Technology

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.

MasterCard will vet all Maestro card transactions at U.S. ATMs with fraud-screening software to alleviate the concerns of ATM owners who are not prepared for the card brand’s April 19 liability shift.

Retailers unhappy about a proposed $7.5 billion swipe-fee settlement in a case against Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. received a momentum boost this week when the Retail Industry Leaders Association chose to opt out of the settlement.

A dramatic dip in the value of Bitcoin is not fallout from a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack, said Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in a Facebook post overnight Wednesday. But there was indeed a DDOS attack.

Experian revealed that fraudulent applications for accounts in the United Kingdom dropped sharply in 2012.

Mobile payment provider Payleven is adding two new features to lure larger businesses—the ability to manage multiple chip-and-PIN card readers from a single master account and support for both mobile and stationary printer systems.

If you're looking for Swedish cash, don't go to a Swedish bank. Most of the country's biggest lenders have stopped manual cash-handling services in 65 percent to 75 percent of their local branches. They say cash is out as Swedes rely on credit cards, the Internet and mobile phones to make all their payments.

The retailer-driven Merchant Customer Exchange mobile payments venture is making a lot of noise, though it has yet to reveal its product. But since the final MCX app will interact with those made by its individual retailers, CVS Caremark Corp. can serve as an early example of the venture's potential.

OpenCoin, Chris Larsen's virtual-currency venture, announced today it has closed funding from several investors, including Bitcoin Opportunity Fund.

FamZoo says its bundled prepaid cards and online dashboard work as teaching tools, which can bridge a knowledge gap about payments and budgets, particularly among young people.