The Wall St. Journal is reporting that Morgan Stanley's board of directors has approved the sale of the company's Discover Card unit. Other news stories are reporting that Morgan Stanley has declined to comment on the report.

Update: Morgan Stanley released a press release late this afternoon confirming the earlier story about plans to spin off its Discover Card unit.

Peppercoin and Ingenico have announced a partnership to offer Peppercoin's Small Transaction Suite to merchants.

The Center for Financial Services Innovation has released Request for Proposals today for its second round of funding awards, designed to advance practical strategies to service underbanked consumers and offer them asset-building opportunities. The Center will invest in for-profit companies, as well as provide grants to nonprofit organizations.

TSYS Prepaid has announced that it is sponsoring the formation of an industry-wide prepaid card association.

MasterCard has announced an 8 per cent growth in PIN debit cards issued worldwide to a year end 2004 total of 562.6 million cards. 8.4 million merchant locations globally are now equipped for PIN debit card acceptance, a growth of 8.7 per cent over 2003.

Jonathan Krim writes for the Washington Post about the ease of online access to sensitive personal information.

Although Social Security numbers are one of the most powerful pieces of personal information an identity thief can possess, they remain widely available and inexpensive despite public outcry and the threat of a congressional crackdown after breaches at large information brokers.