John Adams

MasterCard, eServGlobal and Bics have formed HomeSend, a joint venture that allows consumers to send money to and from mobile money accounts, cards, bank accounts or cash outlets.

Oink, which was previously called Virtual Piggy, is ready to expand its youth-oriented online payments business to include merchants with a physical presence.

Jerome Cle has stepped down as CEO of SCCP Group. He will remain active as a board member and strategic advisor to the mobile payment technology provider.

German smart card testing company Comprion will use a robotic arm to simulate use cases of Near Field Communication technology, which is used in some contactless and mobile payment schemes.

Swedish payment company Klarna has agreed to purchase German payment provider Sofort from Reimann Investors, Sofort's majority shareholder.

Swedish pharmacy chain Apoteksgruppen will launch SEQR, Seamless' mobile wallet.

MasterCard is tightening the screws around the use of prepaid cards as a way to pay employees. Some issuers will find its demands are straightforward and achievable; others may consider discontinuing the product.

VeriFone reported a loss in the fiscal fourth quarter, but beat its internal guidance, and is touting new mobile payments initiatives as a way to improve performance in the future.

As payment companies add more mobile applications to accept transactions and speed processing, authentication will become more complex, says Todd Wilkinson, CEO of Datacard, which plans to bolster its identity technology for government and financial services clients via its acquisition of Entrust.

Amazon has purchased GoPago, a company that enables consumers to use mobile apps to prepay for goods before picking them up at a store, according to reports.

Prepaid payment network Blackhawk is offering a selection of electronic gift codes at Coinstar's coin-counting kiosks.

Facebook has deployed a feature called Donate that allows people to contribute directly to nonprofits through the social networking site.

Card identity and personalization company Datacard has agreed to acquire Entrust, a company that sells digital identity technology.

Mitek, having successfully promoted its imaging technology as a way to deposit checks and pay bills with a smartphone's camera, is now taking aim at retail payments.

VoiP provider Rebtel has debuted Sendly, an app that allows users to send money to prepaid mobile subscribers in more than 50 countries.

Mobile point of sale services provider I Love Velvet has purchased WeXpay, an electronic wallet company.

Mobile commerce provider Spindle and mobile payment company iPayMobil have partnered to enable merchants to offer credit.

Flint is adding a number of new features to its software-based mobile acceptance app, including invoicing, Apple Passbook support and multi-item transactions.

BillTrust will provide access to Open Scan Technologies' Order to Cash (O2C) services in an effort to increase visibility into business payments processing.

Vodafone Germany has debuted a new mobile wallet including the Vodafone SmartPass Visa payment application.