In a story titled "Visa IPO Should Speed Innovations In Payments", Robin Sidel writes for the Wall St. Journal's Thursday editions about Visa's announcement today that it will reorganize itself into a new company, Visa Inc., and prepare for an IPO. Sidel commented that "after years of battling MasterCard at the cash register, Visa will now find itself competing for investors, acquisitions and partners, as well as new products and services."

In tomorrow's New York Times, Eric Dash and Michael J. de la Merced report on Visa's plans saying that "Visa hopes to streamline its operations, invest more nimbly in emerging markets and new payment technologies like those using cellular phones, and insulate its member banks from potentially billions of dollars in legal damages over antitrust and unfair-pricing claims brought by merchants."

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a new report titled "Credit Cards: Increased Complexity in Rates and Fees Heightens Need for More Effective Disclosures to Consumers" (PDF) that finds that "consumer disclosures by the largest [credit card] issuers have various weaknesses that reduced consumers’ ability to use and understand them." The report recommends that the "Federal Reserve should ensure that such disclosure materials more clearly emphasize those terms that can significantly affect cardholder costs, such as the actions that can cause default or other penalty pricing rates to be imposed."

From a press release by HealthLeaders-InterStudy: "How futuristic is it to believe that one swipe of a debit card would reveal your identity, your health record, and your health plan coverage and eligibility information? Not as far off as you think."

According to market research from Packaged Facts, the private-label credit card market continues to
soar despite repeated predictions of decline- reaching $106 billion in receivables in 2005, the market is projected to reach $131 billion by 2010. The research predicts that "the market will continue to grow steadily at a compound annual rate of 4.4% over the next four years as branded cards -- everything from gas and home-store cards to fashion and boutique cards -- continue to find favor with consumers, even amid the glut of other payment options."

First Data Corp. and Austin Logistics have announced they are working together to provide a new payment risk management offering for credit card issuers, NSF Solution, following the integration of Austin Logistics’ NSFGuard payment risk solution with First Data’s Payment Defender risk decisioning platform. The solution is intended to help issuers assess when payments received should be credited against an outstanding balance based upon the potential risk of non-sufficient funds.

APACS has released its latest review of the highlights and trends of plastic card use in the UK saying the data reveals a shift in cardholder behavior – with spending on credit cards is levelling off while credit cardholders are concentrating on making repayments. APACS reports that 59 percent of cardholders are now paying off their credit card bill in full each month.

I4 Commerce has announced that AirTran Airways is offering customers the ability to pay with Bill Me Later.

[Update: On Friday, November 9, 2007, Visa Inc. filed its S-1 Registration Statement for an initial public offering.]

Visa has announced that it intends to restructure its organization in order to create a new public global corporation called Visa Inc. As a part of this restructuring, Visa Europe will remain a membership association, owned and governed by its European member banks, and become a licensee of Visa Inc. Visa says it "expects the proposed restructuring will best position the company to meet the evolving needs of its customers and will accelerate its growth by improving organizational efficiency, addressing certain legal claims that exist in some markets, and increasing access to capital."

BankServ has announced that it has applied to become a member of the SWIFT banking network, making the San Francisco-based financial technology firm the first accredited SWIFT Service Bureau to join the network as a corporate member. The company plans to become an active corporate member of SWIFT by January 2007. [Editor's note: One wonders when one of the card associations might open up membership to non-bank corporations - as SWIFT is apparently doing here?]

Bank of America has announced that its primary retail brokerage company, Banc of America Investment Services, Inc. (BAI), will offer free ($0) online equity trades (up to 30 per month) for self-directed investors who maintain a combined balance of $25,000 or more in Bank of America, N.A. deposit accounts. The offering is available immediately in the northeast and expected to roll out nationwide through the spring of 2007. A few years ago, Bank of America was the first major bank to move to free online bill payment services for its customers.

CircleLending, a specialty loan administration company, is seeking a Product Manager, Mortgages. Headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, CircleLending manages “person to person” loans and mortgages between relatives, friends and other private parties.

• Cubic’s Transit Smart Card Systems, Services Earn Frost & Sullivan 2006 Industry Innovation & Advancement of the Year Award
  
• Heico Holding, Inc. Hires Ruesch for ePayment Check Conversion Campaign
  
• Alliance Data's Founding Stockholder Completes Final Distribution of Its Holdings
  
• Global Payments Will Provide a Comprehensive Set of Processing Services for Payment Alliance International
  
• Cash Systems Launches Smart Processing Solutions
  
• Total Merchant Services to Purchase 20,000 Hypercom Optimum T4100 Payment Terminals; Selects Hypercom as Its Provider of Choice
  
• S1 Delivers New Enhanced Corporate Banking Solution
  
• China UnionPay card enters Italy
  
• ACI Worldwide Integrates Swift’s Relationship Management Application into ACI Wholesale Payments System