Cards

Kim Kardashian may be an overexposed reality star, but she's also a tech entrepreneur with a short-lived past in the payments industry. And several companies in the Bitcoin space are repeating her biggest mistake by offering a plastic payment card.

Xapo, a bitcoin startup headed by financial services entrepreneur Wences Casares, is launching its wallet app on iOS, a move that shows the company has turned some attention to ease of use.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is set to go beyond industry expectations when it unveils a long-awaited proposal Thursday that would establish new requirements for prepaid cards.

InteliSpend in Fenton, Mo., has expanded its cash-back incentives after adding Discover and MasterCard to its prepaid network.

Ingo Money, which specializes in digitizing check payments, has entered an agreement to buy Salt Lake City-based Fuze Network, which handles cash loads for credit, debit and prepaid accounts.

Starbucks Corp., which now handles 16% of its U.S. sales through its mobile app, revealed today just how dominant its position has become even as it plots new features such as preordering.

Retail ATM operator Cardtronics Inc. is testing a system that takes location-based offers, which are typically linked to a card account or a mobile app, and makes them available to consumers who may prefer to pay with cash.

An older mobile-wallet technology is getting fresh attention at Westpac Bank in New Zealand, which wants to encourage people without the latest iPhone or Android handset to make contactless mobile payments.

A number of large retailers are pushing back against Apple Pay, making clear the power merchants wield in the developing mobile payments market.

InComm is adding add over 15,000 locations to its Vanilla Reload network, which allows prepaid card users to reload their general-purpose reloadable card accounts by swiping the card at the point of sale.

The customer engagement firm Parago has officially become a subsidiary of Blackhawk Network.

Apple Pay has launched to considerable buzz, but the technology giant has done little to communicate where its new mobile wallet can be used, leaving its partners to fill the void.

Bank of America was quick to address an early issue with double-charging Apple Pay users, but the damage to consumers' perception of mobile payment technology may prove to be longer-lasting if more glitches occur.

Shopkick has launched its mobile commerce and rewards service in Germany with a group of the country's largest merchants.

General-purpose reloadable prepaid cards have turned a corner, moving from being a product for low-income or unbanked individuals to being an important tool for younger, high-income consumers.

The White House is slated to unveil a major package of initiatives on Friday to increase data security for financial transactions, including an executive order to add chip-and-PIN technology to government-issued credit and debit cards.

American Express Co. is pulling new levers to build its business with small merchants and drive mobile wallet adoption, emphasizing its work with Apple Pay.

American Express Co. said third-quarter profit rose 8.1 percent, beating analysts' estimates, as customer spending increased.

Diebold has released a new series of ATMs that include security protections.

Visa Europe is working with edo, a Chicago and Nashville-based card-linked marketing firm, to launch a pilot of edo's technology in the U.K. this year and eventually expand to other European countries.