Mercator Advisory Group has announced its latest report titled "Mobile Financial Services Security: A New Ecosystem at Risk."

CPNI has announced an agreement with PROSA (Promocion y Operacion, S.A. de C.V.), the largest provider of electronic transactions in Latin America, in which PROSA will provide financial institutions in Mexico with the centralized payments processing backbone for CPNI's Phone Authorized Transfer (PAT) mobile payment solutions.

FIrstBank of Lakewood, Colorado, has announced the launch of Mobile Banking from FirstBank that the bank says "gives FirstBank's Internet Banking customers the ability to quickly check their account balances and transfer funds across accounts using their mobile phones, even while waiting for a flight and in jam-packed shopping malls." The bank says that Mobile Banking is currently available to AT&T Wireless customers, and Verizon customers are expected to gain access in December.

Nielsen Online has announced that "online shopping's primary appeal is the convenience it offers. In an online survey, out of nearly 1,000 respondents, 81 percent indicated that the ability to shop anytime during the day was why they chose to shop online during the holiday season. Saving time was the next most popular reason to shop online, with 77 percent of respondents, followed by the ability to comparison shop and find things easily, with 61 percent and 56 percent, respectively."

American Express has announced results from a new gift card survey finding that Americans plan to spend nearly a quarter of their gift-giving budgets on gift cards this year, up from 18% last year and 13% in 2005.

Jane J. Kim writes for the Wall St. Journal about new credit cards from Capital One, Chase Card Services and Discover that offer more "flexibility and convenience" in their rewards programs - intended to make their cards "top of wallet" in terms of consumer preference.

PayPal has launched its holiday shopping site - where "you’ll find a variety of special offers from terrific merchants, including free shipping and other special discounts to make your holidays more affordable." Beginning next Monday, PayPal will be offering 20% cash back (up to $50) when shopping at some merchants.

• TowerGroup: Majority of U.S. Banks Have Now Adopted FFIEC Guidelines for Online Banking Authentication
• GiftCards.com, LLC Offers New Easy Payment Method and a $25 Rebate!
• Subway Cards Now Available at Stores
• New Survey From Guard ID Systems Shows 91 Percent of Online Holiday Shoppers Handle Their Account Passwords in an Unsafe Manner
• Global Payments Selects Hypercom's SmartPayments to Expand Payment Processing Services for Integrated Solutions
• Investor's Business Daily: Long-Awaited Visa Offering Tests The Power Of Plastic
• Aneace's Blog: Identifying merchant pains that can be addressed with new generation bank cards
• Merchant Risk Council Recommends Businesses Incorporate Extended Validation SSL Certificate for Web Site Security
• Leading Online Recreational Retail Site Dazadi.com(R) Joins as One of Google's E-commerce Partners in the Launch of New Platform, Google Checkout for Mobile
• First American Idol™ Gift Card Introduced by IdeaEdge and Stored Value Solutions