Circuit City threw in the towel today - announcing it was shutting down:

Circuit City would like to thank all of the customers who have shopped with us over the past 60 years. Unfortunately, we announced on January 16, 2009, that we are going out of business.

If you happen to hold a Circuit City gift card, you need to get moving and use it - or be prepared to lose its value:

Q. Will Circuit City stores continue to accept Circuit City gift cards?

A. Yes, customers holding Circuit City gift cards may redeem them at full value at our stores during the liquidation sales. Once the stores are closed and the company is out of business, the gift cards will have no value.

"Closing sales will run as long as it takes to sell existing inventory, but are expected to wrap up by the end of March. When the liquidation sales are completed, the stores will be closed."

In an 8-K filing with the SEC, Discover Financial Services reported that it has received preliminary approval from the U.S. Department of the Treasury to participate in the U.S. Treasury's Capital Purchase Program. "In connection with participating in the Program, the Company intends to become a bank holding company under the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 and a financial holding company under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. As previously announced, the Company's application to become a bank holding company was approved by the U.S. Federal Reserve on December 19, 2008."

Discover Financial Services has announced it is rolling out an enhancement to its Discover Information Security and Compliance (DISC) program that the company says "will streamline the validation and reporting process, making it easier for merchants that process transactions on the Discover Network to communicate their compliance with the PCI Data Security Standard (DSS)." READ MORE »

Three of the largest US credit card issuers have reported fourth quarter financial results yesterday and this morning: JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup.

Included in their results are some startling declines in the purchase volume on their credit cards - declines of 7.6% at JP Morgan Chase, a 15% decline at Bank of America, and a 17.2% decline in US purchase volume at Citigroup.

As evidence that mobile payments adoption is really happening in India, Bharti Airtel has announced that more than one million users have registered for the mChek on Airtel service since its commercial launch in June 2008.

“Consumer adoption and repeat usage of the service has been extremely encouraging”, said Sanjay Swamy, CEO of mChek. “With the Reserve Bank of India’s mobile payments guidelines now in place, banks and merchants are fast adopting our open-platform to build a thriving eco-system, and a compelling suite of services for consumers.” READ MORE »

Citigroup Inc. today reported a net loss for the 2008 fourth quarter of $8.29 billion. Citi also announced it will realign itself into two businesses, Citicorp and Citi Holdings, "to optimize the company's global businesses for future profitable growth and opportunities. This structure will enable Citi to focus on driving the performance of its core businesses and, separately, on realizing value from non-core assets."

The strategic restructuring creates:

• Citicorp, which will focus on leveraging the competitive advantages of the company's global universal bank in more than 100 countries, and,
• Citi Holdings, which will be made up of brokerage and retail asset management, local consumer finance and a special asset pool – whose management will focus on tightly managing risks and losses, and maximizing the value of these assets.

Citi said revenues in its Global Cards business fell 27 percent. In its North American cards business, purchases on Citi-issued cards declined 15%. In EMEA, purchases declined 21%, in Latin America purchases declined 15% while in Asia purchases declined 7%.

More details are available in its 4Q2008 earnings presentation and financial supplement.

This morning Bank of America reported its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2008 - with a net loss of $1.79 billion in the quarter compared with net income of $268 million a year earlier. A copy of the bank's 4Q2008 earnings presentation is available online along with supplemental financial information.

In its Card Services business, the bank reported that purchase volume on bank-issued cards declined over 17 percent vs the fourth quarter in 2007.

• Visa payment card security training schedule for 2009
• Forbes.com: Bracing For New Mobile Security Challenges
• Dow Jones: Decline In Credit Card Spending Weighs On Visa, MasterCard
• The Electronic Funds Transfer Association and NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association Join Forces to Create New Electronic Benefits Transfer Council - MarketWatch
• Initial Bay Area Security Professionals / PCIUG Meetup
• InformationWeek: Discover Card Offers Mobile Management Service
• NetSpend(R) and Liberty Tax Service Announce Customer Option of Prepaid Debit Cards Through New Partnership
• E-Commerce Payment Processing Beyond PayPal