Will Wade

Four new merchants have agreed to participate in MasterCard Inc.'s Easy Savings program, offering rebates to participating business customers who use the Purchase, N.Y., payments company's credit, debit or prepaid cards.

Consumers' confidence in the economy fell in March after two consecutive months of gains, according to data from Discover Financial Services.

Medical marijuana dispensaries in three states have agreed to use payment processing services from Cannabis Medical Solutions Inc.

The Phoenix terminal maker said Tuesday that Dirk Rossmann GmbH is purchasing more than 5,000 of its Artema Hybrid devices. The retailer began installing them two weeks ago, and is expected to complete the rollout by mid-2011.

PayPal Inc.'s mobile payment application has been downloaded more than a million times since it was released three weeks ago on Apple Inc.'s App Store.

USA Technologies Inc. said Thursday that more than 71,000 vending machines and other self-serve systems are now linked to its payments network.

MoneyGram International Inc. said Thursday it has hired Juan Agualimpia as a senior vice president and its chief marketing officer to oversee the company's global branding and marketing efforts.

The wireless communications technology provider Qualcomm Inc. of San Diego has hired Rocco Fabiano as the president of its Firethorn Holdings LLC unit.

Lee Kennedy has stepped down as the vice chairman of Fidelity National Information Services Inc.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. is expanding into payroll management with a system called PlusOne Payroll.

The online bill-payment vendor iPay Technologies Inc. has introduced an electronic invoicing system for small businesses.

Members of Generation Y are more likely to have both debit cards and savings accounts than any other age group, according to a report released Monday by Fiserv Inc.

Small-business owners do not expect any major improvement in the economy in the next few months, according to data from Discover Financial Services.

Monitise Americas LLC is planning to introduce a version of its Mobile Money application for phones that use Google Inc.'s Android operating system.

Jack Henry & Associates Inc. said Thursday that it is reviving the Alogent brand name for its line of check imaging applications.

Target Corp. customers can now store gift card account data electronically and make payments at the point of sale with mobile phones.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc. has hired Neil Marcous as president of its NYCE Payments Network LLC unit and head of its Payment Network Solutions business.

The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC has hired Paul Saltzman as its general counsel to succeed Norm Nelson, who has retired.

The NFC chip maker Inside Contactless is expected to announce today that it is making an open source version of its programming interface available to other developers.

The hardware works, and consumers worldwide think it's a cool idea. Still, near-field communication chips have made about zero progress morphing mobile phones into contactless payment tools.