The PCI Security Standards Council has announced the availability of two Information Supplements providing further clarification for PCI DSS requirement 11.3 , regarding penetration testing, and Requirement 6.6 , regarding application code review and application firewalls. Both of these information supplements provide guidance to help merchants and service providers meet these two requirements in support of their PCI DSS compliance efforts. READ MORE »

American Express and Delta Air Lines have announced the launch of Delta Reserve Credit Card and the Delta Reserve for Business Credit Card, new premium co-branded credit cards for U.S.-based consumers. According to the two companies, 'the Delta Reserve Credit Cards are designed to cater to the needs of Delta’s on-the-go customers and provides Cardmembers with a greatly enhanced travel experience through benefits such as the ability to earn Medallion® Qualification Miles (MQMs) faster, share MQMs with family and friends for the first time ever, access to the dedicated Breezeway priority boarding lane and frequent traveler security line, Delta Crown Room Clubs access, and 24-7 concierge services.' The cards have an annual fee of $450. READ MORE »

Forrester's Benjamin Ensor and Alexander Hesse have published a new report titled "NFC Technology Is Revitalizing Mobile Payments". While that title certainly sounds optimistic, their subtitle adds a bit more drama: "But Mobile Contactless Payments Face Huge Adoption Hurdles". From the abstract: "But technology isn't the main barrier to wider mobile payment adoption in developed markets. Mobile contactless payment systems based on the NFC standard face many of the same adoption hurdles as other new payment systems."

Experian and Credit Builders Alliance (CBA) have announced the launch of a data-reporting partnership that enables CBA's members to report microloan repayment data to Experian to help thousands of small business entrepreneurs build a credit history. READ MORE »

On the Credit Slips blog, in a post titled "MasterCard's Machiavellian Twist", Angie Letwin, soon to be Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Law School in Austin, writes about her recent paper titled "Beyond Usury: A Study of Credit Card Use and Preference Among Low-Income Consumers" and compares some of her conclusions about control features useful to consumers in managing their credit card use to the new features MasterCard recently introduced with its "inControl" commercial card product designed for corporate purchasing use. She hopes that "perhaps eventually this could lead to products that would help consumers control their own spending as well."

James Gardner, Head of Innovation and Research at a major UK bank, writes a great blog called BankerWatch. In one of his recent posts titled "A New Kind of Event Please," he laments the events that vendors try to stage to interest bankers in "hot issues" and, more likely, the vendors latest products.

Instead of those kinds of events, Gardner says he's looking for more interesting and thought provoking stuff such as: "I'd like an event that would tell me how to run a bank in the cloud."

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, spoke at Paul Graham's Startup School 2008 conference at Stanford over the weekend. Bezos spent his talk focused on "the cloud" - what Amazon's doing with web services (AWS). All you have to do is to look at the first slide in his talk to see how "the cloud" is becoming an important business.

TSYS has announced the renewal of a long-term agreement with Target Corporation to service its REDcard portfolio. The multi-year agreement will include systems processing for the Target Visa Credit Card, Target Credit CardS, Target Check Card and the Target Business Card. According to TSYS, Target was recently named by the Nilson Report as one of the top-five Visa credit card issuers, with more than 21.4 million accounts on file. Target began working with TSYS in 2000 for the launch of its Visa product. TSYS began supporting the Target Credit Card portfolio in 2005. READ MORE »

• AuctionBytes: Google Checkout Employs 'Eco' Viral Marketing
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial: Credit the cardholder - It sounds nice, but banning 'universal default' would be a risky move in a stagnant economy
• AP: Mobile banking, still unpopular in the US, could attract new, younger customers
• YouTube: mChek Live demo of mobile phone e-Commerce
• Global Payments Announces Agreement to Extend National Bank of Canada Marketing Alliance Agreement through 2017
• eGistics and US Dataworks Announce Strategic Alliance for Integrated Distributed Capture and Archive Services
• JPMorgan Commits $30 Million to Implement Central Platform for Global Services
• Alliance Data's Canadian Loyalty Business Signs Multi-Year Renewal With Leading Canadian Home Improvement Retailer RONA
• Microsoft Releases Latest Microsoft Security Intelligence Report
• Bankrate.com: Fine print hides convenience-check cost
• Bankrate.com: 7 easy ways to be victimized by ID thieves
• Sun Microsystems and Java Card Forum Announce Next Generation of Industry Leading Java Card Technology
• Centrix Introduces ACH Positive Pay to Detect Transaction Fraud in Commercial Payments

We have received news of the following recent management changes:

• Mark Schwanhausser has joined Javelin Strategy & Research to provide analyst coverage of multi-channel financial services. Mark comes to Javelin from the San Jose Mercury News, where he covered personal finance and business reporting for almost two decades.