Cards

MasterCard Inc. plans to introduce its contactless payment technology into Azerbaijan during the first half of 2013.

With many of its legal questions and organizational issues addressed, the Merchant Customer Exchange has turned its focus to the technology that will drive its mobile commerce initiative.

The allure of the fast-growing U.S. market for prepaid debit cards is pitting niche players like pop star Justin Bieber against financial giants including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and American Express Co.

PayPal signed many new retail partnerships this year, while also building a digital wallet and a handful of plastic cards to complement its online payment system.

Contactless payments have not caught on in the UK because consumers don't think payments are safe without a PIN, says SmartDebit, a Surrey-based payments processor in the UK, in response to recent figures published by ICM Research.

2012 began with the abrupt departure of PayPal's president. Upon putting a new leader in place, the eBay unit made many key moves to adapt its operations and its product line to the fast-changing payments market.

As 2012 progressed, one thing became strikingly clear: the card networks do not want to be left behind as new digital payment methods threaten plastic.

It's nearly a full year since finance guru Suze Orman faced a backlash over her prepaid card fees and two years since the pricey Kardashian Kard went kaput — and yet the prepaid card market remains under fire for its pricing. Even so, prepaid cards are growing in popularity.

Small banks continue to pull in significant revenue from interchange fees on debit cards despite fears a new rule directed at larger institutions could have hurt them too, according to a report issued this week by the Federal Trade Commission.

The board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati has reelected Carl F. Wick, a former NCR executive, as its chairman.

U.S. Bank has released a new app on Apple’s App Store called Go Mobile. The app lets iPhone, iPod and iPad users apply for the bank’s FlexPerks Visa card and use and manage the account on their mobile device.

ATMs do a lot more now than they did in 2011. They still accept deposits and dispense cash, but today a few also dispense prepaid cards, connect to Facebook, and interact with smartphones. Other types of machines are also treading on ATMs' turf.

Wells Fargo has won a partial victory in its appeal of a closely watched, $203 million overdraft lawsuit, but both sides of the case are gearing up for another round of fighting over the bank's consumer practices.

Fraud and data security trends can change by the minute, often making it difficult to pinpoint a specific development as a key event during the course of a year. Not so in 2012.

Digital currency, especially Bitcoin, picked up in popularity this year as the concept began garnering positive attention from payment players — but a series of negative incidents kept the skepticism alive as well.

Total System Services has completed its purchase of ProPay.

Wells Fargo & Co. won its bid to throw out a judge's order that it pay California customers $203 million for manipulating debit-card transactions to boost overdraft fees.

The payments industry is no stranger to fraud, but there are some key events that stand out over the course of 2012 — and threaten to spill into 2013.

D'mai Urban Spa in Brooklyn, N.Y. loves rainy days because it sees more customers when the weather is dreary. The Park Slope shop gleaned the information from Swipely's technology, which collects data on every customer that swipes a card in the spa.

McDonald's is adding more tap-and-go acceptance at its payment terminals worldwide.