U.S. Bank has announced that Visa Mobile is now available to select U.S. Bank debit card holders. Visa Mobile bundles alerts, offers, and a locator service -enabling cardholders to manage their U.S. Bank Visa accounts with near-real time updates. The application can be downloaded to mobile devices powered by Android, the Open Handset Alliance’s open source platform for mobile devices. READ MORE

Visa has announced the North American rollout of its new transaction alert service allowing card issuers to provide near real-time alerts to Visa account holders throughout the U.S. and Canada.

According to Visa, "the service enables consumers to better manage and track their spending while providing them with an early warning system for potential fraudulent activities. Alerts are sent on behalf of participating issuers directly from VisaNet, Visa’s global processing network, typically within seconds of a transaction occurring. Alerts are triggered when the transaction meets certain criteria the account holder has selected and are delivered directly to the account holder via email, SMS text message or the Visa Mobile application. Visa’s transaction alerts let consumers monitor their accounts for unusual activity and take immediate action if they believe a potentially fraudulent transaction is taking place." READ MORE

Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP today announced the filing of a series of nationwide class action lawsuits against Bank of America, Wachovia, U.S. Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Citibank in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami for abusive overdraft fees. READ MORE

U.S. Bank has announced a series of modifications to its service charge policies on checking accounts that will take effect in the first quarter of 2010. The changes include eliminating overdraft fees when a customer's account is overdrawn by less than $10, limiting the number of overdraft fees to no more than three per day and offering "opt out" to customers who would prefer to have transactions declined rather than pay overdraft fees. READ MORE

In an article titled "Sticking with R&D, Even in a Downturn", Maria Aspan writes for the American Banker about US Bank's continuing focus on payments innovation.

"We can pilot things across both ends of the spectrum. We can issue and acquire in kind of a small pilot environment" without overspending or overextending the company's resources", Pamela Joseph, its vice chairman of payment services said.

Maria Aspan reports for American Banker this afternoon that Citi Holdings has sold $1.3 billion of managed card portfolios to US Bank. She reports that the portfolios were associated with KeyCorp, Associated Banc-Corp, and the affinity card portfolio for the American Dental Association.

Earlier, Floyd Norris of the New York Times posted a commentary about Citi's earlier press release announcing the sale - calling it the "least informative announcement." He said that "I can’t remember a deal announcement when a company said it had sold undisclosed assets to an undisclosed buyer for an undisclosed price, resulting in an undisclosed profit or loss."

U.S. Bank has announced that it is "the first card issuer in the United States to add Visa payWave technology to an unembossed debit card that is issued instantly to an account holder upon opening an account. The instant-issue Visa payWave pilot is being tested at select U.S. Bank branches in Denver and Salt Lake City as part of U.S. Bank’s on-going innovation in payments." READ MORE

Visa and U.S. Bank have announced Syncada – a joint venture that the two companies say "provides a business-to-business (B2B) network for corporations and governments to process and track invoices, make and receive payments around the world, and have payables or receivables financed through local and global financial institutions." As part of the joint venture, Visa said it has made a capital investment in Syncada. READ MORE

In an article titled "Testing the limits of new banking technology", ContactlessNews reports on recent trials by US Bank of NFC-equipped mobile phones, contactless stickers, smartphone-based mobile banking and small contactless payment keyfobs.

In an article titled "Frequent Fliers, Choose Your Card", Justin Bachman writes for BusinessWeek about the battle between US Bank and American Express over the former US Bank/Northwest Airlines WorldPerks cardholders - now that Northwest is about to merge with Delta, longtime partner with American Express. Bachman writes: "The fight over this customer base has been ferocious."

U.S. Bank has launched Healthcare Payment Management (HPM) Essentials, a physician-focused payment tool that enables doctors’ offices to collect more patient self-pay balances – such as co-pays and deductibles – at the time and point of care. READ MORE

INSIDE Contactless has introduced the MicroPass 4006 that combines ID and physical access control applications with Visa payWave, Visa’s contactless payment technology. The MicroPass 4006 is designed for next-generation, converged contactless applications on university and corporate campuses, where students, staff and employees can use a single, all-purpose card for branded payment, identification (including biometrics), ticketing and access control transactions. READ MORE

U.S. Bank has announced that it is "the first card issuer in the United States to pilot an innovative new product that allows cardholders to use a single card for traditional magnetic stripe purchases, Visa payWave transactions and to gain access to secure facilities. U.S. Bank is currently piloting the program with employees in Minneapolis. Those involved in the pilot can make purchases and enter their secure work location using a U.S. Bank AccelaPay Visa Card, a prepaid payroll account. The cards contain the MicroPass 4006 platform consisting of two applications: the Visa payWave application, which allows for contactless payment at the point of sale, and the HID iCLASS application, which allows for contactless access to secure facilities at U.S. Bank." READ MORE

PULSE has launched PULSE Select, a surcharge-free ATM network alliance with the MoneyPass Network. The PULSE Select/MoneyPass Surcharge-free ATM Network provides financial institution participants with access to more than 16,000 surcharge-free ATMs in the US. READ MORE

Maria Aspan reports for the American Banker in Monday's edition that "U.S. Bancorp and American Express Co. are squaring off for a marketing battle that will be waged with reward programs but could be won on reputation." At stake are the cardholders of the Northwest WorldPerks Visa card (issued by US Bank) - with US Bank also competing for those cardholders with a new FlexPerks Visa card! See the next story for late news tonight about litigation brought by Northwest against US Bank.

Suzanne Ziegler reports for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune about a lawsuit filed today by Northwest Airlines (now merged into Delta) against US Bank trying to stop the bank's efforts to migrate cardholders from the soon to be defunct Northwest Worldperks Visa card (issued by US Bank) to U.S. Bank's new FlexPerks Visa card. Delta is, of course, planning to move those cardholders to its American Express SkyMiles card.

U.S. Bank recently issued its 30 millionth gift card - saying it remains "the top Visa gift card issuer and a leader in prepaid cards across the United States." READ MORE

U.S. Bank has announced that its customers who have been earning miles on Northwest Airlines by using their WorldPerks Visa cards will now be able to earn points toward free flights on over 150 airlines with no blackout dates or award ticket redemption fees with new U.S. Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa cards. READ MORE

Western Union and U.S. Bank have announced an agreement to offer the Western Union global money-transfer service in 2,791 U.S. Bank branch offices across 24 states. The agreement will connect consumers to more than 334,000 Western Union Agent locations worldwide. READ MORE

US Bank says that "businesses that are looking for ways to add to their bottom lines now have a new way to save and earn rewards while managing expenses with the U.S. Bank Cash Rewards Business Platinum Card. Cardholders can enjoy savings on the business purchases they make most, earning three percent cash back on cellular, gas and office supply purchases and one percent cash back on all other purchases." READ MORE

US Bank has reported financial results for the fourth quarter of 2008. Among the details, US Bank reported that debit card transaction dollar volume was essentially unchanged in the fourth quarter as compared to the same quarter in 2007 and was actually down sequentially from the second and third quarter of 2008.

For credit cards, the bank reported a decline in credit card purchase volume in the fourth quarter of about 3.5% from both the prior year. Fourth quarter credit card purchase volume was also lower that in both the second and third quarter of 2008. In the bank's merchant acquiring business (Elavon), the number of transactions processed increased about 3.5% over the prior year while the purchase volume declined about 6%.

Visa and U.S. Bancorp have announced a pilot program designed to test consumer preferences for an alternative electronic payment device, the Visa Micro Tag, the smallest Visa payWave-enabled device currently available. The U.S. Bank Visa Micro Tag easily attaches to a key ring and allows Micro Tag holders to simply wave and pay. READ MORE

Elavon has announced it has completed the rollout of its Electronic Check Service (ECS) solution, utilizing back-office conversion (BOC), at L’Occitane’s 166 luxury bath and body product boutiques across the United States. In addition, L’Occitane has also agreed to implement Elavon’s electronic gift card (EGC) solution just in time for the holidays for both in-boutique and online environments, offering customers the opportunity to purchase, redeem and reload cards in either environment. READ MORE

Visa and U.S. Bank have announced plans "to launch a mobile money transfer pilot program to allow registered Visa cardholders in the United States to use their mobile phones to securely send funds directly to another registered Visa cardholder’s account. The pilot, which is intended to begin by the end of 2008, is the first U.S.-based trial testing mobile money transfers between Visa accounts." READ MORE

eCommerce and mobile commerce solution provider, Mpayy, Inc. has announced that it has closed its Series B financing led by US Bancorp with participation from a number of private investors. READ MORE

U.S. Bank has announced it has partnered with Visa to issue debit cards with the Visa payWave feature to debit cardholders in California, Colorado, Missouri, and Utah. READ MORE

The U.S. Postal Service has selected U.S. Bank to provide purchasing cards and Voyager fleet cards under the new General Services Administration (GSA) SmartPay2 contract. READ MORE

NOVA Information Systems (NOVA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, has unveiled a new global company name, Elavon. Elavon becomes the identity for NOVA and its affiliate merchant acquiring brands including First Horizon Merchant Services (FHMS) and euroConex. READ MORE

U.S. Bank and Anheuser-Busch have announced they are partnering to offer the Budweiser Rewards Visa Platinum Card that will enable cardmembers to earn points toward gift cards good for Anheuser-Busch merchandise.

U.S. Bank and Visa Inc. have announced that they have signed a multiyear partnership agreement through which U.S. Bank will continue to offer the full range of Visa payment platforms to its consumer and business customers.