APACS has published its latest quarterly Statistical Release covering the first quarter of 2008. "In the first quarter of 2008 there were 1.8 billion plastic card purchases made in the UK totalling £91.1 billion. The number of purchases was 8.9% higher than in the first quarter of 2007, and spending was 8.9% higher. Debit cards accounted for 72.8% of all plastic card purchases compared with 71.1% in the first quarter of 2007."

The UK's Payments Council has unveiled the first national plan for UK payments - calling it 'a strategic framework for payments innovation and change over the next decade.' The National Payments Plan was developed after extensive consultation with the payments industry and users and includes statements of principle, specific actions and a number of focused reviews of key issues. The document covers current payment methods such as plastic cards, cash and cheques and also reviews the next wave of innovation in payments, fraud and security, and consumer education about payments.   » Continue Reading

APACS, the UK payments association, has released figures showing that the debit card retains its popularity at retailers, with spending on debit cards increasing by 11% last year. According to APACS, this increase stands in stark contrast to paper cheque spending which declined by 7.5% in terms of value and 13% by volume over the same period. Credit card spending at retailers in the UK has not grown over the last three years.   » Continue Reading

James Charles reports for Times Online (UK) that several of the largest UK banks are increasing monthly fees on current accounts by up to 20 percent in advance of a ruling by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) capping overdraft fees.

APACS has confirmed plans for the launch of the new Faster Payments Service on May 27th. Beginning then, the FPS founding banks will be gradually implementing their own plans to deliver the new service to their customers. According to APACS, 'the new service will benefit customers by speeding up one-off payments made over the internet or by phone, reducing the current three-day clearing timescale to enable these payments to clear within hours, not days. For the very first time it will also be possible to make these payments all day every day.'   » Continue Reading

Consumer groups have been active in the US pointing out the overdraft charges that banks charge their checking account customers for non-sufficient funds. In the UK, the issue has been litigated and the BBC reports today that "the UK's biggest banks have lost a test case about overdraft charges." The Guardians headline reads "Customers in line for billions as banks lose unfair charges case." The court decision is available online .

The UK's Blueberry Card Services Ltd has introduced a 'new pay-as-you-go MasterCard card' that it says has been 'created specifically to help mothers manage their finances and save hundreds of pounds off their day-to-day expenses. The BaBee Prepaid MasterCard Card lets mums budget for their families, earn money with a referral scheme and save money with a broad range of discounts, all at a time when their income is reduced to maternity pay or less and household costs escalate.' The BaBee Blog provides insight into how the card is used by a mum in her daily life.   » Continue Reading

UreLife has announced 'the UK's first ever prepaid card to incorporate Government-approved proof-of-age verification.' By combining a prepaid Visa debit card with a colour photograph and PASS (Proof of Age Standards Scheme) accredited proof-of-age hologram, the card provides a new way for parents and retailers, and for the first time online retailers, to stop underage spending on age-restricted goods.   » Continue Reading

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and MasterCard Worldwide have announced 'they have joined forces and implemented MasterCard's state-of-the-art payment platform, MasterCard inControl' with RBS marketing it as 'Approval-to-Buy' to its UK corporate banking customers.   » Continue Reading

APACS, the UK payments association, said today that 'almost 1 in 3 people don’t have any anti-spyware software on their computer' as it discussed the increasing numbers of phishing attacks in the UK and reminded consumers of the tips to help them avoid falling victim to such crimes. According to APACS, 'phishing has become far more frequent in recent months with the latest APACS data showing more than 10,000 reported phishing incidents in the first quarter of 2008 – up over 200 per cent from the same period last year.'   » Continue Reading

Dave Birch writes on the Digital Money Blog about a presentation given by Julian Niblett of Boots, one of the UK's largest retailers, at the New Payments Channels conference in London. Interestingly, Boots studied where in their stores contactless made economic sense, and where it didn't. But, perhaps even more interesting were Niblett's comments on the costs of cash acceptance vs. the cost of cards.

Yodlee has announced an agreement with Vodafone UK for it to exclusively re-sell Yodlee’s mobile banking solution. "Yodlee Mobile, which will be individually branded for each UK financial institution, provides customers with easy, secure access and proactive monitoring across multiple financial accounts (banking, investments, bills, credit cards, etc). Access is available through a mobile WAP browser as well as two-way text messages, and alerts can be received on email as well as through text. Two major UK financial institutions have already signed up for the Vodafone/Yodlee Mobile Banking solution, and will launch by year end."   » Continue Reading

APACS, the UK payments association, has announced that "donations to charitable organisations on plastic cards reached £1.013 billion in 2007- up from £842 million in 2006. This is the first time donations on plastic have gone through the £1 billion barrier."   » Continue Reading

In the UK, APACS has reported 2007 statistics for both card fraud losses and online banking fraud losses. Card fraud losses were up by 25% with the increase being driven by a £90.5 million increased in fraud abroad as more UK card details were stolen for use in countries yet to upgrade to chip and PIN. Online banking fraud losses went down 33% to £22.6 million.   » Continue Reading

APACS, the UK payments association, has announced the creation of the Payment Industry and Police Joint Intelligence Unit (PIPJIU) as an integral part of its Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit (DCPCU). According to APACS, "this enhanced intelligence unit is the result of the amalgamation of the banking industry’s Fraud Intelligence Bureau (FIB) – the body that formerly distributed information between the banking industry and law enforcement throughout the UK – and the intelligence section of the DCPCU."   » Continue Reading

The Bank of England has published its fourth Payment Systems Oversight Report . "The Oversight Report is an important element of the Bank’s oversight work, increasing transparency about the performance of the systems and acting as a tool to encourage further progress. The report describes the challenges presented to the key UK payment systems over the past year and explains the focus of the Bank's work in this field."   » Continue Reading

Saar Drimer, Steven J. Murdoch and Ross Anderson, researchers at the Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge in the UK, have announced a demonstration showing that "Chip & PIN machines are not as secure as the banking industry claims. Two widely deployed models of PIN Entry Devices (PEDs), the Ingenico i3300 and Dione Xtreme, fail to protect customers' card details and PINs adequately." The BBC also reports on this story.   » Continue Reading

In the UK, there's a special police unit called the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit that's responsible for cheque and card fraud. APACS reports that the DCPCU was responsible for £107 million in estimated fraud savings in 2007 compared with savings of £130 million achieved in the five years following the Unit’s launch in 2002.   » Continue Reading

In a press release today, APACS, on behalf of the UK credit card industry, said it "welcomes the OFT’s report on improvements that can be made to help consumers compare credit cards. The industry is committed to working with the OFT and the FSA to deliver the full package of recommendations including the impartial comparison website. APACS believes this new website – to be developed and hosted by the FSA – will be an important additional tool in a customer’s arsenal to enable them to make informed choices about the card that best suits their need."   » Continue Reading

The UK's Office of Fair Trading has published its report into credit card comparisons , making a series of recommendations to help consumers choose a credit card. According to the OFT, "the report follows a super-complaint from Which? that highlighted that consumers choose credit cards without understanding all the issues that affect the cost of the card. OFT research shows that 70 percent of credit card holders did not shop around before selecting their current card, and that this meant they could be placing themselves at a financial disadvantage."   » Continue Reading

Discover Financial Services and Barclays Bank have announced that the companies have signed a definitive agreement for Barclays to acquire Discover’s Goldfish credit card business based in the United Kingdom.   » Continue Reading

Roger Alexander, President of Elavon Merchant Services (Europe) and seasoned payments industry veteran, has been named 'Industry Personality of the Year' at the Card Awards 2008, hosted at the Grosvenor Hotel in London on 31st January 2008.   » Continue Reading

APACS has reported December 2007 spending figures showing that spending on plastic over the Christmas period reached £32.2 billion, with £5.4 billion spent online. Up four per cent on the 2006 figures, the figure marks the slowest year on year increase over the same period for four years. The increase was due to the rise in spending on debit cards, which grew by 6.8 per cent to £20.9 billion – although this was less than half of the increase between 2005 and 2006 (15.3 per cent).

Credit card spending at Christmas fell for the second year running - £11.3 billion in December 2007 compared to £11.4 billion for the same period in 2006. There was a decrease of 2.8 per cent in the volume of credit card transactions, down from 197 million transactions for December 2006 to 192 million transactions in 2007.   » Continue Reading

Metavante Technologies has announced the acquisition of London-based Nomad Payments Limited, a provider of prepaid and debit card processing and licensed software. The purchase price was approximately $58 million. Nomad will now operate as Metavante Technologies Limited, part of the Metavante International Group.   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'Has chip-and-pin failed to foil fraudsters?', Danny Bradbury writes for The Guardian about the UK's experience with Chip and PIN equipped payment cards. In addition to the technology change, the UK also changed how consumers report fraud. Bradbury notes that 'legal changes last April forced customers to report card fraud to banks, and not the police.'

APACS, the UK payments association, has just published a new report titled "Payment Myths" that it says "uncovers the facts behind payment trends in Britain." According to APACS, the booklet uses statistical evidence to help consumers better understand the payment options available to them and offers advice on the best ways to manage their finances; no matter what payment method they use. The report uses APACS statistics to show examples of the way we use cash, our susceptibility to fraud and the new demographic make up of online bankers – to name but a few.   » Continue Reading

Grianne Gilmour, Rebecca O'Connor and Christine Seib report for The Times in London on the impact rising credit card rates may have on consumers in the UK. "Rising credit card rates will add pressure to over-stretched households struggling to cope with increased mortgage payments and higher utility bills."

APACS has announced it expects holiday shoppers to spend over £5 billion online this December - with next Monday, December 3, expected to be the busiest online shopping day. APACS estimates that total spending on cards, cash and cheques will reach £53.0 billion in December. APACS figures show that the number of adults shopping online has more than doubled in the last five years to almost 30 million. "To help online shoppers stay free from fraud this Christmas, APACS has also launched http://www.shopsafeonline.org.uk, which contains details about Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode – systems that make online shopping payments more secure for both consumers and online retailers."

The Payments Council, the organisation that sets strategy for UK payments, has announced the launch of a public consultation on its proposals for a UK National Payments Plan. The National Payments Plan will set the strategy for how payments will develop in the UK over the next five to ten years and will cover current payment methods like plastic cards, cash and cheques and innovative technologies like contactless, pre-paid and mobile payments.   » Continue Reading

APACS has released its latest quarterly statistical summary on UK payments. Among the statistics reported, debit cards continued to grow in usage representing 71.7% of all plastic card purchases in the UK, up from 70.1% last year. Outstanding credit card balances in the UK have declined by £1.4 billion over the last year to £32.2 billion.

Barclaycard Business in the UK has announced the launch of Barclaycard Business Sustain, a carbon-offset corporate charge card that will enable customers to offset carbon emissions associated with air travel.   » Continue Reading

An article by Alan O'Sullivan on the UK's This Is Money web site expresses consumer frustration's with the lack of complete security against fraudulent use of cards in the Chip and PIN system. He writes "large numbers of cash withdrawals are being made using cards without a security chip and it is the banks themselves that are allowing it to happen."

APACS is advising consumers in the UK "to be mindful of the postal strikes over the next week as important post could be delayed that could have a knock on affect on finances."   » Continue Reading

APACS reported today that total card fraud losses on UK issued cards "increased by 26 per cent in the six months to June 2007 compared with the first half of 2006. This increase has been driven by a 126 per cent rise in fraud on UK-issued cards being used overseas. In contrast, domestic card fraud continues to fall thanks to chip and PIN, with losses at UK retailers down 11 per cent (see notes to editors and losses at UK cash machines down 57 per cent."   » Continue Reading

APACS, the UK payments association, has launched two new advice guides "offering practical advice on choosing a plastic card for a teenager or young adult. One of the guides, Choosing cards - a guide for the under 18s , is aimed at young people, and the other, Using cards - a guide for parents , is for their parents. These form part of a series of consumer advice guides produced by APACS aimed at simplifying personal finance."   » Continue Reading

Monitise has announced its current global product suite for 2008 - saying that its "new range of services have been developed by Monitise on the basis of the requirements of its key partners and its view of the expanding demands of the consumer in this rapidly developing market space."   » Continue Reading

Journeypay Limited, a transport payments specialist, Lloyds TSB Cardnet, and Planet Payment have announced the nationwide launch in the UK of a new mobile commerce solution for the transport sector called Journeypay BuyVoice, a fully managed, turnkey mobile payment application that allows taxi drivers to accept Visa, MasterCard, Maestro and American Express cards for payment of fares using only their mobile phones.   » Continue Reading

Wendy M Grossman writes for the Guardian (UK) about how some smart fraudsters exploit the hole left by the disappearance earlier this year of the National High-Tech Crime Unit in the UK. According to Grossman, "the unit's disappearance means that crimes committed online might not be investigated by the local police for the victim - which in turn would mean that central statistics would not show the extent of e-crime, and the need for the reinstatement of the unit."

APACS has published a new retailer advice guide – Transactions with your chip and PIN terminal (PDF) – that it says is designed to "remind card-accepting businesses of some of the necessary security measures to help keep their chip and PIN equipment safe and secure."   » Continue Reading

The BBC reports on the UK launch of MasterCard's PayPass contactless technology. "The UK roll-out has begun at some London retailers with newsagents and cafes among the first to use the so-called "contactless" technology."

APACS has announced a new report finding that "the number of cheques written by individuals has halved from 2.0 billion to 1.0 billion in the last ten years. The Way We Pay 2007: UK Cheques reveals that in 2006 cheque volumes declined at their fastest ever rate, falling by eight per cent. Last year, only 54 per cent of adults made payments using cheques and only 47 per cent received a cheque payment. On average we now write 1.6 cheques a month and receive just one every two months, with half of adults no longer receiving any. For personal payments, cheques have fallen from one in four non-cash payments in 1996, to just one in 14 in 2006. In the retail sector the decline has been particularly rapid, with cheques accounting for just three per cent of all non-cash transactions."   » Continue Reading

APACS has announced that "ten million UK-issued payment cards have now been registered with MasterCard SecureCode and Verified by Visa services – making these cards more secure when shopping online. Using these services is quick and easy. Cardholders sign up and choose a private password, which they then use when shopping at participating retailers." APACS has published a new guide for consumers titled "How to protect cards against online fraud" (PDF).   » Continue Reading

APACS has announced telephone, Internet banking and eCommerce figures for 2006 revealing that "in the past five years the greatest proportion of new internet banking users are in the over-55 age group. The five-year growth statistics for online banking show that the number of adults in the UK using online banking has increased by 174 per cent from 6.2 million in 2001 to 17.0 million last year. This includes a 350 per cent increase in usage amongst the over 55s."   » Continue Reading

Saying that its research shows that "20 per cent of cardholders ‘rarely’ or ‘never’ shield their PIN when entering it at a cash machine", APACS, the UK payments association, has published a new consumer advice guide - Protect your PIN (PDF) - to remind cardholders of the need to keep their PIN safe and secure at all times.   » Continue Reading

ABI Research has announced results from a study of contactless payments adoption concluding "worldwide demand for contactless hardware, software, and services to support contactless adoption will reach more than $1 billion by 2012, up from just $260 million in 2007." ABI also commented that the success of the upcoming trial of contactless in London "will rest on [the banks' and card associations'] ability to convince both retailers and consumers of the value of contactless payments."   » Continue Reading

TSYS Europe and Lloyds TSB have announced the launch of the Lloyds TSB money transfer card in the UK. "The new Silver account from Lloyds TSB includes an innovative money transfer prepaid product, aimed particularly at the growing number of newly arrived migrants living and working in the U.K."   » Continue Reading

According to a new report from APACS titled "The Way We Pay 2007: UK Plastic Cards", £321 billion was spent on plastic cards in the UK in 2006 representing a three-fold rise in the last decade. Cards now account for just under one third of total consumer spending in the UK. Debit cards accounted for 61 per cent of the plastic card spend (£195 billion and over five times that spent in 1996) and credit cards 39 per cent (£126 billion and over twice that spent in 1996). In 2005, cards exceeded cash in all retail spending for the first time and the gap between cards and cash accelerated in 2006 with cash spending of £274 billion.   » Continue Reading

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."   » Continue Reading

The UK's OFT has announced a new work effort with the UK credit card industry and consumer bodies to "make the cost of credit cards easier for consumers to understand."   » Continue Reading

To mark the 20th anniversary of the debit card in the UK this past weekend, APACS has published a report titled "20 Years of the Debit Card" (PDF) reflecting on its history. The report is subtitled "Charting the rise of our favourite way to pay." APACS predicts that by 2011 personal spending on debit cards in the UK will have overtaken cash.   » Continue Reading

Barclaycard in the UK is celebrating the upcoming 10th anniversary of its Connect Card, the UK's first debit card. According to Barclays, "June 3rd, 1987 was the day that Barclays revolutionised the nation’s spending habits by putting the UK’s first debit card, the Barclays Connect card, into the purses and wallets of people up and down the country. The new cards caught on immediately and just nine months after the launch Barclays issued its millionth card."   » Continue Reading

Miles Brignall reports for The Guardian that Barclaycard in the UK is considering imposing fees on cardholders who don't use their Barclaycards "enough". Lloyds TSB began a similar practice earlier this year.

APACS has highlighted this week as the 10th anniversary of online banking in the UK, calling it a significant milestone in the evolution of UK banking and payments. "Over the last ten years online banking has become increasingly popular and the number of people using the service has risen five fold in the last six years alone. In 2006 there were a record 18.1 million Britons banking online and for the first time the number of adults using internet banking exceeded those using telephone banking. Today, half of all internet users in the UK bank online."   » Continue Reading

Telsecure Group has announced securePay, calling it "a new transaction security system to foil internet, mail and telephone card fraud." Telsecure says it is partnering with Sybase365 and Ingenico.   » Continue Reading

Tash Shifrin reports for Computerworld UK that "Barclays bank is sending out handheld chip and PIN card readers to more than half a million online banking customers in a bid to prevent fraud."

Tash Shifrin reports for Computerworld UK that PayPoint is launching a "mobile-phone based loyalty scheme, allowing retailers to scrap paper discount coupons." The scheme, called "Shop Scan Save", involves shoppers presenting a unique bar code sent to their mobile phones following consumer registration.

APACS reported today that the 2006 card fraud figures for the UK show that total card fraud losses fell by three per cent in the past year to £428m – a decrease of nearly £80m over the past two years. Card-not-present fraud losses have increased by 16 per cent over the last two years and now account for just under 50% of all card fraud losses.

UK payment services companies Voca and LINK Interchange Network have announced their intention to merge to create VocaLINK with the combined company expected to handle over 8 billion payment transactions this year.   » Continue Reading

Eiger Systems has announced that its BANK WIZARD and BILLER WIZARD solutions have been enhanced to support banks implementing the UK Faster Payments initiative, which is designed to deliver same day clearing for electronic payments.   » Continue Reading