Bailey Reutzel

Even though prepaid cards are already widely considered a product for the underbanked, usage patterns are showing more clearly just how different prepaid card users are from bank customers.

PayPal's long-watched partnership with Discover, which will allow Discover merchants to accept PayPal payments at the point of sale, is on track to launch April 19.

Even though prepaid cards are already widely considered a product for the underbanked, usage patterns are showing more clearly just how different prepaid card users are from bank customers.

San Francisco, Calif.-based startup Balanced says it is gaining traction with online marketplaces, the eBay-like venues where small merchants gather to sell products and services online.

With each career move, Kevin McInturff has strayed farther from the mainstream payments business to work on products that are increasingly experimental and niche.

Walletini is one of a small but growing group of mobile-wallet apps that integrates with Apple's Passbook while also trying to upstage it with an escrow-like service for ticket sales.

Land O'Lakes, the second largest agricultural co-operative in the U.S., is adopting BillTrust's electronic billing services as an alternative to paper invoices.

OpenCoin Inc. has acquired Simple Honey Inc., an ecommerce system based on "wish list" shopping.

Prepaid card users, once considered too risky for remote check capture, are getting more access to the technology.

BitPay Inc. has more than doubled the processing volume it forecasted for March, fueled by recent business moves. It also hired a veteran of the payment processor Global Payments to handle product management.

Windows Phone 8 may often get overshadowed by the iPhone and Android handsets, but developers and retailers are increasingly willing to give Microsoft's open platform a chance.

PayPal has forged numerous partnerships to get its payment system to the point of sale, and as PayPal's technology evolves, the company has to ensure its own offerings don't overlap those of its partners.

Zeevex, which sells stored-value cards for online purchases, has added a gift card exchange.

Microsoft Corp. has made several efforts to build new technology for payments, and its mixed successes provide insight into what consumers are willing to tolerate at the point of sale.

Chris Larsen has spent several decades in the financial services industry, playing a key leadership role at disruptive companies E-Loan and Prosper, where he had to navigate a tricky and fast-evolving regulatory obstacle course. He will likely draw upon these skills again in his latest role as CEO of OpenCoin.

UK-based JarStar Inc. is taking a feature of some debit cards and applying it to cash.

Israeli startup MyCheck is launching its mobile payment app in New York City at the end of April, expanding its model of allowing consumers to pay tabs with a smartphone instead of waiting for servers to bring the check.

Zipmark's payment service targets the dying — but not dead yet — paper check.

MasterCard Inc. now offers a mobile receipt application as part of its Smart Data reporting system, addressing the need for corporate cardholders to file receipts for expenses.

Facebook's social network has been as hostile as Twitter's for payments companies seeking to tap into the site's millions of users. But American Express and Chirpify separately sensed an opportunity worth pursuing.