PayPal CEO Scott Thompson was interviewed at Wired's first Business Conference - “Disruptive by Design” - held in New York earlier this week. In the interview, Scott talks about the history of PayPal, how the company innovated to integrate with national payment systems in many countries around the world, and the innovations in risk management that have been fundamental to PayPal's success.

Read Scott's blog post about the interview - and you can watch the full video of the interview here. Highly recommended!

MasterCard has announced it has appointed Ajay Banga President and Chief Operating Officer, reporting to Robert W. Selander, currently President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Selander will continue to serve as Chief Executive Officer after Mr. Banga joins MasterCard on August 31, 2009.

Mr. Banga is currently Citigroup's Chief Executive Officer of Citi Asia Pacific, responsible for all of Citi's business lines in the region including credit cards and consumer banking, institutional banking, wealth management and alternative investments. READ MORE »

PayPal has announced that, effective today, "you can send money via PayPal to friends and family in the US for free" - as long as the payment is funded from your bank checking account or your PayPal account balance. You can also pay using a credit card and, if so, "you can choose to pay the fee or have the recipient pay it."

Acxiom has announced the introduction of a digital identity card as a beta offering for retail merchants, corporations, financial institutions and other organizations that wish to offer a privately branded identity card to their customers.

According to Acxiom, "a digital identity card allows consumers to establish new online accounts and log in to existing accounts with a unique, encrypted identity that is stored on the consumer’s personal computer. This is the digital equivalent of a privately branded identity card that is typically carried in a person’s wallet." READ MORE »

• WSJ.com: Wall Street Critic Inspired New Consumer-Protection Agency
• You’re the Boss Blog - NYTimes.com: Is the Credit Card Squeeze a Blessing in Disguise?
• Fiserv Awarded "Best Innovation in a Loyalty Program" for UChoose Rewards®
• SnapTell Blog: SnapTell acquired by A9.com, a subsidiary of Amazon.com
• SmartMoney.com: A New Number for You to Sweat: Your ID Score
• Seeking Alpha: Discover Financial Services Q2 2009 Earnings Call Transcript
• VIPGift Receives PCI Level One Certification
• Seeking Alpha: Duopoly Visa and Mastercard Versus Retailers - Who Wins in a Free Market?
• NetBanker: Why Mobile Banking/Payments will be Highly Profitable
• Threat Level - Wired.com: TJX Hacker Was Awash in Cash; His Penniless Coder Faces Prison