Merchant

Kipochi, an African online service launched this month, is looking for a way to connect the digital currency Bitcoin to M-Pesa, Kenya's widely-used mobile payments system.

Dubbed the "Athens of America" because it's rife with colleges and universities in the area, Boston is becoming a hub for tech startups as recent grads — and even dropouts — bring fresh perspective to the payments industry.

C-Sam Inc., Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd. and HyperSoft Co. Ltd. have jointly developed "Salon de Wallet," a mobile wallet for beauty salons in Japan.

Corethree Ltd. has developed a mobile wallet that allows drivers of electric vehicles in the U.K. to locate charging stations and pay through their smartphones.

Cloud payment processor i2c Inc. and Heartland Payment Systems have teamed to provide prepaid card processing services. Their first collaboration is to add features to the National Restaurant Association’s Edge prepaid card program.

Virtual Piggy has linked its youth payments engine to Innovation First International, which makes robotic toys and educational tools.

Businesses that provide payments services to companies that collect or use consumer data should closely watch the FTC’s recent lawsuits against two processors and fully assess the legal risks that might be associated with their business relationships.

For the second consecutive month, lawsuits citing violations of three key collection laws fell, according to data from U.S. district courts.

The Federal Trade Commission has settled with five companies charged in a joint law enforcement sweep last year that involved millions of illegal pre-recorded robocalls claiming to be from “Rachel” and “Cardholder Services” and pitching credit card interest rate reduction services.

Payments and marketing are getting closer than ever, and several companies are blurring the line between where the payment ends and where the pitch begins.