MasterCard has announced that "Federal Judge Barbara Jones ruled yesterday that Visa's Settlement Service Fee ("SSF"), implemented in the wake of the settlement of the merchant lawsuit in 2003, was unlawful and must be repealed." Dow Jones reports that Visa says it may appeal the decision.

Equifax has announced that several banking, retail and technology customers are incorporating VantageScore into their decisioning processes - including I4 Commerce which has begun utilizing VantageScore within its underwriting process.

Maxed Out, the movie version of James Scurlock's book by the same name, has just come out on DVD. One reviewer says "this is a documentary that must be seen by every teenager BEFORE they're offered a credit card." The DVD and the book are both now available in the Payments News Store - along with all of the other books we recommend on our Payments Boot Camp reading list.

Selena Maranjian writes for Motley Fool about using credit cards abroad - and highlights Capital One's approach of not surcharging international transactions.

Accretive Commerce, a business process outsourcer of direct-to-customer commerce services, has announced a strategic alliance with CyberSource to offer CyberSource's payment management services - enabling online credit card, debit card, eCheck, PayPal, and Bill Me Later transactions - to Accretive Commerce's clients.

The presentations from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's 2007 Payments Conference are now available online. The conference, held in mid-May, had the theme "Competitive Forces Shaping the Payments Environment: What's Next?". Glenbrook's Carol Coye Benson attended and filed this earlier conference report for Payments News.

Jay Loomis reports for the Westchester County, NY Journal News about MasterCard's annual meeting yesterday and comments made by CEO Robert W. Selander - who "listed China, India, Brazil and Mexico as key markets for the company in coming years as consumers embrace credit card transactions in these developing markets."

Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners blogs about his observations on eCommerce 2.0 following his attendance at this week's Internet Retailer conference in San Jose. Jeremy says he's "interested in hearing from merchants who have passed the $10m sales mark, see real sales momentum, and are looking to raise capital to accelerate growth and address large market opportunities, as well as vendors looking to address a common pain point for etailers." Dave McClure adds his own perspective.

U.S. Bank Government Services has announced that it is one of four issuers selected to participate in the General Services Administration (GSA) SmartPay 2 program for commercial charge cards and related payment services.

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