The European Commission has announced it has sent a statement of objections to nine major French banks and Groupement des Cartes Bancaires relating to certain fees and rules regarding the issuance of CB cards in France that the Commission believes may limit competition. READ MORE »

Jathon Sapsford reports in this morning's Wall St. Journal that the head of JP Morgan Chase's credit card business has resigned (subscription required) from the board of MasterCard International.

J.P. Morgan and MasterCard both said the resignation of Richard Srednicki from the board of MasterCard doesn't have any bearing on whether the newly merged bank will go with Visa or MasterCard. "The action was a necessary step given the governance rules of the card associations and the merger and combination of Bank One's and Chase's credit-card businesses," said J.P. Morgan spokesman David Chamberlin.

CashCard, Australia's largest ATM operator and a subsidiary of First Data Corp., has submitted comments to the Reserve Bank of Australia urging reforms in the fees associated with ATM transactions including setting the ATM interchange fee to zero.

The Star (Malaysia) reports on comments by MasterCard country manager Jim Cheah about his optimism that the adoption of smart cards will significantly reduce credit card fraud losses.

Virgil Larson reports in the Omaha World-Herald on the announcement of First Data Corp.'s loss of JP Morgan Chase's card issuing processing business to TSYS.

First Data declined to talk about the impact that the loss of a major client and 17 percent of First Data's accounts would have on its Omaha operations, which employ 6,300 people. The number of cards being lost appears to be disproportionately higher than the revenue involved. More than a year ago, slightly more than half the number of cards was said to represent about $150 million, about 1 percent of the revenue of First Data's Card Issuing Services division, which includes First Data Resources in Omaha.

Note: $150 MM in revenue actually represents about 10 per cent of FDC's card issuing services division revenue, not 1% as Larson reports.