First Data Corp. announced this morning the filing of its S-4 registration statement with the SEC regarding the proposed merger with Concord EFS. FDC also announced that it has been notified by the Payment System Working Group, a sub-group of the National Association of Attorneys General, that it plans to request a copy of the information that First Data has thus far supplied to the US Department of Justice regarding the proposed merger. FDC said it will be supplying the requested information.

The combination of yesterday's announcement of the UK Northampton chip and PIN trial coupled with Star's latest consumer survey results got me exploring a bit this morning. A Google search on "consumer preference for PIN debit" turns up some interesting results including the top item - a presentation by Star System on last year's survey results and results from a similar survey also done in 2002 by Paymentech. Bottom line: these surveys say that US consumers express a clear preference for PIN over signature primarily because they perceive it as faster.