MoneyGram International and AccountNow have announced an agreement to launch a new Visa-branded prepaid card available at select MoneyGram agent locations starting in June 2009. According to the two companies, "the agreement builds on an existing relationship wherein MoneyGram is providing consumers with the convenience of adding funds to their AccountNow reloadable prepaid cards at any of its 40,000 MoneyGram ExpressPayment® locations across the United States." READ MORE

MasterCard has announced that its "fully-integrated, on-demand person-to-person (P2P) mobile payment platform for issuers in the United States is set to go live later this month. With this new platform, MasterCard participating bank customers will be able to offer Mobile MasterCard MoneySend(TM) P2P payments to their customers." READ MORE

MasterCard this morning has launched a new Twitter feed this morning.

The US Census Bureau has published its estimate of U.S. retail and food services sales for April - $337.7 billion - down 0.4% from March and down a whopping 10.1% from the same month a year ago.

MasterCard is holding an investment community meeting today. The meeting is being webcast beginning at 9 AM Eastern. Copies of the presentation slides are available online.

• The PayPal Blog: PayPal Mobile Update
• BusinessWeek: MasterCard Is Pushing Mobile Money
• Fiserv Again Doubles Number of Bills Available for NextDay Payment through CheckFreePay
• Senate Credit-Card Legislation Could Crimp Issuers' Growth
• The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com: Senate Rejects Limit on Credit-Card Interest Rates
• Time: The Real Problem with Credit Cards: The Cardholders
• The Consumerist: Credit Card Reform: Bankers' Letter To Senate Against Credit Card Reform
• Washington Post: With Credit Card Bill Vote Thurs., White House Makes a Push
• Oulu, Finland Selected as Site for 2009 Near Field Communication Forum Members Meeting
• Digital Insight and Metavante Extend Relationship, Make Online Banking a Powerful Center of Financial Activity
• Bloomberg.com: VisaNet to Sell Shares in Brazil After IPO Drought
• The Boston Globe: Senate might consider cap on card interest rates