It's official - American Express has announced that "it has reached an agreement to drop Visa as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging that MasterCard, Visa and their member banks had illegally blocked American Express from the bank-issued card business in the United States. Under terms of the settlement agreement, Visa will pay a maximum amount of $2.25 billion to American Express. Individual banks named in the lawsuit will also be dropped as defendants. These include: J.P. Morgan Chase, Capital One, U.S. Bancorp, Wells Fargo and Providian. The agreement is subject to the approval of Visa’s member banks."

Separately, Visa Inc. announced the settlement - saying: "The member institutions of Visa USA - and not Visa Inc. - bear the responsibility for funding the settlement through the application of Visa's retrospective responsibility plan. The plan includes a multi-step mechanism to fund financial obligations of Visa USA and Visa International related to certain litigation, including the American Express case. Through this mechanism, any payments made by Visa Inc. as part of this settlement ultimately will be reimbursed by Visa USA member institutions."

Washington Mutual held its 2007 Investor Day today - supporting materials are available online.

Following up on a report earlier today on CNBC, Jane Kim and Nathan Koppel report for the Wall St. Journal that "American Express Co. and Visa USA Inc. agreed to settle an antitrust case for $2.25 billion, according to people familiar with the situation."

Computerworld's Jaikumar Vijayan has conducted an interview with Jason Hogg, CEO of Revolution Money - the company bringing Revolution Card and Revolution Money Exchange to market in the US.

Blackboard and Sony have announced "a partnership to support Sony FeliCa contactless technology in the Blackboard Commerce Suite, a family of applications supporting one-card transactions on-campus, off-campus and online and allowing for identification, payment and access."

Glenbrook's 2008 Payments Education Series begins in February - and registration is now open for the following sessions (all to be held in the San Francisco Bay Area):

• Glenbrook Payments Boot Camp - Feb. 18-19
  
• Special Focus Workshop on the Card Payment Processing Value Chain - Feb. 21
  
• Glenbrook Roundtable on Emerging Payments - Feb. 22

These events have been selling out early - so if you're thinking you want to attend, make sure you register as early as possible. For 2008, we're providing an early registration discount for registrations completed two months in advance.

For more information on Glenbrook's 2008 payments-focused courses, visit the Glenbrook Payments Education Program page or this detailed schedule.

Chase Paymentech and Preferred Health Technology have announced A-Claim - calling it "the first fully-integrated healthcare payment solution designed to reduce accounts receivables for physicians and simplify claims payments for patients."

Demos has published a new report titled "Borrowing to Make Ends Meet: the Rapid Growth of Credit Card Debt in America" that says "American families are using credit cards to bridge the gaps created by stagnant wages and higher costs of living and balances have grown dramatically since 1989."

Capital One held its Annual Investor Conference yesterday. An audio replay along with accompanying slides are available online.

Javelin Strategy & Research has announced its 2007 Banking Identity Safety Scorecard, "an annual ranking and study of the top 25 U.S. banks in areas of identity fraud prevention, detection and resolution. This year, financial institutions showed strength in resolution practices, but vulnerability in prevention and detection."

Six European card payment schemes have joined together to establish the "Euro Alliance of Payment Schemes s.c.r.l. (EAPS)". Based in Brussels, the new company will "facilitate pan-European transactions, effectively creating a new European card scheme, generating more choice in this market. Cardholders will be able to use their cards at more places throughout Europe, while retailers will gain more and better opportunities for card acceptance under the uniform EAPS acceptance mark."

Aite Group has published a new report titled "The Future of Card Networks: Gauging Battle-Readiness for a Post-Visa IPO World" that "considers how the world will look in a post-Visa IPO world, in which the four major card networks, Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover, are publicly traded companies."

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• USA Today: Talkin' 'bout a Revolution in transferring money online
• An Unprecedented Cross Industry Group of Companies Purchase Licenses under the Katz Portfolio of Patents Which Cover Customer Service Operations Including the Processing of Prescription Refills Requests over the Phone