Bailey Reutzel

Just as Square invented a plug-in device to bypass the gatekeepers of the payments industry, banks may be able to turn the tables with a plug-in device designed to bypass the gatekeepers of the mobile industry.

Although its third quarter net income dropped 7% year-over-year, Discover Financial Services remains confident in the opportunities it has invested in for the future.

American Express Co. is working with VeriFone Systems to allow consumers to redeem membership rewards to pay for rides in New York City taxis.

Many payments companies see a conflict between innovation and regulation, with each side perceiving the other as out of touch with their needs, particularly when it comes to new technology.

GlassPay, a new Google Glass app from RedBottle Design LLC, allows consumers to make purchases with bitcoins, a prominent digital currency.

Homeland Stores, a grocery store chain based in Oklahoma City, wanted to digitize its plastic loyalty card without having a vendor's brand get in the way.

While digital initiatives take longer to show their effect in the company's revenue, American Express Co. is still making investments in emerging payments and prepaid cards.

MasterCard Inc. has certified On Track Innovations Ltd.’s Wave Near Field Communication device, which plugs into a phone's headphone jack to allow consumers to make contactless mobile payments.

If independent sales organizations aren't willing to shift their business models in the coming years, they'll go extinct in a payments industry bustling with aggressive, agile startups that skip the middleman and go directly to the merchant.

Despite Bitcoin's pop culture appeal, most people perceive the virtual currency as so complicated that it must take a rocket scientist to understand. But Moneero has invented a machine that aims to change that perception.

October can be a frightening month, and not just because of Halloween. In two years, the October deadline for EMV card acceptance will hit, leaving most merchants on the hook for fraud if they have not begun accepting smart-chip cards.

Even though the U.S. payments industry's regulatory environment can be difficult for startups, there is plenty of investment being made in the market for new disruptive technologies.

Payward Ltd., which runs the Kraken digital currency exchange, is the latest virtual-currency provider to partner with Fidor Bank in Germany.

Security can be an expensive, time-consuming investment for small merchants, and most have a mindset that security hacks won't happen to them. But independent sales organizations must take an active role in protecting even the merchants that don't want to be protected.

The Chinese market has long been tough for foreign companies to break into, but over the past five years the cultural and political environment has changed in a way that presents some fresh possibilities.

Ukash provides its online payments services in 55 countries with more than 420,000 locations worldwide. But it has so far steered clear of the U.S.

In its digital payments strategy, American Express is placing more bets on cash. The card network plans to add a free cash reload option for its Serve prepaid digital wallet, reducing its reliance on Green Dot's MoneyPak reload cards. Amex is also adding several features that broaden the functions of the Serve account, and plans a $1 monthly fee that can be waived with direct deposits.

Arroweye Solutions is launching an EMV chip-card customization platform called EMV On-Demand.

Ripple Labs, formerly OpenCoin Inc., is working with two new gateways, ZipZap Inc. and SnapSwap, to allow U.S. consumers to fund accounts in-person or online.

The Lamassu Bitcoin machine, a so-called Bitcoin ATM that allows consumers to deposit cash to buy bitcoins, has its first buyer.