Will Hernandez

Lack of contactless payment technology in the iPhone 4S expected to depress prospects for the NFC-enabled phone market and therefore the overall prospects for mobile payments this year.

A wider availability of smartphones combined with more contactless acceptance at merchant locations should generate some $71 billion in near field communication mobile payments worldwide by 2015, research suggests.

Consumers have a "trust issue" with mobile payments, which could lead the Google Wallet and other projects to fail, a Fiserv Inc. executive said at a Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago conference.

The payment industry's focus on adding encryption at the point of sale to protect card data is counterproductive. MagTek's CEO says that the PCI Council, in pushing advanced encryption,is doing more harm than good.

Eighty-five percent of U.K. consumers say they would recommend the technology, but 37% lack of retailer acceptance prevents them from using it more often.

Mobile payment venture has made many partnership announcements and its telecom members are sinking $100 million into the project. But when will it have a real-world product ready?

Wells Fargo & Co. is testing a monthly fee with some customers to offset revenue losses it expects on debit card payments. It said earlier this year that it would make changes because of the Fed's decision to cap interchange rates.

Cardtronics has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Access To Money for $21 million.

Bank executives who oversee ATMs view the channel as a "differentiator" in terms of enhancing the customer experience and are exploring ways to introduce additional advanced features such as personalization and targeted marketing and messaging, a new report suggests.

FinCEN's final rule to prevent prepaid accounts from being used to launder money attempts to balance the concerns of many parties.

eBay's boss doused some cold water on NFC mobile payments, saying large merchants will resist.

The Chicago area's transit systems have to develop a universal transit fare system commuters could use across three different schemes under legislation signed into law last week. The challenge for the agencies involved is to view one another as a single system.

USAA Federal Savings Bank is giving its members in the Washington, D.C., area more access to surcharge-free ATMs through a new partnership with Cardtronics Inc.

The Durbin amendment has sent another debit rewards program to the graveyard as USAA Federal Savings Bank will officially terminate its offering on Sept. 1.

The emerging U.S. mobile-payments market could face some resistance from consumers who are worried about fraud, according to new research.

States' efforts to rein in fly-by-night companies are starting to have an effect on some payments startups' operations.

PrepaYd Inc., a marketer of prepaid debit cards that operates under the name Bank Freedom, will soon begin offering its customers prepaid wireless phones and service to help create more customer retention around its card products.

Financial institutions should focus on building their debit card portfolios as they wait for the Federal Reserve Board to determine the rate at which to cap fees, according to The Members Group, a financial services provider to credit unions and community banks.

Bankers and credit card networks say mobile payment systems will be more secure than plastic cards, but a consumer advocacy group says these systems lack vital safeguards.

Verizon Wireless is extending its mobile payments capabilities by allowing consumers to charge online purchases directly to a mobile phone bill.