Wells Fargo Bank has launched an interactive, multimedia tour of the San Francisco earthquake and its aftermath on its Guided By History blog. Originally launched in mid-March, Guided By History is devoted exclusively to disaster and earthquake preparedness. Later this week, the blog will feature a series of 7 podcasts produced by Wells Fargo's historians. Next week, the week of the anniversary of the great quake, the blog will be providing live coverage of the events occurring throughout San Francisco looking back at the quake.

The Smart Card Alliance has announced the launch of the Smart Card Career Center, a new a new online resource for recruiting new employees from the membership of the Smart Card Alliance.

MasterCard has announced that it has noted the publication by the European Commission of the initial findings in its Sector Inquiry regarding payment cards, is studying this lengthy report and will be responding with comments within the Commission's required deadline. MasterCard says it is unable at this time to comment further on the specifics of this paper.

TIO Networks, formerly Info Touch Technologies, and Tranax Technologies have announced a strategic partnership to pursue the self-service market including launch of a joint hybrid ATM initiative.

NACHA, Electronic Payments Network and the Federal Reserve Banks have announced that May is Direct Payment Month - where the industry focus will be on increasing consumers' use of electronic payments by highlighting the financial security and control benefits of these services to overcome lingering consumer adoption issues. But, what is Direct Payment you ask?

Visa International's Asia-Pacific Region has announced that domestic spending by Visa cardholders across the region reached US$53 billion during the fourth quarter of 2005, representing a year-on-year growth rate of 15
percent.

Advantage Credit has announced some results from a recent teleconference it hosted to explore the new VantageScore, a new consumer credit score jointly developed and introduced recently by Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.

Payments News has added a new "news view" that shows on one page all of the previous articles on Payments News involving Near Field Communication. (For a brief, comprehensible intro to NFC, see this Wikipedia article.)

Mark Calvey writes for the San Francisco Business Times about how the landscape has changed for entrepreneurs in terms of what they can accomplish faster and cheaper. The article profiles PropertyBridge, an Oakland, CA-based startup founded by Ryan Gilbert that is helping landlords accept card payments for rent.

Digital World Tokyo reports on plans by three of the largest taxi fleet operators in Tokyo to begin accepting payments made by cell phones equipped with Sony's Felica chip and using either BitWallet's Edy system or East Japan Railway's Suica system.

Research carried out by Datamonitor on behalf of Norkom Technologies reveals a significant shift in the way financial services providers will manage their regulatory compliance obligations and their efforts to stem financial crime.

According to a press release issued today by the European Commission on its sector inquiry into the payment cards industry, "businesses and consumers do not yet benefit from a fully competitive Internal Market in payment cards."

Adam Cohen reports for the Wall St. Journal on initial findings by the European Commission that fees for credit cards and other electronic payments are unreasonably high.

• San Francisco Chronicle: U.S. judge orders PayPal to talk
• Electronic Transaction Processing a key topic of Wall Street Transcript Business Services Report
• CyberSource Names Kirsten Fry-Sanchez and Jay Martin to New VP Posts
• Reuters: Regulators Seen Leaning Toward Limits on a Wal-Mart Bank
• HSBC Bank UK to use VASCO's Digipass GO3 Strong Authentication for Corporate Banking
• Chockstone's Technology Doubles Taco Bueno's Gift Card Sales at Corporate and New Franchise Locations in '05
• University of Oregon: New study documents student debt
• Chicago Tribune: More crooks go `phishing' at tax time
• Bolero signs agreement with E-MA to expand reach in Chinese market
• GE and Craft-Bilt Collaborate On New Consumer Credit Program
• China: Shenzhen cracks biggest credit card forgery case
• Neotel Launches SignHere'TM', the Most Exciting New Biometric Development; Ready for the 21st Century