MasterCard Survey: 'Tis the Season of the Smart Shopper
Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:55:35 -0800
MasterCard has released a new survey finding that nearly one third of Americans (29%) plan to seek out bargains more this year than they did last year when shopping for the holidays. "Findings show that Americans will shop smarter this year by using a variety of cost-saving strategies and shifting spend towards practical gifts, such as gift certificates or gift cards."

Headline News - November 20, 2008
Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:32:11 -0800
New Mercator Advisory Group Report: Prepaid Market Forecasts to 2011 Digital Transactions: PayPal’s Chief Proposes Direct Links Between Banks And PayPal U.S. Consumers Planning Dramatic Shifts in Personal Spending, According to L.E.K. Consulting Study PayPartners to Provide Its Pay Card Services to Mobile FarmWare LLC Former Banker Makes Millions Inventing Baby Dolls Bill Me Later Fast Tracks Holiday Shopping with Cool Gifts and Hot Deals NYTimes.com: Online Sites Are Waging Preholiday Price Wars InformationWeek: Cell Phones As Wallets One Step Closer The Boston Globe: Gift cards seen as no holiday bargain in tough times Vesdia: Reward Card Incentives Expected to...

New Jobs Posted on PaymentsJobs.com
Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:22:18 -0800
Several new job openings have recently been posted on our PaymentsJobs.com website: Director of Network Association Compliance - First Data Corp. - Englewood, CO Sr. Manager Global Payment Platforms - Apple Inc. - Cupertino, CA Merchant Market Development Manager - Maritz Holdings - Location Open Hiring? Do you have job openings for payments professionals? Post your openings on PaymentsJobs.com!

A Look at Twitpay
Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:29:29 -0800
On Web Worker Daily, Mike Gunderloy takes a look at Twitpay, described as "a simple way to send payments via Twitter." A Twitpay account is funded via PayPal in amounts between $10 and $49.99. Twitpay's FAQ page says that the service was created by a team at the Atlanta Startup Weekend.

PayPal's Global Selling Guide for Ecommerce Merchants
Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:51:41 -0800
Eddie Davis writes on the PayPal Blog about PayPal's new Global Selling Guide for ecommerce merchants. "The guide includes information on the unique holiday customs of 17 nations and tips on a variety of topics including shipping, payments, customs, and tax considerations."

Barclaycard Opens New Office in Long Island City, New York
Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:55:39 -0800
Barclaycard, the credit card division of Barclays PLC, has announced that it is expanding its global operations by opening a new administrative office in Long Island City, New York. The company says it plans to hire more than 200 employees for the new location within the next 12 months and that the new office will primarily focus on credit risk with additional corporate finance and market analytics functions. It will support Barclaycard’s operations globally including its U.S. business headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.

Online Payment Options in the UK
Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:50:26 -0800
ShopSpree in the UK says its completed research on over 400 online shops in the UK and identified the payment types accepted. Here's a summary of their findings.

An Update on MasterCard's Mobile Partner Program
Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:33:25 -0800
MasterCard has issued a press release updating the activities of its Mobile Partner Program launched in 2007 and reporting that more than 30 companies have joined the program. "The MasterCard Mobile Partner Program is a global online resource center designed to foster knowledge-sharing, manage document distribution, track product implementations and evaluate partnership opportunities within the mobile industry."

ClairMail Chosen by PNC to Enhance Mobile Banking Services
Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:16:41 -0800
ClairMail has announced that PNC Financial Services Group has expanded its mobile banking services by integrating ClairMail's mobile banking solution. Separately, ClairMail announced that its bank customers have seen "upwards of 25 percent adoption by online banking consumers."

Headline News - November 19, 2008
Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:12:43 -0800
Giving Tree's Visa(R) Gift Card Helps Nonprofits During Holiday Downturn Mobile Banking Now Part of Diebold's Total Outsourcing Solution CashEdge Reports Strong Market Traction With New Consumer Third Party Transfers Module Winn-Dixie To Offer nFinanSe Discover(R) Network Reloadable Prepaid Cards Former PayPal Executive Tyler Hoffman Joins richrelevance as VP of Sales PRWeek US: 'Consumer Reports' push takes on credit card debt APACS: Specialist UK police unit scoops prestigious international award Accertify Announces More Customer Wins Etronics Launches eBillme in Spanish Extending Cash Checkout to More Online Shoppers Litle & Co. and CardinalCommerce Join Forces to Offer Merchants Bill Me Later(R)...

Last Call for Glenbrook's Denver Payments Boot Camp - Dec. 3-4
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:23:53 -0800
Glenbrook's Payments Boot Camp in Denver on December 3-4 almost sold out. If you're interested in joining this session, please be sure to enroll right away. Carol Coye Benson and Linda Elliott will be teaching the Denver session. Glenbrook's next Payments Boot Camp will be held in Santa Clara, California on January 20-21, 2009. Enrollment for that session is now open. Carol Coye Benson and Scott Loftesness will be teaching the Santa Clara session.

TowerGroup Projects Nearly 9% Decline in Gift Card Sales
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:07:08 -0800
TowerGroup has announced new research finding that total gift card sales for the 2008 holiday season will take nearly a 9 percent hit - owing largely to the downturn in the US economy. "That 9 percent decrease will be largely due to an expected 14 percent decline in the sales of merchant-sponsored (also “closed-loop” or private label) gift cards. Sales of bank sponsored (network-branded) gift cards are expected to increase 5.6 percent, a positive showing in the current climate."

Heartland Payment Systems Acquires Chockstone
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:38:02 -0800
Heartland Payment Systems has closed the acquisition of Chockstone, a privately held provider of gift card programs and loyalty solutions. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Wells Fargo Introduces Payments Adapter for Oracle
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:22:23 -0800
Wells Fargo and Oracle have announced the release of the Wells Fargo Adapter -software that quickly integrates Wells Fargo treasury management services with the Oracle E-Business Suite financial applications.

Citi, Firethorn Launch Citi Mobile for Cards
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:10:48 -0800
Citi and Firethorn Holdings have introduced Citi Mobile for Cards - call it "an advanced mobile solution that allows Citi credit card customers to quickly, easily and securely access real-time credit card account information on their mobile phones. Citi Mobile for Cards is now available to AT&T subscribers as part of AT&T Mobile Banking, and to Verizon Wireless customers who download and use the free mobile banking application on Get It Now."

comScore Reports E-Commerce Sales Only Grew 1% in October
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:25:50 -0800
comScore has released its monthly retail e-commerce sales estimates reporting that online spending in October 2008 grew by only 1 percent over October 2007, the lowest monthly growth rate since comScore began tracking e-commerce in 2001. The overall softness in online retail spending was precipitated by curtailed spending across mid to lower income segments, with households earning less than $50,000 exhibiting negative spending growth compared to a year ago.

Monitise, eCommLink Partner for Mobile Prepaid Debit Solutions
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:56:08 -0800
eCommLink and Monitise Americas have announced that they are working together to jointly offer mobile money applications to the prepaid debit card industry.

PayPal Expands Its Service Around the Globe
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:53:16 -0800
PayPal has announced that it has expanded its service with fully localized sites in Mexico, Hong Kong and Singapore and an improved online experience for customers around the world. PayPal also launched nine new languages on its Web site including Bahasa Indonesian, Danish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese and Turkish.

NYCE To Pilot SafeDebit with Verient
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:40:25 -0800
NYCE has announced that it has signed a contract with Verient to conduct a pilot of NYCE’s SafeDebit, an e-commerce payment solution that will enable online shoppers to make purchases on the Internet without sharing their PIN or account information at the merchant’s Web site. NYCE plans to pilot SafeDebit beginning in early 2009.

Canadian Banks Get Go Ahead to Issue Visa and MasterCard
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:33:06 -0800
Tara Perkins writes for the Globe and Mail about a decision by Canada's Competition Bureau allowing banks to issue both Visa and MasterCard cards in Canada.

Headline News - November 18, 2008
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:27:07 -0800
WSJ.com: PayPal to Offer Credit for Holiday Purchases Fiserv Delivers New Standard for Online Banking with Online Advantage Disney and JCB Launch Disney-JCB Card, Japan's First Disney-branded Credit Card Javelin Strategy and Research: Javelin Report Finds Financial Crisis Makes It Crucial for Banks to Target Online Channel PC World: GSM Group: Phones Need NFC for Mobile Payments TransUnion Expands Collection Vertical With Key Hires; Dedicated Focus on First-party Collections TechCrunch: OpenTable Reservations Come To The iPhone Best and Worst Online Payment Options in the UK Marketing Week: Visa Europe appoints former Levis marketing chief American Banker: Fidelity National in Pact...

PCI Security Standards Council Introduces Assessor QA Program
Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:35:25 -0800
The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has announced that it has launched a quality assurance program for Qualified Security Assessors (QSAs) and Approved Scanning Vendors (ASVs). According to the PCI SSC, "the new program was designed to provide QSAs and ASVs with a set of requirements that helps ensure they provide consistent, quality validation and assessment services to merchants and service providers."

Chase Paymentech's 2008 Cyber Holiday Pulse Index
Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:18:07 -0800
Chase Paymentech has launched its 2008 Cyber Holiday Pulse Index, an annual measurement of online shopping activity during the holiday season that tracks e-commerce spending activity across a sample of leading e-retailers. The measurement reflects the number of transactions and dollar value handled by Chase Paymentech’s global processing platforms.

NACHA Announces PAYMENTS '09 Keynote Speakers
Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:29:49 -0800
NACHA has announced that Heidi Miller, CEO of J.P. Morgan’s Treasury & Securities Services, will keynote and open its PAYMENTS ‘09 conference being held April 5 - 9 at the Orlando World Center Marriott in Orlando, Fla. Steve Case, chairman and CEO of Revolution LLC, will headline the Industry Agenda General Session.

Monitise Americas Announces 23 New Mobile Banking Partnerships
Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:53:28 -0800
Monitise Americas has announced that 23 additional financial institutions have signed agreements with Metavante to provide mobile services to their customers and members.

Citi Town Hall Meeting - 50,000 Additional Job Cuts Planned
Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:17:38 -0800
Citigroup held a Town Hall meeting with employees this morning - the presentation slides are available from the Investor Relations section of the Citigroup web site. Slide 15 shows Citi's planning to reduce headcount from 352,000 to 300,000 in the near-term. This reduction is in addition to about 23,000 layoffs already this year. More coverage: Reuters, Wall St. Journal, NY Times.

Headline News - November 17, 2008
Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:23:57 -0800
Entrust's Revolutionary IRA Debit Card(SM) Provides Unparalleled Convenience & Flexibility OTI's Smart Sticker Travels to New Zealand with Air New Zealand's Revolutionary Domestic Check-in Goldleaf Cited as Leading Remote Deposit Capture Provider by Celent KAALtv.com: Minnesota's Gift Card Law Helps Shoppers Reuters: Americans teetering on $14 trillion debt pile The Boston Globe: Depression 2009: Lines at the ER, a television boom, emptying suburbs - a catastrophic economic downturn would feel nothing like the last one Technology Credit Union Uses Neotys' Load Testing Software to Improve Online Banking's Software Quality and Customer Service SmartMoney.com: Card Issuers Get Drastic on Plastic Visa...

Credit Lines Crunched
Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:06:09 -0800
In an article titled "Less Power to Purchase", Nancy Trejos writes for the Washington Post about credit card issuers reducing credit lines on their cards. She writes: "The retrenchment, which follows years of lavishing Americans with offers and ever-increasing limits, is squeezing consumers at a time when they have already lost other avenues for borrowing, such as home equity lines of credit."

Citi to Raise Credit Card Interest Rates
Sat, 15 Nov 2008 08:27:43 -0800
In an article titled "Despite Pledge, Citigroup to Raise Credit Card Rates, Blaming ‘Difficult’ Environment", Eric Dash writes for the New York Times that Citi is "reneging on a promise it made to tens of millions of credit card customers in good times" by raising interest rates - by 2 to 3 percent - on credit cards for its customers that haven't had an increase in the last two years. The increased interest rate will be communicated to cardholders in their November statements. The affected cardholders can then choose to decline the increase and continue to pay interest at the...

Retail Sales Decline in October, Auto Sales Collapse
Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:12:59 -0800
The U.S. Census Bureau has announced that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for October, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $363.7 billion, a decrease of 2.8 percent from the previous month and 4.1 percent below October 2007. Total sales for the August through October 2008 period were down 1.3 percent from the same period a year ago. Retail trade sales were down 3.1 percent from September 2008 and were 5.0 percent below last year. Motor vehicle and parts dealers sales were down 23.4 percent from October 2007...

Firethorn Enhances Mobile Banking and Payments
Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:44:30 -0800
Firethorn Holdings has announced the introduction of a mobile application upgrade capability which will "enable Firethorn to transition its financial institution and wireless operator relationships from banking to broader mobile commerce functionality."

First Data Reports Third Quarter 2008 Financial Results
Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:36:35 -0800
First Data Corp. has reported financial results for the third quarter 2008 - with consolidated revenues growing 4% to $2.2 billion. FDC's strongest revenue growth was in international with a 19% increase in revenue. Its weakest segment, Financial Services, saw revenues decline 5%. Merchant services grew 6%. A webcast is scheduled to discuss the results later this morning.

US FInancial Regulators Issue Final Rule re Internet Gambling
Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:31:22 -0800
The US Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board have announced the release of a joint final rule to implement the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.

Headline News - November 14, 2008
Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:09:50 -0800
New Mercator Advisory Group Report: Financial Supply Chain, Payment Opportunities for Innovative Banks The Tennessean: Cautious shoppers avoid gift cards Deloitte Consumer Spending Index Turns Negative for the First Time Since 1980 Kiplinger.com: 7 Steps to Worry-Free Online Shopping IFX Forum Signs New Members From Around the Globe: Fundtech, Interblocks, Nautilus Hyosung and NETinfo Note: Throughout the day, as Payments News happens, this post is updated. For job opportunities available for payments professionals, visit PaymentsJobs.com. Employers looking to hire payments professionals can post their job openings there as well.

Billing Revolution Wins Judges' Choice at Under the Radar
Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:20:26 -0800
At yesterday's Under the Radar conference, Billing Revolution was the Judges' Choice winner. Billing Revolution announced a “single-click” mobile credit card checkout toolbox earlier this week.

APACS Releases 3Q2008 Payments Statistics for UK
Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:18:03 -0800
APACS provided its latest quarterly statistical release on payments in the UK for the third quarter 2008. Among the highlights, APACS reported that debit card spending now accounts for 73.8% of all plastic card purchases in the UK by volume, up from 72 per cent in Q2.

Equifax Introduces Online Identity Card - I-Card
Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:14:59 -0800
Equifax has announced the Equifax online identity card or I-Card, with a beta test of what it is calling "a first-of-its-kind digital identity management solution that is designed to make online transactions easier and more secure for both consumers and businesses."

Chase Paymentech Announces Gift Card Study Results
Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:46:30 -0800
Chase Paymentech has announced the results of a survey commissioned to provide insight into consumers’ attitudes towards gift cards. "The study, which polled 850 American adults, found that gift card awareness and usage remains very high, with nine in ten respondents having received or purchased a gift card. Additionally, two-thirds of respondents have bought at least one gift card within the past 12 months."

Headline News - November 13, 2008
Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:24:29 -0800
Oprah Loves Gift Card Lab - Gift Card Lab Featured in O Magazine's 2008 Holiday Gift Guide Survey by The Boston Consulting Group Outlines How Americans Plan to Curb Spending for Holidays and 2009 O'Reilly Radar: Forget the bailout, start over: the New American Bank Initiative Credit Slips Blog: Do We Want More Consumer Lending? WesPay introduces ACH Audit Services Canada: HSBC MasterCard introduces new rewards program to help homeowners TransCard and Fishback Financial Corporation Join Forces VMware Takes Virtualization Discussions into Realm of PCI Compliance Capital One Bank: Student-Run Bank Branch Opens in New Jersey High School The Business...