First Data's Star business unit is holding a webinar on the subject of "Data Breach Planning and Response: Issues, Insights & Actions" on Wednesday, February 7, 2007, at 11:00 am EST. Guest experts will include: Peter Burns - Federal Reserve Bank Of Philadelphia, Bruce Cundiff - Javelin Strategy & Research, and Beth Lynn - First Data.

The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) Legislative Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Hatcher today issued the following statement based on comments from Senator Christopher Dodd (D- CT), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, at this morning's Hearing titled "Examining the Billing, Marketing, and Disclosure Practices of the Credit Card Industry and Their Impact on Consumers."

StoreNext Retail Technologies and Pay By Touch have announced an agreement under which the two companies will market and distribute Pay By Touch’s biometric authentication and payment service to independent grocers. The companies says that their joint solution "minimizes grocers’ transaction costs while allowing shoppers to pay for purchases with the simple touch of a finger."

The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing this morning on the "Billing, Marketing, and Disclosure Practices of the Credit Card Industry, and Their Impact on Consumers". The committee's web site has been updated to include the prepared testimony of the participants along with a video archive of the hearing itself. In his opening statement, committee chairman Sen. Christopher J. Dodd said that he "would like to put the credit card industry, issuing banks and card associations on notice. If you currently engage in any business practice that you would be ashamed to discuss before this Committee, I would strongly encourage you to cease and desist that practice. Irrespective of the current legality of such practices, you should take a long, hard look at how you treat your customers, both in the short term and the long term."

Mike Scott writes for the Oakland, MI Business Review about the give and take between merchants and banks with respect to the fees merchants pay for PIN-based vs. signature-based debit transactions. Separately, the Center for Responsible Lending has announced a new study titled "Debit Card Danger" (PDF) that concludes that banks are "taking advantage of the upward trend in debit card use to make high-cost overdraft loans more common and still costlier. “What banks are calling ‘bounce protection’ is starting to look more like a ‘protection racket,’” said Eric Halperin, director of CRL’s Washington office and a co-author of the report. “Banks are raking in fees from unwitting customers who would not overdraft if given a choice.”

James C. McGrath and Ann Kjos of the Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia have published a conference summary report for a conference held at the bank last September.

RSA has announced the findings of its fourth annual Financial Institution Consumer Online Fraud Survey. Conducted in December 2006, the online survey(1) asked 1,678 adults(2) from eight countries(3) around the world for their opinions on evolving fraud threats such as phishing, vishing and keylogging, and on the efforts of their financial institutions to strengthen remote channel banking authentication.

Javelin's Bruce Cundiff offers his comments on PayPal's earnings - as announced yesterday by eBay - and the level of "off eBay" payment volume handled by PayPal (about 36%). Cundiff suggests that "PayPal needs to find another niche (be it transactional, consumer, regional, or otherwise) to prove its worth and further bump up off eBay volume."

First Data Corp. has announced it has acquired Size Technologies, a provider of loyalty, stored value and transaction marketing solutions. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Christopher Conkey reports for the Wall St. Journal on today's Senate Banking Committee hearing examining the "disclosure, marketing and billing strategies of credit card firms" - saying that "With Democrats now in control of the agenda, the microscope is being focused on how terms offered by banks and credit-card networks burden many consumers." See the Committee's web page for details on today's hearing.

Synovus Financial Corp. has joined NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association as a direct financial institution member.

Visa has announced it is "making it easier for Manhattan theatregoers to speed through concession lines and get back to their seats before the start of the next act. Sandbar Concessions, the official concessionaire for The Nederlander Organization, serving the Brooks Atkinson, Gershwin, Lunt-Fontanne, Marquis, Minskoff, Nederlander, Neil Simon and Richard Rodgers Theatres, is the first in-theatre refreshment service company to accept Visa credit, debit and contactless payments."

Aite Group has announced a new report titled "Top Ten Banking Trends for 2007: The Focus on Revenue" that highlights the top ten U.S. banking trends it foresees in 2007. According to Aite, "during 2006 banks devised plans for new initiatives, and they piloted technologies that were focused on revenue growth as opposed to more traditional cost-cutting measures. While operational efficiency remains crucial, those banks that are looking to strengthen their position in 2007 will put last year's plans into action, complete product rollouts, and focus on identifying new revenue streams."

• Cybertrust Extended Validation SSL Certificates Provide Trust for Online Transactions
• 1TouchSoftware Partners With Shift4 for Fast, Reliable, and Secure Transactions
• Experian's Robert F. Nelson Elected Chairman of the Consumer Data Industry Association Board
• Ourgame Joins Hands with 99Bill to Boost China's Online Game Growth