Merchant

Debt collection held steady as the second ranked consumer complaint reported to the Federal Trade Commission, according to the federal agency's 2014 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book, which was released Friday.

Total lawsuits filed under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act rose in January while lawsuits citing violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act fell. The numbers reverse a trend from the past three years.

Pamela Joseph, U.S. Bancorp's vice chair of payment services and a ten-year veteran of the Minneapolis-based bank, plans to retire in mid-2015.

American retailers have struggled with mobile payments, largely because they try to reinvent the entire buying process instead of evolving what's already there. Starbucks' success is rooted in its willingness to take the easiest route time and again, an approach that is clear in how it chose to implement Apple Pay.

Mere days after disclosing that Google Inc. purchased Softcard's technology and intellectual property, the telcos' mobile wallet venture began publically disclosing its plans to shut down.

Federal and state regulators filed lawsuits against two debt collection rings for allegedly using threats and abusive language, including falsely stating that consumers would be arrested. The operations collected more than $45 million in supposed debts, according to the complaints.

Boku has released a new, cross-platform carrier billing payment technology that is designed to mimic a credit card payment.

Everyone knows the proverb "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

Apple Pay has begun its foray into airlines, deploying about 3,500 iPad minis that can accept mobile payments, but it is making a slow approach to the industry.

Merchants opposed to the U.S. migration to EMV-chip cards have long questioned whether the security benefit is worth the expense of putting in new payment terminals. American Express is taking some of the cost out of the equation, but even this move might not be enough to bring most merchants on board.