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PayPal Inc. weathered last month's Internet attacks better than most of its rivals, but it still has been more outspoken than anyone else about its need for improvement.

Person-to-person payments systems are maturing into a business tool.

After another year in which legislators and regulators rewrote the rules of the game in the payments industry, equity markets have rendered provisional judgments on which companies face the worst handicaps.

The past year saw debit card issuers introduce rewards programs to the marketplace and card networks extend their brands with direct-to-consumer offers such as MasterCard Marketplace and Visa Extras. But the debit-rewards landscape likely will change drastically under the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed new debit card interchange rules, a new report suggests.

Visa Inc. says it has made upgrades to its Advanced Authorization antifraud system.

Fifth Third Bancorp later this year plans to launch CashEdge Inc.’s Popmoney electronic-payment service, which enables consumers to transfer funds to another person’s bank account through the automated clearinghouse system, the companies announced Jan. 5.

A proposed policy by the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, that would hasten migration to a Single Euro Area Payments system also may ban direct debit fees in 2012.

Ingenico S.A.’s new iSC220 and iSC250 point-of-sale terminals will accept magnetic stripe and both contact and contactless chip card payments, the terminal maker announced Jan. 4. The terminals, which also can capture signatures, go on sale later this quarter.

Online payment provider SafetyPay Inc. has inked a deal with the Brazil-based bank Banrisul to enable the bank’s 3 million customers to use its platform to make online purchases from international merchants, the firm announced Jan. 5.

The top banking authority in India has issued a new regulation designed to further protect cardholders from fraudulent transactions made at ATMs.

U.S. online sales volume reached a record $32.6 billion during the 2010 holiday shopping season, up 12% from $29.1 million during the corresponding period a year earlier, according to data comScore Inc. released Jan. 5. ComScore’s data reflect e-commerce sales during the period from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31.

India’s banking regulator has extended to Feb. 1 the deadline it had set for banks in the country to add a second layer of security to credit card transactions conducted over mobile phones.

Taiwan on Jan. 1 began taking initial steps toward creating an integrated transit-payment system by introducing multicard readers on Taipei’s bus network, according to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.

Meta Financial Group Inc.’s escalating regulatory problems could foreshadow broader scrutiny for prepaid card companies.

Cash-back rewards programs for credit card users are effective and relatively affordable tools to enable issuers to increase their market share at competitors’ expense, the results of recent study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago suggest.

United Bank Card Inc. is making its Harbortouch point-of-sale system available for free to merchants that continue to use the company to process their payment card transactions, the Hampton, N.J.-based independent sales organization announced Jan. 3.

Fifth Third Processing Solutions LLC has signed credit card processing agreements with Education First Credit Union and USA One Credit Union, the Cincinnati-based company announced Jan. 3.

Green Dot Corp. plans use risk-management software from Nice Actimize, the prepaid card provider noted in a Jan. 5 press release.

Global Payments Inc. plans to start a credit and debit card processing service in Brazil this year to compete in the $250 billion market, the Valor Economico newspaper reported Tuesday.

Credit card issuers were expected to raise fees and cut rewards to compensate for lost revenue from new regulations. But some have done the opposite, eliminating fees they are still permitted to charge.