Peter Hull writes for the Charleston (SC) Post and Courier about how "most insurers, including State Farm, Allstate and S.C. Farm Bureau, routinely use [consumer] credit scores to assess risk when issuing or renewing policies."

Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, the authors of “Freakonomics", have written an article for the New York Times Magazine titled "The Gift-Card Economy" in which they ask why isn't cash the better gift. Here's their view on the merchant perspective on gift cards: "For the merchant, at least, the gift card is a godsend. Just think of it: In the weeks leading up to Christmas, millions of people visit your store or Web site and hand you billions of dollars in exchange for nothing more than a plastic I.O.U. that may never even be redeemed."

The Jan-Feb 2007 issue of the BAI's Banking Strategies magazine is out with an interview by Kenneth Cline with US Bancorp CEO Richard Davis. Davis will be keynoting the upcoming BAI TransPay conference and the interview is focused on his views of the importance of payments to US Bank. Cline notes that "today, US Bank is one of the rare banks below mega-bank status that can claim to be a major player in payments, with top 10 status in merchant acquiring, credit and debit card issuing and ATM processing."