Visa USA reports $32.2 billion in holiday spending volumes for the week before Christmas (Dec. 19 - Dec. 25) were up 26.9 percent over the same period last year. Friday, December 23rd was the highest overall sales volume day of the 2005 holiday shopping season as consumers spent over $5.9 billion.

Jonathan Birchall reports for the Financial Times on Pay By Touch's plans to expand from 300 stores today equipped with its biometric payment service to an estimated 6,000 stores by the end of next year.

iPayment has announced that it has agreed to a buyout at $43.50 per share by a new corporation formed by Chairman and CEO Gregory S. Daily and will be taken private as a result. Earlier, the company had appointed a special committee of its board of directors to consider Daily's offers.

Note: Throughout the day, as Payments News happens, this post is updated.

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