Registration Opens for Globalocity, an International Commerce Conference Hosted by Digital River

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Event brings together industry’s top thought leaders to explore today’s most pressing global commerce challenges

MINNEAPOLIS – March, 2012 – Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRIV), the revenue growth experts in global cloud commerce, announced the opening of attendee registration for Digital River® Globalocity™, the premiere commerce conference for industry influencers. This must-attend event, which draws top business visionaries, industry analysts, global commerce executives and senior professionals from the U.S., Europe and Asia, will take place May 14-16, 2012, at the JW Marriott L.A. LIVE Hotel in Los Angeles, Calif. Registrations can be made through the event website at www.goglobalocity.com. Discounted early bird registration closes Mar. 23, 2012.

“The transformation taking place in today’s commerce industry has never been more pronounced than it is today,” said Joel Ronning, Digital River’s CEO. “Disruptive technologies, on-the-go consumers from diverse markets across the globe, and the convergence of software and connected devices are just some of the factors forcing commerce professionals to innovate at a break-neck pace to ensure their companies’ success. Globalocity will provide insight on how these market dynamics are impacting the industry and uncover the strategies that executives at leading organizations are implementing to meet these changes.”

Globalocity will address a wide variety of topics, ranging from social and mobile commerce, to the digital marketplace, security, the cloud and emerging online geographies. Participants will have access to some of the most influential people in international commerce and a rich agenda of industry panels and education sessions – all focused on delivering actionable strategies for accelerating online sales across channels and regions.

The lineup of speakers includes more than 70 commerce experts, representing industry organizations as well as leading brands from markets such as software, games and consumer electronics.

Featured keynote speakers include:

Gene Alvarez, Research Vice President, Gartner, Inc. Mr. Alvarez has more than 28 years of IT experience in business impact assessment, vendor management, project management, software development and delivery of complex business applications.
Julie Ask, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, Inc. Ms. Ask serves e-business and channel strategy professionals. More specifically, her research covers telecommunications and consumer mobility.
Martin Lindstrom, Brand Futurist Mr. Lindstrom is an author and Time Magazine Influential 100 honoree. His books include “Buyology - Truth and Lies About Why We Buy,” and “Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy.” He is a weekly columnist for Fast Company and TIME Magazine and frequently contributes to NBC’s TODAY Show.
James McQuivey, Ph.D, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, Inc.
Dr. McQuivey serves consumer product strategy professionals. He analyzes television and media technology and specializes in the future of the moving image, including digital video recorders, HDTV, video on demand, Internet-based video, and the business implications of each of these disruptive technologies or movements.
Joel Ronning, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Digital River
Mr. Ronning launched Digital River in 1994 with a vision to use the Internet instead of mail to deliver software. More than 15 years later, Digital River is a recognized revenue growth expert in global cloud commerce, helping to grow the online businesses of some of the world's foremost multi-national companies.
Brian Walker, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, Inc. Mr. Walker serves e-business and channel strategy professionals and specializes in how businesses can best use technology to drive results. Mr. Walker is a leading worldwide expert in e-commerce platforms, multi-channel commerce and marketing technology, and mobile commerce.

About Digital River, Inc.

Digital River, Inc., the revenue growth experts in global cloud commerce, builds and manages online businesses for software and game publishers, consumer electronics manufacturers, distributors, online retailers and affiliates. Its multi-channel commerce solution, which supports both direct and indirect sales, is designed to help companies of all sizes maximize online revenues as well as reduce the costs and risks of running a global commerce operation. The company’s comprehensive platform offers site development and hosting, order management, global payments, cloud-based billing, fraud management, export controls, tax management, physical and digital product fulfillment, multi-lingual customer service, advanced reporting and strategic marketing services.

Founded in 1994, Digital River is headquartered in Minneapolis with offices across the U.S., Asia, Europe and South America. For more details about Digital River, visit the corporate website, follow the company on Twitter or call +1 952-253-1234.

NRA joins debit card fee lawsuit against the Federal Reserve

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March 8, 2012 | By Paul Frumkin

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The National Restaurant Association said it joined a lawsuit against the Federal Reserve, claiming that it failed to follow Congress’ intent regarding the amount that banks could charge retailers for accepting debit cards.

The lawsuit argues, among other things, that the Fed’s final rule on debit-card swipe or interchange fees set the rate at a higher level than Congress had intended when it passed the Durbin Amendment in 2010.

The legislation gave the Fed the power to regulate fees for debit cards and directed that it ensure they are “reasonable and proportional” to the cost of processing transactions.

Last June, the Fed said it would limit the fees that banks can charge operators and retailers to 21 cents per transaction, higher than its initial proposed cap of about 12 cents per transaction. Previously, businesses had been paying an average of 44 cents per transaction.

As a result of the ruling, major credit card companies said they would increase the interchange fees to the Federal Reserve’s limit on small-ticket transactions of $15 or less.

The NRA maintains that this hike in fees will damage small businesses with high small-ticket volumes, like quick-service restaurants.

“While the Federal Reserve’s rule significantly brought down debit swipe fees for many merchants, some small businesses will pay higher fees on smaller ticket transactions — evidence that the Fed provided card networks like Visa and MasterCard too much latitude to increase rates well above a reasonable and proportional level,” said Scott DeFife, executive vice president of Policy and Government Affairs for the NRA.

“Allowing higher fees on small-ticket bills was not the intent of Congress, and the Federal Reserve must reconcile this failure to comply with the law as intended.”

In addition, the lawsuit contends that the Fed’s final rule does not promote price competition among card networks that would help decrease network fees. The suit claims the law was meant to create “a competitive market dynamic between networks, such as Visa and MasterCard, to keep costs down.”

As it stands, the Fed’s rule will not spur competition on signature debit routing and only limited competition — if any — on PIN transactions, the suit argues.

The NRA joins the Food Marketing Institute, the National Association of Convenience Stores, the National Retail Federation, Boscov’s Department Store and Miller Oil Co. in the suit.

Contact Paul Frumkin at paul.frumkin@penton.com.

Read more: http://nrn.com/article/nra-joins-debit-card-fee-lawsuit-against-federal-reserve#ixzz1oZBbSZwo

Near Field Communication (NFC) Market to 2016 - Increased Availability of NFC Embedded Handsets Key for Higher Market Penetration

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March 08, 2012 09:57 AM Eastern Time 

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Near Field Communication (NFC) Market to 2016 - Increased Availability of NFC Embedded Handsets Key for Higher Market Penetration" report to their offering.

GBI Research's new report, Near Field Communication (NFC) Market to 2016 - Increased Availability of NFC Embedded Handsets Key for Higher Market Penetration, provides key information and analysis on the NFC market. NFC is a wireless or contactless communication technology based on International Organization for Standardization (ISO), European Computers Manufacturers Association (ECMA) and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standards. It is comparable with other existing technologies such as MIFARE and FeliCa. The main application areas of NFC-based integrated circuits (ICs) are for mobile-based payments in the retail segment and transportation ticketing.

The report covers the latest information and research efforts of a number of NFC companies and organizations around the world. The report provides information on the market size of different NFC secure element (SE) form factors and provides analysis of the key NFC end user market segments. It also provides a comparative analysis of NFC and MIFARE, FeliCa, Square and Bluetooth (BT). The report discusses the NFC ecosystem and its partners, and the different business models that could be potentially deployed. Expert views and comments from various organizations and companies, such as GSMA, Sequent Software Inc, EMVCo and Comprion GmbH, are also included.

This report is built using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, primary and secondary research, and in-house analysis by GBI Research's team of industry experts.

Read more inside Near Field Communication (NFC) Market to 2016

Companies Mentioned:

• Sony Corporation
• NXP Semiconductors
• Nokia Corporation
• MasterCard Worldwide
• Identive Group Inc
• Oberthur Technologies
• Gemalto N.V

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/161df7/near_field_communi

Gemalto full year 2011 results

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March 07, 2012 06:05 PM Eastern Time

• Revenue from Ongoing operations at €2 billion, up by 9% at constant rate
• Profit from Ongoing operations at €239 million, increases by 15%
• New products and services drive strong profit expansion in Mobile Communication
• Secure Transactions and Security outperform their profit margin objectives

AMSTERDAM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

“Profit (loss) from discontinued operation (net of income tax)”

The income statement is presented on an adjusted basis (see page 2 “Basis of preparation of financial information”). These non-GAAP financial measures are not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for comparable IFRS measures and should be read only in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with IFRS. The reconciliation with the IFRS income statement is presented in Appendix 2. The balance sheet is prepared in accordance with IFRS, and the cash position variation schedule is derived from the IFRS cash flow statement.

Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 - GTO), the world leader in digital security today announces its results for the full year 2011.

Key figures of the adjusted income statement

						Year-on-year variations
€in millions		Full year 2011		Full year 2010		at historical exchange rates		at constant exchange rates
Ongoing operations
Revenue		2000		1862		+7%		+9%
Gross profit		747		676		+11%
Operating expenses		(509)		(468)		+10%
Profit from operations		239		207		+15%
Profit margin		11.9%		11.1%		+0.8 ppt
Other operations
Revenue		15		44
Profit from operations		17		8
All operations
Total revenue		2015		1906		+6%		+8%
Total profit from operations		256		216		+19%

Olivier Piou, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “In 2011, halfway through our strategic plan, we clearly outperformed our objectives. Secure Transactions and Security have become double-digit profit margin businesses, with strong growth and scale effects. Mobile Communication is back to revenue and profit expansion, benefitting from our investments in software and services. Consequently, the combined profit from operations of our four main segments¹ grew by 28% in 2011. These results provide a strong base for the second part of our plan. We will continue along our strategy of transformation and expansion in the growing market of digital security, and have confidence in reaching our €300 million profit from operations target in 2013.”

¹ The four main segments are the Mobile Communication, Machine-to-Machine, Secure Transactions, and Security business segments. They represented almost all the Company revenue in 2011 and in 2010.

Basis of preparation of financial information

In this press release, the information for the full year of both 2011 and 2010 is presented for Ongoing operations and under the 2011 format of segment reporting, unless otherwise specified.  (continue reading)

White Paper: Benchmarking Level 4 Merchant PCI Compliance: The Acquirer's Perspective

	PaymentsSource provides proprietary industry White Papers from leading research vendors and industry sponsors respectively.
	Benchmarking Level 4 Merchant PCI Compliance: The Acquirer's Perspective Download this White Paper ControlScan, in partnership with the Merchant Acquirers' Committee (MAC), conducted the first annual survey of acquirers, including banks, payment processors and ISOs. This "Acquirer Study" is the first study of its kind and focuses on the experiences and viewpoints of acquirers in helping small merchants achieve PCI compliance. The study was conceived from the industry's frustration with the perceived lack of progress with PCI compliance among small merchants-and with the lack of visibility into industry benchmarks for measuring progress. Download this white paper to review the complete findings, as well as learn how ISOs and acquirers can establish effective PCI compliance programs that drive results.
	For more information on how to promote your next white paper or proprietary research, please contact:
	Hope Lerman  National Sales Manager 312.475.0649 hope.lerman@sourcemedia.com		Howard Gilbert Project Manager 212.803.8367 howard.gilbert@sourcemedia.com

Who will Lead in Mobile Purchasing? Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, PayPal…or your Bank?

March 08, 2012 09:45 AM Eastern Time \

Javelin’s TIP Model^TM Identifies Brand Influence on Mobile Purchasing

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Javelin Strategy & Research’s latest report examines the convergence of the latest mobile-social media technology cycle with mobile payments.  The report explored consumers’ perception of brands and mobile banking and identifies the likely companies that will be leaders in mobile commerce. With almost $200 billion in combined 2011 revenues, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon are well positioned to take the lead in mobile payments landscape. However, the top mobile payments spot is still up for grabs, as consumers trust PayPal, Visa, and their own banks for making financial transactions compared to mobile networks, social media, and online retailers. 

“Don’t count out banks, which are well respected in their geographic markets”

The report reveals the shift in consumer mobile behaviors over the past two years and spotlights emerging market opportunities for mobile wallets. In 2011, consumers’ mobile purchases of physical goods skyrocketed to 41% from 14% in 2009, while those of ringtones, which once dominated the market, decreased significantly. This shift from “nice to have” to “needs” indicates how consumers are beginning to find more value in purchasing via mobile devices.

Using its TIP (Trust-Innovation-Privacy) Model^TM, Javelin scored brand effects of social media, mobile networks, and financial institutions (FIs) on trust, innovation, and privacy. While PayPal came closest to reaching “Gold Zone”, the high trust-high innovation-high privacy position, no brand placed in the coveted spot.  However, despite overall low scores in all three categories, FIs scored extremely well among their own customers, receiving the highest rankings for trust in security, protecting private information, and even innovation. Facebook and Sprint were the least trusted brands for financial transacting.

“Although consumers rate Apple as the greatest innovator, no brand will reach the Gold Zone without the right alliance,” said Mary Monahan, Executive Vice President and Research Director, Mobile at Javelin. “Companies will need to understand how their brand resonates with consumers in the three key areas of trust, innovation and privacy. Brands must partner with companies to achieve complementary strengths and widespread adoption in mobile payments.”

“Don’t count out banks, which are well respected in their geographic markets,” said Jim Van Dyke, President, Javelin. “Our data shows that banks’ own consumers ranked them higher on trust and privacy than payment providers, mobile network carriers, other banks, and the Gang of Four. FIs are viable partners for these mobile payment vendors.”

Javelin’s Gang of Four (and Possibly Five) Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon – and PayPal report analyzes consumer perceptions of mobile payments players of trust, innovation, and privacy and recommends strategies for social media and mobile companies and FIs to succeed in the mobile purchasing market. The report is based on survey data collected online from more than 5,800 consumers.  

Selected Key Report Findings

• Mobile technology usage is on the rise, paving the way for increased mobile purchasing. By 2016, 72% of adults will use smartphones, while 40% of mobile phone owners will use tablets.
• Consumers’ mobile purchases of physical goods skyrocketed to 41% from 14% in 2009, while purchasing of ringtones significantly decreased.
• Consumers with primary banking relationships at FIs gave their own banks the highest trust and privacy scores over Visa, which received top scores among all consumers.

For additional details or to purchase Javelin’s report, click here Gang of Four (and Possibly Five) Apple Google Facebook Amazon – and PayPal: Positioning for Payments in the New Mobile-Social Technology Era

Discover Financial Services Announces First Quarter 2012 Earnings Release and Conference Call

March 07, 2012 04:00 PM Eastern Time 

RIVERWOODS, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) plans to report its first quarter 2012 results after the market closes on Wednesday, March 21, 2012. The earnings release will be available on Discover's corporate website at www.investorrelations.discoverfinancial.com.

A conference call to discuss the firm's results, outlook and related matters will be held at 5 p.m. Eastern time. The general public is invited to listen to the call by dialing 800-447-0521 (U.S. domestic) or 847-413-3238 (international), passcode 31982269, or via a live audio webcast through the Investor Relations section of the website. For those unable to listen to the live broadcast, a replay will be available on our website or by dialing 888-843-7419 (U.S. domestic) or 630-652-3042 (international), passcode 31982269, beginning approximately two hours after the event. The replay of the conference call will be available through April 20, 2012.

NFC India Summit 2012 Presented by Nokia

NFC India Summit 2012

Date: 18th May 2012

Location: Intercontinental The Lalit, Mumbai, India

Organiser: Cerebral Business

NFC will be the next big game-changer in India as from Indian consumer perspective people love sharing. Cerebral Business Research is delighted to share with you that we are organizing a business & content rich event dedicated to NFC – NFC India Summit 2012 scheduled on 18^th May 2012 at Intercontinental The Lalit, Mumbai acknowledged by Mobile Payment Forum of India.

Being India's First & Only Business Summit on NFC will offer an exciting & powerful forum for all participants to get insights on –

• Successful strategies for promoting mass market adoption of NFC payments in India
• To understand how successful ecosystem of supporting devices can be built
• Tools for increasing scale in order to help people make up their mind
• Proven market trends & business strategies from around the world for NFC deployment in India
• Proven strategies for commercialization of NFC services from around the world and generating profit from it.

NFC and m-payments have great potential due to the relationship between a mobile subscriber and their handset, where the mobile device is often with the end-user for most of their waking time. NFC India Summit 2012 would attract over 400 delegates & 25 + industry expert speakers on the panel from India & Worldwide who are involved in developing NFC Technology. More than 25+ C-level speakers will address the gathering and share their insights towards implementing NFC in India.

More info:

• http://www.cerebralbusiness.com/NFC/

Mobile Commerce Market Set to Accelerate with NFC Facilitating $74bn Transactions by 2015

Hampshire, UK: 8th March 2012: A new study by Juniper Research forecasts that NFC will facilitate transactions valued at $74bn by 2015 as NFC is increasingly used for the payment of goods in-store and as transport tickets; this is over treble the estimated value of this market in 2011. The increasing use of mobile devices as an alternative to credit cards and paper tickets is one of the fastest growing segments of the mobile commerce market.  

The Mobile Commerce Markets report shows that the rapid adoption of mobile devices for commerce-related applications is by no means limited to NFC. All segments - money transfers, banking, payments and coupons - are forecast to exhibit significant growth rates.

Report author David Snow explained: "Our report demonstrates the spectacular growth we see across all segments of the mobile commerce market. Four of these segments (money transfer, physical goods, NFC and coupons) will more than treble in transaction value over the next three years, whilst digital goods, banking and tickets will still on average, double over the same period."

The Juniper report, however, stressed that mobile commerce providers need to keep security issues in mind. Even if there is a perceived, if not actual, security risk in the mind of users, not only the specific mobile commerce application, but also the whole mobile commerce market may be set back until user trust is recovered.

Further findings include:

·         SMS is the key to widespread mobile banking service adoption

·         Without interoperability mobile money transfer services will struggle to gain a critical mass of users.

·         Whilst mobile coupons still represent the smallest mobile commerce segment, it is demonstrating the highest growth rate.

The new Juniper report features segment level assessments of mobile payments for digital and physical goods, NFC, mobile money transfer and remittances, mobile ticketing, mobile coupons and mobile banking. The study pinpoints the key market drivers and constraints and sizes all seven mobile commerce market segments through global five year forecasts of gross transaction values. 

The Mobile Commerce whitepaper is available to download from the Juniper website together with further details of the study.

Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.

Jess Hanslip
Juniper Research
T: +44(0)1256 830 001
E: jess.hanslip@juniperresearch.com

The MoBank Group Accelerates the MCommerce Market with MoPowered

British e-tailers are losing in excess of £10 billion a year through not adequately supporting mobile

London, 8^th March 2012 – The MoBank Group has today announced the launch of their MoPowered mCommerce service which it believes will significantly improve accessibility to mobile retailing for all merchants.

MoPowered is a managed service that enables merchants to integrate a mobile retailing platform with minimal disruption to their everyday business. Dominic Keen, Chief Executive of The MoBank Group says: “We estimate that 80% of UK merchants aren’t currently on mobile. MoPowered will stimulate a significant change in the retail world as it makes mCommerce readily available to merchants of all sizes.”

MoPowered enables sophisticated, highly functional mCommerce sites to go live within weeks, compared to the industry average which is typically many months. The MoBank Group is a leading European mCommerce specialist, providing the complete package from m-site build and cataloguing through to highly secure mobile checkout.

An extremely cost effective mCommerce solution, MoPowered charges predominantly through pay per purchase models. MoPowered also provides completely secure mobile payment capabilities which are PCI-DSS compliant (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and compatible with 3D-Secure Schemes (such as Verified by Visa and Mastercard Securecode) .

Until now, mobile solutions have been viewed as complex, expensive and only attainable by the largest retailers. However, MoPowered makes this technology accessible to merchants of all sizes and it comes at a time when retailers need to diversify and open up more merchandising channels to stay competitive.

Mobile shopping is a fast growing phenomenon in the UK, which leads worldwide smartphone adoption. A recent study by Forrester has estimated that by 2016, 14 million people will be making purchases via mobile handsets.

Keen explains:  Our own data aligns with the recent statement made by Google which states that, "up to 15% of online traffic is via mobile. This means that not having a mobile site is like closing your website for one day a week. Our models suggest that approximately £10 billion of commerce is being lost each year, a significant chunk of the UK economy.” 

The MoBank Group has a wealth of experience and expertise, gathered in part from its work to date with a variety of retailers. These include HMV, Waterstones, and Game through to more niche merchants such as up-market takeaway firm Deliverance, outdoors specialist BAM and, greeting cards vendor The Tickle Company.

Darren Tickle, Founder of The Tickle Company says: “. Mo­Powered has enabled us to gain access to a whole new and exciting channel as easily as flipping a switch. It’s the kind of easy and effective solution that I need as a small business owner.”

About The MoBank Group

The MoBank Group is a specialist in creating transactional systems on mobile, connecting retailers of all sizes with their consumers via mobile every day.

Experts in secure, industry leading mobile sites that are fully functional from search through to payment, The MoBank Group’s mCommerce platform MoPowered, transports merchants through every stage of m-site integration from site building, inventory cataloguing and marketing through to mobile checkout.

Dedicated to providing mCommerce for all, MoPowered represents a specialised, accessible and cost effective solution to help all retailers to take advantage of the growth opportunities offered by mCommerce.  MoPowered enables merchants to quickly and seamlessly integrate a mobile channel strategy.

Bridging the gap between the payments and mobile world, The MoBank Group is PCI-DSS compliant (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and fully understands the checkout and payment chain. Its clients range from small bespoke retailers and seasoned British brands through to internationally recognised names such as Waterstones, HMV and Game. MoBank works in partnership with leading payment companies such as WorldPay, Ogone, Realex and Sagepay.

For more information about MoPowered, please visit: www.mopowered.co.uk