John Adams

Financial services provider UniRush, the company behind the prepaid Visa RushCard, has appointed Rick Savard chairman and CEO.

Melissa Smith's plans for her first year as Wex's CEO sound a bit like trip around the world, with payment projects in locations as varied as Brazil, Thailand, Canada and Europe.

Chinese E-payment provider Alipay and microblogging platform provider Weibo have developed an online payment system that enables users to buy products through communication with acquaintances, Alipay announced Jan. 7.

Mobile technology vendor 1OAK says it can enable any point of sale machine to accept payments from a smartphone without changes to infrastructure or back-end payment processing systems.

Financial services technology provider Jack Henry will enable its clients to send and receive international payments via American Express' FX International Payments Service.

The new year got off to a mixed start for virtual currency, with regulators in Asia clamping down on Bitcoin and gaming company Zynga embracing the emerging payments option.

Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission is barring Bitcoin ATMs because the country's regulatory body views Bitcoin as a false currency that should not be used by people or banks for payments.

Union First Market Bankshares has made an equity investment in The Payments Company, which offers a software-based business payments service.

Canadian debit and credit card processor Moneris will use countertop devices from VeriFone that are designed to accept and secure a variety of electronic payments.

Mobile payments company I Love Velvet plans to win the business of international merchants by combining its mobile point of sale offering with broader e-commerce and security compliance tools.

One of the newest location-based payment apps came out of Brett Neese's house on a Friday night.

Starbucks has begun offering gift cards at certain locations in Mainland China, with designs meant to evoke the Lunar New Year.

E-commerce technology provider Shopify has launched a redesigned version of its iOS mobile app, adding features designed to enable store management and mobile payments.

Google will discontinue Bump and Flock, two file-sharing apps Google acquired when it purchased Bump Technologies last year.

Melissa Smith has officially taken on the role of CEO of corporate payments technology provider Wex, replacing Michael E. Dubyak, the previous chairman and CEO, who becomes the executive chairman of the board through the end of 2014.

As more payments companies seek the next big thing, they are finding that mobile payments tech is due for a makeover, and a lot more attention surrounds digital currency such as Bitcoin.

The Coinstar brand has long been associated with spare change, but for Blackhawk it's the key to a diversified strategy for prepaid products and a catalyst for mobile wallet adoption.

Lamassu has received more than 120 orders for its Bitcoin ATMs in the first four months after launch, and has set up a map of locations.

Mobile financial services technology company Monitise says it has signed several recent deals with clients across Europe and Asia.

As mobile wallets mature, so will attempts to use the technology to marry payments and marketing, according to one industry expert.