Ron Lieber and Jessica Mintz report for the Wall St. Journal's Saturday edition about paying convenience fees to pay your taxes and why they're not always a rip-off - but only if your card issuer is offering bonuses for tax payments.

PAYMENTS 2006, NACHA's annual conference on electronic payments, will be held this year in San Diego, California from May 7-10 at the San Diego Convention Center.

As a Payments News reader, you can attend this year's conference at the Member's registration price, $200 less than Non-Member registration. To get your discount, register as a member, select Other as your ACH Council affiliation and key in "Payments News subscriber".

Reuters reports on what a number of US bank CEO's made in terms of compensation last year.

The Weekend Australian reports on plans by the standing committee on economics, finance and public administration of the Australian parliament to review reforms made by the Reserve Bank of Australia to the country's payments system - including changes to card interchange fees.

Federal regulators have announced the release of Evolution of a Prototype Financial Privacy Notice, a report by Kleimann Communication Group summarizing consumer research commissioned by the regulators as part of their ongoing efforts to develop improved financial privacy notices.

National City has announced a new points-based rewards program that "rewards consumer and small business customers with points for everyday transactions, like making purchases with debit and credit cards, paying bills online, writing checks – even improving a home or small business through purchases with a home equity or small business line of credit access card."

David Lazarus reports for the San Francisco Chronicle on the elimination of some benefits previously included on Visa debit cards. The banks he mentions planning to eliminate some of the existing debit card benefits include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Wachovia.

Bruce Erskine reports for the Halifax, Nova Scotia Chronicle Herald on Visa's migration to smart cards in Canada.

Robert Lemos reports for SecurityFocus.com on the Secret Service's Operation Rolling Stone that has recently made seven additional arrests related to the earlier debit card fraud incidents.

• VISA chip cards to be issued in Viet Nam next year
• Record Numbers of New York's Seniors Falling Into Credit Card Debt
• CNet News.com: RSA Security's Cyota division is helping fight phishing attacks by giving the online fraudsters what they want: a lot of usernames, passwords, online-banking credentials and credit card numbers
• Wal-Mart increases capital for new bank
• ViVOtech to Sponsor Payment Enabled NFC-Mobile Phone Giveaway During The NFC Technology Summit at CTIA Wireless 2006
• Jewel-Osco introduces Pay By Touch system
• New Scientist: Beat cybercrime, switch to a virtual wallet
• Yahoo: Banking Today, Payments Tomorrow?
• Humor from Canada: McVISA Cardholder Way Over Her McLimit
• UK: Credit card costs rise for online gambling
• Bankrate.com: Credit cards that hurt your credit score
• Global Payments Reports Third Quarter Earnings
• Australia: Use of debit cards on the rise
• New Zealand: Banks issue ATM fraud warning

NACHA has announced a new web site - www.electronicpayments.org - designed to be a resource for NACHA members to use to educate and inform consumers about Direct Deposit, Direct Payment and Check Conversion - ACH applications that NACHA says "provide safe and secure consumer payments, improve business and financial institution process and profitability, and strengthen our nation's payment system."

OCC Chief Counsel Julie Williams has spoken out in a speech delivered today to the 2006 Banking Institute (PDF) on her views regarding the current state of financial industry consumer disclosures.

TransUnion has announced it will be integrating the ID Analytics ID Score into its Fraud and Identity Management Services.

Mercator Advisory Group has announced a new report examining the debit card reward programs titled "Setting Goals For Debit Reward Programs: Balancing Revenue Goals and Brand Loyalty".

Lara Wozniak writes for FinanceAsia.com about a significant increase in charge off rates on credit cards issued in Taiwan.

Jeremy Reimer writes for ArsTechnica about the kinds of rewards credit cards that online gamers want to use - where the rewards associated with the cards extend into the virtual worlds of their favorite online games such as World of Warcraft and Second Life.

The Winston-Salem Journal carries an AP story about card acceptance is rapidly increasing among landlords who are enabling their renters to pay monthly rent via credit and debit cards.

• Wells Fargo Creates Environmental Advisory Board
• HSA Bank Announces Relationship With Transamerica Financial Advisors, Inc.
• Scotiabank appoints Alberta G. Cefis to head Global Transaction Banking
• CNN Money: Banks' obsession with China may be overblown
• EFMA Product Management Conference programme - Barcelona on 8 - 9 June
• Yahoo Japan to take Web bank stake
• Boston Globe: Could the future of Internet gambling in the US lie in Antigua?
• Money expert offers tips at summit - National columnist Michelle Singletary covers ‘four pillars of prosperity’
• Chicago Tribune: Debt stands in the way of your life
• Canadian Banks Need to Embrace Change More Than Ever: PricewaterhouseCoopers Annual Banking Survey
• India: Co-branded credit cards gaining popularity
• eBay China unit forms alliance with major retailer
• UK: Consumer credit surges
• Beware Of Credit Cards Promising No Late Fees
• New Zealand: Cash machine 'skimmers' steal thousands
• New Web Site Offers Free Analysis to Find the Best Rates for Credit Card Merchant Account Processing
• Diamond I, Inc. Acquires Patent-Pending Voice-Recognition Biometric Technology

Kristin Roberts reports for Reuters that Wal-Mart has offered to modify its pending application with the FDIC for a limited purpose bank.

Earlier today, Citibank launched Citibank Direct, a new high yield savings account product.

One of our partners just opened the new Citibank e-savings account -- an interesting and rather positive experience. Read on for details.

Stored Value Systems has announced the results of a national web survey of adults conducted at the end of February revealed that eight in 10 said they would rather receive a gift card to their favorite retailer than any other kind of gift.

I4 Commerce, the company offering the Bill Me Later payment service, has announced it has secured $27.4 million in venture funding led by Kingdon Capital Management and including previous major investors, Crosspoint Venture Partners, Azure Capital Partners and GRP Partners.

Clint Riley reports for the Wall St. Journal on Citibank's launch of a new high yield savings account program competitive with similar accounts offered by ING Direct, HSBC, and Emigrant Savings. Citi's approach, however, also requires consumers to maintain a Citibank checking account. The new e-Savings account is offered on a new website at direct.citibank.com.

The Gulf Marketing Review interviews John Stuart, MasterCard's senior vice president for global sponsorships.

CardRatings.com is urging consumers burdened with high levels of credit card debt to consider using a technique often suggested with mortgages - make payments twice as often and you'll significantly affect the total amount of interest you pay for a given amount of debt.

NACHA has announced Authentication Mandate: Compliance Issues & Revenue Opportunities for Online Banking, a conference focusing on the business opportunities resulting from financial institutions' online authentication capabilities and the recent Federal regulatory guidance on authentication in Internet banking.

Matthew Charles reports for Australia's Herald Sun on the new Altitude Platinum rewards card program launched by Westpac that actually issues each consumer two cards - a co-branded American Express card and a Westpac MasterCard.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has published a staff paper titled “The Topology of Interbank Payment Flows,” (PDF) by Kimmo Soramäki, Morten L. Bech, Jeffrey Arnold, Robert J. Glass, and Walter E. Beyeler.

Michael Jivkov writes for the UK's Independent about yesterday's financial results reported by Neteller and asks the question "is there no end in sight to the company's growth?"