Rich Smith of Motley Fool weighs in with his analysis of MasterCard's IPO and prospects. Our favorite quote from this article: "unless, of course, you're still using a checkbook -- which is, like, so 20th century."

Terence Roche of Cornerstone Advisors writes for their weekly Gonzo Banker newsletter about online account opening by banks and identifies several issues of strategy and delivery that need to be addressed.

Visa USA CEO John Philip Coghlan gave a keynote speech earlier this week at the Card Forum Conference. The text of his prepared remarks (PDF) is available online. He discussed three industry imperatives from his point of view: preserving trust, listening to the marketplace and innovating.

VeriSign held its annual analyst day yesterday and the presentation slides (PDF) and webcast are available online. [Editor's note: VeriSign's analyst day presentation slides are in an "HD" wide screen format - first time I've seen that format used in this kind of setting!]

At the meeting, VeriSign announced that Charles Schwab has selected VeriSign to deploy both its Identity Protection (VIP) Fraud Detection and Authentication Services to secure client login and transaction information. Additionally, Charles Schwab plans to become an anchor tenant of the VIP Fraud Intelligence and Shared Authentication Network. The VIP Shared Authentication Network is already supported by PayPal, eBay and Yahoo!   » Continue Reading

The Wall St. Journal's Heard on the Street column this morning looks at MasterCard's IPO yesterday - suggesting that "investors will need to gird themselves for some bumps in its financial performance for the rest of 2006" and pointing out that the company "already has warned that it may lose money this year." MasterCard yesterday made a 424B4 filing with the SEC containing the final prospectus for the IPO.

Fiona Walsh reports for The Guardian that credit losses at Barclaycard, Britain's biggest credit card company, could exceed £1.5bn this year, up more than 40% from a record £1.1bn last year.

Payment processor TSYS held its annual analyst day yesterday in New York City. The presentation slides (PDF) and audio from the presentations are available online. Included are comprehensive sections on TSYS's role in the merchant acquiring business and its international businesses. TSYS also announced yesterday that it had signed Wachovia for its re-entry into the credit card business.