In related news, MoneyGram announced it has signed two national post offices to its growing international agent network -- the Kazakhstan Post and the Moldova Post

And in even more related news, Standard Chartered Bank, India's largest international bank, has announced the launch of its online remittance service, Transfer2Home, that enable customers to transfer money to India from USA, UK, UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong and Bahrain.

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners:

• ZashPay P2P Payments Service from Fiserv Powers Up
• American Express Announces Executive and Board of Directors Appointments
• Discover Card Expands Rewards Program
• New Aite Group Report - A Merchant Acquiring Update
• Ixaris Expands Management Team to Meet Growing Demand for Innovative Payment Solutions
• EMV Terminals Will Be Deployed in Taxis in Stockholm, Sweden
• TIO Wins RFP to Provide Process Payment Services for Florida Toll Road Drivers
• Splendia Adds a Touch of Payment Service Luxury to its E-tourist Platform with GlobalCollect
• CreditCardGuide: Credit Card Numerology: The Luhn Formula
• The Wall Street Journal: Virtual-Goods Market Seems More Vulnerable to Cyber Criminals

Note: Throughout the day, as Payments News happens, this post is updated. For job opportunities available for payments professionals, visit PaymentsJobs.com. Employers seeking to hire payments professionals can post their job openings there as well.

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners:

• Bill.com Adds Investor and Expands Board of Directors
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• Semtek Announces PCI DSS De-scoping of Major National Retailers (PDF)
• Tesco Bank Selects TSYS
• BilltoMobile Expands Executive Team With Return of Payments Industry Veteran Steve Klebe
• Mobile Manifesto: P2P Payments Will Fail Without Changes
• Portals and Rails: Soccer Balls and Payment Cards: A Push for Global Standards
• American Banker: Distrust of Banking System Sows Return of Homegrown Currencies
• Juniper Research: Mobile App Store Downloads to Reach 25 billion by 2015
• IE Market Research: Global Mobile Payments Users to Exceed One Billion by 2014
• Finextra: Paul Smee, Chief Executive, UK Payments Administration (video interview)

Note: Throughout the day, as Payments News happens, this post is updated. For job opportunities available for payments professionals, visit PaymentsJobs.com. Employers seeking to hire payments professionals can post their job openings there as well.

In its Global Card Services unit, the bank reported "net income increased $2.4 billion compared to a year ago due to declining credit costs reflecting continued improvement in the U.S. economy. Revenue decreased $401 million from a year ago, driven by lower average loans and reduced interest and fee income primarily resulting from the implementation of the CARD Act, partially offset by the $440 million pretax gain on the sale of the MasterCard position. Provision for credit losses decreased $3.9 billion from a year ago as lower delinquencies, decreasing bankruptcies and lower expected losses from the improving economic outlook drove lower charge-offs and reserve reductions during the quarter."

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners and our PaymentsJobs.com job board - the best place to post your position openings for payments professionals!

• Bankrate Releases Look at Debit Card Rewards Programs
• The Co-operative Food Will Become the UK’s First Major Grocery Retailer to Introduce Contactless Payment in its Stores Nationwide
• Commerce Bank Adds Viewpointe Pointe2Pointe with Internet Connectivity
• 72% of Brits Want Contactless Payment in All Stores
• BNY Mellon Expert to Report on the Banking Industry's Successful Implementation of Reporting Requirements for International ACH Transactions
• Prepay Nation Launches International Topup For Ufone (Pakistani Diaspora)
• Organizations Want Consistent BAI Format, Implementation Across Banks, Survey Shows
• FIS Experiences Strong First Half of 2010 with New IBS Core Deals
• TSYS Renews Agreement with Sage Payment Solutions
• Keycorp Signs Agreement with Nice Actimize To Enhance Proactive Consumer And Commercial Fraud Protection
• Smart Card Alliance Endorses Obama Administration's National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace
• Technology Review: Mobile Banking Sees Success in Senegal
• BankTech: USAA Passes 1.5 Million Check Deposits Via Mobile App
• TechCrunch: Mopay Now Allows You To Bill Mobile Payments To A Landline Account
• Business Times: Paypal, MOL Announce New Pre-paid Card (Malaysia)
• The New York Times: The Rupee Gets Its Own Mark

Note: Throughout the day, as Payments News happens, this post is updated. For job opportunities available for payments professionals, visit PaymentsJobs.com. Employers seeking to hire payments professionals can post their job openings there as well.

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners and our PaymentsJobs.com job board - the best place to post your position openings for payments professionals!

• Visa to Increase Stake in Monitise
• First Data Study Reveals Banks Missing out on Major Opportunity to Improve Profitability of Their Debit Programs
• Contactless News: Episode 60: Walmart's drive for EMV (Podcast)
• Korea IT Times: SK Telecom-KDDI-SOFTBANK MOBILE Agree to Cooperate on Mobile NFC Service

Note: Throughout the day, as Payments News happens, this post is updated. For job opportunities available for payments professionals, visit PaymentsJobs.com. Employers seeking to hire payments professionals can post their job openings there as well.

While there are many provisions in the bill affecting all aspects of financial services in this country, the most important for payments professionals is that the U.S. Federal Reserve will now be responsible for setting debit interchange rates that are “reasonable and proportional” to costs incurred. The Fed has nine months from the effective date (when signed by the President) to complete its work.

The legislation directs the Fed to consider functional similarity between debit cards and checks (i.e., checks having cleared at par for almost 100 years vs. debit cards having interchange fees), the distinction between incremental costs and other costs, and fraud prevention costs––including potential new steps to reduce fraud, and the fraud costs absorbed by various parties.

Relevant Links:

• DavisPolk: Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (PDF)
• U.S. Federal Reserve: Statement by Chairman Bernanke on Financial Reform Legislation
• New York Times: Editorial on Financial Reform Passage

Merchant processing volume was $117.1 billion on 5.0 billion total transactions processed.

Headline News is brought to you by Glenbrook Partners and our PaymentsJobs.com job board - the best place to post your position openings for payments professionals!

• Banks Anti-Fraud Measures a Top Concern for U.S. Customers
• Visa Launches Campaign Promoting Prepaid Card Benefits for Financially Underserved Consumers
• Nymgo Partners with GlobalCollect for Online Payment Processing
• Airdrie Savings Bank Signs Five-year Contract with FIS for Hosted Card Management
• American Banker: Bank of America Adds Fee for Paper Statements
• The Citizen: Vodacom M-Pesa Takes Financial Sector by Storm
• MeetTheBoss.tv: Scott Thompson, Paypal President (video interview)

Note: Throughout the day, as Payments News happens, this post is updated. For job opportunities available for payments professionals, visit PaymentsJobs.com. Employers seeking to hire payments professionals can post their job openings there as well.