Bank technology

New banking tablet apps at Citigroup and Intuit are taking advantage of the wider screen and more layered relationships people have with the actual devices, and finding out along the way that a venue for games and novels is a great location for visually pleasing, research heavy financial services.

Facebook is becoming a payments contender a lot faster than it has led observers to believe. It has money transmitter licenses in at least 15 states, according to an American Banker analysis.

To calm consumer fears about having card account numbers stolen wirelessly, University of Pittsburgh has developed a way to switch contactless cards off automatically when they are not in use.

NCR announced Tuesday that Dollar Bank has chosen to install its APTRA Interactive Teller machines.

Misys Plc, the financial-software maker that agreed to merge with Swiss competitor Temenos Group AG, rose as much as 12 percent in London trading after drawing a rival bid from Vista Equity Partners.

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The shutdown of BitCoin's TradeHill, which exchanged digital currency for dollars and euros, underscores the regulatory and legal obstacles facing would-be disruptors in the payments business. Facebook is proceeding cautiously.

The credit union cooperative will greatly expand its ability to offer online and mobile bill payment technology to its thousands of members.

American Express is dangling another lure to hook its small-business cardholders on social media as a promotional channel: $100 worth of Twitter advertising.

Two private equity investors have agreed to buy TransUnion.

Financial malware resurged and mobile wallets were busted open in the big security stories in the week through Feb. 16.

Offering person-to-person payments initially to its own customers, eventually to all U.K. bank customers.

The House Financial Services Committee passed a bill to ensure that data given to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will remain confidential. The panel also voted to repeal a controversial section of Dodd-Frank that requires FDIC-insured institutions to spin off their swaps desks.

PayPal, the most prominent player in the online-payments world, is consistently viewed as leaving NFC behind in its pursuit to secure a place in cloud-based mobile payments. But is it really?

The Minneapolis bank is bringing recycling services to branches that were too small to qualify for it before and using social media to gather new green ideas and communicate about its efforts.

Amex plans to release an updated version of its digital wallet Serve that will include all of its prepaid products, as well as incorporate deals and loyalty rewards.

The Internet search giant suffered a serious setback that adds more uncertainty to the future of digital payments.

First National Bank of the Gulf Coast has implemented a paperless system and other improvements as it looks for its first profitable quarter.

Jim McCarthy, global head of product at Visa, criticized PayPal's mobile-payment system Wednesday, suggesting a service the online payment provider is testing at some Home Depot stores could open customers up to fraud.

Competition between Amex, Discover, MasterCard, PayPal and Visa is fierce and intensifying. What would Facebook's angle be if it aspired to build a broader payments business?