John Adams

MoneyGram and First National Bank have launched their first mobile money transfer service in Africa, enabling FNB account holders to send and receive international transfers via mobile devices.

Virtual Piggy has two major challenges as mobile commerce expands. The youth-focused alternative payments provider has to tackle the generation gap between its users and the parents that supervise transactions, and it must maintain consistency between digital channels.

Mobile payment technology at restaurants is gaining favor with wait staff, who find shedding paper leads to quicker orders, faster service and higher gratuities.

Hip hop mogul Russell Simmons' prepaid card company UniRush is working with prepaid issuer Green Dot Corp. to offer the RushCard Live Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card.

TransCard and FamZoo will jointly develop United Family Banking, an educational prepaid card designed for families.

McDonalds' foray into mobile debit in Canada is helping spark a national expansion that includes broader adoption of the technology by issuers and merchants.

PXT Payments, which operates the mobile payments and rewards app "looped in," is partnering with Boston College-based startup Jebbit for a student-focused marketing program that combines mobile payments and gaming.

The Canadian government has hired BMO to provide integrated travel and expense management services, in partnership with MasterCard and corporate services provider HRG.

The ongoing adoption of the EMV chip-card standard in the U.S. means credit and debit card issuers will have to consider new factors to offer the cards at their branches.

Independent sales organization Calpian says its Indian unit's Money-on-Mobile service surpassed 130,000 retail locations at the end of March, up from 126,000 at the end of February.

Mobile commerce and digital payments are producing a staggering amount of information about consumers. Making the best use of this data is a challenge that some companies are trying overcome with technology and analytics.

Instawallet, a Bitcoin wallet service, has "suspended indefinitely" because of fraudulent access, according to a notice on the company’s website today. It is the latest in a series of attacks and glitches to afflict businesses that work with the digital currency.

MokiMobility, which offers outsourced tablet management, monitoring and security services, is partnering with iPad point of sale service provider Revel Systems to sell technology that meets new Payment Card Industry data security guidance for mobile transactions.

Online bill payment provider Allied Payment Network has hired Gary Daniel as an executive vice president and board member.

TV chef Jamie Oliver is the latest celebrity to lend his name to a payments product, tying his image to charity fundraising through Prizeo.

Xoom is extending its new Pay Only When Received remittance procedure, or POWR, to Latin America and the Caribbean.

Balanced, a startup that allows developers and entrepreneurs to build payments technology, has raised an additional $3.4 million round of seed capital.

Small-business payment company WePay has named Susan Dunn as general counsel and Susan Oda as vice president of finance.

Starbucks has hit some snags in its attempt to maintain momentum for its mobile card app and its deepening partnership with Square, but for the coffee giant, such issues are an expected part of its aggressive expansion plan.

Virtual Piggy has hired former PayPal executive Iain Herd to be its new global mobile product director.