Responding to the wishes of members who travel internationally, the United Nations Federal Credit Union announced in May 2010 that it will become the first U.S. financial institution to issue Europay/MasterCard/Visa (EMV)-compliant chip cards. The organization partnered with digital security provider Gemalto to produce the microprocessor-embedded cards. The UNFCU's membership is mostly comrpised of employees and retirees (and their relatives) of the United Nations and affiliated organizations – like the U.N. Foundation, U.N. Association and U.N. International School. Not surprisingly, many members are frequent travelers.

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On May 20, 2010, close to 40 women in the payments industry gathered at a Wells Fargo & Co. penthouse meeting room in San Francisco to attend the Women in Electronic Transactions (W.net) Local Interest Networking Circle (LINC) for Northern California. The draw was Debra Rossi, Executive Vice President, General Manager of Merchant Payment Solutions for Wells Fargo.

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Significant changes to the payments industry seem all but foregone following the U.S. Senate's approval of the sweeping financial reform bill on May 20, 2010. Along with the stricter regulation of practices that include consumer lending and derivatives trading, the bill contains provisions about merchant card acceptance and debit card-based interchange fees. The Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010, which passed the Senate on a 59-39 vote, must now be combined with a similar bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives; if that "reconciliation" bill is approved by both chambers of Congress – and there is broad agreement that it will be – it will go to President Obama to be signed into law.

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Apple Inc. outlets are reportedly refusing cash payments for the iPad, a policy that drew widespread attention after a woman in Palo Alto, Calif., was denied cash purchase of the corporation's newest gadget. Apple is said to be accepting only credit and debit cards or personal checks for the iPad, and is limiting purchases of the item to two per customer.

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In a development that may lead to dramatic change in the payments industry, the so-called Durbin amendment to the financial services reform bill passed the U.S. Senate by a 64 to 33 vote. The amendment would mandate the Federal Reserve Board to regulate interchange. In a statement following the vote on May 13, 2010, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said, "Passage of this measure gives small businesses and their customers a real chance in the fight against the outrageously high 'swipe fees' charged by Visa and MasterCard."

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Just as mobile phones are growing into the focal point of both the payments industry and the technology sector at large, so were they the predominant focus at the recent Future of Money and Technology conference, held April 26, 2010, at the Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco.

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MasterCard Worldwide is celebrating its first-quarter 2010 financial results: the company's quarterly revenue grew 13.1 percent to $1.3 billion over the same period last year, while net income was up nearly 24 percent at $455 million, or $3.46 per diluted share. In a May 4, 2010, earnings conference call, MasterCard Chief Executive Officer Robert Selander stated, "During the month of March, we saw positive growth in processed U.S. credit volume for the first time in approximately 18 months. This trend continues through the first four weeks of April."

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The government benefits sector of the prepaid card industry is experiencing massive growth. Mercator Advisory Group reported that the market for Social Security payments grew 11,000 percent in 2009 – the result of a large government expansion of the U.S. Social Security Administration's pilot program.

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The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), the organization in charge of developing and managing the data security protocols that affect payment networks, hardware and software, initiated the Internal Security Assessor (ISA) Program for the training and certification of personnel at large-scale organizations. The program covers the fundamentals and intricacies of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS). The three-day courses are to be held regularly in cities around the world, starting in May 2010 in Sydney, Australia. The training is designed for the security assessment staff at entities like level 1 merchants, acquiring banks and processors.

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