A new generation of person-to-person money transfer services is quickly gaining traction with banks, offering a way to regain a share of the electronic payments that was ceded long ago to nonbank rivals.

A substantial percentage of customers now access account information via smart phones and handsets rather than PCs, even at home.

The state government of Victoria, Australia will launch the contactless ticket system for trains in Melbourne, a spokesperson for the Transport Ticketing Authority, which manages the ticketing system, tells PaymentsSource. “We are assuming that it will be at least a couple of weeks before the system can be [launched] on trams and buses,” the spokesperson says. The state government says that about 1,000 government workers have been testing the cards in the Melbourne area for about two months. Myki is designed to replace a number of ticketing systems in Victoria, primarily the Metcard (metropolitan Melbourne) and V/Line (regional) ticketing systems. “For the passenger‚s convenience, we will run the old ticket system alongside myki for at least six months before we scrap [the old system],” the spokesperson adds. The myki system has run into previous problems, including 11,000 instances of overcharging across the state and complaints from bus passengers in the region of Geelong about malfunctioning readers and wrongful charges. Matthew Sinclair, executive director with Australia-based Carpadium Consulting, tells PaymentsSource that if myki operators cannot get the system working in a town the size of Geelong, with a population of about 162,000, then the scheme likely will fail in a city as large as Melbourne, with a population of about 4 million. “And this will be a big problem because Melbournites are big users of public transport,” he adds.

ATLANTA–Two Wisconsin-based credit unions have implemented VSoft’s outsourced branch item capture solution offered by its ASP platform, VSoft Managed Services. The $725-million Altra FCU and the $422 million Pioneer CU said the implementation will add additional convenience for members.

Monitise PLC, the British mobile banking vendor, says it plans a broader push next year into mobile retailing, initially in the United Kingdom, then across Europe and in the United States.

Though cards with displays that offer one-time passcodes for online transaction security could gain wider acceptance in the United States, the "jury's out" on whether the technology will win over Europeans, an executive with card vendor Gemalto NV tells CardLine Global sister publication PaymentsSource. "We are going to see the adoption of card [form] factors in the U.S. because it's familiar and people like it," says Thomas Flynn, the Amsterdam-based firm's director of marketing for identity and access management. "In Europe, you have familiarity with home [card] readers," which attach to consumers' computers to enable more-secure online-banking transactions via EMV chip cards and passcodes. Cards that display one-time passcodes generate those codes based on algorithms unique to each cardholder, and financial institutions typically store the algorithms on central servers. Consumers authenticate themselves by entering the numeric passcodes on the appropriate Web site-for instance, a bank site when initiating online transactions. The cards are the same size as traditional payment cards. "The credit card form factor is very familiar, and you can brand [the cards] in a similar way," Flynn says. Gemalto offers this technology through its Ezio Display Card, which "one major bank in the U.S." is using, he adds. Gemalto also sells at-home card readers, and the company Wednesday took a deeper step into that field when it announced it has completed the 20 million euro (US$29 million) purchase of the banking activities of France-based Xiring, which sells readers for online-banking transactions consumers complete at home.

By letting businesses pay each other with card accounts, Bank of New York Mellon Corp. says it can profitably ease the inherent tension between suppliers, which want to be paid as early as possible, and buyers, which often want to hold onto the funds until the last minute.

Results of a newly released online survey conducted in November show that nearly one-third of consumers believe the economic downturn has yet to bottom out.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.-Credit unions were atwitter like never before in 2009, as social media became a prime focus for marketing and member outreach strategies.

CHARLESTON, W.V.-A small credit union here became the first financial institution in the country to create an iPhone remote deposit application.

DAVENPORT, Iowa-A $93-million CU has already seen unexpected results in the three months it has offered its "triple play" mobile banking service that allows members to use SMS, a mobile browser or a download to access mobile banking.

BOSTON-With banks primarily focused on merchant capture, one company said credit unions are moving quickly to step into a vacuum and leverage opportunities in consumer capture.

BOSTON-There's a (compliance) app for that. Apple Computer's iPhone App Store model is increasingly becoming the model for delivery of services in the commercial market, including to credit unions.

Eighty consumers in the Zurich region are testing the use of mobile phones to make purchases from farmers’ markets in one of the latest tests of Near Field Communication technology, a spokesperson for Legic Identsystems Ltd., a Switzerland-based contactless-technology vendor participating in the project, tells CardLine. The test, which started this month and is scheduled to last four to six months, enables consumers to touch their NFC-enabled Nokia 6131 phones against price tags containing NFC chips in the farmer shops. The phones have “shopping basket” applications that store the item and price information, Legic says. Consumers touch a “checkout” tag to process the payments. The shops deploy no traditional point-of-sale terminals, Legic says. “No payment terminals are needed, as the payment process is handled via an over-the-air” service, the spokesperson says. “The payment information of each customer is connected to an account behind the scene, and the money is transferred to the farmer on a monthly basis.” Participants were selected from among existing market customers and consumers from the area, the spokesperson adds. Personnel from the University of Applied Sciences from Northwest Switzerland will monitor and analyze the test, Legic says. Austria-based mobile contactless-technology vendor Nextperts GmbH, Swiss-based mobile payments firm e24 AG and Germany-based chip card supplier Winter AG also are participating in the test.

Boku Inc., which enables consumers to charge so-called micropayments to mobile-phone bills, has begun offering its services in Estonia and Venezuela, according to Ron Hirson, co-founder and senior vice president of product at the San Francisco-based firm. The company operates in 58 countries, though the United States remains among the top three markets for Boku, he says, declining to be more specific. Consumers use Boku to purchase such digital goods and services as virtual currency for online games and pay fees for online dating sites. For instance, a consumer who wants to buy virtual currency to buy extra “lives” or other goods useful in online games would, after registering for the service, make the purchase through the game provider’s Web site. The consumer would confirm the purchase through a text message, and the charge would appear on the consumer’s mobile-phone bill, eliminating the need to use a payment card, which could reduce or eliminate a merchant’s profit because of relatively high interchange fees for such small purchases. The average transaction processed by Boku is between US$8 and US$9, Hirson says. Boku serves more than 1,000 merchants and processes payments for three of the top five game applications offered on social networking site Facebook, Hirson says. A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment. Hirson would not disclose the number of transactions processed by Boku, which begun full operations during this year’s first quarter. However, he says, Boku has experienced “double-digit [transaction] growth every month since the first quarter.”

Capital One Financial Corp. reported yesterday that more of its U.S. credit card borrowers fell behind on payments in November.

ATHENS, Ohio – Ohio University CU said yesterday it has launched a new Select Employee Group Ambassador Web Portal.

HARRISBURG, Penn. – Pennsylvania State Employees CU said yesterday it has signed with Firethorn Holdings, LLC to offer the company’s mobile banking platform to its members in 2010.

NYCE Payments Network LLC Monday officially joined the alternative-payments space when it announced a partnership with CardinalCommerce Corp. to offer its SafeDebit Internet-debit product to online merchants. NYCE believes SafeDebit addresses consumers’ concerns about the safety of purchasing goods and services online, though some observers say the companies still face the difficult task of marketing the product.

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Affinity FCU said it has partnered with Digital Insight, an Intuit company (the makers of QuickBooks and Quicken) to offer Small Business FinanceWorks, an online solution designed to streamline the financial tasks of small businesses.