Brand Finance, in conjunction with The Banker, has announced the results of its latest study of the financial value of various banking brands around the world. From this year's report:

• HSBC, the only British bank among the ten most valuable banking brands, knocks Bank of America off the top spot in the Brand Finance Banking 500.

• Wells Fargo is the most valuable banking brand in the U.S. market, and the second most valuable worldwide.

• Chinese banks performed strongly with China Construction Bank, ICBC, Bank of China and the Agricultural Bank of China maintaining a successful streak for Chinese banking as they secure spots in the Top 20.

• There are now more banks from the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) in the top 20 banking brands than there are from Europe.

On the web:

• BofA, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Sued by ATM User Over Fees - Bloomberg
• USPS Eyes Prepaid Card Market - MyBankTracker.com
• Whole Foods Stores Stop Accepting Checks - Raleigh Durham News & Observer

On the wires:

• Durbin to Wells Fargo: Your Numbers Don't Add Up
• Bethpage Federal Credit Union Announces “No Fee” Free Checking Guarantee
• Western Union and Societe Generale International Retail Banking extend Global Money Transfer Agreement
• Chase Strengthens Partnership with United’s MileagePlus to Offer Ultimate Rewards Cardmembers Expanded Travel Flexibility
• New Report from Mercator on Online Bill Management

Fiserv and Wells Fargo have announced they are "delivering advanced foreign currency exchange capabilities through WireXchange from Fiserv, a flexible automated solution for completing end-to-end wire transfers."

On the web:

• Wells Fargo to Begin Charging Debit Card Fees - MyBankTracker.com
• M-payments are Vodafone's Biggest Business in Kenya - Rethink Wireless
• How a Google-Motorola Combo Could Be ‘Good News’ for NFC in the U.S. - Digital Transactions
• NYC Testing Mobile Payments for Parking Meter - PCMag.com

On the wires:

• TransUnion "Pulse Poll" Reveals Untapped Opportunity in Hospital Point-of-Service Collections
• peerTransfer Raises $7.5 Million to Help Streamline Edu Payments for International Students
• Jwaala and eWise Partner to Offer Secure Vault Payments to Members of MACU
• Cielo Deploys Nationwide Secure Payments Network with NewNet in Brazil
• Vindicia Launches New Marketing Capabilities for CashBox Billing Solution
• Mojang Partners With Skrill to Extend International Payment Options

Over on our sister blog, Payments Views, Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson interviews Mike Kennedy, chairman of the clearXchange board, and shares her thoughts on the new banking industry joint venture in a post entitled "It's About Time: clearXchange and Bank P2P".

This has been a big week for news in the payments industry – with the Google Wallet making a big, loud splash. It’s nice to see banks using the power of their collaborative action to demonstrate that innovation can come from the bank side of the payments world as well.

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo have announced that they have formed a new P2P payments joint venture.

Customers of the three banks will be able to move funds directly from their existing checking accounts using an e-mail address or mobile number – instead of providing checking account and routing numbers. The clearXchange service will roll out nationally, and there are plans over time to expand it to include other financial institutions and endpoints to create a money movement capability across the industry.

Fargo has announced that its piloting a Visa-branded EMV card for international travelers.

“U.S. issuers and merchants rely primarily on magnetic stripe technology,” said Eric Schindewolf, vice president of product development for Wells Fargo Consumer Credit Card. “However, many parts of the world have adopted chip-enabled payment cards as a primary means of authentication, which has been problematic for customers who travel abroad and were unable to use their credit card. By combining traditional magnetic stripe along with the EMV chip technology, we hope our customers will have the convenience to use their credit card no matter where they are in the world.”

On the wires:

• Fiserv Provides Remote Deposit Capture Solutions to More than 160,000 Users
• Wells Fargo’s Latest Mobile Innovation: Commercial Card Expense Reporting
• Quepasa Partners With Tutudo to Offer Innovative Game Payment Solution
• PhoneFactor Launches Replacement Program for RSA SecurID Tokens
• Over One Fifth of Online Shoppers in UK Have Been A Victim of Online Fraud
• Wright Express Acquires rapid! PayCard, a Domestic Prepaid Payroll Card Provider

On the web:

• Springwise: In South Africa, Cardless ATM Withdrawals via Mobile Phone

On the wires:

• NRF Welcomes Bernanke Promise to Complete Swipe Fee Reform Regulations by Summer
• PapayaMobile Integrates Android's In-App Billing Solution Into Social Gaming Network
• Jack Henry & Associates Expands Internet Banking Solutions
• Pulse Retail Partners with YESpay to Offer Integrated EMV Managed Payment Service
• 3i Infotech Extends Electronic Billing and Payments Strategy With New Partnership and Services
• SHAZAM Enables PaySecure Internet PIN Debit across Eligible Issuer Base

On the web:

• Wall Street Journal: U.K. Consortium Launches Pay By Mobile
• Amazon Payments Blog: Checkout by Amazon Launches in the UK
• Springwise: Free mobile banking network launched in South Africa
• ReadWriteweb: NFC in 2011: Wells Fargo Tests Mobile Payments in San Francisco
• Herald Sun: MasterCard Pushes for More tap-and-go Terminals in Australia
• Bloomberg: Microsoft Is Said to Plan Mobile Payments in Phone Software
• VentureBeat: NFC Is Way Overhyped, Says Sybase

Visa and Visa Europe have announced the commercial availability of mobile contactless payments enabled by DeviceFidelity’s In2Pay microSD solution. "For the first time in Visa’s history, a mobile contactless payment solution is now included in the list of Visa compliant products available for potential commercial deployment by financial institutions in the U.S. and select markets."

In related news, Wells Fargo has announced it is rolling out a Visa microSD mobile payments pilot in San Francisco on select BlackBerry and iPhone models.

Wells Fargo has announced the launch of new mobile banking applications for Android, BlackBerry, and Palm. Wells Fargo customers may choose the Mobile Banking services that best suit their needs from a menu of options on Wells Fargo's newly expanded Mobile Banking Resource Center.

"We are listening and responding to our customers by broadening our mobile banking services," said Arah Erickson, head of Wells Fargo Retail Mobile Banking. "Our goal is to make it even more convenient for customers to access their account information – anytime, anywhere – helping them save time and providing peace-of-mind. Wells Fargo Mobile Banking makes it fast, easy, and secure for customers to stay in touch with their finances.”

Wells Fargo and Visa have announced the rollout of Rapid Alerts for Wells Fargo Visa credit cardholders enabling consumers to better manage and track their spending while providing them with near real-time detection of potentially fraudulent activity. Rapid Alerts by Wells Fargo are enabled by Visa's transaction alerts platform. Alerts are sent on behalf of Wells Fargo directly from VisaNet - typically within seconds of a transaction occurring. Rapid Alerts are triggered when the transaction meets certain criteria previously selected by the Wells Fargo Visa account holder and delivered via text message or e-mail. READ MORE »

Wells Fargo today commemorates the 15-year anniversary of online banking. On May 18, 1995, Wells Fargo became the first bank in the nation to give customers free Internet access to current balances in their checking, savings, line of credit and credit card accounts. The service showed customers’ transaction histories for checking and savings accounts. Today, Wells Fargo serves 17.2 million combined active online customers who visit more that 2 billion times per year. READ MORE »

Wells Fargo and Visa have announced the launch of Rapid Alerts for Wells Fargo Visa credit cardholders - a free service that "allows consumers to better manage and track their spending while providing them with near real-time detection of potentially fraudulent activity." READ MORE »

Wells Fargo has announced that it has enhanced its rewards program by adding the Earn More Mall with bonus point opportunities, the ability to purchase retail gift cards, new travel features and benefits, five times as many redemption options, and a redesigned site for easier navigation and improved search capabilities. READ MORE »

In its SEC 10-Q filing today, Wells Fargo estimated that the impact of its new overdraft fee policies will be a $300 million after tax reduction in its fee revenue for 2010.

Quoting: "We recently announced policy changes that will help customers limit overdraft and returned item fees. We currently estimate that these changes will reduce our 2010 fee revenue by approximately $300 million (after tax), although the actual impact could vary due to a variety of factors including implementation timing and customer behavior in response to the policy changes."

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 »

Wells Fargo has announced a new mobile customer-to-customer payment option that allows Wells Fargo customers to transfer money to each other via the Wells Fargo Mobile Banking service. READ MORE »

Wells Fargo this afternoon announced changes to its overdraft practices for Wells Fargo and Wachovia customers. In a press release, Wells Fargo said it will "eliminate overdraft fees for customers when they overdraw their accounts by $5 or less and will charge no more than four overdraft fees per day. In addition, Wells Fargo and Wachovia customers will be able to opt out of overdraft coverage, meaning customers can specify that they don’t want their transactions authorized into overdraft if funds aren’t available to cover the transaction." READ MORE »

Wells Fargo has announced the nationwide availability of its newest online bill pay feature - allowing customers to make “just in time” online bill payments to merchants, such as utility, auto finance and mortgage companies. According to the bank, the new service helps customers avoid missing payments or making late payments. Wells Fargo has teamed up with Western Union to provide the new same-day service. READ MORE »

First Data has announced that Wells Fargo has expanded its agreement for card processing services and will move its newly-acquired Wachovia credit card portfolios to First Data for card processing services. READ MORE »

Wells Fargo has announced a new Wells Fargo Mobile Banking service for iPhone and iPod touch users (opens in iTunes) - now available free from Apple’s App Store. Customers can check account balances, move money between Wells Fargo accounts and pay bills. In addition, Wells Fargo Mobile Banking is integrated with the iPhone and iPod touch built-in maps feature so customers can search for the nearest ATM or Wells Fargo banking store with the touch-of-a-button. READ MORE »

Wells Fargo is offering a broad array of products and services to help domestic and international travelers navigate through potentially challenging situations they may encounter even before they hit the road – including emergency card replacement/credit line increases, mobile and online banking enhancements, and foreign exchange services. READ MORE »

Over on PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Erin McCune takes a look at Wells Fargo's new small business invoicing solution - announced yesterday. Erin spoke earlier today with Richard Weeks, Senior Vice President at Wells Fargo’s Internet Service Group, to learn more about the new service.

Wells Fargo has reported financial results for the first quarter of 2009 - reporting record profits of $3.05 billion on revenues of $21 billion. Revenues from cards and other fees were $1.8 billion.

“The best way to generate capital is to earn it,” said Wells Fargo President and CEO John Stumpf. “This has long been the hallmark of our company and we’re now seeing the initial signs of the earnings and capital-generating power of the combined Wells Fargo-Wachovia in our first quarter together, serving one of every three U.S. households."

Wells Fargo reported credit card chargeoffs grew to 10.13% with the bulk of those losses in the legacy Wells Fargo card portfolio. Its credit card portfolio has $22.8 billion in credit card outstandings (down 3%) which represents less than 3% of the bank's total loans. The bank also reported having 15.5 million active online customers and 3.7 million active bill pay customers (24% of online banking customers).

In its 2008 earnings release this morning, First Data Corp. announced that on Dec. 31, 2008 First Data and Wells Fargo extended their merchant alliance joint venture, Wells Fargo Merchant Services, for five years. In connection with the transaction Wells Fargo increased its ownership in WFMS by paying First Data a cash consideration resulting in First Data and Wells Fargo owning 40% and 60% of WFMS, respectively, as of Dec. 31, 2008.

First Data held a webcast this morning - an accompanying presentation is available online.

Wells Fargo announced 4Q2008 financial results this morning. Average core deposits grew at by 31 percent (annualized) from the prior quarter and the low cost of those deposits gives Wells Fargo the widest net interest margin in the industry. Credit card loans outstanding grew 25% from the year ago quarter to $23.5 billion.

Wells Fargo has launched the Wells Fargo Card Design Studio service - saying it "gives consumer and business customers the option to customize the design of their Wells Fargo Check Cards or Credit Cards." READ MORE »

In an article titled "What Wells Fargo plans to do on a bigger stage", James Temple writes for the San Francisco Chronicle about the Stagecoach's plans based on an interview with John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo. "Both companies have a deep respect for their employees, a passion about serving customers, are very involved in their communities and want to (provide) above-average and great returns for shareholders."

Wells Fargo has announced it has increased its volume of electronic payments with other financial institutions by clearing checks through image exchange with Fiserv Solutions. READ MORE »