American Express has announced a Restaurant Partnership Program that that company says is "designed to provide restaurateurs with a one-stop location for many of the savings and benefits available to merchants who accept the American Express Card."

Barclays Bank and TRANSFIRST have announced a strategic partnership to provide U.S. merchants with processing solutions for worldwide payment transactions with TRANSFIRST becoming a registered International Service Organisation/Member Service Provider of Barclays Bank. These services will allow U.S. merchants to accept payment in Europe, in their international customers' currency of choice while receiving U.S. dollars for payment.

Martin Crutsinger reports for the Associated Press on yesterday's consumer credit figures for April from the Federal Reserve. "For April, consumer borrowing on credit cards and other types of revolving loans rose at an annual rate of 4.5 percent after having fallen by 2.3 percent in March."

Richard Ridge writes to tell us that the UK's Logic Group, the largest card processing provider in the UK, has launched a new weblog to discuss topics such as gift cards, managed services and PCI.

First Data Corp. has announced that Western Union has filed a Form 10 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the planned spin-off by First Data of the Western Union business.

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