Cards

Seth Priebatsch, the 24-year-old founder and head of the mobile payment system LevelUp, has made his company a serious player in the emerging payments market — yet he also sports the less-than-serious job title of "chief ninja." The nickname, he explains, has much to do with his approach to running a business.

Walmart and the other Merchant Customer Exchange members recently announced they would opt for a software-based mobile wallet instead of one based on Near Field Communication hardware. Is this a blow to NFC's future or does the technology have enough supporters to eventually change how people pay?

As the U.S. continues its conversion to EMV chip-card technology, the Durbin amendment's requirement for supporting multiple debit networks is presenting yet another challenge to overcome.

Many companies are trying to repurpose iPads as payment terminals. Leaf, a Cambridge, Mass.-based startup, instead created a commerce-specific tablet for small-business owners.

The U.S. Federal Reserve Board plans to get a better idea of how Americans are making payments — when they don’t use cash.

SmartyPig is hoping people will start saving in the same way they "like" or tweet about a product online — with a click or a tap. The Des Moines company, which provides an online savings account and a prepaid card, has created a Chrome plugin to help with specific savings goals.

Cash trapping is on the rise and in response, the ATM Industry Association has published a manual detailing emerging fraud trends and methods for ATM owners to combat the problem.

The concept of making anonymous online transactions is in the spotlight because of the prominence of the digital currency Bitcoin, but most consumers remain uneasy with the cryptocurrency's instability and risk. An alternative for the privacy-minded might sprout from Tor, or The Onion Router.

One week after American Express Co. announced that its fourth-quarter earnings fell sharply from a year earlier, the company filled in more details Thursday.

American Express Co., the lender that plans to cut 5,400 jobs this year, said profit at its U.S. card business declined 42 percent in the fourth quarter as the firm set aside more money to cover soured loans.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is all about money — but increasingly, the question is whether it's about protecting money or making money.

A week after it announced involvement in the first contactless payment program in Germany, French terminal maker Ingenico SA says it plans to do the same thing in Portugal.

PayPal has won repeated partnerships with large merchants for its new point of sale payment system, but it paced itself with consumer adoption — a strategy the eBay unit seeks to change in 2013.

The prepaid card provider SelectCore Ltd. announced the addition of an online bill payment offering.

Cardtronics announced the creation of a chief information security officer position that will be held by its current chief information officer, Jerry Garcia.

PayPal experienced its fastest active account growth rate in years during the fourth quarter, according to parent company eBay Inc. This growth of 15%, to 122.7 million active accounts, came in part from the company's activity in mobile commerce.

Research in Motion Ltd. received a significant stamp of approval for its software from Visa Inc. Visa has approved Waterloo, Ontario-based RiM's secure element manager software for Near Field Communication mobile payments.

Square has built its reputation as a quick and simple way for micro-merchants to accept card payments, but the company says it has proven it can serve the more demanding needs of larger retailers.

Payments acquirer WorldPay US is working with Discover Financial Services to allow merchants with brick-and-mortar stores to accept PayPal at the point of sale.

The mega-retailers' Merchant Customer Exchange venture argues that the mobile-payment system it is developing will appeal to retailers in a way no other mobile wallet can. That’s leaving some companies divided on which mobile approach is best—MCX's focus on gaining retailer acceptance or the emphasis on consumer adoption championed by Isis and others.