Mercator Advisory Group has announced its next monthly teleconference briefing (Wednesday, 12/14 beginning at 11 AM EST) will focus on the impact of identity theft on Internet banking. The briefing will be hosted by Tim Sloane, Director of Mercator's Debit Advisory Service.

DiamondCluster partner Aamer Baig says that recently announced plans by Blue Cross and Blue Shield to launch a new bank to administer consumer-directed health plan savings accounts shouldn't be view as a serious competitor to banks -- at least, not initially.

iovation has announced the release of AccountLock, a "family of authentication products that guard against unauthorized account access while offering multiple levels of user control, visibility and implementation stages depending on institution's needs."

At Glenbrook, we're tracking three themes in the US payments world that we expect will be increasingly important for 2006.

New Edge Networks has announced that it has established a direct network connection to American Express, enabling merchants to process transactions directly with the card network.

Frost & Sullivan has announced a new report examining "World Credit and Debit Fraud" that concludes that EMV migration has been the main tool to fight increasing fraud cases globally.

Almost one-third of Americans (32%) plan to use less credit card debt when buying gifts this holiday season, up from 28% who planned to use less debt in 2004, according to the Cambridge Consumer Credit Index. Another 32% do not plan to use credit cards at all this holiday season, down from 38% who swore off plastic last year.

Visa USA Executive Vice President William M. Sheedy pens an op-ed column for the Washigton Times on "litigious merchants", particularly those in the fuel industry advocating new economics for payment card acceptance.

Axalto and Gemplus International have announced a merger of equals to create Gemalto.

The Twin Cities Pioneer Press reports that MasterCard is requesting the disqualification of Minneapolis law firm Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi from a group of antitrust suits "because one of the firm's partners investigated MasterCard while he was a Justice Department lawyer."

Note: Throughout the day, as Payments News happens, this post is updated.

• WSJ: Credit-Card Debt and Student Loans: Dodging the Hazards of Post-College Life
• Feuding Rivals Pay By Touch, BioPay Merge to Spur Biometrics
• Experian-Gallup Survey Shows Most Consumers Are Optimistic About Their Financial Situation for 2006