Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson spoke yesterday with George F. Thomas, who oversees strategy and product management at The Clearing House in New York. Carol filed this report on her conversation with George.

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "U.K. Credit Card Issuing: Across The Pond, But Not Out Of The Woods" that "examines recent downturns in U.K. credit card issuing in terms of receivables and payment volume, which are unprecedented in this traditionally fast-growing card market. Credit card growth rates in the U.K. have historically exceeded those of the U.S., and the decline in growth represents a sudden departure from these trends."

Jim Bruene writes on his Financial Marketing blog about some of the key terms in mobile banking and mobile payments.

Vishesh Kumar writes for TheStreet.com about Google Checkout's recent announcement that it will be offering Google Checkout free to merchants through 2007. Kumar suggests that "with a perch that allows it to see which searchers end up making what purchases, Google could introduce an advertising model whereby merchants choose to pay only when a product is sold, rather than when an ad is clicked on."

Earlier this week, we wrote about creating wealth from payments innovation - and featured PayPal as one of the shining examples so far this decade. This morning, The Australian carries a Bloomberg story profiling former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel - who turned a $240,000 investment into $60 million over four years at PayPal.

ING DIRECT has announced "the addition of six new mutual funds to its existing investment portfolio by its affiliate ING DIRECT Securities, Inc. The new funds provide a dynamic mix of investment opportunities for Customers and include three Asset Allocation Funds; a Money Market Fund; a Global Real Estate Fund; and a Global Equity Dividend Fund."

MasterCard's Chris Thom writes a perspective for CNET on the 40 years MasterCard's been around - concluding by predicting "not far off is the day when, through the assignment of an ever-changing access code, every transaction will be unique, incapable of being replayed and utterly useless to the criminal fraternity."

PNC Bank has announced "a new security feature for online banking customers to further protect their information and help prevent fraud and identity theft. Available Dec. 10, PNC's layered security is designed to enable customers to verify they are at the authentic PNC Bank Online Banking site, and simultaneously enhances PNC's ability to validate a customer's identity. This will be accomplished through a unique image and caption chosen by the customer as well as security questions with answers that only he or she should know."

Aite Group has published a new report title "Small-Business Banking: The Value Proposition for Banks to Offer Small-Business EIPP" that "evaluates the size of the EIPP opportunity for U.S. banks and builds a case for banks to offer the service."

Celent has published a new report titled "Making Loyalty Pay: The Relationship Between Rewards and Payments". According to Celent, "alternatives to credit card reward programs are increasing as a result of new payment technologies and business models. Credit card issuers have been the main beneficiaries of reward programs, while merchant loyalty programs have failed abysmally. However, new technology and business models will allow merchants and payment providers to benefit from rewards programs.

There are several articles this morning speculating that Bank of America may be about to make a bid to acquire Barclays Bank - based upon a research report issued by Merrill Lynch.

Retail Decisions says there is a swelling army of invisible thieves, perhaps the worst kind, who are pillaging online merchants via stolen credit and debit card information. Criminals use stolen credit and debit card information to fraudulently purchase items for resale.

Robin Sidel reports for the Wall St. Journal on Wednesday's court decision that ruled in favor of MasterCard retaining its sponsorship rights to the World Cup and other FIFA events. Visa International had earlier this year announced it had successfully negotiated with FIFA for the rights. The text of the judge's decision (PDF) is available online. The decision is an amazing read of how the negotiations for the sponsorship played out - including even a story about an audio recording of one key meeting with a mysterious "gap" at a critical point on the tape!