The mobile banking race is on. Bank of America has announced that, six months after rolling out its Mobile Banking service to consumers nationwide, it has reached a record 500,000 active mobile customers. The bank says that "according to a recent TowerGroup report, that's more than all other U.S. banks combined."

Fair Isaac and Associacao Comercial de Sao Paulo (ACSP), one of the largest credit bureaus in Brazil, have announced ACSP’s launch of Global FICO Score for Brazilian businesses - saying that "the launch of this innovative consumer credit-risk score makes Brazil the first South American nation to access Fair Isaac’s global-standard FICO credit risk scoring technology."

In an article titled 'An Old-Time Touch for the Modern Shopper', Catherine Rampell writes for the Washington Post about how Bill Me Later is attractive to shoppers who don't want to provide their credit card details to online ecommerce merchants. According to the article, Bill Me Later has 3 million customers.

In an article titled 'Online Lending Gets Easier and Safer', Jane J. Kim writes for the Wall St. Journal about Zopa's entry into the US market. Rather than doing everything itself, Zopa will be "working with several credit unions to offer person-to-person loans to prospective borrowers."

Retail Decisions reports that the "online retail market received a double dose of good news as merchants kicked-off the 2007 Holiday season. Purchase value of goods sold on Black Friday was up 83% and on Cyber Monday was up 80% year on year."

Intuit has announced the release of the latest version of QuickBooks Point of Sale retail management software that replaces the traditional cash register and gives small retailers features that help them provide great customer service and improve inventory management.

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• Vesdia and MXT Card Services Form Alliance to Offer Unique Rewards
• Fiserv Announces Paytraxx Adoption Marketing Program with Online Tutorial
• San Francisco Chronicle: Reports show identity theft is a growing business, costing billions
• CNET: Yahoo's Cyber Monday mess finally fixed
• Western Union Launches Cash Payment for Google AdSense Subscribers in Nine Countries
• Consumer Survey: Shoppers Concerned About Credit Card Data Theft, Plan to Sharply Limit Use of Cards This Holiday Season
• Equifax and Small Business Financial Exchange Extend Exclusive Management Agreement Through 2012
• Discover Financial Services Announces Alliance with Jones Lang LaSalle
• Gemalto Selected to Provide Colombia's First SIM-Based Mobile Banking Service