The Merchant Risk Council, a trade association for supporting merchants in preventing online fraud and promoting secure e-commerce in global online payments, hase announced seven new additions to its Board of Directors and Advisors.

ViVOtech has announced that it has secured an equity investment from Citi to develop mobile commerce technologies. Terms were not disclosed.

Valista has announced that mBlox will use ValistaPlus Payments globally to support mBlox's WAP billing system. Valista's payments platform will also support mBlox's PayforIt accreditation in the United Kingdom, "ensuring that consumers' payment experience is consistent, transparent and user-friendly, promoting a trustworthy environment when making one-off payments or establishing subscription services via their phone."

ISO has published a standard to increase the security of financial transactions over electronic media. The new standard, ISO 19092:2008, Financial services – Biometrics – Security framework, establishes the security requirements for the implementation and management of state-of-the-art biometric identification technology within the financial industry.

Helsinki-based Valimo Wireless has introduced mobile signature technology that use mobile phones as a separate channel to add security to ATM transactions. For each transaction that relies on a magnetic stripe at the ATM, the cardholder would get a signing request to the mobile phone stating the amount and location of the ATM. The cardholder then returns a mobile signature via the mobile phone network.

TransUnion and Edgar, Dunn & Company have announced the Revolver Model, "the second scoring model to identify predictive credit behavior characteristics using survey-based data from the PaymentDynamics 2007 Preferred Payments Study. The Revolver Model helps financial institutions determine how consumers prefer to manage their credit card balances and enables banks to develop custom marketing offers accordingly."

• New Mercator Advisory Report: SEPA for Cards: Uncertainty Remains after the Deadline
• BSG Helps Merchants Combat Prepaid Card Fraud with Unique Risk Management Solution
• Equifax Empowers Consumers with Free, Online Fraud Alerts
• China's PAX Technology Gains PCI PED Certification with Zilog's New Zatara Platform for Next-Generation Point-of-Sale (POS) Solutions
• MoneyGram Enters into Definitive Agreement with Investor Group Led by Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. and Goldman Sachs
• Online Payment Company, Billeo, Announces Record Year
• Forrester: Top US eCommerce And Online Retail Predictions For 2008

A few highlights from Payments News one year ago today:

• Joseph Saunders named Executive Chairman of Visa Inc.'s Board. Three months later, in May 2007, Saunders was named Chairman and CEO of Visa Inc.
• GSMA, MasterCard Announce Pilot of Mobile-based Global Money Transfer
• NetBanker Financial Blog Launches