On Twitter:

Each minute, 5 new businesses sign up to use #PayPal, says @davidmarcus. #SMB #paypalit

— PayPal (@PayPal) May 21, 2013

On the web:

• PayPal to increase marketing this year for offline push - Reuters (Alistair Barr) - "We want to make sure we have enough density of consumer experiences before we do a lot of marketing. "We have really only one chance at this and we do not want to disappoint customers."
• FTC targets cash-reload code scams - CreditCards.com - "The U.S. Federal Trade Commission Tuesday announced new restrictions on "novel payment methods" that phone and Internet scammers favor…"
• Kopo Kopo: Six Revolutionary Digits -Huffington Post - "Kopo Kopo is a world-class platform which enables small and medium businesses to accept mobile payments and build relationships with their customers. They receive a six-digit till number that allows customers to pay using mobile money."
• Dimon Strengthens Grip at J.P. Morgan - Wall St. Journal - "…shareholders voted overwhelmingly against a proposal to split the chairman and chief executive roles…"
• BitInstant’s Charlie Shrem sees Bitcoin battles ahead - CoinDesk - "…it would be nice if regulations were standardized so businesspeople like him did not have to get fingerprinted again and again to comply with every state’s requirements."
• Swipely Raises $12.5M to Expand Push Into SMB Payment Analytics - Street Fight - "The payments processing and analytics play announced today that it has raised $12.5 million in new funding in a series B round led by Shasta Ventures…"
• Contactless cards: how safe is your money? - Guardian - "The even simpler alternative, I've found, is to have more than one contactless card in your wallet."
• Square will challenge PayPal with its own peer-to-peer cash service - GigaOm - "Square might just be another peer-to-peer payments setup, but it’s building up a consumer following thanks to Square Wallet..."
• Google Admits Defeat In Its 7-Year Battle With Amazon And PayPal - ReadWrite - "Google Checkout may have had great expectations, but it delivered little in the way of results."

On the wires:

• NRF To Reject ‘One-Sided’ Credit Card Swipe Fee Settlement - "The proposed settlement does nothing to bring swipe fees under control and would give Visa and MasterCard a legal blessing to continue their abuse of merchants and consumers indefinitely. No settlement at all would be better than this one-sided ‘agreement’…"
• Xoom and Vesta Announce Partnership for Mobile Wallet Integration - "Through this partnership, the Vesta wallet will also provide subscribers with access to Xoom's money transfer services directly from their smartphone."
• target="_blank"Swipely Secures $12 Million Series B Financing to Accelerate Growth - "It's a major innovation in payments and marketing for small business, and we hope it will transform the way merchants understand and engage with their customers."
• Mobile POS Grows to $2 Billion Market in North America, But Retailers Are Separating Hype From Reality - "…28% of North American retailers plan to adopt Mobile POS in some form by the end of 2013."
• Vesta Introduces New Mobile Wallet for Prepaid Operators featuring Integrated Suite of Financial Services - "By offering the Vesta PayMobile wallet, mobile network operators (MNOs) can enable their prepaid customers to conduct mobile commerce and access critical banking services through their smartphones."
• Virtual Piggy Signs First UK Partners - "Virtual Piggy promotes financial management while empowering youth under 18 to make purchasing, saving and other money management decisions for themselves…"

On the web:

• Connect your loyalty programs, offers and more to Google Wallet with the Wallet Objects API - "Save anything to Google Wallet: Integrate your loyalty programs, offers and more into Google Wallet. Users can save these items directly to their Google Wallet for easy use."
• Fast and easy checkout for Android apps selling physical goods and services - Google Commerce - "...our new Google Wallet Instant Buy Android API … makes buying in native Android apps fast and easy."
• Google Is Rebooting Its Troubled Digital Wallet On The Web - ReadWrite - "Google has long aimed to become a payments player. It knows that many of its searches drive people to e-commerce sites where they conduct transactions. …"
• The Feds Are Cracking Down On Mt. Gox (Not On Bitcoin) - Forbes.com - "…the Department of Homeland Security has some issues with how Mt. Gox is running its American operations."
• Give me that old bitcoin religion - PandoDaily - "To engender this trust, and tamp down the threat of counterfeiting, it relies on an ingenious combination of transparency and anonymity."
• Surprise! Prepaid debit cards actually a good deal for consumers Red Tape Chronicles - "Prepaid debit cards, long synonymous with frustrating or even exploitative fees, are suddenly a pretty good deal."
• Mobile Payments Startup ZooZ Debuts In-Ad Payments (Yes, “Ad” Not “App”) - TechCrunch - "With in-ad payments, mobile users will be able checkout by tapping once on a visible banner ad within a mobile app…"
• Visa concessions on card fees: a step in the right direction - EuroCommerce - "EuroCommerce will continue to campaign for a regulation which removes excessive interchange fees, not only cross-border but also on all domestic markets."
• Payleven and MICROS spawn a cloud-based point-of-sale system with Chip & PIN support - The Next Web - "The cloud-based POS system works via 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi and comes with integrated Chip & PIN card payments functionality, as well as automatic sales and card history transactions reconciliation."
• UK's Faster Payments is five years old - Financial Services Club Blog - "The UK's Faster Payments Service (FPS) celebrated its fifth birthday on 8th May."
• Google Wallet’s high turnover - Mobile World Live - "Google has been losing its payments executives at a surprising rate since its launch in the autumn of 2011."

On the wires:

• Federal Court Reinstates $203 Million Judgment Against Wells Fargo For Misleading Consumers On Posting Of Debit-Card Purchases That Resulted In Unexpected Overdraft Fees - "The case before Judge Alsup was brought on behalf of California Wells Fargo customers who, from November 15, 2004 to June 30, 2008, incurred overdraft fees on debit card transactions as a result of the bank's practice of sequencing transactions from highest to lowest."
• Visa Cuts Europe’s Swipe Fees But Continues to Stiff U.S. Merchants & Consumers - Merchants Payments Coalition - "U.S. merchants and consumers pay the highest fees in the world to credit card companies and banks to swipe their cards because of unfair price-fixing within the industry."
• Monitise Launches MPOS Payment Service - "The new white-labelled mobile payment service helps banks, mobile operators and acquirers offer their business customers the ability to accept card payments on a mobile device..."
• CHARGE Anywhere Launches EMV MPOS Solution at BlackBerry Live - "In integrating a Bluetooth enabled EMV/Chip & PIN smart card reader with a BlackBerry smart phone, CHARGE Anywhere, continues to lead the way in providing secure, innovative payment solutions"
• Vantiv and NCR to Bring Powerful Mobile Point-of-Sale Solutions to Small Businesses - "The multi-year agreement will focus on developing exclusive new solutions and expanding both companies’ innovative technology platforms to deliver personalized customer experiences that help smaller merchants compete more effectively against larger competitors."
• Tyfone Connected Smart Card Solution Fixes Cyber Security and Biometric Vulnerabilities - "Tyfone’s CSC solution operates much like the traditional plastic smart card systems already in widespread use, but has a much smaller physical footprint and uniquely has the ability to connect to any mobile device, tablet or PC."
• New C-SAM Applet Development and Testing Services Enable Rapid Rollouts of NFC-Enabled Mobile Commerce Products and Services
• APWG Report: Mobile Device Crimeware Evolves into Global Criminal Marketplace in Response to Mobile Payment and Banking Expansion - "The sprawling mobile devices marketplace has spawned an industrialized mobile financial fraud plexus that today drives increasingly sophisticated criminal technical innovation to exploit the mobile devices explosion"

On the web:

• California Sues JPMorgan Chase Over Credit Card Cases - NY Times - "JPMorgan Chase … deluged the courts with dubious lawsuits to collect soured credit-card debt."
• How hackers allegedly stole “unlimited” amounts of cash from banks in just hours - ArsTechnica - "Prosecutors didn't identify the payment processors except to say one was in India and the other in the United States."
• PayPal exec aims to “obliterate passwords from the face of the planet” - ArsTechnica - "Our intention is to really obliterate, within a certain number of years, both passwords and PINs..."
• One good reason to accept Bitcoins: It screws credit card companies - Pando Daily - "Merchants should enjoy it while it lasts."
• Mobile Gift Card App Gyft Partners With BitPay To Start Accepting Bitcoin Payments In Its Android App - TechCrunch - "Bitcoin is hard to use today, and that’s a good thing. There are still bugs and it is too risky for the average consumer."
• WePay Debuts Veda, An Intelligent Risk Engine That Leverages Social Media Data To Prevent Merchant Fraud - TechCrunch - "A traditional credit score only shows a sliver of who you are, but an online profile allows us to assign our users a more accurate ‘WePay credit score’ based on their personal history of verified, social data."
• No big bang for mobile payments - Business Spectator - "Key to this is understanding that mobile payments are not a vertical market. Players must understand how the different participants in a payment system – the merchant, issuer, and consumer – can all benefit through mobile."
• Adam Smith, Paul Krugman and Bitcoin - Tomorrow's Transactions Blog - "There won't be a single world currency (whether the Dollar or the Remibi) and there won't be a single virtual currency (whether Bitcoin or MintChip). There will be lots of currencies and we will all be better off because of it."
• Free banking at risk as EU wants us to bank anywhere in Europe - Telegraph - "European proposals that would allow Britons to switch to a bank account in another country could hasten the demise of free banking, experts have warned."
• Mobile Payments Service Wins Bill and Melinda Gates Innovator Award - eCommerce Bytes - "Boleto is a unique barcode payment ticket that contains the customer's unique purchase data and Trak's bank information."

On the wires:

• Eight Members Of New York Cell Of Cybercrime Organization Indicted In $45 Million Cybercrime Campaign - "A four-count federal indictment was unsealed in Brooklyn charging eight defendants with participating in two worldwide cyberattacks that inflicted $45 million in losses on the global financial system in a matter of hours."
• Value-Based Payment Models Expected to Reach Tipping Point by 2018 - "Transitioning to payment models that base compensation on outcomes requires physicians and health plans to exchange new kinds of information – different than what is required under today’s predominant fee-for-service arrangements."
• Retailers, Listen Up: High Rates of Mobile Shopping Cart Abandonment Tied to Poor User Experience - "While the majority of smartphone and tablet owners (68%) have attempted to make a purchase on their device, two-thirds (66%) failed to complete a transaction due to obstacles encountered during checkout."
• First Data Releases April 2013 SpendTrend® Analysis - "Year-over-year dollar volume growth increased 5.1% in April, a slowdown from March’s 6.0% growth."

In our Chart of the Week last week, we looked at the relationship between the unemployment rate in the US and outstanding consumer revolving debt.

This week's chart of the week looks at the history of card fraud losses in the UK - as cited in the recent report "The U.S. Adoption of Computer-Chip Payment Cards: Implications for Payment Fraud" by Richard J. Sullivan of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. In the UK and a few other countries, these kinds of card fraud loss statistics are collected by the industry and shared publicly - unlike currently in the US.

Sullivan's article "examines how computer-chip cards work differently from magnetic-stripe cards, describes the security improvements offered by the chips, and reviews their mixed track record at defeating fraud in other countries."

The top dotted line in the chart represents the total card fraud losses on UK issued cards. The darker line below that represents fraud losses on IMOTO (Internet, mail order, and telephone order) card-not-present transactions while the third line below represents card fraud losses associated with counterfeit card transactions.

EMV chip card deployment took place in the UK during the shaded 2003-2006 time frame. Sullivan notes that the implementation of EMV initially helped reduce counterfeit card losses but that, because those cards still had magnetic stripes on them, fraudsters could still counterfeit them and use them at mag stripe acceptance locations outside the UK.

Sullivan goes on to comment:

After 2008, fraud losses with counterfeit cards and on IMOTO transactions declined. The decline was due to two factors. First, more merchants and ATMs on the European mainland had converted by that time to accept EMV payment cards, so fraudsters with counterfeit magnetic-stripe cards could no longer easily find locations where mag- netic-stripe cards were accepted, merely by crossing borders. Second, increasingly, merchants in the UK were adopting 3D secure systems for their IMOTO transactions."

On the web:

• CMU students show fingerprints may be way to buy - "With PayTango, a swipe of the finger links users' personal information to their credit or debit card in less than 15 seconds, making for a quick and easy-to-use system."
• Do Cyberattacks Threaten Confidence in Our Payment Systems? - FRB Atlanta Retail Payments Risk Forum
• Atlanta a Key Talent and Business Market for Square's Payments Business - MidtownPatch - "The company, which launched its Atlanta presence by hiring eight former Google Inc. engineers, expects to have a staff of 35 infrastructure engineers and customer support staff by the end of the year."
• Alipay Launches Sound Wave Mobile Payments System In Beijing Subway - Techcrunch - "Alipay has launched a new payment system in the Beijing subway that uses sound waves to connect smartphones with ticketing machines."
• American Express mobile advertising campaign generates 95pc view-to-completion rate - Mobile Commerce Daily - "A big part of American Express’ mobile and digital initiatives center around narrative storytelling, from both marketing and consumer perspectives."
• The real cause of the Bitcoin bubble and burst - Financial Services Club Blog - "Bitcoin is an experiment. Treat it like you would a promising Internet start-up company: Maybe it will change the world, but recognize that investing your money or time in new ideas is always risky."
• Consultation on a new payments regulator for the UK - Consult Hyperion's Tomorrow's Transactions Blog - "Will PayCom work? It's impossible to say, since I don't know what it is supposed to do."
• Will Bitcoins make you rich? - Sydney Morning Herald - "…indeed, I don't care at all for Bitcoin as a currency. Instead, I wanted to buy Bitcoins as pure, shameless speculation. I wanted a chance to ride a rocket ship."

On the wires:

• Discover Card Leads the Way in Customer Loyalty for the 17th Consecutive Year - "Discover has managed to create the highest levels of loyalty by leveraging real, emotional category values…"
• UL first lab selected to provide testing for mPOS solutions for the Visa Ready Partner Program - "UL was selected as the first lab to guide mPOS solution providers who want to ensure their products are ‘Visa Ready’ through all of the certification processes required by Visa."

The Financial Times is reporting that payment systems in the UK are going to be regulated "much like a utility".

Tuesday’s announcement of a consultation on the issue makes clear that the government wants to put the system for retail payments – including bank transfers, cheque clearing and credit card payments – under formal regulation by an existing authority.

The full consultation report, "Opening Up UK Payments", is available for download here.

On the web:

• RBS and NatWest Launch Visa-based Mobile P2P Transfers (UK) - Guardian
• Google Organizationally Moves Google Wallet Inside Google Advertising Group - WSJ.com
• Intuit Rolls Out Mobile POS Solution In Europe, Starting First In The UK - TechCrunch
• Mobile Payments from Western Union Make It Easier To Pay Bills - Mobile Commerce News
• UnionPay To Widen Global Issue Of Single-Branded Cards - chinadaily.com.cn
• PayPal Debuts PayPal Here "Register" App for iPad - AllThingsD

On the wires:

• BBVA to Start JCB Merchant Acquiring in Spain
• eLayaway Integrates PepperJam Exchange Network and Welcomes Dazadi to its eLayawayMALL
• Virgin Atlantic Airways further strengthens payment security with Semafone

The UK Payments Council has announced that the countdown has started for the launch of a new country-wide mobile P2P payments service in the UK. Specifics include:

• Financial institutions representing 90% of UK current accounts commit to spring 2014 launch of first industry-wide mobile payment service.
• Sending security-protected payments by mobile will be as easy as texting, without the need to disclose account details.
• Customers will be able to send and receive payments straight from their account after simple sign-up process with their provider.

The new mobile payments service will move money directly between accounts using the Faster Payments service and the LINK network.

Elavon and payleven, a European mobile payments provider, have announced a partnership to provide mobile card acceptance by small and independent businesses in Europe.

“Elavon is committed to delivering solutions that enhance business opportunities for its customers, of all sizes, helping to make them more efficient and more profitable. payleven’s solution is perfect for the thousands of very small, often mobile, businesses in Europe today. Such businesses have previously not been able to accept card payments easily or cost effectively,” commented Jan Reinink, Head of Business Development in Germany.

The solution is currently running successfully in Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland and the UK.

On the web:

• Apple Store App Gets Passbook Gift Card Support - iClarified
• Square Wallet… Software Above the Level of a Single Device - O'Reilly Radar
• Starbucks Now Accepting Square Wallet Mobile Payments - SlashGear

On the wires:

• NCR Silver Small Business POS Available Now at Staples Locations Nationwide
• Truaxis Partners with Transaction Wireless and Buca di Beppo on Digital Offers
• MasterCard’s DataCash Enables Payments On Brand New Taxi Mobile App in UK

On the web:

• Mobile Wallets or Fully Digital Wallets? - eMarketer
• Victim Of Chip-And-Pin Fraud? It's All YOUR Fault, Insist The Banks - This is Money (UK)

On the wires:

• Vantiv Expands Strategic Relationship with Discover to Support PayPal In Store Checkout
• Experian And iovation Collaborate on Identity Verification And Device Reputation
• hyperWALLET and Valitor to Cooperate in Prepaid Card Issuance across Europe
• Virtual Piggy Partners with Land of Apparel

The UK Payments Council has an interesting educational portal, called Pay Your Way, for consumers to get a better understanding of how payments work in the UK.

The Pay Your Way website aims to help consumers by providing impartial information on the different payment methods available. The information helps you to compare their speed, cost, reliability and security, find out about new payment technology and ask an expert your questions about payments.

Good explanation of when and how to use a dozen or so common payment methods in the UK, including Faster Payments and even PayPal.

On the web:

• Bitcoin Foundation Launches To Drive Bitcoin's Advancement - Forbes
• Walmart Exec Says 'No' To Google Wallet, NFC - MobilePaymentsToday.com
• Gap, Bed Bath, Other Merchants join MCX Mobile Wallet Service - Reuters
• RBS and Natwest Launch Mobile Payments Service For iPhone - Mobile Today
• Telefónica O2 Begins Mobile Payments Rollout In Germany With Contactless Stickers - NFC World
• Stripe Announces New 'Transparency' Policies - Stripe Blog

On the wires:

• Cardtronics Launches FeeAlert
• Koupon Media Platform Passbook-Enabled
• VersaPay and Chase Paymentech Renew Partnership
• Western Union Expands Money Transfer Network in Mexico
• IdentityMind Protects Magento e-commerce Stores from Fraud
• Western Union Sees Significant Increase in Use of Chinese Renminbi for Business Payments by U.S. Firms

On the web:

• China’s Alipay Has 700 Million Registered Accounts - Tech in Asia
• Square's Global March Faces A Plucky British Challenger, mPowa - Forbes
• Payments Startup Stripe Expands to Canada in Challenge to PayPal - Bloomberg

On the wires:

• MasterCard Debuts First Single-branded Cards in China with Citibank
• Euronet Worldwide Expands Independent ATM Networks to Spain and Italy
• MasterCard Study: Bill Payment Represents Key Entry Point to Greater Financial Inclusion
• Visa and Others Form "Better Than Cash Alliance" to Accelerate Global Shift to Electronic Payments

On the web:

• Kabbage Gives Ebay, Etsy Sellers Cash; Gets $30M Of Its Own - VentureBeat
• Success of Crowdfunding Puts Pressure on Entrepreneurs - NYTimes.com

On the wires:

• Realex Payments Launches Their Multi Settle Solution for the UK Retail Market
• Bluepoint Solutions Partners with Malauzai Software to Provide Rapid Deployment of Mobile RDC
• Fiserv Releases Mobile Banking and Mobile Payments Metrics
• IFX Version 1.9 Released to the Public

GoCardless, a UK-based startup, wants to make online payments affordable for small businesses by going around the card systems ("cardless") and funding all purchases out of bank accounts. Their blurb says it all.

GoCardless is a next generation payment company offering an API wrapper for bank transfer. The company makes it incredibly cheap and easy for anyone to take payments online. GoCardless is backed by Y Combinator, Accel Partners and Passion Capital.

They recently announced that FreeAgent, who provide the UK’s leading online accounting system, is now a key customer.

MasterCard and Everything Everywhere, the UK’s largest communications company, have announced an exclusive, five-year partnership to develop mobile and digital payment solutions for Everything Everywhere’s 27 million UK customers.

“We’re delighted to be working with Everything Everywhere, the UK’s leading mobile operator," said Marion King, president of MasterCard UK & Ireland. "MasterCard’s vision is of a world beyond cash, where consumers and small businesses alike can benefit from simple payments using smart technology. The partnership we are announcing today builds on our strong heritage in the mobile payments space and ensures that MasterCard remains the partner of choice for leading businesses in the UK.

On the web:

• Wal-Mart Brings Back Layaway for a 2nd Year - NYTimes.com
• Payment Data Is More Valuable Than Payment Fees - TechCrunch
• Visa Prepaid CitizenCard: ID Card That Doubles As A Prepaid Card - MSN Money UK
• Citigroup Becomes First U.S. Bank to Issue Own Card in China - Bloomberg
• Finding a Reasonable Definition of Commercially Reasonable - Portals and Rails
• 5 Ways to Pay for Dinner With Your Phone - Mashable

On the wires:

• PayPal Prepaid MasterCard Now Available at Dollar General
• ThreatMetrix Enhances Protection Against Account Takeovers and Fraudulent Payments
• Mercator Releases Ninth Annual U.S Closed-Loop Prepaid Cards Market Assessment
• CardinalCommerce Introduces CustomerConnect to Improve Mobile Commerce Conversion
• Fnbox Chooses Adyen's Payments Platform to Facilitate Global Expansion
• App Developers Boost Revenues With Enhanced Jumio Netswipe Mobile SDK
• CreditCall Makes Mobile 'Chip and PIN' Acceptance a Reality in the UK

On the web:

• Visa Europe Puts Brakes On iZettle - TechCrunch
• Shedding Light on Cloud Payments Risk Management - Portals and Rails
• Apple Buys Mobile Security Firm AuthenTec for $356 Million - Reuters
• ‎Visa's Interlink Volume Falls as Durbin Routing Provisions Take Effect - Digital Transactions
• ViVOtech Restructuring, Selling Reader Business - MobilePaymentsToday.com
• Flood of Competition Weighs on Prepaid-Card Companies - Wall Street Journal
• Global Payments Expects Its Data-Breach Tab Could Hit $120 Million - Digital Transactions
• E-Commerce vs. M-commerce (InfoGraphic) - BigCommerce

On the wires:

• British Retail Consortium Releases UK Payments Mix Study
• ROAM Data Introduces New Mobile Software Developer Kit
• AJB Software Accelerates EMV Migration for Retailers
• Merchant Warehouse Announces Acquisition of AVATAS Payment Solutions
• mopay Extends its Mobile Payments Portfolio in the Middle East & North African Region
• 2.5 Million MasterCard Debit Cards Issued to Social Welfare Beneficiaries in South Africa
• Chase and Marriott Rewards Launch the Only Hotel Rewards Card in Canada with No Foreign Currency Transaction Charges

On the web:

• Africa’s Mobile Money Boom - African Business Review
• ACH Transaction Volumes Might Be Headed for a ‘New Normal’ - Digital Transactions
• Bar Code-Based Mobile Payments: Mcommerce’s Newest Darling - Mobile Commerce Daily
• Paying to Play: Planned Isis Fees Rankle Some Issuers - NFC Times
• drchrono Introduces Square Payments for Doctors - BetaKit

On the wires:

• Payments with PayLane Now Available in the UK and Ireland
• Bill.com Introduces Certification Program for Accounting Firms
• Mattersight Announces Fraud Analytics Solution For Call Centers
• Upromise by Sallie Mae Launches New Credit Card Rewards with the Ability to Earn 10% or More Cash Back for College
• Western Union and IBInvestor to Expand Small Business Access to Global Payments Platform
• Brightwell Payments Adds EMV Euro Card to its OceanPay Program

On the web:

• London Oyster Card Chief: NFC Not Ready for Fast-Paced Fare Payment - NFC Times
• Could The BlackBerry Save Mobile Payments? Maybe It’s The Only Thing That Can - StorefrontBacktalk
• Gocardless Opens Up For Dead Simple, Low-Cost Payments In Europe - GigaOM
• Russian Bank To Release Angry Birds Co-Brand Card -The Moscow News

On the wires:

• epay Launches Ria Branded PINless Calling Product
• Gemalto Supports “la Caixa” in Spain’s First Large Scale Deployment of Contactless EMV Payment

On the web:

• Groupon Acquires POS Start Breadcrumb to Connect with Local Restaurants - VentureBeat
• PayPal InStore App: Use your PayPal Account on the High Street (UK) - Shiny Shiny
• Banks Tacking Fees On To Campus Debit Cards (video) - MSNBC.com

On the wires:

• Discover and Ducks Unlimited Announce New Affinity Card
• i2c and KargoCard Announce Partnership to Power Prepaid, Mobile Payments and Loyalty Solutions in China
• Risk Office from Fiserv: Helping Clients Reduce Dollar Fraud Losses by an Average of 40%
• Acculynk and National Payments Corporation of India Announce Internet PIN Debit Partnership
• WorldPay Launches Advanced RFI and Chargeback Management Platform
• Planet Payment Acquires Branded Payment Solutions Ltd (Ireland)
• Cellum Introduces MasterCard Mobile Wallet (Hungary)

Elavon has announced the full production release of MobileMerchant in the UK, which pairs a mobile POS app with a Chip and PIN card reader.

“Elavon is committed to delivering solutions that enhance business opportunities for its customers, of all sizes, helping to make them more efficient and more profitable. This solution is perfect for the thousands of very small, often mobile, businesses in the UK today. Such businesses have previously not been able to accept card payments easily or cost effectively,” commented Guy Harris, Managing Director, Europe. “Not only does our solution enable mobile commerce but it has in-built EMV Chip and PIN security, so small business owners and their customers are fully protected,” Harris concluded.

On the web:

• Is NFC killing Google Wallet? - CNET News
• 'Bill Me Later' To Come To The UK - Tamebay
• TSYS Reveals Acquisition Plans - American Banker
• How The Future of Mobile Lies in the Developing World - TechCrunch
• MTS Launches Commercial NFC Payments Service In Russia - NFC World
• Are Social Security Numbers Still Secure Enough For Payments? - Portals and Rails
• CNP Processor Litle Reports Durbin Has Cut Debit Interchange in Half - Digital Transactions
• Big Jump In Mobile Payments Expected, But Not With NFC In U.S. - Computerworld
• Apple Rejects iOS App Integrating Flattr Micropayment Service - FierceMobileContent
• A Call for Standards in Currency Processing — Counting On Currency
• Mirth And Cardify Link Loyalty Rewards To Credit Cards - GigaOM
• In-App Subscriptions Now Available On Google Play - WebProNews
• Mobile Payments Heat Up in Sweden - WSJ

On the wires:

• Bank of America Merrill Lynch Enhances ePayables
• Global Prepaid Payments Processor Yalamanchili Launches in Europe
• New Aite Group Report on The Case For A New Payment Network

On the web:

• iZettle, Europe’s rival to Square, hits the UK - GigaOM
• PayPal Teams With Coinstar To Move Cash and Coins Online - PayPal Blog
• Sprint Expands Carrier Billing Options for Google Play Store - GottaBe Mobile
• Credit Card Dispute Goes Before Competition Tribunal in Canada - CBCnews.ca
• PCI Council Urges P2P Encryption For Mobile Payments - TechTarget

On the wires:

• Mercury Payment Systems Acquires Sundrop Mobile
• MasterCard inControl Family Solutions to Launch in Philippines
• 24/7 Card Introduces Powerful Prepaid Visa Debit + Remit Card to the Hispanic Community
• uShip Selects Payoneer’s Innovative, Flexible Payment Solution
• Buck Reports Q1 2012 Mobile Payments Metrics

Visa Europe has announced that its new digital wallet service, V.me by Visa, will launch to an initial group of consumers in the UK, Spain and France in autumn 2012.

Mariano Dima, Executive Vice President of Product and Marketing Solutions at Visa Europe, said: "V.me sits at the heart of Visa's future of payments. For the first time, consumers and retailers will have a streamlined online checkout experience through an acceptance mark that offers industry-leading security and, when a Visa card is used in a V.me wallet, the same protection and rights that come with any Visa card transaction.

Visa Europe also announced WorldPay as key UK development partner.

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:

• Apple to Remodel App Store this Summer - Rethink Wireless
• Mobile P2P Payments Startup Beamit Raises $2.4M From Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt & Others - TechCrunch
• Mobile Payments Platform to be Delayed Again by European Regulators - The Telegraph (UK)
• 41st Parameter Raises $13M From Kleiner Perkins And Others - TechCrunch
• Japanese Biometric ATM Reads Your Palm, Tells Fortune - Engadget
• The Rise of Mobile Payments (info graphic) - TruAxis

On the wires:

• TSYS Extends Payments Agreement With First Hawaiian Bank
• Cardtronics and 7-Eleven ATM Relationship Finds New Frontier in Canada
• MoneyGram Expands Online Money Transfers to Customers in the U.K.
• Elavon Leverages NewNet Payment Processing Solutions in South America
• Government of Canada Increasing the Use of Direct Deposit

On the web:

• Retailers To Collaborate on Their Own Digital Wallet - Wall Street Journal
• Google Wanted to Create a Google Bucks Currency - Digital Trends
• PayPal Casts Doubt on Near Field Mobile Payments Systems - The Guardian
• LevelUp Now Seeing $1M Per Month In Transactions; Launches API - TechCrunch
• We Don't Have a Mobile Payment Problem; We Have a Mobile Shopping Problem - Wired.com
• The Cashless Society: One Man’s Quest to Survive without Bills or Coins - Slate Magazine
• UK To Get Cardless Cash Withdrawals (via Ukash) - ATM Marketplace
• Me, My Money, and My Devices - MIT Technology Review

On the wires:

• VeriFone Bringing Lottery to Card Payment Screens
• Chase and Hyatt Unveil Co-Branded Hotel Card with EMV Chip Technology
• Payment Processors Worldwide Rely on Information Builders for Customer-Facing Analytics
• SelectCore to Launch Virtual Visa Through Its Facebook Social Mobile Remittance Platform
• Oberthur Technologies Leverages Global EMV Expertise and Historical Market Presence in the US
• FiftyOne Global Ecommerce Strengthens Service to Canada with Acquisition of Borderfree
• Orange to Offer Visa Mobile Prepaid Accounts to Orange Money Customers
• PULSE Adds Issuers to Network, Expands ATM Coverage in 2011
• MasterCard Recaps Recent Mobile Payments Partnerships

The Payments Council has announced it is funding the development of a centralized database to facilitate mobile payments innovation in the UK.

The Payments Council is building a central database that will allow customers to link their mobile phone number to their account details, regardless of who they bank with. It will be available to UK banks and building societies before the end of this year as a platform for them to build their own competitive service for their customers. VocaLink has been appointed to build the central database.