January's Top 11 Most Popular News Stories on Payments News are:

• BillMonk: Social Money - This innovative social money startup captured most of the "buzz" on Payments News this month!
• MasterCard's IPO Looms - There was no real news later in the month about MasterCard's progress towards an initial public offering.
• Online Banking: How Safe Is Your Money? - This story does a nice job of summarizing the issues and opportunities around stronger authentication for access to online banking.
• First Data Weighs Sell-Off Of Card Issuer Processing Unit - This story turned out to be uninformed speculation - as on Thursday FDC instead announced plans to spin off its fast-growing Western Union business.
• Visa's New Logo Makes Official Debut - At the start of 2006, Visa USA formally introduces the new, clearer Visa design launched earlier by other Visa regions around the world.

Ron Lieber reports for the Wall St.Journal on the best choices among cash-back credit cards - he particularly likes two Fidelity Investments rewards cards issued by MBNA.