In an article titled "Charge-Offs Start to Shred Card Issuers", Robin Sidel reports for the Wall St. Journal about increased US credit card issuer charge-off rates - as cardholders are falling behind on their payments and eventually defaulting.

Discover has announced that its "Discover U.S. Spending Monitor slipped to 79.7 in November, falling below 80 for the first time in its history, as consumer economic sentiment fell to a record low and concern over personal finances reached record highs. Heading into the holiday season, consumers temporarily reversed course on spending from previous months, with an increasing number planning on spending more in December. But the results of nightly surveys of random consumers during November painted a dark picture for retail activity at the onset of the important holiday shopping season. Continued concerns over the economy and personal finances have many more consumers preparing to spend less on holiday shopping than they did last year." READ MORE »

Rite Aid has announced that its stores nationwide "now make it easy for customers to use their Flexible Spending Account (FSA) debit cards. Upgraded pharmacy and front end cash registers simplify tracking health spending by printing receipts that identify items that may be eligible for reimbursement as part of a flexible spending account benefit plan." READ MORE »

In a review titled "Banking Without Tears", Dave Kansas writes for the Wall St. Journal a review of the new book The Orange Code: How ING Direct Succeeded by Being a Rebel with a Cause by Arkadi Kuhlmann and Bruce Philp -- respectively, ING Direct's U.S. chief and the chairman of ING Direct's marketing partner. [Editor's note: we've also just finished reading The Orange Code, enjoyed it very much and will be posting our own review soon.]

CyberSource has released its 10th annual survey of eCommerce fraud showing that merchants expect to lose a record $4 billion to online fraud in 2008. According to CyberSource, "merchants say the fraud loss rate will hold constant at 1.4% of revenue (same as 2007 and 2006), but continuing growth in eCommerce sales mean dollar losses to fraud are still growing. Merchants are shifting some fraud fighting priorities, perhaps as an adjustment to a slowing economy." READ MORE »

Visa has announced details of a five-year agenda for Australia to strengthen the security of the payments system. As part of the agenda, Visa will engage in discussions with Australian financial and merchant communities to set deadlines for the implementation of seven key security initiatives. Visa says that "all of the initiatives will provide greater protection against fraud for cardholders, merchants and financial institutions, while some will also help to reduce the time it takes to make an electronic transaction." READ MORE »

TransUnion.com has released the results of its analysis of trends in the credit card lending industry for the third quarter of 2008. The report is part of an ongoing series of quarterly consumer lending sector analyses focusing on credit card, auto loan and mortgage data that may be found on TransUnion's Web site. READ MORE »

• Chris Brogan: Using eBillMe Wasn’t Too Tricky- But It Can Improve
• Bruce Hammonds Retires as Head of Bank of America Global Card Services
• comScore: Holiday E-Commerce Spending Accelerates in Most Recent Week as This Year's Compressed Shopping Season Increases Urgency to Spend
• Visa Survey Reveals Sensible Is Fashionable This Holiday Season
• The PayPal Blog: Javelin Survey Indicates Alternatives Payments on the Rise
• Aberdeen Group: Research Reveals Strategies for a Successful P-Card Implementation
• 1-800-FLOWERS.COM Selects Accertify for Online Fraud Prevention
• CreditCards.com: Keeping your credit score clean before you close on a home
• The Wallet : Bill Me Later Can Ding Your Credit Score Now
• Forrester Research: Canadians To Mobile Banking: We're Just Not That Into You
• AP: Sector Snap: Credit card companies falter