West Australian reports on smart card integrator ERG's decision to exit its smart card business.

Visa International board chairman William P. Boardman has also been named Interim CEO of Visa International. Boardman replaces retiring CEO Malcolm Williamson on an interim basis until a new CEO is appointed. READ MORE »

Reuters is reporting that JP Morgan Chase executive Richard Srednicki has been elected chairman of the board of its US region.

First Data Corp. announced this morning the closing of its merger with Concord EFS. READ MORE »

First Data Corporation's 10-K report for 2003 is now available from the SEC's Edgar online site.

Jessie Ho reports in the Taiwan Times on PayPal's launch in Taiwan.

RSA Security reported today the results of its second annual Internet Insecurity Index -- with negative progress (from a score of 6 to a 7 on a 10 point scale) having been made in the last year.

In a related story, RSA Security reported the results of its second annual consumer survey on identity theft. READ MORE »

The US General Accounting Office has released a study on the use of Social Security Numbers (PDF). READ MORE »

David Weidner reports on CBS MarketWatch.com about Capital One's interest in diversifying beyond credit cards.

Acxiom and TransUnion have announced the availability of a new Fraud Management Platform to verify a consumer's identity at any point of sale. The two companies have made available a white paper (PDF) on the subject of identity theft.

Tower Group's Edward Kountz writes in Bank Systems and Technology Online about opportunities for the bank card industry in prepaid micropayments. READ MORE »

Magic Cards International has announced the launch of a new prepaid Visa card featuring the likeness of basketball great Magic Johnson on the face of the card. READ MORE »

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates spoke this morning at the RSA Conference in San Francisco about Microsoft's various security-related initiatives. Included was an update on Microsoft's approach to reducing the volume of Internet email spam.

Microsoft this morning announced GIAIS, the Global Infrastructure Alliance for Internet Safety. READ MORE »

eBay yesterday introduced a new eBay Toolbar for Microsoft Internet Explorer users that includes Account Guard, a feature designed to thwart phishing attacks on eBay users. An FAQ is available online. READ MORE »

PassMark Security has introduced new countermeasures to enable enterprises to prevent phishing attacks on their Internet users. READ MORE »

An updated version our recent phishing analysis is now also available here on Payments News. READ MORE »

The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced today that the estimate of U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the fourth quarter of 2003, not adjusted for seasonal, holiday, and trading-day differences, was $17.2 billion, an increase of 25.1 percent (±4.2%) from the fourth quarter of 2002. Total retail sales for the fourth quarter of 2003 were estimated at $918.2 billion, an increase of 6.2 percent (±0.4%) from the same period a year ago.

MasterCard has announced that British Airways is the first global airline to adopt MasterCard's SecureCode online payer authentication service. READ MORE »

Wired carries a Reuters story about Atrua Technologies, a Silicon Valley-based startup funded by the venture capital groups of Ericsson, Nokia and Intel. Atrua's first product is a cell phone touchpad capable of user fingerprint verification. Details in the company's press release. READ MORE »

Wall St. Journal reporters Don Clark and Nick Wingfeld report (subscription reqd) on new techniques to verify online the identity of companies and computer users. READ MORE »

The Reserve Bank of Australia has designated Visa International's debit card scheme in Australia a payment system, a possible first step toward regulating it.

VeriSign this morning announced OATH, Open Authentication reference architecture along with a new network-based authentication utility. More information about OATH is available at a new OATH web site.

Japan Today reports on Japanese smart card-based e-money systems, including Suica and Bitwallet's Edy cards.

Gregory Lamb writes in the Christian Science Monitor about micropayments.

David Steiner writes in AuctionBytes about two emails he received from PayPal - or, rather, he thought they came from PayPal. READ MORE »

Kenneth Harney writes in this morning's San Francisco Chronicle about Providian's plans to give some of its credit card customers unlimited access to their credit scores including free email alerts anytime their scores move by more than 10 points. READ MORE »

Wong Kim Hoh reports in the Straits Times on Visa's contactless card technology.

Doreen Carvajal reports in the International Herald Tribune on the world of international money transfer.

Meanwhile, the immigrants themselves have transformed the post office in Saint-Denis into one of the busiest branches in France. But its chief business is no longer handling mail, according to Lionel Maestroni, the branch's postal manager. Behind the counters, he said, workers spend more time on financial transactions: dispensing money and making transfers.

Hugh Gallagher from Edgar, Dunn & Company shares his perspectives on issuer debit card strategies.

Among the interesting findings:

"...the typical issuer loses money on an average debit transaction – even without accounting for the recent declines in debit interchange brought about by regulators and merchants."