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."   » Continue Reading

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.   » Continue Reading

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.   » Continue Reading

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.   » Continue Reading

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.   » Continue Reading

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.   » Continue Reading

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.   » 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

U.S. Bank, MasterCard Worldwide and Nokia have announced a mobile payments pilot program in Spokane, Washington using new Nokia mobile phones equipped with MasterCard PayPass payment functionality allowing consumers "to pay for purchases with a tap of their mobile phone, instead of sliding a card through a magnetic stripe reader, handing it over to the cashier, or fumbling for cash and coins."   » Continue Reading

U.S. Bank and CheckFree have announced they are collaborating "to encourage consumers to save time, reduce stress and make children smile this holiday season by paying bills online. For every five bills that a customer pays via U.S. Bank Internet Banking now through Dec. 31, 2007, U.S. Bank and CheckFree will donate $10 to Toys for Tots."   » Continue Reading

U.S. Bank has announced that it has issued its 20 millionth gift card this week, remaining the top Visa gift card issuer in the US. U.S. Bank reached the 10 millionth gift card milestone in July 2006, doubling the size of its gift card program in just over a year.   » Continue Reading

U.S. Bank Government Services has announced that it is one of four issuers selected to participate in the General Services Administration (GSA) SmartPay 2 program for commercial charge cards and related payment services.   » Continue Reading

U.S. Bank has announced it has made an equity investment in InstaMed, a real-time gateway and processor of healthcare and payment transactions. The two companies say they have been working together in a strategic partnership for nearly a year, and have already processed tens of millions of dollars on the InstaMed Platform for various hospitals, healthcare providers, billing services, vendors and payers.   » Continue Reading

NOVA Information Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, has announced that American Airlines has "entered into a multi-year credit card processing services agreement for its domestic bankcard business. In addition to performing all clearing and settlement functions, NOVA will provide a full range of services, including customer support and chargeback processing."   » Continue Reading

US Bank's Elan Financial Services has announced it has partnered with Sapphire Mobile Systems to conduct a mobile banking and payments pilot, integrating with the Phire Mobile Debit Network to provide customers with "highly secure, instant access to their PayCard accounts via any mobile handset."   » Continue Reading

U.S. Bank has announced that it "is prepared to meet the needs of retailers and other customers who wish to take advantage of check electronification opportunities for point-of-sale (POS) payments when NACHA’s check conversion rules change for Back Office Conversion (BOC) on March 16, 2007." The bank has launched a new enhancement to U.S. Bank Electronic Check Service designed to meet the needs of multi-lane retailers by eliminating the investment in check imaging technology at the point of sale.   » Continue Reading

The Jan-Feb 2007 issue of the BAI's Banking Strategies magazine is out with an interview by Kenneth Cline with US Bancorp CEO Richard Davis. Davis will be keynoting the upcoming BAI TransPay conference and the interview is focused on his views of the importance of payments to US Bank. Cline notes that "today, US Bank is one of the rare banks below mega-bank status that can claim to be a major player in payments, with top 10 status in merchant acquiring, credit and debit card issuing and ATM processing."

SVPCO - Electronic Clearing Services, the electronic check and check image exchange business of The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C., has announced that U.S. Bank is now exchanging check images via the SVPCO Image Payments Network.   » Continue Reading

US Bank has announced that it is beginning a pilot of contactless cards in Denver - saying that "a group of U.S. Bank customers in the Denver area will soon be able to use a new “contactless” feature with their U.S. Bank Visa Credit Cards that allows them to quickly pay for purchases by holding their card in very close proximity to a secure reader at checkout instead of swiping it or handing it to a cashier."   » Continue Reading

US Bank Canada has announced it has acquired CIBC's Visa purchasing and Visa corporate credit card portfolio. U.S. Bank Canada is a division of U.S. Bank, which is a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, one of the world's largest issuers of Visa commercial cards.   » Continue Reading

With the latest round of quarterly financial results, several banks have reported their merchant acquiring business volumes for the third quarter. Of particular interest is the 18% growth experienced by Chase Paymentech - handling $168.7 billion in payment volume during the quarter. Bank of America's Merchant Services unit grew by 6.2% to $97 billion in payment volume while US Bank's Nova handled $56.4 billion, up over 26% although US volume vs. international isn't broken out in Nova's numbers.

US Bank has announced that it has begun offering a tool, U.S. Bank Access Purchase, that extends the power of its commercial card beyond payment processing and automates its entire purchase-to-pay (P2P) process. The tool connects buyers and suppliers over the Internet, allowing commercial customers to purchase and pay for goods and services from existing suppliers online, and still receive the detailed tracking information required to manage the procurement process.   » Continue Reading

US Bank has announced that its customers who are enrolled in the Checking That Pays Cash Bonus Check Card reward program will now earn an even bigger cash reward automatically at select retailers through the new US Bank Premium Rewards program.   » Continue Reading

David Breitkopf reports for the American Banker on PNC's decision to end its seven year relationship with MBNA as the credit card issuer for its banking customers and to move it to US Bank.   » Continue Reading

US Bank has announced it has recently issued its 10 millionth gift card and expects to surpass 15 million during the 2006 winter holiday season. US Bank saw gift card sales at 86 percent of its branches in May, and it sold 334,781 Visa Gift Cards during the first two weeks of June leading up to Father's Day. US Bank issues Visa Gift Cards in 41 states through its 2,430 retail branches and mall partners, including Simon Property Group, Macerich Malls and Crocker Park.   » Continue Reading

US Bank has announced that it will purchase Schneider Payment Services (SPS), a division of Schneider National, Inc. The acquisition will in excess of $7 billion in freight payments to US Bank's PowerTrack portfolio, which the bank says will make its PowerTrack the "clear leader in freight payments."   » Continue Reading

US Bank has announced that it will purchase Schneider Payment Services (SPS), a division of Schneider National, Inc. The acquisition will in excess of $7 billion in freight payments to US Bank's PowerTrack portfolio, which the bank says will make its PowerTrack the "clear leader in freight payments."   » Continue Reading

U.S. Bank and Cabela's have introduced the Cabela's Visa Check Card, issued by U.S. Bank. The card rewards cardholders with Cabela's Check Card Points for signature (non-PIN) purchases made with the card at Cabela's or any other merchant that accepts Visa debit. These points are then redeemable for Cabela's Gift Cards.   » Continue Reading

U.S. Bank has introduced an additional level of fraud security to business customers with U.S. Bank UPIC secure account identifier, a unique identifier that masks the actual bank account numbers of business customers when electronic payments take place.   » Continue Reading

NOVA Information Systems (NOVA), a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the merchant processing business of First Horizon Merchant Services Inc. (FHMS), a wholly owned subsidiary of First Tennessee Bank and a part of First Horizon National Corp.   » Continue Reading

US Bank Voyager Fleet Systems has announced the acquisition of Advent Business Systems, Inc., based in San Mateo, Calif. Advent provides technology that is deemed to be the most powerful, comprehensive and complete accounting management systems available to the petroleum and energy product supply chain. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.   » Continue Reading

American Express announced two major bank credit card issuing partnership deals this week: Bank of America and HSBC.

In both deals the removal of each bank from the list of defendants in the litigation American Express is pursuing (re: damages associated with MasterCard and Visa losing the US antitrust case) may have been an important element.   » Continue Reading

US Bank currently has a promotion on Health Savings Accounts running whereby new accounts opened before February 28, 2006 will have the $3.50 monthly maintenance fee waived for the life of the account.

US Bank reported second quarter financial results this morning that included growth in revenues from merchant processing of 20 percent for the quarter over the same quarter last year. Merchant processing revenues were $198 million for the quarter vs. $165 million last year.

Merchant processing services revenue was higher in the second quarter of 2005 than the same quarter of 2004 by $33 million (20.0 percent), reflecting an increase in sales volume, new business, higher equipment fees and the expansion of business in Europe.