Cash continues to be the number one payment medium. “Nine of ten payment transactions worldwide are made with cash. Our estimates show that this creates more than 300 billion dollars in costs, primarily for banks and retail businesses,” explains Eckard Heidloff, President and CEO of Wincor Nixdorf, at the opening of Wincor World 2010.

The National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) has developed the bill on creation and development of ecash system in the country. According to Vice–president  of NBK Batyrbek Alzhanov, the key purpose of this bill is to define a legal status of ecash and create a legal basis for its issue and use in Kazakhstan.

On February 3, 2010, the Federation Council of Russia approved the Act forbidding banks to change unilaterally interest rates for credits and deposits, and also the order of their definition, the size of commissions and validity periods of the contracts with individual customers.

According to J'son and Partners Consulting analytical company, by the end of 2009 the number of SIM cards registered in Russia increased up to 208.3 million pieces. Now the mobile penetration in Russia as a whole is 146.7%, and in the license zone of Moscow – 186.6%.

On January 19, 2010 the Government of the Russian Federation has adopted the Enactment #18 “On the statement of rules for rendering services to organize the passage of vehicles on the toll federal open highways and toll sites on them”.

Slashed budgets and reduced staffing numbers delayed many security initiatives in 2009, but the vulnerabilities didn’t retreat and will only intensify in 2010, Unisys security experts predict.

While a disaster of massive proportions, the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti nevertheless is boosting online giving and mobile payments in particular as U.S. donors seek the fastest way of putting their donations to work in the stricken country. As of 9 a.m. Eastern time Monday, more than 2 million donors had given $21 million in $10 increments to the American Red Cross’s Haitian earthquake-relief effort, according to Tony Aiello, chief executive of mGive, the technology platform of Mobile Accord Inc. Founded in 2005, Denver-based Mobile Accord works with 200 non-profit groups to raise funds via mobile devices.

Tieto has been named the fastest growing R&D outsourcing company in the Chinese mobile devices industry in 2009. The award was granted at the Mobile Industry Congress of China, organized by the government organization of the China Institute of Communication, in December 2009.

According to research of Statbanker.ru, an agency on financial statistics, in 2009 Russian banks have got $2 billion of revenue on credit cards and it’s by $200 million dollars less than in 2008.

Statbanker.ru, an agency on financial statistics, has published the review on influence of seasonal factors on cardholders, based on the data of the Bank of Russia.

Dmitry Borodai analyst of Phoenix Capital investment company (Kiev, Ukraine), expects the share of problem credits to increase in portfolios of Ukrainian banks from 8.8% in November of 2009, up to 9.5–9.7% in December.

Reuters reports that the U.K. Payments Council has placed a resting date on the kingdom's use of checks, calling an end to a payment method that has been widely used in the United Kingdom for the last 300 years.

Sberbank of Russia has announced the tender among insurance companies for cooperation in the private insurance of bank’s customers. The bank would like to offer its clients new kinds of insurance, including insurance of deposits on the sum over 700,000 roubles, i.e. exceeding the deposit sum guaranteed by the State with accordance to the Federal Act № 177 “On the private deposit insurance in banks of the Russian Federation”.

Sberbank of Russia, Experian Company and Interfax Group has announced the foundation of the united credit bureau.

By spring of 2010, Russian Post will equip each operating cash desk in all branches across the country with a postal cashier terminal.

On December, 9th, 2009, at its plenary session the State Duma of the Russian Federation has approved in the first reading the bill, introducing additional restrictions for banks to change some conditions of credit contracts with private customers unilaterally.

There were more than 450 million mobile Internet users worldwide in 2009, a number that is expected to more than double by the end of 2013.

According to Nikolay Melnikov, Deputy Head of the Federal Tax Service (FTS), FTS has suggested Sberbank of Russia to provide its customers with a “service of instant payment of taxes”. As he said, the bank could receive the information on due taxes of its customers who had concluded the agreement on automatic paying taxes off from the account.