On the web:

• Visa’s Saunders Downplays Merchant-Cost Concerns For Digital Wallet - ISO and Agent
• Report: 798 Daily Deal Sites Folded In The Last 6 Months Of 2011 - TechCrunch
• Amazon Pulls Plug on PayPhrase Service - Mashable

On the wires:

• Valero Corner Stores Get New ATMs and Program Manager in Cardtronics
• Businesses Can Capture Signatures, Easily Calculate Taxes and Tips Using New Sage Mobile Payments 2.0

TrialPay has announced that it has raised more than $40 million in its latest round of funding.

“TrialPay’s approach to payments is different,” said Reid Hoffman, Partner at Greylock Partners. “Their tremendous growth in the last year validates the efficacy of the model. We believe that the next generation of e-commerce depends on the ability to maximize revenue from every transaction, and TrialPay is the only company that has successfully leveraged global advertiser relationships to meet that end.”

Visa was also an investor in this round of funding.

Syncada from Visa announced that its global financial supply chain network processed more than $21 billion in payments during 2011, a substantial increase from 2010 and a record in annual payments for the company.

Based on its chip deployment experience in other parts of the world, Visa has released a set of recommended implementation practices customized for the U.S. market. Visa also clarified that its roadmap in the U.S. is about deploying the EMV chip, not mandating the use of PIN.

Visa will continue to support a range of cardholder verification methods (CVMs) with EMV chip, including signature, online PIN and no-signature for low-value, low-risk transactions. In the longer term, we expect the industry will reduce or even eliminate its use of static verification methods, such as signature and PIN in favor of new and dynamic forms of cardholder verification.

The blog post on the Visa guidance is here; the "Visa Recommended Practices for EMV Chip Implementation in the U.S." are here in PDF format.

Visa and Better ATM Services have announced the ability to dispense Visa Gift cards in addition to cash at existing ATMs.

With this introduction, ATM menu screens now include a “Purchase Visa Gift Card” option and prompt to designate the value to load on each card. Cards are available with no activation fee in $25 denominations during the pilot. The new ATM-dispensed Visa Gift card is made of a durable yet thinner material, which allows cards to easily pass through the cash mechanisms of ATMs.

An in-market pilot program is currently underway offering Visa Gift cards at walk-up and drive-through ATMs in select locations throughout Arizona.

Visa Inc and Visa Europe have jointly announced that NFC-enabled smartphones from Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Research In Motion (RIM) have been certified for use with Visa’s mobile application for payments at the point-of-sale, Visa payWave.

“This is an important step for Visa, its financial institution partners and the mobile industry,” said Bill Gajda, Global Head of Mobile Product, Visa Inc. “In addition to issuing plastic magnetic stripe or chip-enabled payment cards, financial institutions can now consider offering their accountholders a way to transform their smartphones into fully functional mobile payment devices.”

On the web:

• Starbucks Launches ‘pay by app’ for iPhone Users in UK - Telegraph
• Spindle Plans Mobile Payment Product for Small Banks - American Banker
• Square Expands Retail Partnerships to Include OfficeMax And UPS Store Locations - TechCrunch
• PayAnywhere Lets You Build Payments Acceptance Into An App Of Your Own - Business Insider
• Is what you see what you get? Proposed Pricing Disclosures for Electronic Remittances - Portals and Rails
• State Bank of India Drops Plan for Merchant Acquiring JV with Visa, Elavon - The Times of India
• Top 7 Card Readers For Smartphones: Apple, Android, and Blackberry - Mobile POS News
• The Future of Self-Service Checkout - STORES.org
• The State of ACH Fraud - Bank Info Security

On the wires:

• New Mercator Report on India's Prepaid Card Market
• SunGard Closes Syntesys Acquisition to Offer Expanded SWIFT Connectivity and Services
• Chase Partners with Southwest Airlines to Enhance Ultimate Rewards Travel Options for Cardmembers
• U.S. Bank Implements Secure Vault Payments for Nebraska Online Child Support Payments

Visa and shopkick have announced that cardholders can now qualify for valuable rewards just for paying with Visa.

Shopkick now lets mobile users earn more redeemable kicks by choosing to link their eligible Visa debit or credit card into its new Buy & Collect program and then making qualifying purchases at participating shopkick merchants with the linked card. Shopkick users have the option to earn more rewards while shopping in their favorite stores and merchants can increase sales and better measure the effectiveness of their location-based marketing efforts.

On the web:

• Visa to Offer Mobile Payments in Developing Nations - NYTimes.com
• GSMA Says Handset Availability is Sparking NFC “tipping point” - Mobile Business Briefing
• PayPal Send Money App for Facebook - PayPal Blog
• China Sidelines MasterCard, Visa - Economic Observer Online

On the wires:

• Citi Renews U.S. Private Label Card Relationship with Sunoco
• Southwest Airlines Launches Rapid Rewards Shopping Powered by Cartera Commerce
• Cubic Selected for Chicago Open Standards Fare System Contract
• YODLEE and Open Solutions Launching Personalized Finance Capabilities for Consumers via Community Banks and Credit Unions

Visa has told AllThingsD that it will use V.me as the go-to-market brand for its new Visa Digital Wallet. The company had said earlier that the online wallet would have its own acceptance mark that differentiates the new multi-card brand wallet from the traditional Visa acceptance mark.

In a related "development", Visa has also announced the launch of a new developer center (developer.visa.com) that brings together tools and resources for V.me, CyberSource, Authorize.net, PlaySpan, and Fundamo.

On the web:

• Banks Quietly Ramp Up Consumer Fees - NYTimes.com
• Samsung Adds First Paypal-Capable App To Smart TV Apps Store - HDTVtest
• Square Mobile Payments Surge to $11M a Day - FierceMobileContent
• How Visa Protects Your Data - Fast Company
• Evidence for PCI’s Effectiveness in the Fight Against Fraud - Portals and Rails
• Isis Says It Continues to Make Progress - MobilePaymentsToday.com

On the wires:

• InteliSpend Prepaid Solutions Enhances Capabilities with New Discover Prepaid Cards
• FirsTech Launches Mobile Payments to Complete their Capabilities Suite
• Adyen to Power Pathé Payment Platform
• New Aite Group Report on Global Non-Cash Payments Market
• CardinalCommerce and STAR Network Announce Universal PIN Debit Service Initiative
• New Service Provides Small and Medium Businesses with Secure and Efficient Online Banking and Payment Services via the Cloud

Visa has announced the expansion of Visa SavingsEdge, a program that provides automatic discounts on qualifying small business expenses. "The program now includes more than 1,600 financial institutions and 39 participating merchants and is now available to 24 million eligible small business account holders in the U.S. Participation in the program is free for Visa small business account holders."

Visa has announced financial results for the Company's fiscal 4Q and full-year 2011 which ended September 30, 2011. For the quarter, GAAP net income was $880 million on GAAP net operating revenue of $2.4 billion, an increase of 14% over the prior year. Fiscal 4Q 2011 highlights include:

• Payments volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, for the three months ended June 30, 2011, on which fiscal fourth quarter service revenue is recognized, was a positive 14% over the prior year at $941 billion.

• Payments volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, for the three months ended September 30, 2011, was a positive 13% over the prior year at $970 billion.

• Cross border volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, was a positive 15% for the three months ended September 30, 2011.

• Client incentives, which are a contra revenue item, were $576 million and represents 19.5% of gross revenues.

For the fiscal full-year 2011, service revenues were $4.3 billion, an increase of 22% over the prior year. A webcast replay is available on the Visa investor website.

On the web:

• Visa, MasterCard Looking Into Online Targeted Advertising Using Credit-Card Data - WSJ.com
• Singapore Inches Closer to Mobile Wallet - ZDNet Asia News

On the wires:

• Citi Renews U.S. Private Label Card Agreement With Sears
• INSIDE Secure Surpasses 10 Million Unit Milestone for NFC Chip Shipments
• Payvment Announces General Availability of Payvment Premium
• Aria Systems Rolls Out a Revenue Recognition Management Product for Compliant Reporting of Prepaid Subscriptions

Visa and MasterCard have increased small ticket debit interchange up to the legal cap prescribed by Regulation II. To understand the impact of this increase on small ticket sellers, see this story in Digital Transactions magazine on the likely reaction from vending operators. For reference, Visa's US Interchange Rate Schedule is located here; MasterCard's Schedule is here.

Visa Inc., Visa Europe and Google have announced that Google has received a worldwide license to Visa payWave, Visa's NFC-based payment technology.

The agreement sets the stage for Visa-issuing banks worldwide to enable Visa account holders to add their credit, debit and prepaid accounts to Google Wallet -- a mobile application that turns a smart phone into a digital wallet. This is the latest effort by Visa and Google to simplify the consumer shopping experience by enabling them to make mobile payments using their mobile phones.

On the web:

• Google Taps George Costanza as 'Google Wallet' Pitchman (Video) - PCMag.com
• MasterCard Defends Google Wallet Ahead of Its Official Launch - AllThingsD
• Carriers Increasingly Laying Claim on Android Market through Direct Billing - telecoms.com
• Turkcell Ramps Up Mobile Payments Technology - NFCNews

On the wires:

• Bottomline Technologies’ Paymode-X Network Reaches 150,000 Vendors
• Visa’s Yearly Payments Volume in Latin America and the Caribbean Grew to 26.2%
• E-Debit Global Corporation Launches Proprietary Mobile Payments Platform
• eLayaway Connected to 14 Million Consumers, Including Military Families and Federal Employees
• BillShrink Changes Its Name to Truaxis
• Fiserv to Produce Personalized EMV Cards
• FleetCor Enters Mexican Fuel Card Market

On the web:

• China UnionPay is Now the World's Largest Card Scheme - Bank Systems & Technology
• Cabela’s Embraces In-app Purchasing and Bar Code Scanning - Mobile Commerce Daily
• Online Banking Customers Demand Paper Checks - TIME.com

On the wires:

• Shandong Airlines Launches UATP Program
• NCR Secures Largest Ever ATM Services Deal in China
• Bank of America to Exit International Credit Card Businesses
• Experian Report Shows Credit Card Delinquencies are Below Prerecession Levels
• Bank of Internet Launches a POPmoney Person-to-Person Payment Service
• Admeris Partners With Global Transaction Services Group
• Cardtronics to Acquire Access to Money

Visa has announced plans to accelerate the migration to EMV contact and contactless chip technology in the United States. "The adoption of dual-interface chip technology will help prepare the U.S. payment infrastructure for the arrival of NFC-based mobile payments by building the necessary infrastructure to accept and process chip transactions that support either a signature or PIN at the point of sale."

"By encouraging investments in EMV contact and contactless chip technology, we will speed up the adoption of mobile payments as well as improve international interoperability and security," said Jim McCarthy, global head of product, Visa Inc. "As NFC mobile payments and other chip-based emerging technologies are poised to take off in the coming years, we are taking steps today to create a commercial framework that will support growth opportunities and create value for all participants in the payment chain."

On the web:

• How Visa Plans To Dominate Mobile Payments, Create The Digital Wallet And More - TechCrunch
• Subway Ready for Mobile Payments Test - QSRweb.com
• Digital Receipts at Stores Gain in Popularity - New York Times
• Fighting the Rising Tide of Elder Financial Abuse - Portals and Rails

On the wires:

• Great Hill Partners Acquires Plimus for $115M USD
• Online Money Transfer S.A.L. to Offer Western Union Business Solutions in Lebanon
• New Austrian Rail Provider Selects VeriFone PAYware Mobile Enterprise

On yesterday's earnings call with analyst, CEO Joseph Saunders said that Visa would introduce a new "network participation fee" for all merchant acquirers in the US. While not yet fulling defined, various media outlets have what details are available and industry reaction:

• Visa Rolls Out New Fee Program - Reuters
• Visa Outlines New Fee Structure To Defend Its Debit Business - Digital Transactions
• Visa's New Participation Fee: Analysts View - International Business Times

Visa has announced financial results for the Company's fiscal 3Q 2011 ended June 30, 2011 with GAAP net income for the quarter of $1.0 billion on GAAP net operating revenue of $2.3 billion, an increase of 14% over the prior year. Fiscal 3Q 2011 highlights include:

• Payments volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, for the three months ended March 31, 2011, on which fiscal third quarter service revenue is recognized, was a positive 13% over the prior year at $862 billion.
• Payments volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, for the three months ended June 30, 2011, was a positive 13% over the prior year at $941 billion.
• Cross border volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, was a positive 14% for the three months ended June 30, 2011.
• Total processed transactions, which represent transactions processed by VisaNet, for the three months ended June 30, 2011, were 13 billion, a positive 11% increase over the prior year.

On the web:

• BillGuard Warns You About Questionable Credit Card Charges - Lifehacker
• Confrontation between Visa and China UnionPay Intensified - Investors.com

On the wires:

• Heartland Payment Systems Takes Higher Education Institutions to the Cloud with WĒPA Wireless Printing
• Memento Helps Financial Institutions Meet New FFIEC Guidance
• Avant-Garde Introduces Anytime, Anywhere Payments with Hypercom Mobile Solutions
• Intrix Technology Provides Payment Gateway Solutions to Companies of All Sizes
• New Mercator Report on Prepaid Benefit Cards

Isis, the national mobile commerce joint venture between AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, has announced that "Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express will join Isis in making mobile commerce a reality for millions of U.S. consumers and merchants."

“Since the formation of Isis in November, we have been committed to building a mobile commerce platform that aligns and advances the interests of consumers, merchants and banks,” said Michael Abbott, chief executive officer for Isis. “By working with the nation’s payment networks – Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express – we significantly advance the vision of an open and secure platform that provides banks and merchants with a new and highly relevant way to connect with consumers.”

On the web:

• Visa CEO: Bulk Of Durbin Impact On Profits Comes In Fiscal 2012 - Forbes
• As Plastic Reigns, the Treasury Slows Its Printing Presses - New York Times
• With Top Banks In Tow, Financial Service Provider Yodlee Hits 30 Million Users - TechCrunch
• Facebook’s Virtual Currency Draws Antitrust Complaints From Consumer Advocates - The Washington Post

On the wires:

• MOBIbucks Secures $5 Million in Series A Financing
• Facebook Tweaks Terms for Using Its Virtual Money After Antitrust Complaint
• Diners Club and Russian Standard Bank Partner to Form New Franchise in Russia
• Wawa and Wright Express Team Up to Offer Proprietary and Universal Card Program

On the web:

• Citigroup Confirms $2.7 Million Stolen by Hackers - Wall Street Journal
• NFC Market Trial Fails, Says ANZ Bank - ZDNet Australia
• Banking Industry Now Seeking Swipe Fee Implementation Delay - Convenience Store News
• Bank Lobbyist To Fed: Go Easy On Us - Forbes
• How Debit Card Swipe Fee Changes Will Cost You, the Consumer - TIME.com
• What Are You Signing Away With a Signature Instead of a PIN? - Portals and Rails
• Spat between Visa and China UnionPay spills into BC Card in Korea - ChinaDaily.com
• PayPal Hits 100 Million Active Users - TechCrunch

On the wires:

• Paymate Acquires ACT Merchant Services
• CashPlus: Prepaid MasterCard Helping Councils to Cut Costs
• ViVOtech Closes $24 Million In Additional Series C Funding
• ActivePath Drives Paperless Adoption in Brazil for Global Top 3 Credit Card Issuer

On the web:

• Visa Offered 35% Interchange Cut for Small Merchants to Delay Durbin - Digital Transactions
• Peter Thiel: If I'd Known, I Would Never Have Started PayPal - Business Insider
• Beeline and Alfa-Bank Launch Russian Mobile Payments Brand Called RuRu - NFC World
• Discover Chief Says Pulse Has Beefed up for Expected Durbin Volume - Digital Transactions
• PayPal Says Mobile Payments To Hit $3 Billion - Wall Street Journal
• Can 'Zoosh' At The POS Overcome The Mobile Payments Gap? - StorefrontBacktalk
• Danish Cellcos Form Joint Venture to Tackle Mobile Payments - Rethink Wireless
• An Industry Divide over Durbin’s Impact on PIN Debit for E-Commerce - Digital Transactions

On the wires:

• More Americans Plan on Using Credit Card Rewards This Summer to Offset Rising Travel Costs

Visa has announced that it is acquiring Fundamo and entering into a new, long-term commercial agreement with mobile-money provider Monitise plc.

The combination of acquiring Fundamo and expanding the relationship with Monitise will enable Visa to deliver best-in-class mobile financial services and payments capabilities to consumers across the full spectrum of uses, geographies and mobile environments from basic services on simple handsets to more advanced services for smart phone owners.

South Africa-based Fundamo has more than 50 active mobile financial services deployments across more than 40 countries, including 27 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. A related announcement from Monitise is also on the wire.

On the web:

• Square’s Remarkably Similar Chinese Competitor Appears - TechCrunch
• Implications of Visa's Recent Change to Chargeback Rules - Vindicia Blog
• Bling Nation’s Pause to Retool Likely to Leave It Behind Rivals - Digital Transactions
• China UnionPay Launches Bankcard-free Trade Handling Platform - TMCnet
• Apple Backpedals On App Store Subscription Rules - TechCrunch
• Bus Tickets Purchased & Presented via SMS - SpringWise

On the wires:

• Edenred Launches MasterCard PayPass Commuter Check Card
• ImpulsePay launches PublishPay to Help Publishers Monetise Mobile Content (UK)
• SelectCore Announces Industry-Changing Mobile Remittance Solution
• New In-App Purchasing and Mobile Payment Capabilities for Windows Phone 7 on CloudMiddleware.com

On the wires:

• Heartland Payment Systems Introduces the Next Generation of Its WaveRider Laundry System
• JCM Global and Techfirm Sign MOU to Bring Pay-by-Mobile Phone Technology to Bill Validators
• Mitek Systems Granted Four More Patents for Mobile Deposit
• EFT Source Introduces New Option for Instant Card Issuance
• NCR Healthcare Selects EPX As Its Preferred Payment Provider

On the web:

• Portals and Rails: Who Does What Fighting Payments Crimes? Agencies Acronyms and Roles
• American Banker: Google Wallet to Require Investments in Terminals
• Digital Transactions: Forget PayPal And Google; Acquirers Most Worried About Visa, MasterCard
• Credit Slips: Dodd-Frank Gotterdämerung: The Durbin Amendment Rollback
• Digital Money: Jamie Henry, Walmart (Podcast Interview)
• India InfoLine: PayMate powers Inter Bank Mobile Payment Services in India