Alas, summer's over and it's time to get back to work! The September edition of Glenbrook's Flash newsletter is now available. Read about what we've been up to lately!

Robin Sidel and Ron Lieber report in Thursday's Wall St. Journal on American Express' plans (subscription required) to effectively compete with itself by enlisting card issuing partners among US banks.

American Express has announced the launch of Identity Theft Assistance, a new no-cost benefit available to all American Express cardholders. More information about the new program is available online.

CR80News reports on MasterCard's plans for a "staged national rollout" of its PayPass proximity payment product.   » Continue Reading

The Ponemon Institute and TRUSTe have released the results of a national study that concluded that seven out of ten online consumers have unintentionally visited a spoofed web site with 15 percent admitting to having provided sensitive private information. In total, a little more than 2 percent believe they've experienced a direct monetary loss resulting from a phishing attack. The study estimated a loss to this group of approximately $500 million.

Dow Jones Newswires reports on a discussion about bank cards in China with with Willie Fung, senior vice president of MasterCard International.

In a nation of 1.3 billion people, only 100 million Chinese have a clear idea of what a bank card is, based on a Mastercard survey focusing on China's emerging middle-class household conducted in May, said Fung. But by 2010, the number of Chinese middle-class households with annual income above US$5,000 will rise to 150 million from 65 million currently, based on MasterCard data.