Equifax has announced that it has agreed to acquire a 28 percent equity stake in Global Payments Credit Services LLC (GPCS), a credit information company in Russia, from Global Payments Europe, s.r.o., a subsidiary of Global Payments Inc., and Home Credit and Finance Bank of Russia (Home Credit). READ MORE

The IHL Group has released a new study finding that 'the PC-based electronic point-of-sale (EPOS) market in Europe/Middle East/Africa experienced a 4 percent shipment increase in 2007 and continues to show strong growth potential in 2008. Taking advantage of normal cyclical upgrades in Western Europe and enjoying strong oil revenues in Russia and the Middle East, the region is poised to remain strong even while shipments slow in North America.'

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Visa and Singapore Post Limited (SingPost) have announced that they will support the Visa Money Transfer remittance service from 51 designated post offices in Singapore enabling the transfer of money to to Visa cardholders in Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the United Kingdom. This is the first time Visa Money Transfer has been made available through a postal service provider.

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The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) has been examining the regulatory implications of new technologies in banking. According to the group, "basic, everyday financial services are out of reach for more than two billion people in developing countries. But the rapid growth of branchless banking - including mobile phone banking - is reducing the cost and expanding the availability of such services."

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Andrew Kramer reports for the New York Times about a Russian hacker attack on Sweden's Nordea Bank's customers via a virus distributed via email. According to the report, "thieves using the program in Sweden defrauded 250 customers of Nordea’s online banking service over a period of 15 months."

Tom Zeller Jr. reports for the New York Times in Tuesday's edition on the illicit trading in stolen credit card data that takes place on the Internet.

"There's so much to this," said Jim Melnick, a former Russian affairs analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency who is now the director of threat development at iDefense, a company in Reston, Va., that tracks cybercrime.

"The story that needs to be told is the larger, long-term threat to the American financial industry. It's a cancer. It's not going to kill you now, but slowly, over time."

Separately, Julie Creswell and Eric Dash reported that the nation's largest credit card issuers were still uncertain which customer accounts were affected by a computer security breach that MasterCard reported last Friday.

Business Week reports on the growth in consumer credit in Russia. READ MORE

Victoria Lavrentieva reports on the growth in Visa cards in Russia.