Visa Inc announced its plans to introduce new fee scheme for US merchants. In a conference call with analysts Visa Chief Executive Joseph Saunders said the company would introduce a network participation fee in the United States for all of its debit, credit and prepaid card services. Among other things in the new policy Visa will lower the variable rate charged for transactions. The move comes in the wake of new fee structure that will take effect later this year under 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

Visa Inc. has announced beginning of cooperation with Gap to deliver real-time discounts and promotions to consumers via SMS text messages. Gap customers who opt-in to participate in the service are notified of money-saving discounts or promotions in real-time while shopping.  

Barclaycard is launching a new mobile banking service as a part of their online servicing platform mybarclaycard. With the new offering which can be accessed across different mobile phone models Barclaycard customers cab log into their accounts, check their balance and view payment or transaction history at any time by simply accessing the site through their mobile browser. Besides, the site integrates with the Barclaycard Freedom loyalty scheme to provide access to the latest offers from nearby retailers, using the latest geo-location technology.

As it became known Monday, Euroclear Bank is to allow clients to settle transactions and deposit Eurobonds and Hong Kong domestic securities denominated in the Chinese Yuan Renminbi in Euroclear Bank. The very first transactions in Renminbi are due to be settled on 27 September.

A UK major card network Barclaycard has entered into a partnership with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) accounting firm KashFlow to pilot an e-invoicing service for merchants. According to the reports of TechCrunch, Barclaycard is running the pilot test with 100 merchants so as to trial the KasFlow-based system for creating, sending and managing invoices through a Web browser. Apart from this functionality participants will also be able to track late transactions and receive payments via the Barclaycard gateway, for which the firm charges a three per cent fee.

Payfone has closed its $11M Series B financing round with investments by Opus Capital, BlackBerry Partners Fund, and RRE Ventures. Bob Borchers of Opus Capital and Kevin Talbot of BlackBerry Partners Fund will join Payfone’s Board of Directors. Payfone has developed the mobile platform that deploys the capabilities of existing inter-operator networks.

Amazon has introduced a new feature that allows users to connect to Facebook. This feature lets customers connect to Facebook to get Amazon recommendations for you and discover your friends' Favorites and Likes. Beside, the new function allows consumers:

MasterCard Worldwide has introduced a number of enhancements to its Worldwide Network which are meant to allow partnering financial institutions and merchants to improve the shopping experience for cardholders; identify new business opportunities; and improve operational efficiencies.

Barclays bank acquires the Italian credit card portfolio of Citi. The terms of the transactions were not unveiled. Under the deal about 197,000 credit card accounts and gross assets worth approximately EUR234 million will be sold to Barclays. Barclays says the business and staff will be integrated into its existing Italian operations and cards will be rebranded "over time".

PyraMax Bank is launching a new checking account today that caters to today’s mobile young adults. The meChecking account offers mobile banking, free ATM transactions, no monthly service fees and the added bonus of free music.

Visa launched a new promotion program called I Go with Visa Debit for consumers in Brazil and Mexico. The program is meant to educate young adults on why debit is faster, more convenient and secure than cash. I Go with Visa Debit is a unique campaign that engages consumers through online and social media networks and allows them to participate in a creative contest.

Fiserv has introduced its Deposit Manager, an integrated cash deposit solution that is designed to allow financial institutions to offer their retailing clients an improved way to handle end-to-end cash operations. Deposit Manager enables banks to offer a solution to corporate banking customers in the retailer segment that is designed to streamline cash operations, improve security, increase cash availability, provide fingertip balance and reconciliation reporting, reduce transportation spend and help facilitate a single banking relationship.

The mobile payment industry has stagnated at the trial phase for the past years. This slow uptake has been attributed to a number of reasons, from the underdevelopment of the mobile payment ecosystem to the lack of NFC-enabled handsets for users. The absence of handset options, in particular, has been blamed for the underwhelming user reception to mobile payments. New tools have since emerged in a bid to address this issue, touting abilities to convert any mobile phones into credit card readers.

CT-Payment Inc., a company specializing in electronic payment processing, announces today that it acquired the Assure Pay Debit and Credit Card processing business from TELUS Corporation. This business unit offers custom payment solutions across a wide range of communication protocols. It supports transactions from all major credit cards, as well as private-label, travel & entertainment and fleet cards.

Polo Shao, the AliPay President, is leading his company heading toward the mobile payment market, seizing mobile Internet market. So, the daily transaction value of AliPay has exceeded CNY 1.2 billion. AliPay has set up independent R&D team for the development of related products in a move to accelerate the development of mobile payment market. Currently, 2% to 3% of AliPay users accomplish their payment s through mobile phones. Meantime, the company representatives forecast that the figure will reach 10% to 15% next year.