The member agencies of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors have announced the release of LESSONS LEARNED FROM HURRICANE KATRINA: Preparing Your Institution for a Catastrophic Event (PDF). The booklet relays financial institutions' experiences and lessons learned in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that other institutions may find helpful in considering their readiness for a catastrophic event.

Carolyn Said writes for the San Francisco Chronicle about the growth in "taxpayer ID mortgage loans" being granted on the basis of the applicant's taxpayer ID, not Social Security Numbers. So called "undocumented immigrants" often have taxpayer ID's - issued by the IRS to both resident and non-resident aliens - but not SSNs. Said reports that "in California, Wells Fargo and Citibank both offer taxpayer ID mortgage loans, albeit in small programs."

TransUnion has announced RentBridge, a new patent-pending rental payment database that will gather and maintain rental payment history information to help apartment owners, property managers and other types of credit grantors make more informed risk, fraud and identity management, collections and marketing decisions.

VingCard has introduced “Signature RFID by VingCard,” a contact-less electronic-locking system for hotels that uses an open-platform RFID lock that is compatible with all the main RFID ISO standards (ISO 14.443 A-MIFARE, ISO 14.443 B, ISO 15.693) and also with the new Near Field Communication (NFC) cell phone technology platform.

Desiree J. Hanford of Dow Jones Newswires reports on an interview with PayPal CEO Jeff Jordan earlier this week at eBay Live in which he comments on speculation that Google is preparing to launch an online payment service similar to PayPal.

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