The US Department of Justice has announced that a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. has indicted two companies operating a digital currency business and their owners on charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.

mFoundry has announced an agreement with Sprint to bring mobile banking and financial services to Sprint customers with Vision or Power Vision phones, enabling them to check their bank balances, transfer funds between their accounts, make bill payments and more, with participating banks.

Mark Chediak writes for the Orlando Sentinel about legislation pending in Florida that would "do away with most gift-card and gift-certificate expiration dates and fees for cards sold in Florida."

John Blau of IDG News Service writes for PC World about efforts by the GSM Association that are "pushing for the Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) to become the standardized component for storing sensitive data in NFC-equipped mobile phones."

Jonathan Birchall writes for the Financial Times about comments made yesterday by Safeway that it "expects to expand its Blackhawk gift card subsidiary this year to Germany, France and Australia, as it seeks to capitalise internationally on a retail concept that has thrived in the US."