Dave McClure blogs about his issues with Yahoo!'s Bill Payment service - and closes with a tease: "As a matter of fact, the whole financial / payments online space seems ripe for some Web 2.0 innovation. Watch this space."

MIguel Helft reports for the New York Times about Google Checkout - and the bigger agenda to "expand Google’s base of advertisers." Google Checkout recently announced that its merchant fees would be waived through 2007. Yesterday, it offered consumers a matching charitable contribution program - helping to spur consumer signups for Google Checkout.

Wesabe's Marc Hedlund blogs on Wheaties for Your Wallet about the contrast between our desires to both give and receive gift cards - but then to leave billions of dollars unspent on them each year.

Oberthur Card Systems has announced that Bank of America has chosen it to provide Contactless payment Fobs as part of a trial to test radio frequency contactless payment companion devices. "As contactless cards continue to grow in issuance, Bank of America is testing consumer interest in companion devices for contactless payment, and plans to issue Oberthur Card Systems VersaFOBs with MasterCard PayPass – a first in the U.S. marketplace," the company said in a press release.

[Update: March 27, 2007 - AT&T and Firethorn announced Wachovia as one of their partner banks for mobile banking services.]

Wachovia has announced the availability of Wachovia Mobile - saying it is "the patent-pending first phase of Wachovia wireless retail banking." Wachovia Mobile gives customers the ability to access account information through Internet-enabled wireless devices like PDAs and cell phones - although initial availability of the service is limited to devices running Windows Mobile 5 with Pocket Internet Explorer.

Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack announced this morning that the company would be spinning off its Discover business unit. A presentation providing an overview of Discover is available online. Morgan Stanley reported Discover's full year net revenue grew 24 percent over 2005 and was up 39 percent in the fourth quarter.

In a press release this morning, Cubic Corporation, one of the principal members of the TranSys consortium (the developers of Transport for London’s Oyster smart card transit fare collection system) has provided some additional information about the previously announced exclusive deal with Barclays Bank for the development of a new card that will host both Oyster and Barclaycard Visa on one piece of plastic.

MasterCard Worldwide and InComm have announced the successful completion of the first cardholder point of sale transaction using the MasterCard rePower Load Network. MasterCard describes rePower as a new service "that allows consumers to add money to eligible MasterCard or Maestro branded prepaid cards at participating merchant locations."

Blackhawk Network has announced results of a national online survey - concluding that more than 80 percent of gift recipients would prefer to do their own shopping with a gift card from a favorite store.

Google Checkout has announced they're matching contributions to several charities - saying they will "chip in $10 for your first donation of $30 or more."

• Authorize.Net Launches New Web Site Dedicated to ISO Education and Development
• Chockstone, Inc. Closes $14M Series B Funding, Further Strengthens Board of Directors with Addition of Mark Gerson
• Palamon Completes the Take Private of Retail Decisions plc
• ePayments Corp. Launches Educational Financial Services Division
• Digital Insight Selects Entrust TransactionGuard to Further Safeguard Its Clients Against Potentially Fraudulent Transactions