Technology

WASHINGTON–Congress on March 22 took its first cautious steps into mobile payments with a House hearing focused on security issues and prudent regulation for the rapidly evolving mobile market.

A federal court has rejected civil claims brought by five credit unions and one bank stemming from the massive 2008 data breach at Heartland Payment Systems that exposed millions of cardholders to fraudulent transactions.

Venmo Inc. has lifted the “Invitation Only” sign off of its social mobile-payments application, hoping to expand quickly a person-to-person payment system that already accommodates as much as $10 million in transaction volume per month.

Industry debates centering on the eventual U.S. conversion to EMV smart card acceptance at point-of-sale terminals have taken on several layers.

The cost of cleaning up after a data breach is declining, new data suggest.

In a move to open the e-commerce market between Taiwan and China, Taipei-based E. Sun Commercial Bank Ltd. has entered into a partnership with Alipay Inc., China’s leading online payment service provider.

Incidents of U.S. corporate-payment fraud are declining as more companies shift to using electronic channels from paper, but criminals are getting craftier.

Premier Health Exchange Inc. has formed a business division to deliver electronic payments to health care providers upon settlement of valid and payable medical claims and reconciliation, the provider of health care cost management services announced March 19.

Providing security to block cybercriminals determined to steal payment data represents a complex task involving software applications and connections throughout a network.

Criminal activity that targets mobile banking has not yet reached the levels of online banking, mostly because the volume of mobile banking to this point hasn’t made it as attractive a target.