Investment

Alan Reiner, 30, thought he wouldn't find any career more interesting than missile defense simulations, but the self-described nerd left physics recently to work full-time on an ultra-secure Bitcoin wallet, Armory.

The various stakeholders in the U.S. payments system may need to put their differences aside to stay relevant as technology advances. But whether wide-scale collaboration is practical — or even possible — is open to debate.

Terrorists have put a bulls-eye on the U.S. financial system, including payments infrastructure, as a target that fits in with their plans to cripple the country's economy, says Juan C. Zarate, senior adviser for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

SecureKey is developing new payments technology that will allow consumers to use their mobile devices to enable fast authentication at the point of sale.

Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. won a tentative court ruling they don’t infringe a patent owned by SmartMetric Inc., a technology development company that seeks $13.4 billion in damages.

Nacha, the electronic payments association, is advocating security as a reason to adopt faster processing — a move that would require a change in the association's rules that has thus far proven elusive.

U.S. banks and merchants face many obstacles in preparing for EMV chip-based cards at the point of sale — and the Web is no less reluctant to change.

Many banks consider money transmission to Somalia too risky because of concerns about terrorism. But U.S. Bancorp continues to pursue a relationship with Dahabshiil, the largest Somali money transmitter, whereas Barclays dropped the business citing the risk.

Southwestern Advantage, a multi-level marketing company with a model similar to Avon or Amway, relies on college students to sell its educational materials — raising potential risk issues as a young and inexperienced sales force is tasked with protecting payment details.

Columbus Data Services, an ATM processor, has completed MasterCard end-to-end certification for all Triton ATM products. As a result, CDS is now processing transactions that comply with the EMV-chip card standard on MasterCard networks.