Visa USA has announced that it is pledging a $1 million cash contribution to the American Red Cross in addition to waiving all fees for US Visa card-based donations to five globally recognized charitable organizations from January 6, 2005 through February 15, 2005.

The charities include CARE USA - Asia Quake Disaster Fund, American Red Cross - International Response Fund, Mercy Corps - Southeast Asia Tsunami Fund, Oxfam America - Tsunami Relief and Rehabilitation Fund; and Save the Children USA - Asia Earthquake/Tsunami Wave Relief Fund.

That's the headline in tomorrow's Wall St. Journal for a story by Robin Sidel and Joseph Hallinan on the decision announced earlier by Washington Mutual to move its debit card business to MasterCard.

Washington Mutual has announced that it will move its principal payment card programs to MasterCard.

Ray Paulick, editor-in-chief of Bloodhorse.com, writes about the influence that Visa USA CEO Carl Pascarella has had over the sport of racing over the last decade.

Ed Seigenfeld, executive vice president of Triple Crown Productions, said Pascarella turned Visa into the most dynamic corporate sponsor in all of sports. "They know how to market their sponsorships--from the Triple Crown to the National Football League," said Seigenfeld.

"Carl's leadership is evident in how he drives his people to maximize the usage of their sponsorships. These events are not just a place to bring people and entertain them. Visa is universally recognized as the best at using their sponsorships."

Retail Decisions (ReD) has announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office has stated that it will re-examine the granting of US patent 6,029,154 that is the subject of an infringement claim by CyberSource against Retail Decisions.

The USPTO’s decision is in response to a re-examination request submitted by ReD, following the discovery (by ReD) of “prior art” that pre-dates the Cybersource patent.

US Patent 6,029,154, titled "Method and system for detecting fraud in a credit card transaction over the internet", was filed by inventor John Pettitt on July 28, 1997 and issued on February 22, 2000.

MasterCard yesterday filed an 8-K with the SEC stating that it had entered into an agreement with Citigroup to establish a pricing arrangement for transaction processing services provided by MasterCard to Citigroup affiliates outside of North America. Citigroup and its affiliates own approximately 6.0% of the common stock of MasterCard.