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MasterCard says it is investigating a potential security breach of its cardholders’ account information.

The credit card company said Friday it has notified law enforcement agencies and issuers of the MasterCard accounts that are potentially at risk. The credit card company only processes transactions _ the credit cards are issued to cardholders by banks such as Citibank and also a number of retailers.

MasterCard wouldn’t say how many cardholders, banks or issuing companies are affected paperless payday loans.

The company advises cardholders who have concerns that they should contact the financial institution that issued their cards.

MasterCard says its own systems have not been compromised.

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India’s prime minister said Thursday that international institutions are failing to lift up the developing world and endorsed the creation of a new development bank to be run by five fast-rising nations.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke at a summit of the so called BRICS group _ comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa _ aimed at harnessing the nations’ increasing global clout and forging stronger ties between their fast-growing economies.

The five countries represent 45 percent of the world’s population, a quarter of its land mass and a quarter of its economy at $13.5 trillion.

Though the group has accomplished little of note at its three previous meetings, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff insisted in an opinion piece in the Times of India that it had changed “the axis of international politics.”

At the summit, the five nations are expected to agree to do more business with each other in their local currencies, to help insulate from U.S. dollar fluctuations while lifting trade within the bloc from last year’s $230 billion to $500 billion by 2015.

They also hoped to move closer to creating a new development bank, much like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, saying it would streamline efforts to raise capital in poor nations and facilitate more business among themselves.

“Institutions of global political and economic governance created more than six decades ago have not kept pace with the changing world,” Singh told the summit payday loans with no fax.

In response, the five nations are working to set up a bank funded and managed by them that would improve poor nations’ access to development funds and boost emerging economies, Singh said.

“Developing countries need access to capital,” he said.

The summit came as the Indian capital remained under a heavy security umbrella since a Tibetan exile lit himself on fire at an anti-China protest Monday. He died from his burns Wednesday.

Chinese President Hu Jintao’s hotel was under virtual lock down, while Tibetan neighborhoods were sealed, with police allowing people out only for medical or court appointments.

Hundreds of police manned barricades along roads throughout the city, some carrying blankets soaked in water to quickly smother the flames of any protesters who try to set themselves alight.

Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said authorities had detained many Tibetan protesters in recent days, but would release most of them without charge in a few hours.

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1994 was great for movie fans. "Pulp Fiction." "The Shawshank Redemption." "Forrest Gump." But bond investors definitely would rather forget that year.

The yield on the 30-year Treasury (then the benchmark, as opposed to the 10-year that’s the benchmark now) began 1994 at about 5.8%. At the time, the economy was starting to show some signs of life after a big housing bust wreaked havoc on consumers and big banks. (Sound familiar?)

By the end of the year, long-term yields had popped to around 8%, one of the biggest bond market bloodbaths ever. Remember that prices fall when rates rise.

Flash forward to 2012. The 10-year started the year at a rate of just 1.87%. It spiked as high as 2.4% and has since settled back to about 2.25%. With the economy slowly improving, do bond investors have to fear that it’s 1994 all over again?

Some experts are, to paraphrase the Ace of Base song that topped the charts in 1994, seeing the sign. (1994 was not nearly as good a year for music as it was for film.)

But rates may only go so high. The big difference between now and two decades ago is that, in 1994, the Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan was raising rates.

Current Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has gone out of his way numerous times, including in a speech Monday morning, to point out that the central bank needs to stick with "accommodative" monetary policy to keep the job market and economy humming.

How the Fed hurts retirees

The Fed has already pledged to keep short-term rates near zero through the end of 2014. And investors strongly believe that if there’s any evidence that economic growth is starting to stall, Bernanke will likely agree to the Fed’s third big bond buying program since the 2008 financial crisis.

This so-called quantitative easing, or QE3, could put a lid on how high bond rates can go, experts said. That’s because the Fed would be viewed as a buyer of last resort for long-term Treasuries.

"This is completely different from 1994," said Michael Mata, manager of the ING Global Bond Fund () in Atlanta. "As long as Bernanke is Fed Chairman, the Fed will buy more Treasuries as it deems necessary."

Still, many bond investors are bracing for higher rates — albeit not at 1994 levels. If the economy continues to pick up steam, the Fed will probably let its current stimulus effort, which sells short-term bonds and uses the proceeds to buy long-term Treasuries, expire in June as currently scheduled.

The end of this program, dubbed "Operation Twist," should lead to more selling of long-term bonds and higher rates.

Wilmer Stith, portfolio manager of the Wilmington Trust Broad Market Bond Fund () in Baltimore, said that yields on the 10-year could climb as high as 3% after the Fed ceases with Twist. For this reason, he said his fund is betting more on high-quality, investment-grade corporate bonds over Treasuries.

But Stith points out that higher rates are not necessarily a significant problem for the economy — as long as they don’t climb too quickly. And he believes a move from 1.8% to 3% for the 10-year would lead some bond investors to flock back to Treasuries, since they might think the bonds are now a good value.

"At the end of the day, a slow but recovering economy should augur higher yields," Stith said. "But a yield near 3% would be up nicely from the lows, and the net result could be some more buyers."

Another key difference between 1994 and now was that 1994 was also a bad year for stocks. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell while the Dow finished the year up just 2%. Investors back then were nervous about the impact of the Fed’s rate hikes on both corporate profits and the broader economy payday loan lenders.

This year, investors seem to be fleeing bonds to rush back into stocks. But this newfound love for riskier assets could itself make life more difficult for bond investors.

Ben Bernanke is just doing his job, folks

Tommy Huie, president and CIO of BMO Asset Management US in Chicago, points out that, until Treasury yields spike significantly higher, investors who want to take part in the market rally but still receive steady income streams might be better off with dividend-paying companies. Heck, even Apple (, Fortune 500) has finally agreed to pay a dividend.

"There are many more attractive opportunities than Treasuries," Huie said. "Concerns about another sell-off like 1994 are legitimate. But it will probably be gradual. Rates may creep up as opposed to spiking up."

Politics could affect bond yields too. Doug Peebles, head of fixed income for AllianceBernstein in New York, said he’s being asked the 1994 question more often lately — especially from people in Europe.

With the U.S. facing yet another crucial deadline for the debt ceiling sometime after the presidential election, it’s possible that bond rates could move much higher (like they did in Italy, Spain and yes, Greece) if investors feel that Republicans and Democrats can’t come to a meaningful agreement on deficit reduction.

Peebles said he does think Treasury rates should be higher than what they are now, but that it’s highly unlikely yields will approach the levels well north of 5% that plague Spain and Italy.

Of course, how high rates head all depends on the economy. And at least one investing expert is worried that if the Fed continues to stick with its pledge to leave short-term rates low for another two years, even if the recovery proves to be sustainable, inflation fears could resurface with a vengeance.

"The slump in economic activity won’t last forever. Interest rates near their lows won’t last forever," said Keith Skeoch, CEO of Standard Life Investments in Edinburgh, Scotland. "Something strange is afoot. The bond sell-off is going to happen. It’s just a matter of when."

Best of StockTwits: Some traders are starting to wonder if Bernanke has "I heart QE" tattooed on his bicep.

mohannadaama: Next best thing to actually doing #QE is threatening to do so when the market least expects it. #Bernanke $SPY $GLD #Stocks #Bonds

etfdigest: Pending home sales down -0.5%, consensus 1.0%, down from 2.0%: That’s gonna leave a mark. Oh wait…more QE? $SPY

DavidSchawel: We live in a QE world; more & more RF assets being sucked out of the system - a form of financial repression as some call it. $SPY $TLT

This is what worries most about the rally this year. It’s hard to tell whether investors really think the economy is getting better, or if they are willing to keep buying stocks because they think Bernanke will drop another quarter in the QE pinball machine every time the market flashes Tilt.

EddyElfenbein: Always amazed at the disconnect between what Ben Bernanke says and what some people think he says.

A fair point. Bernanke isn’t completely tipping his hand. While he’s not as opaque as his predecessor Mr. Greenspan, he’s not as blunt as his European contemporary Mario Draghi at the ECB.

Investors may be grasping for QE3 straws in every Bernanke utterance. But after QE1, QE2 and Operation Twist, can you blame them?

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul R. La Monica. Other than Time Warner, the parent of CNNMoney, and Abbott Laboratories, La Monica does not own positions in any individual stocks. 

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Another Japanese nuclear reactor has been taken off line for maintenance, leaving the country with only one of its 54 reactors operational following last year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The last reactor is expected to be shut down by early May, raising the possibility of power shortages across the nation as demand increases in the hot summer months.

The No. 6 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa complex was taken off line early Monday by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. The utility also runs the plant in Fukushima, northeast of Tokyo, that suffered meltdowns, explosions and radiation leaks after the March 11 quake and tsunami.

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Japan

Teenagers love "The Hunger Games," a hot trilogy of books about to hit theaters. But the biggest fans may be from an older generation — investors.

Shares have soared so far this year for the companies best positioned to benefit from the opening of "The Hunger Games" movie this Friday. And analysts are saying they’re are all poised for further gains from the series.

Lions Gate Entertainment (), whose Lionsgate studio is releasing the film here and in many major overseas markets, has probably gotten the biggest lift from the post-apocalyptic story of teenagers forced into a life-and-death competition for the entertainment of others. Shares are up 75% so far this year after a gaining more than 7% Tuesday to close at a record high of $15.27, and they were up another 4% in early trading Wednesday.

Analyst David Joyce of Miller Tabak, who Tuesday raised his price target for Lionsgate to $17 from his previous $14 target, estimates this weekend’s domestic box office sales between $70 million and $90 million. Eventually he expects it to bring in at least $300 million in domestic ticket sales.

"That’s not quite Harry Potter, but I think it’s going to be impressive," said Joyce. The final Harry Potter movie last year brought in $381 million in domestic box office for Time Warner (, Fortune 500) on its way to global ticket sales of $1.3 billion.

Joyce said that much of the run-up in stock is due to the company’s recent acquisition of Summit Entertainment, the independent studio that has the Twilight movie series. The fifth and final movie in the Twilight series, which so far have averaged $270 million each in domestic box office, debuts this November.

Box office at 16-year low

"I can’t split how much of the gain is due to Hunger Games and how much is due to the Summit deal," he said. "But having Hunger Games helped Lionsgate get Summit to the table and get the deal done."

The performance of Lionsgate shares so far this year would suggest financier Carl Icahn could be the big loser of the Hunger Games stock rally.

Icahn and his son sold 44 million shares of Lionsgate last fall for $7 each, dropping a long-running battle for control of the studio.

Publisher Scholastic, theater chains gain

The buzz around the movie also helped lift sales of the books, which last week allowed publisher Scholastic () to beat forecasts and its own sales target for the most recent period. Shares of Scholastic are up 22.5% year to date after a 1.7% rise in trading Tuesday, and were up another 1.8% Wednesday.

John Carter: Disney’s epic bomb

Company officials said even if last quarter proves to be a sales peak for the books, they expect good results from the franchise going forward. Analysts agree the first film and additional planned movies should help the book sales for years to come.

"Unlike the Harry Potter series, for which the book release event drove sales, in this case, ‘The Hunger Games’ movie appears to be driving book sales," said Drew Crum, analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, in a note last week.

"The Hunger Games" was first published in hardback in September 2008. The second in the trilogy, "Catching Fire" came out the next year, with the final book in the series, hitting bookstores in 2010. Between them there are 24 million copies of the three books in print in the United States alone.

Shares of theater operators have all had strong performances this year, as hopes for "The Hunger Games" and some other widely anticipated titles later this year like "The Avengers" "Dark Knight Rises" and the final "Twilight" movie have lifted hopes of a rebound after a down year in 2011, and some early missteps this year, such as Walt Disney’s (, Fortune 500) now historic bomb "John Carter."

James Gross, analyst with Barrington Research who follows the sector, said that "The Hunger Games" is almost certain to have the best opening so far this year and might end up No. 1 for the year, given the pre-sale demand for tickets.

"It was selling out the midnight shows a month ago," he said.

Carmike Cinemas () has been the best performer in the group, rising nearly 81.7% year to date, after Tuesday’s 3.6% gain. But shares were slightly lower in early trading Wednesday.

Shares of large screen theater operator IMAX () are up 41.8% so far this year, while shares of the two other major publicly-traded theater chains — Cinemark Holdings () and Regal Entertainment Group () — have achieved more modest gains, but both are up nearly 20% so far this year. All three were slightly higher in Wednesday trading. 

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It’s been quite a Monday for Apple. Not only did the tech giant announce plans to give investors a $2.65 quarterly dividend and announce plans to buy back $10 billion worth of stock, but it officially landed the top spot in CNNMoney’s March Stock Mania tournament.

CNNMoney readers chose Apple (, Fortune 500) over Exxon Mobil (, Fortune 500) in the finals. Apple grabbed 65% of readers’ votes in the last round.

It’s a comeback of sorts for Apple in the March tournament. Last year, the tech company was bested by automaker Ford, earning just 43% of readers’ votes.

The final four pitted three tech companies, Apple, IBM (, Fortune 500) and Google (, Fortune 500), against Exxon.

The day Apple became normal

In total, 65,845 votes were cast during the week-long contest.

Few companies can match the precipitous run-up in Apple’s share price, which has surged 81% since December 2010. And since the beginning of 2012, Apple’s stock has gained 45%.

Compare that with Exxon’s shares, which have risen only 18% since December 2010, and gained only 2% in 2012, despite a frothy stock market.

Exxon and other oil companies have faced an uphill public relations battle in the aftermath of the devastation caused by BP’s oil spill. Add the recent jump in gas prices, and it’s not getting any easier.

March Stock Mania: See the results!

"What will you do? Put your money into a company that’s helping destroy the planet, or one that innovates? Revolution or pollution? iPad or oil spill?," commented one CNNMoney reader cash advance now.

Even with Apple’s share price hovering around $600, Wall Street analysts see more growth ahead.

Matthew Hoffman, an analyst with Cowen, said that the successful launch of the third generation of the iPad will continue to give Apple an edge in the "combined personal computer + tablet market."

Even with the loss of Apple’s visionary founder Steve Jobs from a battle with cancer last year, most analysts think Apple will continue putting forth game changing products.

Apple was a clear leader throughout March Stock Mania.

It won 93% of the votes in the first round against newly public Zynga (), 88% against McDonald’s (, Fortune 500) in round two, and 85% of the votes against Wal-Mart (, Fortune 500) in round three. In the Final Four, 67% of voter chose Apple over IBM.

Last year’s champion Ford did better in March Stock Mania than last year’s NCAA winner University of Connecticut. UConn made it to the NCAA but lost in the first round.

Ford showed up and competed well this year, but failed to make the final four losing out to IBM.

It looks pretty clear that CNNMoney’s readers are betting on a continued tech boom.  

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Kensington and Chelsea helped to push the asking price of a London home to a record this month as average values in the district broke through the 2 million-pound ($3.17 million) level for the first time, Rightmove Plc (RMV) said.

Asking prices in Kensington and Chelsea increased 5.9 percent from February, the operator of Britain

Sweden was the first European country to introduce bank notes in 1661. Now it’s come farther than most on the path toward getting rid of them.

“I can’t see why we should be printing bank notes at all anymore,” says Bjoern Ulvaeus, former member of 1970’s pop group ABBA, and a vocal proponent for a world without cash.

The contours of such a society are starting to take shape in this high-tech nation, frustrating those who prefer coins and bills over digital money.

In most Swedish cities, public buses don’t accept cash; tickets are prepaid or purchased with a cell phone text message. A small but growing number of businesses only take cards, and some bank offices _ which make money on electronic transactions _ have stopped handling cash altogether.

“There are towns where it isn’t at all possible anymore to enter a bank and use cash,” complains Curt Persson, chairman of Sweden’s National Pensioners’ Organization.

He says that’s a problem for elderly people in rural areas who don’t have credit cards or don’t know how to use them to withdraw cash.

The decline of cash is noticeable even in houses of worship, like the Carl Gustaf Church in Karlshamn, southern Sweden, where Vicar Johan Tyrberg recently installed a card reader to make it easier for worshippers to make offerings.

“People came up to me several times and said they didn’t have cash but would still like to donate money,” Tyrberg says.

Bills and coins represent only 3 percent of Sweden’s economy, compared to an average of 9 percent in the eurozone and 7 percent in the U.S., according to the Bank for International Settlements, an umbrella organization for the world’s central banks.

Three percent is still too much if you ask Ulvaeus. A cashless society may seem like an odd cause for someone who made a fortune on “Money, Money, Money” and other ABBA hits, but for Ulvaeus it’s a matter of security.

After his son was robbed for the third time he started advocating a faster transition to a fully digital economy, if only to make life harder for thieves.

“If there were no cash, what would they do?” says Ulvaeus, 66.

The Swedish Bankers’ Association says the shrinkage of the cash economy is already making an impact in crime statistics.

The number of bank robberies in Sweden plunged from 110 in 2008 to 16 in 2011 _ the lowest level since it started keeping records 30 years ago. It says robberies of security transports are also down.

“Less cash in circulation makes things safer, both for the staff that handle cash, but also of course for the public,” says Par Karlsson, a security expert at the organization.

The prevalence of electronic transactions _ and the digital trail they generate _ also helps explain why Sweden has less of a problem with graft than countries with a stronger cash culture, such as Italy or Greece, says economics professor Friedrich Schneider of the Johannes Kepler University in Austria.

“If people use more cards, they are less involved in shadow economy activities,” says Schneider, an expert on underground economies.

In Italy _ where cash has been a common means of avoiding value-added tax and hiding profits from the taxman _ Prime Minister Mario Monti in December put forward measures to limit cash transactions to payments under (EURO)1,000 ($1,300), down from (EURO)2,500 before.

The flip side is the risk of cybercrimes. According to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention the number of computerized fraud cases, including skimming, surged to nearly 20,000 in 2011 from 3,304 in 2000.

Oscar Swartz, the founder of Sweden’s first Internet provider, Banhof, says a digital economy also raises privacy issues because of the electronic trail of transactions. He supports the idea of phasing out cash, but says other anonymous payment methods need to be introduced instead.

“One should be able to send money and donate money to different organizations without being traced every time,” he says.

It’s no surprise that Sweden and other Nordic countries are at the forefront of this development, given their emphasis on technology and innovation.

For the second year in a row, Sweden ranked first in the Global Information Technology Report released at the World Economic Forum in January. The Economist Intelligence Unit also put Sweden top of its latest digital economy rankings, in 2010. Both rankings measure how far countries have come in integrating information and communication technologies in their economies.

Internet startups in Sweden and elsewhere are now hard at work developing payment and banking services for smartphones.

Swedish company iZettel has developed a device for small traders, similar to Square in the U.S., that plugs into the back of an iPhone to make it work like a credit card terminal. Sweden’s biggest banks are expected to launch a joint service later this year that allows customers to transfer money between each other’s accounts in real-time with their cell phones.

Most experts don’t expect cash to disappear anytime soon, but that its proportion of the economy will continue to decline as such payment options become available. Before retiring as deputy governor of Sweden’s central bank, Lars Nyberg said last year that cash will survive “like the crocodile, even though it may be forced to see its habitat gradually cut back.”

Andrea Wramfelt, whose bowling alley in the southern city of Landskrona stopped accepting cash in 2010, makes a bolder prediction: She believes coins and notes will cease to exist in Sweden within 20 years.

“Personally I think this is what people should expect in the future,” she says.

But there are pockets of resistance. Hanna Celik, whose family owns a newspaper kiosk in a Stockholm shopping mall, says the digital economy is all about banks seeking bigger earnings.

Celik says he gets charged about 5 Swedish kronor ($0.80) for every credit card transaction, and a law passed by the Swedish Parliament prevents him from passing on that charge to consumers.

“That stinks,” he says. “For them (the banks), this is a very good way to earn a lot of money, that’s what it’s all about. They make huge profits.”

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