Svea Herbst-Bayliss reports for Reuters on the credit card security breach by the Boston Globe that was reported earlier this week.   » Continue Reading

Whenever you're looking for a posting here, you can search Payments News using the search box over in the sidebar on the right side of the page.

This week, the top 11 most popular search keywords on Payments News have been: mastercard ipo, certegy, bidpay, washington mutual mastercard, american express red card, secured mastercard, citibank ipod, charlie fote, hello kitty credit card, financial institution shared assessments program and sitekey.

In a lengthy article, Evan Schuman reports for eWeek.com on some problems with the rollout of biometric-based payments at Piggly Wiggly - after initially seeing "strong consumer interest and support for the system."   » Continue Reading

In mid-January, the US Department of the Treasury released a new government-wide examination of money laundering vulnerabilities in a report titled "US Money Laundering Threat Assessment" (PDF).   » Continue Reading

I took a look for job postings re: mobile payments at SimplyHired this morning and came up with the following list. Included are openings for both a business manager and a senior product manager at PayPal in the PayPal Mobile group.

"PayPal Mobile is a dynamic, young “start-up” business unit within PayPal dedicated to bringing value-added mobile payment services to consumers and merchants."

Andrew Ellison reports for the The Times on a forty percent growth in the number of personal bankruptcies in the UK during the last quarter of 2005.   » Continue Reading

Rupert Jones reports for The Guardian on the investigation launched yesterday by the UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) into "anti-competitive" behavior by MasterCard over interchange fees.   » Continue Reading

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

• China UnionPay Extends Coverage Globally
• South Africa: Banks prepare for switch to smart cards