[Update - October 11, 2006: Visa this morning announced plans to reorganize and, eventually, to pursue an IPO].

James Kelleher reports for Reuters on whether Visa's in any hurry to follow MasterCard in going public.

Pay By Touch has announced it has completed the acquisition of substantially all the assets of CardSystems Solutions, Inc. for $47 million in stock and cash.

Following up on our Ask Glenbrook post yesterday about US Postal Money Order volumes, Dave Birch from Consult Hyperion emailed the following about the experience with money orders in the UK:

Postal order sales rose 6% last year (to £338 million) with increasing use in the 15-24 age range. This is attributed to the Internet and, specifically, on-line auctions (Stokes, P. "Internet shoppers security fears trigger a postal order comeback" in "The Daily Telegraph": p.13, 29th Dec. 2004).

comScore Networks has released a new report documenting adoption levels and implications regarding the growth in online credit card account management.

First Data Corp. has announced that David P. Bailis has been appointed to oversee the company's Card Issuing Services unit. The company also said that the previously announced strategic review of its U.S. card issuing business is continuing.

David Von Emioh and Yi Wang write for the McKinsey Quarterly on China's credit card market basically recommending that foreign card issuers will need to partner with domestic Chinese banks to be successful. In addition, because of the lack of skills in China to run credit card businesses, foreign card issuers will need to bring in that talent as well.

Declan McCullagh of CNET News.com interviews RSA Security CEO Art Coviello on how the data breach headaches experienced by other companies are a boon to RSA.

In the seventh case by the Federal Trade Commission challenging data security practices by retailers and others, shoe retailer DSW entered into a consent agreement with the FTC earlier this month.

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

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