David Heun

In a week's time, the mobile payments world was turned upside down as Square announced a major partnership with Starbucks and a radically different pricing option for merchants. Now payments providers are beginning to piece together how they can ride this wave instead of getting crushed underneath it.

Square is taking a bigger bite at the small-business market by offering flat-fee processing to merchants, furthering efforts to present itself as a more full-featured option for card acceptance.

Square is taking a bigger bite at the small-business market by offering flat-fee processing to small merchants, furthering the company's efforts to present itself as a more full-featured option for card acceptance.

It didn't take long for Jumio to release a new version of its Netswipe mobile software-development kit.

Hackers seeking cardholder data most often find openings in a small merchant's payments network because of something a third-party vendor did or did not do when installing payment applications.

When crunching the numbers, it appears Square can't possibly make a profit in its new deal to process transactions for Starbucks.

As many as 8 million consumers using online banking from Online Resources Corp. could soon have access to merchant-funded rewards from Truaxis Inc.

Total System Services is taking a different approach to sales by forming a joint venture with Central Payment Co.

A bank in Vietnam claims it has tripled its account base since it began offering cards with biometric fingerprint technology in June to the country's unbanked residents.

Trying to figure out Apple Inc.'s intentions with mobile payments based on the technology giant's patent approvals is akin to assembling Ikea furniture without instructions. Some parts clearly fit, others not so much.

Trying to figure out Apple's intentions with mobile payments based on the technology giant's patent approvals is akin to assembling Ikea furniture without instructions. Some parts clearly fit, others not so much.

Google has changed the rules about how issuers get into its mobile wallet, and American Express is the first to vocally and vehemently oppose Google's new setup. The outcome of this dispute could decide who controls transaction data in mobile payments.

Starbucks' $25 million investment in Square says a lot about the mobile payment provider's appeal to larger merchants — but the coffee chain's decision to leave out some of Square's technology also speaks volumes.

Starbucks' $25 million investment in Square says a lot about the mobile payment provider's appeal to larger merchants — but the coffee chain's decision to leave out some of Square's technology also speaks volumes.

Bank of America Merchant Services is launching a Web portal to allow its merchant clients to offer daily deals through search engines, social media sites and other online forums.

GoPago's sales pitch is meant to make terminal manufacturers and independent sales organizations cringe: it is offering free hardware to support a cloud-based mobile payments system to small merchants, with no wiggle room on transaction fee pricing.

Companies establishing virtual currencies may not capture the imagination of consumers right away, but their technologies should catch the attention of traditional debit card issuers.

Continuing its push to make it easier for consumers to make payments in their own country's currency while traveling, Planet Payment, Inc. has extended its Pay in Your Currency service to merchants in the United Arab Emirates.

No one affiliated with the Isis mobile payment initiative is saying exactly when the first testing in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas will begin, but the venture is steadily tying its remaining loose ends.

Authentication technology provider Natural Security SAS is preparing a global launch of its secure payment card system based on contactless smart card and biometrics technology.