MBNA announced this morning that is has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Nexstar Financial.

Founded in 1999, Nexstar is a leading business process outsourcer in the home finance market. Nexstar's highly scaleable platform for originating and processing home finance products will enable MBNA to offer private label and co-branded home equity loans through its more than 5,000 affinity partners. Nexstar's state-of-the-art technology also will enable MBNA to significantly reduce its costs to originate home equity loans and enhance the Customer experience in this rapidly growing industry.

Sam Varghese writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about a recent email campaign launched by Westpac -- and questions whether the bank knew what it was doing.

Bruce Mohl reports in the Boston Globe on increasing concerns about identity theft based upon the LexisNexis incident and new news about potentially compromised credit card accounts by GM MasterCard.

Tim Pennington reports for the Cincinnati Enquirer on credit card use and consumer debt.

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