The Federal Reserve provided its G.19 monthly update on consumer credit in the US - reporting that revolving credit grew at 6.8 percent annual rate during June as compared to declining 7.6 percent in May.

Citi and Green Dot have announced "a strategic alliance to provide Citi-issued general purpose gift cards and reloadable prepaid debit cards to consumers. In addition, Citi Cards’ retail business partners will have the opportunity to offer co-branded versions of these prepaid products to their customers. With this partnership, Green Dot further expands its national retail distribution of prepaid products." READ MORE »

In an article titled "There's money to be made in micropayments", Colin Gibbs writes for RCR Wireless about last week's Mobile Financial Services Conference in Denver. He writes: "Hardware, software, high-speed networks, uptake … it seems all the pieces are in place for mobile commerce to take off. Well, all the pieces except maybe a viable business model or two."

MasterCard Worldwide has announced that U.S.-based Mexican quick-service restaurant chain, Taco Bueno, is now accepting MasterCard PayPass contactless payments at all of its 161 corporate store locations. READ MORE »

American Express held a financial community meeting yesterday. A webcast is available online along with the slide presentations and speech text by Amex executives Ken Chenault, Al Kelly and Ed Gilligan. Al Kelly's presentation, in particular, is worth viewing/reading for his insights and the data he shares about the current state of the US economy and the impacts on US consumers.

• New Mercator Advisory Service Report: Banks, Cognitive Dissonance and Underserved Consumers
• Discover(R) U.S. Spending Monitor(SM) Flat in July
• Computerworld: Credit card thieves ran a polite, professional help desk
• The Register: Net shoppers bullied into being Verified by Visa