A new survey from Euro Kartensysteme shows that Germans are starting to embrace the idea of contactless and NFC payments.  Out of 1,040 Germans aged 18-59, 43% responded that they would like to make contactless payments if given the opportunity, of which 58% percent would make their payments with a debit card card, 41% with a credit card and 50% with an NFC phone.

asterCard Inc. on Thursday said it recorded a $495 million charge in its fourth quarter to cover potential losses related to a lawsuit brought by retailers over the fees they pay on credit card transactions.  The Purchase, N.Y.-based payments processor said the charge represents the after-tax portion of a potential settlement in the case, and is based on progress seen in mediation. On a pre-tax basis, the charge was $770 million.

The Forum recently took a dive into card fraud data from the many countries (not the United States, of course) that have tossed out their old magnetic-stripe cards and adopted the EMV standard. You can read the paper—it's available on our website—but here's a quick recap.  What we found in the data is a recurring pattern of fraud losses. For instance, the data show that chip-and-PIN has been highly successful in the domestic card-present environment in reducing counterfeit and lost or stolen card fraud.

Another major dispute on interchange fees could take place, and this one may have new, painful consequences for consumers. This time, the battle centers around the swipe fee that retailers pay on credit card transactions. According to CNBC, there is an anti-trust suit between 5 million retailers and Visa, Mastercad, and the 13 largest banks.

ShopKeep software connects merchants' iPads or PCs to a cash drawer, mobile credit card swiper and printer, letting them conduct transactions even during Internet outages. The service costs $50 per month, including inventory management and customer service.

EBay’s net income soared in the fourth quarter, in large part because of the sale of its remaining investment in Skype and continued success of PayPal.  The payments unit, which consists almost entirely of PayPal, was responsible for more than 36 percent of the company’s fourth-quarter revenue — $1.24 billion — which grew 28 percent from the same period a year ago.

he card.io mobile payments SDK is an evolution for the company. The company already had a "Scanning SDK" that it released in June 2011 (iOS) and September (Android) that would allow people to scan a credit card but not actually process the payment. The new SDK will process the payment as well, taking the friction out of the transaction by eliminating the steps between scan and processing.  There are no set up or monthly charges. card.io will take a 3.5% plus $0.30 per transaction cut and payouts go to either PayPal or a bank account.  Jumio is also working on creating the ability to take pictures of credit cards and process payments through its app and Netswipe platform. Jumio also has an SDK to institute its payment technology and has more funding with its recent $6.5 million round led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin. Jumio is well ahead of card.io and working on basically the same product. card.io has raised $1 million from a variety of investors.

Payment system provider VeriFone is arming its merchants and retailers with new tools to handle changes in commerce. The company, well known for its point of sale terminals, is showing off an array of new products at the National Retail Federation’s Convention and Expo in New York this week, demonstrating how it can help merchants become more mobile, more responsive and dynamic.

The European Commission is seeking views on potential problems in the market for payments made via cards, the Internet and mobile phones, it said in an e-mailed statement today.  “Inefficient payments systems within the European Union unduly raise transaction costs, undermine the global competitiveness of the European economy and limit its potential for growth,” EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in the statement.

Kingsborough said he was drawn to PayPal’s approach to payments because it was aimed at solving deep consumer and merchant needs. He said competitors who focus on near field communication and other alternative payment systems are too often preoccupied with the capabilities of their technology, but they’re not addressing the pressing needs of users.

A new mobile credit card payment option from the payment company CSI GlobalVCard, which issues MasterCard-branded credit and debit cards, was unveiled earlier this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, according to a report from InformationWeek. The new option, known as a virtual credit card, differs from other mobile payment systems in that it does not utilize technology that is currently unique to just a few smartphones, like the near-field communications platforms being developed by numerous companies

New technology is being introduced into Intel’s Ultrabooks that will allow consumers to pay for items online by simply touching their credit card or mobile device with near field technology (NFC) to the computer console.

The banks are making up the lost revenue in three ways, Hewitt said: cutting expenses, restructuring existing products to be more efficient and profitable — and creating new products.  Cost-cutting is the easiest and most immediate way for these firms to make up for lost revenue.

FICO today released its analysis of data showing that major shifts have occurred in European card fraud patterns. Analysis done on 55 million active credit cards represented by FICO showed that counterfeit fraud fell 60 percent between March 2009 and March 2011.  FICO’s data also shows that card-not-present fraud accounted for 69% of all accounts victimised by fraud and 72% of all fraud losses. The top 10 merchant categories accounted for 30% of the total fraud losses, led by hotels/lodging, travel agencies and ATMs.

The new devices certified by Visa host the payWave application on a SIM card and feature near-field-communication technology, the short range communications standard that enables mobile phones to securely transmit payment information to a contactless payment terminal." Yankee Group predicts that the value of NFC-based transactions will grow from $27 million in 2010 to $40 billion in 2014.

Durbin on Tuesday spoke at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville advocating a simple, one-page form standardizing disclosures from banks on the fees and charges consumers may face. Developed by the Pew Charitable Trust, the form simplifies the labyrinthine disclosure forms usually offered by banks that consumers rarely read -- on average, 111 pages long.

For mobile money to take off in competitive markets like the Philippines, providers will not only need to identify a high potential target opportunity; they also will need to ensure their ability to effectively serve the market’s needs relative to the competition. We have identified user pain points in the following areas when paying a bill or conducting a money transfer: speed of delivery, trust and reliability, price and customer service. While consumers in the Philippines have access to channels that may provide speed, trust or good customer service, none of them is ideal, leaving room for a service that gives customers more of what they value.

With the new AT&T API platform, Web apps will be able to take in-app payments charged directly to a user's AT&T bill, will be able to control SMS and MMS, find location, integrate with AT&T's U-Verse TV, and access unique device capabilities, said David Christopher, AT&T's chief marketing officer.  AT&T is focusing on HTML5 because by 2015, 85% of smartphones will have HTML5 capabilities and it enables developers to write one application for many smartphone operating systems, Christopher said.

Working out of Visa Inc. headquarters in San Francisco, general counsel Josh Floum keeps tabs on payment trends that are changing around the globe, and the laws that help shape them. He has met with legislators in Washington, D.C., to discuss the Dodd-Frank Act's Durbin Amendment, which impacts credit and debit cards; journeyed to Russia to meet with their politicians; and sees China, with its restrictions on non-national electronic payment companies, as a bright spot on his radar.

A report by CARTES Network reveals that many Asia Pacific cities and regions, such as Hong Kong, now use smart cards to cover transactions across metro, buses, ferries and more. “Major cities across Asia Pacific are way ahead of many countries around the world in terms of using smart cards,” said Isabelle Alfano, director of CARTES events.  Japan uses a vast array of transport cards, Beijing and Shanghai commuters use the Yikatong, Singapore uses the EZ-Link smart card, and Taiwan has the EasyCard. Most recently, New Delhi’s government launched a common mobility card, dubbed More, and New Zealand is currently working with Octupus to develop a transport card for 2012.

This was the silent cry of the consumer bankers who had gathered for the 2011 ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum. Part wake, part pep talk, the event got underway just hours after Bank of America scrapped its plan to start charging customers $5 a month to use their debit cards. The turn of events dominated the discussion on the panels and in the hallways, stealing the spotlight from other topical issues like mobile payment solutions.

The Contactless Barometer study made public by Visa Europe was carried out across the UK, Turkey and Poland. According to the survey, consumers foresee a contactless future across cards and mobile with 77 percent of polled contactless owners across all three markets stating that contactless technology would ultimately become more commonplace than cash as a payment method and 87 percent agreeing that contactless would be instrumental in bringing mobile contactless payments to market in the near future.

EU states and the European Parliament agreed on Tuesday that the new single euro payments area (SEPA) will be completed by the legally binding deadline of Feb. 1 2014 for banks to end national barriers for cashless euro payments.  A consumer will be able to use just one bank account to make and receive euro payments across the 27-country bloc without hidden national bank charges.

A federal task force interim report on payments systems and technologies - the systems we use, for instance, to pay electricity bills directly from our bank accounts and allow merchants to get paid when we use credit cards thousands of miles from home - argues that Canada's payment system is not all it could be.  In some countries, for example, people have for years made everyday purchases using their cellphones, a rare capability in Canada. The task force, which wants to make Canada a leader in payment systems, is due this month to present its final report on how to move with the times.

MasterCard has posted a brief interview with Ed McLaughlin, the company’s Chief Emerging Payments Officer, concerning Isis, mobile payments, and the future of MasterCard in the field.  MasterCard, which joined the ISISI platform in July along with Visa and AmEx, says its mobile strategy hinges on the interests of the consumer. Indeed, McLaughlin justifies the company’s initiative with research showing that 60% of 18–34 year olds want to pay using their phone.

The statute left the Federal Reserve to "establish the standards for assessing whether any interchange fee . . . is reasonable and proportional" to an issuer's cost. The statute is clear and straightforward. The board is required to establish standards. Not fix a cap, whether at levels satisfactory to retailers or not. Senator Durbin made clear in his statement supporting inclusion of the provision in the financial reform legislation that the "Durbin amendment would not have the Federal Reserve set interchange prices."