008. The two main areas of fraud were on transactions not protected by chip and PIN: specifically internet, phone and mail order fraud; and fraud abroad - committed by criminals using stolen UK card details in countries yet to upgrade to chip and PIN - which has nearly doubled in two years. READ MORE

APACS has released full year 2008 data for payments in the UK . Highlights from the full year’s data include:

• Plastic cards: Total debit and credit card spending was up in 2008 in terms of both value and volume, increasing 6.8% and 7.4% respectively.
• Debit cards dominate card spending - accounting for 73.5% of all plastic card purchase transactions in 2008.
• There were 42.1 million debit cardholders with 75 million debit cards in issue at the end of 2008, compared with 30.1 million credit card holders with 71 million credit cards.
• The number of debit cardholders and cards in issue increased by 1.0% and 4.7% respectively, whereas the number of credit card holders and cards in issue decreased by 2.1% and 2.4% respectively.
• Cheques: During 2008, the number of cheque transactions went down by 10.4%, total values declined by 7.1%.

Barclaycard Payment Acceptance in the UK says that "British shoppers are still willing to splash the cash on their loved ones at Valentine’s. Flowers remain a favourite choice for present giving, with purchases from florists on the 14 February up 168.8 per cent on the week before. Jewellery purchases remain popular, with purchases on Valentine’s Day showing a very strong uplift on the previous week’s sales, an increase of 67 per cent from Saturday 7 February to Saturday 14 February. Meanwhile, spending in restaurants experienced a 20 per cent uplift on the previous week." READ MORE

APACS, the UK payments association, has announced December 2008 spending figures showing that spending on plastic cards over the Christmas period reached £32.3 billion - up 0.3% from 2007, with £4.7 billion spent online. Debit card spending grew to £21.6 billion, up 3.1%, while credit card spending declined to £10.8 billion, down 4.8% from 2007. READ MORE

White Eagle (Europe) in conjunction with Newcastle Building Society has launched the Freedom Eagle Cash Card, an instant issue prepaid MasterCard available in a handy retail pack. According to White Eagle, the card "is fully re-loadable, unlike most other instant issue products in the market which can only be loaded once - some even have to be thrown away when the funds are exhausted. The Freedom card is fully functional even at entry level and can be easily upgraded to higher spend levels depending upon certain criteria being satisfied. The Chip & PIN facility offers additional security and the card represents great value for money." READ MORE

APACS, the UK payments association, has issued a press release advising "about the recent rise in popularity of an old-style phone scam that involves fraudsters duping unsuspecting cardholders into revealing their card details by pretending to be from either their bank, card company or one of the international card schemes – Visa and MasterCard." READ MORE

The Press Association in the UK reports that "one in four Britons have been the victim of credit or debit card fraud, research has shown. Around 26% of people have now had their card used fraudulently, up from 21% when the same research was carried out 12 months ago, according to life assistance group CPP."