Sean Sposito

Discover Financial Services is building its contactless payment capabilities as a segue to mobile payments.

Prepaid card companies are pushing much harder to win the business of the underbanked by introducing products with lower fees.

Total System Services Inc. promoted five executives to group executive. David Chew has the title in the payments processor's finance department; John Dale Hester in relationship management; Bruce Jones in application systems; Daryl Seaman in information technology applications; and Marie Williams in relationship management.

A suspect was arrested for allegedly taking part in Wednesday's online attacks against MasterCard Inc., Visa Inc. and PayPal Inc.

By buying the back-office prepaid card operations of Travelex Holdings Ltd., MasterCard Inc. would greatly expand in the global prepaid market — both in terms of geography and the company's role.

MasterCard said its SecureCode payment verification system experienced disruptions temporarily Wednesday as part of an attack that also took out its main website.

As MasterCard Inc.'s website remains inaccessible, users of its SecureCode payment verification system are also experiencing problems.

MasterCard and a Swiss bank that attempted to cut ties with Wikileaks are apparently feeling the wrath of a group of hackers claiming to have shut down each company's site.

Each company is trying to distance itself from the website, which has released thousands of classified documents, analysts said. The Justice Department is investigating the embattled organization and its founder, Julian Assange.

Personal financial management and ATMs might seem a jarring combination, but Wells Fargo & Co. says it can combine the technologies in a way that does not undermine either's mission.

VeriFone Systems Inc. is planning major investments in new terminal technology as wireless carriers, card networks and banks move ahead with mobile payments initiatives.

This week, Travelex Currency Services Inc. began issuing more secure chip and PIN prepaid cards at its 180 U.S. retail sites, a tune-up for broader distribution to about 2,000 retail banking partners — such as U.S. Bancorp and HSBC — in early 2011, said Jon Dario, the company's president and North American currency services regional division director.

VeriFone Systems Inc.'s fiscal fourth-quarter revenue rose 27% from a year earlier to $276 million, the San Jose payments terminal maker said Thursday.

MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. on Wednesday reported higher spending on their U.S. debit and credit cards.

The company, an online consumer savings service, is releasing a prepaid card for the banked that offers its users not only low fees, but also high — and highly unusual — cash-back rewards.

Weeks after its debut, the Kardashian Kard has been pulled from the market following criticism of the prepaid product's fees.

Ingenico Sa said Monday that its Axis management platform is on track to complete 600 million transactions for the year.

After piloting an online payment network that it says guards against potential identity theft, JetPay LLC will be providing that same platform, Secure Vault Payments, to its own clients.

Diebold Inc. has entered a bid to buy Henry Bros. Electronics Inc. to bolster its security business, according to a press release from a competitor.

Weiss & Lurie, a New York law firm, is examining the proposed sale of Hypercom Corp. to VeriFone Systems Inc. for legal issues.