Marcia Vickers writes for Fortune about the future of the card associations - MasterCard and Visa - and asks whether this is the "end of a long, golden age for the two card behemoths" on the cusp of MasterCard's upcoming initial public offering.

Marcy Gordon, AP Business Writer, takes a look at Industrial Loan Corporations - ILC's - those special purpose banks that "has become a popular vessel to carry financial ambitions of big companies of all sorts."

MasterCard has announced a new advertising campaign for its World MasterCard product. According to MasterCard, World is a card program that "combines flexible, personalized rewards with no pre-set spending limit to appeal to today's expanding affluent market."   » Continue Reading

Citibank and China Unionpay have announced that the strategic alliance they announced in late 2005 is now in effect, enabling CUP cards to be accepted at Citibank’s ATM network around the world, and Citibank international cardholders now able to use their cards at foreign-enabled CUP ATM’s when in China.   » Continue Reading

Bloomberg reports on comments made today by the Reserve Bank of Australia's Philip Lowe speaking before the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration. In his talk, Lowe provided an overview of the main payment system reforms undertaken by the RBA in Australia and their rationale along with a summary of their main effects to date.   » Continue Reading

• ID Insight's Safe2Change(SM) Helps Financial Institutions Comply with New Identity Theft Guidelines; Sections 114 and 315 of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act Require Financial Institutions to Resolve Consumer Address Mismatches
• Fortune: Street star: Citigroup's CFO, Sallie Krawcheck
• Multi-Factor Authentication Names Leading Industry Executives to Corporate Advisory Board
• Wachovia Ranked No. 1 in Overall Satisfaction Score
• EZCORP(R) Expands Credit Reporting Service to Help More Customers Build Credit
• UK: Snap Cards - 'Top-up' payment cards aimed at children
• India's Second-Largest Bank, ICICI Bank, Selects SecuGen as Biometrics Supplier
• Mitek Announces New SignProtect(TM) Product
• Trintech Launches New Business Unit - Financial Services Group for Transaction Lifecycle Management and Positive Pay Solutions
• S1 Corporation Delivers New Consumer and Business Lending Solutions
• HSBC to Use Experian-Scorex to Improve Its Credit Decisions Globally
• MBNA gets the change; founder gets the credit
• Credit or debit card use matters overseas
• Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores Rolls Out NCR POS Technology