Debitman has announced that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is now accepting Debitman cards at checkout in all Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club locations across the United States.

“We are thrilled to be working with Wal-Mart,” said R. Scott Hatfield, President and COO of Debitman. “There can be no better validation of our business model and company mission.”

Eileen Alt Powell reports for the AP on two new class action lawsuits filed today against Visa USA, MasterCard Inc. and a number of major banks over interchange fees. The cases were filed by the American Booksellers Association and the National Grocers Association and several of its members, including Affiliated Foods Midwest, Coborn's Inc., D'Agostino's Supermarkets and the Minnesota Grocers Association.

Convenience Store News reports on a Nov. 10th amicus brief filing with the US Supreme Court by the Food Marketing Institute urging the court to reject an invitation from Visa to "create an antitrust safe harbor" regarding interchange fees. The complete brief (PDF) is available online on the FMI web site.

Certegy and PassMark Security have announced plans to offer PassMark's two-factor, two-way authentication system with Certegy's Internet Banking, Cash Management and Bill Pay system.

Bloomberg reports on a study titled Precious Plastic 2006 released today by PriceWaterhouseCoopers in the UK predicting that as the rate of borrowing on credit cards is slowing, card issuers in the UK are likely to introduce annual fees on cards to help make up for lower profitability. A copy of the report is available for downloading online following registration.

BAI's Banking Strategies reports on comments earlier today by Steve Mott at a BAI Payments Forum session on the subject of credit card interchange fees.

MasterCard and Travelex have announced a new turnkey prepaid travel card program enabling MasterCard banks to offer prepaid, reloadable MasterCard branded cards as a "more secure and convenient alternative to travelers cheques and cash."

CIO Today interviews John Partridge, president and CEO of Inovant LLC, Visa's global IT organization.

"When Visa updates VisaNet, it's like modifying a 747 engine while the plane is in the air and full of passengers," said Partridge. "The margin of error is zero."

PayPal has announced a new customized gift certificate program for merchants who accept PayPal. Details available on the PayPal web site.

Dell has announced that it now accepts PayPal payments from U.S. consumer and small business customers.

PGP Corporation has announced the results of two surveys of customer response to incidents of data breaches. The surveys reported that almost 20 percent of customers immediately terminated their accounts with vendors that lost their information, and an additional 40 percent considered termination. Companies participating in a parallel study estimated incurring an average cost of $14 million per breach incident, with costs ranging as high as $50 million. The reports are available online from PGP.

BitPass has announced an agreement with MSN to enable digital content sales on targeted international MSN portals. As part of the relationship, BitPass will work with MSN to provide co-branded payment services and a marketplace to MSN consumers, enabling a consistent and convenient buying experience.

First Data Corp. has announced the results of a new study that concludes that on average, PIN-based point-of-sale (POS) transactions cost approximately 50 percent less than signature debit transactions for financial institutions.

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