Mark Calvey writes for the San Francisco Business Times about Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis' repeated recent comments that the bank is considering the possibility of leaving Visa and creating its own credit card network.

Michael Merritt, Deputy Assistant Director of the Office of Investigations for the United States Secret Service testified yesterday before the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs in the US Senate. Merritt's prepared testimony (PDF) described the history of the so-called "Supernotes", high-quality counterfeit U.S. currency (Federal Reserve Notes) and the connections the Secret Service has made between the production and distribution of these counterfeit notes and the government of North Korea.

The Palo Alto Weekly's Bill D'Agostino reports on Menlo Park-based MyTango.com's new remote order and pay service that has recently gone live in several Midpeninsula restaurants, bars and coffee shops.

Glenbrook's Russ Jones comments on the release a few weeks ago by six federal agencies (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Trade Commission, National Credit Union Administration, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Securities and Exchange Commission) of a new report titled "Evolution of a Prototype Financial Privacy Notice" (pdf).

First Data Corp. has announced its Strategic Communications Solution (SCS), a suite of products designed to help card issuers increase loyalty and usage among their cardholder database.

Mylene Mangalindan and Jessica E. Vascellaro of the Wall St. Journal review the new mobile payment services from PayPal Mobile, Obopay, and TextPayMe. Earlier this month, we posted the Payments News US Mobile Payments Players - Comparisons chart that also outlines the most important similarities and differences between these three mobile payments services.

The People's Daily Online reports on the rapid development of bank cards in China based upon comments made by Su Ning, Vice President of the People's Bank of China, at a press conference earlier this week.

• The Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia is recruiting for the position of Payment Cards Industry Specialist.
• How Consumer Protections Differ Between Debit Cards and Credit Cards
• Panasonic POS Workstations Integrate Givex Gift Card Programs
• NACHA Honors Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson for Service to U.S. Payments System
• PayPal to launch mobile payments service in the UK
• FMT TEAMS UP WITH IBM TO DELIVER ONLINE FRAUD AND AUTHENTICATION SOLUTIONS TO BANKS ACROSS ASIA
• Visa Canada: Credit card chip battles fraud
• China UnionPay Launches New Payment Tool
• Consumers Worldwide Overwhelmingly Support Biometrics for Identity Verification, Says Unisys Study