Citi has announced a strategic marketing alliance with Live Nation saying it will "deliver a uniquely comprehensive music experience to Citi customers in the United States."

On the Credit Slips blog, Adam Levitin comments on the Federal Reserve's G.19 Consumer Credit Statistical Release (published monthly). He notes that "the G.19 statistic includes all balances outstanding, not just those that are accruing interest and fees--it includes balances from transactors, who pay off their statement at the end of the month, as well as revolvers."

Accertify and Experian have announced a strategic partnership to help e-commerce sites process orders quickly while reducing charge-backs and the total cost of fraud. Accertify will offer Experian's Credit Card Verification, an credit card authentication tool, to Accertify's customers. Credit Card Verification provides "robust consumer authentication and confirms the presence of a specific credit card account on a consumer's credit report."

in a story titled "Yahoo, eBay Payment Partnership Said Growing Faster Than Expected", Investor's Business Daily reports on the success of the Yahoo!/PayPal partnership launched last April. "Like Google Checkout, Yahoo PayPal Checkout aims to make it easier and safer to make purchase on a wide range of retail sites. The services store personal information such as name, address, credit cards and bank account numbers so users don't have to provide that info to an unfamiliar merchant."

MasterCard Worldwide and USA Technologies have announced the expansion of ePort cashless payment terminals to 17,500 vending machines nationwide, adding more than 4,000 new locations that accept MasterCard PayPass contactless payments.

In the UK, there's a special police unit called the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit that's responsible for cheque and card fraud. APACS reports that the DCPCU was responsible for £107 million in estimated fraud savings in 2007 compared with savings of £130 million achieved in the five years following the Unit’s launch in 2002.

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