Elizabeth White reports for the Associated Press on gift cards and increasing consumer concerns about those that expire without the customer knowing it or otherwise lose value if not spent.   » Continue Reading

The Payment Cards Center of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank has just published a new discussion paper, Risky Business: Managing Electronic Payments in the 21st Century (PDF) by Marilyn Bochicchio and Stanley Sienkiewicz.   » Continue Reading

CR80 posts an outlook on contactless payments for 2006 written by Cathleen Conforti, MasterCard Senior VP and PayPass Global Product Manager.   » Continue Reading

As part of its fourth quarter earnings announcement this morning, Morgan Stanley announced financial results for its Discover unit.   » Continue Reading

Over a year after their relationship was publicly announced, this morning it's official - Citibank and American Express have announced the launch of Citi's new American Express-branded cards to be available to consumers beginning January 15, 2006. Other than carrying the new Amex brand, Citi's new cards appear to be essentially comparable to its existing MasterCard and Visa-branded cards in terms of cardholder benefits, fees, etc.   » Continue Reading

Morgan Stanley has announced the acquisition of the Goldfish credit card business in the UK from Lloyds TSB. For more information on Goldfish, see: www.goldfish.com.   » Continue Reading

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has announced a new workshop "Toward a More Secure Web -- W3C Workshop on Transparency and Usability of Web Authentication" to be held at Citigroup in New York City in March 2006.   » Continue Reading

Sandra Block reports for USA Today on gift cards - and tips on how to get the best deal.   » Continue Reading

The Age reports from Melbourne, Australia on plans announced today by the Reserve Bank of Australia to reform the country's EFTPOS debit card system. The reforms include access to the EFTPOS system as well as adjustments to proposed interchange fees.   » Continue Reading

Robin Sidel reports for the Wall St. Journal that JP Morgan Chase's credit card unit has begun pursuing less credit worthy consumers in an effort to boost profits.   » Continue Reading

Ron Lieber and Robin Sidel report for the Wall St. Journal on Citi Cards' upcoming launch of five American Express-branded Citi cards.   » Continue Reading

Citigroup CEO Charles Prince held an investor/analyst day briefing last Friday. Slides from the briefing are available on the Citigroup web site.

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

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