Visa has announced global mandates for compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) - saying it is "creating a consistent framework for compliance among merchants, service providers and their agents." READ MORE

American Express has been granted bank holding company status by the Federal Reserve. In a press release issued following the Fed's announcement this afternoon, Amex said that "qualifying as a bank holding company will provide American Express maximum flexibility and stability in this challenging economic environment. It aligns American Express’ regulatory status with other companies in the financial services industry, further diversifies the Company’s funding sources and access to capital, and provides opportunities to expand its deposit-taking capabilities." READ MORE

The Federal Reserve has announced that it has approved "the applications and notices under sections 3 and 4 of the Bank Holding Company Act by American Express Company and American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc., both of New York, New York, to become bank holding companies on conversion of American Express Centurion Bank, Salt Lake City, Utah, to a bank, and to retain certain nonbanking subsidiaries, including American Express Bank, FSB, Salt Lake City, Utah."

American Airlines has announced that it is now accepting PayPal for ticket purchases made on its AA.com website. READ MORE

Javelin Strategy & Research has announced its 2008 Online Retail Payments Forecast exploring the increasing appeal and growth of alternative payment methods and the impact it represents to banks and traditional payment card networks. Among the findings, Javelin projects that "nearly one third of online retail transactions [are] expected to be alternative payments by 2013." READ MORE

J.D. Power and Associates' latest Consumer Attitude Monitor Report finds that "based on an analysis of 70 million blog and discussion board posts examined during the past two months, the volume of online discussion regarding financial institutions has increased by four times since May 2008 with the tone of discussions being increasingly negative."

“Many consumers are angry and afraid, and they hold big banks and other financial institutions responsible for the dire straits they believe the economy is in,” said Rockwell Clancy, executive director of financial services at J.D. Power and Associates.

Bank of America has announced new purchasing card and travel card capabilities that enable its clients to issue and settle in local currencies throughout Europe. READ MORE

http://www.ficentive.com/ has announced that it has signed an agreement with SwipePay Mobile to deliver a SwipePay Mobile MasterCard Prepaid and MasterCard Gift Card to their mobile customers. READ MORE

Earlier today, Circuit City announced it was filing for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code. An obvious question is what effect this will have on holders of Circuit City gift cards? READ MORE

Broox Peterson writes on his Payments Industry Regulation blog about the recent United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision in the Bilski case that "snugged up the standards for patent eligibility of business processes and methods that had been loosened by its 1998 decision in State Street Bank & Trust vs. Signature Financial Corp." Broox notes: "The ultimate impact of In re: Bilski on the future of patents in the financial and payments industries is not clear yet, but it is important that the decision did not reject the patentability of business processes or software altogether."

MoneyGram International and Cardtronics have announced that MoneyGram money transfer and ExpressPayment urgent bill payment services will be offered through 2,250 advanced-function ATMs located at 7-Eleven, Inc. convenience stores in the U.S. beginning in late 2008. READ MORE

In an article titled "Failing Economy Halts Online Shopping Growth", Sarah Mahoney writes for Online Media Daily that the growth in online ecommerce sales is expected to fall to between 6 and 10 percent this year according to comScore. She notes that "ComScore's predictions are considerably more grim than what online retailers predict themselves."

• Fiserv to Host 2008 Investor Conference and Live Webcast - Tues, November 11, 9 AM EST
• Reuters: Cash is king for U.S. holiday shoppers
• Deloitte 2008 Annual Holiday Survey: Consumers Increasingly Embrace Online Shopping, 'Green' Shopping This Holiday Season
• American Banker: Card Chargeoff Glut Starts to Hit Recoveries
• TransCard's Corporate Gift Card Website Ready for the Holidays
• TechCrunch: Billing Revolution Brings One-Click Payments To iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android Apps
• BMO Bank of Montreal Adopts Nomis Solutions' Pricing Optimization Across Multiple Product Areas
• SVPCO: Check Image Volume Hits All-Time High In October
• LenderLive Provides State Department Federal Credit Union with Loan Fulfillment, Web Site Hosting
• CSO: Whit Diffie: Encryption and PKI
• VeriSign Provides Yahoo! Shopping Merchants Cues to Advertise Security and Trust Within Search Listings
• The Register (UK): Visa trials PIN payment card to fight online fraud
• Metavante Integrated Healthcare Benefit Account Solutions Now Include The Bancorp Bank HSA
• M-Com Selected as a Top Innovator by Bank Technology News
• KSL.com: Cyber coupons gain popularity
• Arcot Systems: Webcast: Multi-factor Authentication in Managed Security Services and SaaS Deployments - Thursday, Nov 11 at 1 PM EST
• Circuit City Stores, Inc. to Reorganize Under Chapter 11
• North American Bancard Launches Alliance Division
• The Mainichi Daily News (Japan): Credit card fraud doubles from 2004
• Innopay: Mobile Payments: Hope or Hype?
• AuctionBytes: PayPal Survey Shows Online Shoppers Spending Less
• Bank Technology News Recognizes MasterCard Technology Leader Joan Kelly for Progressive Views and Innovation