Bailey Reutzel

PayPal has won repeated partnerships with large merchants for its new point of sale payment system, but it paced itself with consumer adoption — a strategy the eBay unit seeks to change in 2013.

Payments acquirer WorldPay US is working with Discover Financial Services to allow merchants with brick-and-mortar stores to accept PayPal at the point of sale.

Jumio Inc. has released an Android version of its Netswipe Mobile technology for accepting card payments with a phone's camera.

PEX Card now offers PEX Mobile, the corporate prepaid card company’s suite of iOS and Android applications, to allow card administrators access to their programs through a smartphone.

As tax season begins, the prepaid card provider Plastyc Inc. will be able to see whether its technology can help H&R Block transform its prepaid card from a disposable, seasonal product into one they use repeatedly.

With the launch of the MasterCard Dual Value Health Card, Medagate enables its cardholders to redeem targeted offers and incentives at the point of sale.

The Clutch mobile wallet, launched last month, joins several other apps that seem to compete with Apple's Passbook while also integrating with it.

InComm, the prepaid and transaction services company, purchased Giftango Corp. to expand its e-commerce gift card services.

AJB Software Design Inc. plans to announce Friday its participation in the Visa POS Solutions Program (VPSP), which AJB says could allow it to link Visa's digital wallet, V.me, to the point of sale.

Total Merchant Services announced today that it has acquired Fanminder, a social and mobile marketing company based in San Francisco.

In North America, QR code-based mobile payment apps from Starbucks and LevelUp generate a code for each user, and the merchant scans the code to accept a payment. In Brazil, PicPay is flipping the model and making the consumer scan codes presented by the merchant.

Payments and social media have had a rocky relationship. Many companies that have tried to blend the two have failed or been forced to change their business model. Gumroad Inc., a startup founded by a 20-year-old veteran of Pinterest, says it gets it right.

Google's initial launch of its mobile wallet at a special event in New York last year was a flashy affair meant to showcase every feature and every partnership. Its approach this year is much more low-key, as is that of its rival Apple.

As more credit unions use video tellers to reach a wider audience, NCR Corp. purchased uGenius Technology Inc., a provider of video banking software, to improve sales of such systems to larger banks as well.

PayPal signed many new retail partnerships this year, while also building a digital wallet and a handful of plastic cards to complement its online payment system.

Near Field Communication technology has made some noteworthy advances in 2012 as a foundation for mobile payments, even though its actual adoption remains low. The technology stands to get a further push from the ongoing adoption of the EMV standard in the U.S.

Digital currency, especially Bitcoin, picked up in popularity this year as the concept began garnering positive attention from payment players — but a series of negative incidents kept the skepticism alive as well.

D'mai Urban Spa in Brooklyn, N.Y. loves rainy days because it sees more customers when the weather is dreary. The Park Slope shop gleaned the information from Swipely's technology, which collects data on every customer that swipes a card in the spa.

The languishing of the Citi 2G card shows how even the most impressive new technologies can struggle to find a foothold in payments.

Citigroup’s 2G card, developed with technology from Dynamics, promised to revolutionize the way consumers paid with plastic. But the product remains in pilot testing mode more than two years after the partnership was announced and more than a year after Citi reportedly aimed to mass-market the card.