Cards

Coinbase makes it simple to buy and sell bitcoins via a bank account, but plays only to the low-fee, frictionless nature of Bitcoin and fails to leverage its unique privacy aspects.

With the clock ticking for ATM owners to begin accepting EMV chip cards, BPC Banking Technologies plans to bring software to the U.S. to help banks navigate the complex conversion to smart-card technology on their ATM fleets.

Payment technology is gaining momentum and changing rapidly. More and more places around the world are adopting unique methods of payment.

The National ATM Council Inc. says MasterCard should delay its upcoming April 19 ATM liability shift deadline for its Maestro cards used at U.S. ATMs, based on the industry's slowness in deciding on a common code for EMV debit transactions to satisfy federal routing choice mandates.

The anonymous digital currency Bitcoin, which is already accepted on the Wordpress blogging site, has another mainstream partner. Reddit, the social news and entertainment site, now accepts bitcoins as payment for Reddit Gold, a subscription service.

Coinstar and PayPal are in the midst of a nationwide expansion of the integration they have tested since last May. The partnership allows consumers to use the change-counting kiosks to load, withdraw and send funds from their PayPal accounts.

Personal financial management provider Pageonce has added a person-to-person payments service to its mobile-focused software feature set.

The Dunkin' Donuts iPhone app now integrates with Passbook, the software-based mobile wallet that stores payment cards and tickets from other mobile apps and typically relies on displayed bar codes for redemption.

PayPal has attracted some big names to accept it at the point of sale, but it has a long way to go before its digital wallet is a part of everyday consumer life. A recent partnership with the fuel pump technology company Gilbarco Veeder-Root has the potential to change that.

Merchant service providers need to be aware that payment gateway technology is likely to provide answers to most of the questions merchants may ask when navigating the dizzying array of new payment rules and technologies.

While the U.S. inches toward adoption of the EMV chip-card standard, some card makers and issuers are finding they need to move faster than others.

NetSpend Holdings earned $10.1 million in the fourth quarter of last year, a 5% increase from the same period a year earlier.

Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., the world’s biggest payment networks, won dismissal of a price- fixing lawsuit brought by a group representing operators of automated teller machines.

Skype has added e-gifting capabilities to its Windows and Mac desktop voice chatting application.

Visa's introduction of a global mobile money program doesn't make it a pioneer in using handsets to tap underserved locales, but it does bring scale, open-loop flexibility and likely a lot of future bank issuers to a market that's currently heavy on regional telecom partnerships with closed-loop systems.

It's not going to garner the attention that Square Inc.'s pact with Starbucks created, but Square's latest deal shows it's still eager to brew partnerships with coffee shops.

Blackboard Transact has added the contactless payment technology of Mifare as an option for schools offering campus cards for students to access buildings or make payments.

Visa's launch of a plug-and-play mobile money platform speaks to a rapidly maturing trend of using mobility to spread financial services to underbanked consumers and developing countries.

Western Union Co., the world’s biggest money-transfer business, fell after the company forecast continued revenue declines in 2013.

Payleven, a mobile payment venture from the Samwer brothers' Rocket Internet incubator, started selling its mobile chip-and-PIN mobile card reader last week and received hundreds of orders for the new device.