Adam Levitin, Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown University, posts on the Credit Slips blog about this week's scheduled Visa Inc. initial public offering.   » Continue Reading

[Editor's note: This subject is, strictly speaking, perhaps off-topic for Payments News. But the subject of the subprime mortgage situation is on everybody's mind these days - and, therefore, we're sharing this here.] Adam B. Ashcraft and Til Schuermann of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York have just published a new staff report titled "Understanding the Securitization of Subprime Mortgage Credit".   » Continue Reading

The Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "The Evolving Landscape for Prepaid Cards in Latin America and Europe".   » Continue Reading

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has released the latest edition of its annual publication "Statistics on Payment and Settlement Systems in Selected Countries". "This version of the statistical update contains data for 2006 and earlier years. There are detailed tables for each individual country as well as a number of comparative tables. This year the tables have been expanded to include detailed data on securities trading, clearing and settlement systems. The statistical methodology has been updated accordingly."

The Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council has published a new white paper titled "Co-Branded Multi-Application Contactless Cards for Transit and Financial Payment" that describes "an approach that leverages co-branded card marketing programs and the multi-application capabilities provided by smart card technology. The white paper is intended for mass transit agencies that are considering implementing a new contactless fare payment program or enhancing an existing program through collaboration with the financial community. It is also intended for financial payment card issuers, processors, and service providers who are considering working with mass transit agencies."   » Continue Reading

The Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Restricted Authorization Networks: Winner Takes All" by Tim Sloane, Director of Mercator's Prepaid Advisory Service. The report explores "how merchants and others can bring Prepaid Cards and Debit Cards to market, funded by Decoupled Debit and other mechanisms, to help consumers better manage their expenses and deliver meaningful savings - and therefore addressing this growing consumer demand. But most importantly, this report identifies how Restricted Authorization Networks can control how these cards are used in ways that were never before possible."   » Continue Reading

Hannaford Bros. Co., a Scarborough, Maine, supermarket chain with 165 stores has announced "containment of a data intrusion into its computer network that resulted in the theft of customer credit and debit card numbers. No personal information, such as names or addresses, was accessed or obtained." The AP reports that "about 4.2 million unique card numbers were exposed."   » Continue Reading

On February 27, JPMorganChase held an Investor Day with presentations by senior executives from across its business. A webcast archive of each presentation along with the accompanying presentations are available online. Included are a Chase Card Services presentation by Gordon Smith and a Retail Financial Services presentation by Charlie Scharf. JPMorganChase is in the news today following its announcement late yesterday that it is acquiring Bear Stearns.

Javelin Strategy & Research has published a new report on mobile person-to-person (P2P) payments and transfers that outlines target consumer segments, obstacles and drivers for product adoption, and detailed case studies of three mobile P2P payment models from PayPal, Obopay and mChek. According to the report, most consumers want high-speed transactions, but only one in ten consumers is willing to adopt mobile P2P payment services.   » Continue Reading

• iovation Partners with PayByCash(TM) to Provide Online Merchants with Stronger Protection Against Payment and Credit Card Fraud
• CIO: How PayPal Keeps E-Commerce Humming in 15 Languages at Once
• MarketWatch: President of eBay's PayPal reportedly sees no e-commerce slowdown
• IP Commerce Announces New Software Platform That Simplifies Development and Deployment of Secure Payment Solutions
• INSIDE MicroPass 4003 Ready for MasterCard PayPass
• Western Union Teams With Penn Traffic Company to Offer Money Transfer, Money Order Services
• Latest SAS® Anti-Money Laundering Release Streamlines Monitoring for Better Accuracy, Efficiency