Technology

While many agree that usernames and passwords should give way to more advanced identity management, progress toward this goal has been extremely slow.

A new push by President Obama to tighten cybersecurity at banks and other businesses could help light a fire under some firms that have historically been slower to react in the wake of a data breach and help financial institutions dealing with a tangle of confusing state laws.

The telco-led mobile wallet venture Softcard has laid off 60 employees and is consolidating its offices, a sign that the company's staffing may have been oversized compared to its opportunities in the market.

Capital One acquired Level Money, a startup with a budgeting app for consumers, on Monday. Level Money has approximately 700,000 users and claims to have helped users manage a total of $12 billion during its brief existence.

PayPal is enabling monthly installment for larger purchases and offering business consulting, a move that will allow the company to handle larger transactions and extend its merchant services.

The San Jose-based payment terminal maker Verifone launched a new mobile operating system and is separately working with Samsung on new mobile point of sale projects.

Global payment solutions provider Elavon has partnered with Verizon to bring mobile point of sale products to Verizon's small-business customers.

Tritium Partners has acquired a majority stake in Giact Systems LLC, an electric payments service.

Stage Stores, a department store chain based in in Houston, has beefed up its payment security with technology from Chase Paymentech and Ingenico.

Customers affected by cyberattacks frequently direct their wrath at financial institutions, whether or not a bank is responsible for the breach. Therefore banks need to have a strategic communications strategy in place.