Cooper Marcus, the founder and CEO of startup Spark Parking, has started the Spark Parking Founder's Blog where he says he'll "be writing about all manner of items related to Spark Parking, including wireless sensors, mobile phones, future commerce (typically involving mobile phones or Web 2.0 approaches), and of course parking!"

Responding to recent press reports regarding a major data breach by a national retailer, Congressman Barney Frank, the Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee, has announced he has written to the CEO’s of Visa and MasterCard regarding their unwillingness to name the retailer involved with a recent serious data breach.

Liz Moyer reports for Forbes on the nature of money in the US - in both electronic and paper forms.

Benefit Resource has announced its new Beniversal MasterCard that provides users with direct access to multiple pre-tax accounts, or purses. At the point of service -- such as a doctor's office or pharmacy, even a center providing day care for dependents -- the card automatically debits the correct account to cover qualified expenses.

The Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce is holding a hearing today on "The Law and Economics of Interchange" (includes links to PDF's of the testimony provided at today's hearing).

Red Herring reports on a recent research report by Dan Schatt, a senior analyst at Celent, who has written a report on the future of mobile commerce. In the report, Schatt predicts that the mobile commerce market in 2006 will be worth $24 billion, with Japan and South Korea accounting for nearly 60 percent of the total.

CR80News reports on StepNexus, the new holding company responsible for the development of the MULTOS smart card operating system.

ID Analytics and PassMark Security have announced a partnership to bring the power of authentication and identity risk scoring to online banking and e-commerce. The combined offering will help more companies determine the risk associated with each log-in and safeguard legitimate customers from identity fraud while transacting online.

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

• Bank of America Names Len Heckwolf to Lead New Payments and Receipts Product Group
• WebProNews: “GBuy” The Google Wallet Is Vital To Google’s Future
• National Consumer Advocates Warn Discover Cardholders: Expect Merchant Imposed Check Out Fees Now that Card Company Lifted Restrictions that Protect Consumers
• Motley Fool UK: How Credit Cards Rip Us Off!
• Malaysia: Credit Card 'Boom': Be prudent, banks told
• Citibank Brings Checking with ThankYou Network Rewards to Life with Spectacular Interactive 'Appreciation Station'
• New Survey Data Shows Brides and Grooms Rank 'Money' Their Number One Wedding Stress, According to Poll Associated With The Knot Credit Card From American Express