Technology

Less than three years ago, Visa described a financial institution's request to issue EMV-chip cards as "a unique situation" and "not an everyday query." Times have certainly changed.

Despite the abundance of portable card readers, the sales pitch is often the same: it's for babysitters, gardeners, flea market sellers and other small merchants. Payleven says the market can be much bigger.

LevelUp's partnership with Chartwells Higher Education Dining Services could expand the mobile payment system's presence in the Midwest, a region that has received less attention from startups than San Francisco and New York.

Evertec Inc., a significant acquirer processor and card issuer in Latin America and the Caribbean region for 25 years, is casting part of its business as that market's Square Inc. and looking to supercharge its payments business after its April 12 initial public offering.

The 25th Card Forum & Expo brought hundreds of payments professionals together in Boca Raton, Fla. to share strategies and ideas. Here's a recap of some of the most talked about subjects from the event.

Canada is now the second country offering consumers MasterCard Inc.'s MasterPass digital wallet, with an emphasis on e-commerce sites for travel, grocery and discount stores.

Elavon and Banco Santander confirmed their plan to launch a joint venture to provide merchant services in Spain.

Bank of America says it and other banks, which have a full view of each customer's financial needs, are well-positioned to succeed as mobile payments providers.

MoonClerk is a new company that's targeting a distinct segment of the payments technology market—the startups and small businesses that want to build a Web payment acceptance engine, but don't have the right tech expertise in-house.

Websites critical of a settlement that Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. reached with retailers over so-called swipe fees are misleading and must be corrected, a federal judge said.