Jim Bruene of the Online Banking Report posts on his blog that he's awarding the fifth and final OBR Best of the Web for 2006 award to Bank of America for being the "first major U.S. bank to provide full online personal financial management (PFM) within its online banking service." Powered by Yodlee's full MoneyCenter suite, Bruene reports that Bank of America is displaying the accountholder's Net Worth Summary, Investment Detail, Transactions, Rewards, Email, and Search on its main online banking page following login.

Sahir Anand of the Aberdeen Group has published a report titled "80% of Retailers Unfazed By Contactless Security Concerns" (PDF). Anand reports that his "results show that 80% of all respondents surveyed do not see security implications to be a chief reason for not considering contactless technology within their enterprise. In fact, a third of the enterprises who currently offer contactless payments have said that this technology is a benefit in terms of card security or privacy."

CompuCredit has announced it is "joining with the alternative credit bureau PRBC in an innovative program to help consumers build credit by reporting consumers' positive payment history that is neither received nor reported by other credit bureaus."   » Continue Reading

James Covert reports for MarketWatch.com on Visa USA's holiday sales volume growth. According to Covert, "the average ticket size rung up by a holiday shopper at retail stores declined 1% during the holidays, according to Visa's data." Saturday, December 23, turned out to be this year's peak shopping day.

The latest Nilson Report has arrived featuring a 20-page special report on Visa and MasterCard Issuers worldwide ranked based upon their 2005 card purchase volumes (subscription only).

The Federal Reserve Board and the Office of Thrift Supervision have announced the availability of a revised Consumer Handbook on Adjustable-Rate Mortgages (the CHARM booklet), which provides information to consumers about the features and risks of such loans. In recognition of the growing use of nontraditional mortgage products that allow borrowers to defer payment of principal and sometimes interest, the agencies have substantially revised the CHARM booklet to include discussions about "interest-only" and "payment option" mortgages.   » Continue Reading

Constantine Cannon, Lead Counsel for United States merchants in the Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litigation, CV 96-5238, has advised its merchant class members that 128,000 payments to merchants totaling over $300 million are now being paid (PDF) "for overcharges on Visa and MasterCard signature debit and credit card transactions during the period October 1992 to July 2003." According to the firm, "this is the third round of distribution, the first having occurred in December 2005 and the second in June 2006, involving more than $650 million in claim payments." In this distribution there are approximately 29,400 checks of $1,000 or more, 1,790 checks of $10,000 or more, 308 checks of $100,000 or more, and 40 checks of $1,000,000 or more.

Aleksandra Todorova writes for SmartMoney.com about "five credit-card trends that could affect your wallet in 2007" - including significant fees for balance transfers, more reductions in credit card rewards programs, and more creative fee hikes.

Sarah Kellogg reports for Mlive.com about plans by U.S. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) to "study credit card company practices this winter, looking into excessively high late fees and interest charges, as well as hidden fees.

Janne Uusilehto, head of product security at Nokia, writes for Mobile Handsetl Design Line about the Mobile Trusted Module (MTM) specification developed by the Trusted Computing Group's Mobile Phone Work Group. The goal of MTM is to establish trust in a mobile platform's ability to protect its information and functional assets, and to validate that protection capability. "Eleven different use-case scenarios were published a year ago to familiarize stakeholders with actual application security enhancements in areas such as platform integrity, device authentication, SIMLock/device personalization, secure software download, mobile ticketing and payment, user data protection and privacy, and more."

Ellen Cannon reports for Bankrate.com on the secondary market in gift cards - online web sites "such as cardavenue.com, plasticjungle.com and swapagift.com, are devoted exclusively to buying, selling or trading gift cards."

Andrew Mayeda reports for Canada's Ottawa Citizen about increasing concerns by law enforcement officials about gift cards becoming a hit with crime syndicates - particularly open loop cards. According to Mayeda, "RCMP officers said such cards are now accepted as valid currency between crime syndicates. Instead of a suitcase of cash, operatives might show up for a drug deal with a fistful of gift cards."

Metavante has announced it is the "first certified and first operational processor supporting reload transactions on a leading international card association's prepaid card load network."   » Continue Reading