First Data Corp. has posted the webcast of its investor call earlier today along with the accompanying Investor Presentation.

Betsy McKay reports on the story for the Wall St. Journal.

Reuters reports that Fitch Ratings has lowered FDC's issuer default rating as a result of today's announcement.

Ponemon Institute and Vontu, Inc. have announced the results of their 2006 Privacy Trust Study for Retail Banking concluding that National City and US Bank tied for first place.

The Federal Trade Commission has announced that ChoicePoint, Inc., which last year acknowledged that the personal financial records of more than 163,000 consumers in its database had been compromised, will pay $10 million in civil penalties and $5 million in consumer redress to settle FTC charges that its security and record-handling procedures violated consumers’ privacy rights and federal laws.

First Data Corp. has announced that it plans to separate its Western Union consumer payments business into an independent publicly traded company through a tax-free spin-off of 100% of Western Union to First Data shareholders.

Pay By Touch has announced it has closed more than $60 million in new financing through the sale of Series C Preferred Shares.

Digital Media Wire is hosting a 1-day executive forum for companies addressing the digital entertainment space on Tuesday, January 31 in New York City.

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

• WSJ: ID Theft Complaints Still Rising, but Rate Of Increase Slows
• ChoicePoint(R) Revenues Exceed $1 Billion in 2005