American Express CEO Ken Chenault spoke to a UBS investor conference earlier today. His speech text and presentation slides are available online.

US Bank announced this afternoon that it has purchased Genpass, making US Bank the second largest third-party ATM processor in the US.

Visa USA announced today that consumer spending on Visa Signature cards in the US surpassed $100 billion over the past 12 months.

Metavante announced this morning the signing of a definitive merger agreement to acquire Med-i-Bank (MBI) for $145 million.

MasterCard today reported first quarter financial results. Net income for the quarter was $93 million or $0.93 per share compared to $74 million or $0.74 per share for the same quarter last year. Revenues were $638.2 million for the quarter up 10.7 percent over last year.

Chris McWilton, MasterCard's chief financial officer pointed out that "despite pricing pressure in an increasingly competitive payments marketplace, the first quarter of 2005 represents the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth for MasterCard. This growth underscores our ability to continue to increase MasterCard's profitability while delivering enhanced value to our key stakeholders."

MasterCard filed its 10-Q for the first quarter with the SEC yesterday. Included as an exhibit was a recent Master Agreement (with many details redacted) between JP Morgan Chase and MasterCard.

Alan Wechsler reports for the Times Union (Albany, NY) on merchant resentment about the fees charged for accepting credit cards.

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