Tim Hortons, one of North America's largest quick service restaurant chains, has entered into agreement with MasterCard and is now accepting MasterCard PayPass at more than 400 U.S. locations. Tim Hortons first began accepting MasterCard PayPass in many of its 3,000 stores in Canada in 2007.

J.P. Morgan introduced an electronic payment solution known as Total Settlement to help businesses simplify the payment of supplier invoices and lay the foundation for complete order-to-pay automation. The new solution incorporates Automated Clearing House (ACH), commercial card, wire, and standard paper check payments in a single file, eliminating the extra effort in accounts payable involved with processing multiple payment types.

Visa Inc. announced its first global advertising campaign entitled "GO®” which will unite its worldwide marketing under a single theme in a move to show its superior value over cash and checks - including more security, more control and more convenience.GO campaign will be focusing on the advantages of migrating from cash and checks to a better form of electronic payment, Visa, for consumers and businesses.

A leading provider of POS solutions and electronic payment services CHARGE Anywhere announced the addition of ACH Services to its wide scope of features available on the secure payment gateway ComsGate. These new features will allow merchants to debit and credit funds from any checking, savings or business account.

The UK payments association Apacs conjointly with the Payments Council released a comprehensive overview on all UK payments data including expenditure on plastic cards, repayments and lending on credit cards, cash machine withdrawals, checks, Faster Payments, CHAPS payments, Direct Debits and Bacs Direct Credits.

In accordance with the new policy that was announced and introduced on October 20, 2008 eBay started blocking those listings that are still offering to accept paper payments. Under the new Accepted Payments policy sellers should have removed the previous text before January 15, 2009. Starting Thursday two weeks ago eBay is checking those listings where in the additional checkout instructions sellers still offer banned payment methods.

$150 million was being mailed out this week to nearly 740,000 customers of Wachovia Corporation. The money was sent to those consumers who may have been harmed by payment processors for telemarketers as reports the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC reached an amended settlement with Wachovia Bank over the account relationships the bank maintained with telemarketers who used remotely created checks, or RCCs, to harm Wachovia customers.

Checks that are resistant to counterfeit and amount changes will now be issued by Webmasterchecks, a Leading Phoenix-based Check Issuing and Payment Distribution Company. This week the company announced they are upgrading all of their check stock to an innovative style practically impossible to replicate. Internationally Renowned Fraud Consultant Frank W. Abagnale designed the check with 12 security features.

Banks and other organizations will be able to provide merchants with check scanners starting at $15 a month under the new program of Jack Henry & Associates, Inc., provider of integrated technology solutions and data processing services for financial institutions. Jack Henry & Associates launched a new project to enable banks and credit unions to capitalize on remote deposit capture (RDC) opportunities independent of the initial capital investments historically required to purchase check scanners and the ongoing hardware management and support.