Jennifer Kingson reports for the New York Times on First Data Corp.'s challenges in dealing with its underperforming card processing business unit. The combined effects of industry consolidation and a competitor's (TSYS) updated issuer processing platform have removed many of the advantages formerly held by FDC's once dominant issuer processing unit. According to Kingson, FDC is expected to announce its plans for the unit by the end of January.

Visa has announced that on December 23 Visa's payment network processed a record 179 million transactions in a 24-hour period, surpassing last year's peak processing day by 22 percent -- compared to an average day when the VisaNet system processes roughly 100 million transactions.

Jane Spencer reports for the Wall St. Journal on how some consumers' credit ratings have been negatively impacted as private collection agencies are increasingly involved in collecting routine municipal fines and fees on behalf of financially strapped municipal governments and agencies.

CheckFree has announced the acquisition of PhoneCharge, a provider of telephone and Internet-based bill payment services, for approximately $100 million in a cash transaction that closed effective January 1, 2006.

Visa USA launched today a new look for the famous blue, white, and gold Visa logo for the first time in 30 years. The new brand is designed to better reflect the broad range of electronic payment products provided by Visa's Member financial institutions and the ever expanding environments in which they're accepted.

Ivar Ekman reports from Helsinki for the International Herald Tribune on Near-Field Communication (NFC) and the marriage of NFC technology with the ubiquitous mobile phone.

US Airways and Barclays have announced a new co-branded US Airways Dividend Miles World MasterCard.

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

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