Technology

S1 Corp. has accepted a sweetened takeover offer from ACI Worldwide after spurning ACI’s earlier bid, the company announced Oct. 3.

Banks are pushing mobile devices for payments, but an untapped–and more immediate–opportunity may involve using mobile phones to improve security on mainstream payment types, according to one security vendor.

Equifax's latest National Credit Trends Report indicates that the credit cycle has turned as new credit growth continues, with higher loan volumes on a 2011 year-to-date basis for multiple lending markets including: Automotive, Bankcard, Consumer Finance and Retail Card.

The global treasury-management market, in which banks help corporate clients with cash management, trade finance and global payments, is huge and lacks good self-service tools and automated processing. And this is leaving a wide open opportunity among such large financial competitors as Visa Inc. and U.S. Bancorp’s Syncada payments network, JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. to provide advanced treasury technology to corporate chief financial officers and treasury departments.

Fraud-prevention technology provider Kount Inc. is integrating with Zoovy Inc., a vendor of e-commerce software, to protect online merchants from fraud, the companies announced Sept. 30.

Considering a change in the way it will report future revenues, payment processor Planet Payment Inc. plans to delay release of its financial results for the first half of 2011, the company announced Sept. 29.

Considering a change in the way it will report future revenues, payment processor Planet Payment Inc. plans to delay release of its financial results for the first half of 2011, the company announced Sept. 29.

Euronet Worldwide Inc.’s epay division has signed an exclusive agreement to process prepaid mobile airtime transactions in the independent retail segment for Sprint Nextel Corp.’s Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile USA and Assurance Wireless no-contract wireless brands, the Leawood, Kan.-based company announced Sept. 29.

Banks and technology companies betting on mobile payments have to overcome a very basic hurdle: most Americans still do not have smartphones.

Borrowing money from a friend for a taxi ride, splitting the restaurant bill among a group of diners or sending funds to a student at college could become an easier and faster task through a new mobile-payment option Visa Europe is launching this week.