Cards

The National ATM Council, a trade association that represents independent ATM providers across the U.S., has joined the forum created by the Smart Card Alliance to discuss and encourage payments industry collaboration in preparation for the country’s switch to EMV chip-card technology.

If prepaid card providers want to be taken seriously, please, please, please ditch your celebrity partners.

Payment Alliance International, a Louisville, Ky.-based ISO and independent ATM supplier, is working with Cash Connect, a supplier of cash vault services, to offer vault cash and cash forecasting.

Passengers on US Airways flights can now purchase food and beverages with a tap of their credit card.

Software developers at Korala Associates Limited figured they had a pretty solid pitch to banks: a machine they claim costs one-tenth of a traditional ATM, yet provides all of the banking services a customer would need while in a retail setting.

Looking to gain millions more users through traditional financial institutions, LevelUp announced a partnership with First Trade Union Bank to create a private-label mobile payment and loyalty app.

Before the mobile card reader phenomenon took off, it was unlikely that a small-business owner could walk into a nearby store, pay $10 and walk out minutes later with the ability to accept card payments. Today, mobile payment devices are competing for shelf space with a growing number of major retailers.

In the immediate aftermath of the superstorm Sandy, prepaid cards were summoned to help even though the products have spotty track record in times of extreme need.

Greenwich Associates announced Monday it has agreed to acquire Javelin Strategy & Research for its work in mobile and multichannel banking, payments, security and fraud, among other expertise.

Retail ATM provider Cardtronics Inc. will allow customers of BBVA Compass free access to 178 Cardtronics-owned ATMs in Colorado as part of a new branding relationship with the Birmingham, Ala.-based bank.

Better ATM Services offers open-loop Visa prepaid cards through ATMs, but such one-size-fits-all cards don't appeal to all consumers. To appeal to shoppers who prefer closed-loop gift cards, Better ATM is testing cards that work at nine merchants.

Isis, mobile-pay venture formed by AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile, has signed two deals that would allow consumers to use its Near Field Communication-based mobile wallet at vending machines that accept cashless payments.

Capitol Federal Savings Bank will upgrade its ATM network with new NCR SelfServ units that allow consumers to deposit cash and checks simultaneously through a single slot.

Banks have at times been urged to design their own wallets instead of working with third parties — but going it alone may not always be the best approach.

In an effort to make its style of alternative mobile and online payments more accessible, Dwolla launched several new features.

The mobile-payment provider Spindle has entered an agreement with the point of sale technology distributor Integrated Payments to offer its mobile commerce system to Integrated Payments' clients.

The processor Planet Payment Inc. has begun offering its iPay payment gateway to customers of the e-commerce platform provider Magento.

Adyen is launching a portable card reader that accepts both mag-stripe and EMV chip-card payments — the latter a feature that’s still rare in the U.S. even at hard-wired point of sale terminals.

JPMorgan Chase's approach to instantly issued debit cards today seems like that of many other banks — it helps checking customers get cards faster. But its future plans for the technology suggest a more ambitious goal.

Fashion and finance have a lot of overlap. Celebrity fashionistas have a growing influence on new payment products, and in turn many payment products are using trendy colors and designs to attract users.