Credit

Penalty fees fell 8% among credit card issuers last year, an industry consultant estimates.

Merchants in the British Virgin Islands will soon have a new mobile card reader available to accept card payments through their smartphones.

Nearly three years after the implementation of a landmark credit card reform bill, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau faces a monumental challenge: determining whether the law helped or hurt consumers.

Citibank India announced the launch of a mobile and tablet card reading device today developed by Ezetap Mobile Solutions.

Amazon.com Inc. has added an in-app purchasing feature for games and other programs developed for the Web, Mac and PC.

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?

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.

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 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.

Apple Inc. introduced installment payment plans for buyers of iPhones and MacBook laptops in China as it struggles to compete with low-cost devices in the world’s largest computer and mobile-phone market.

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.

PayPal Inc., pushing ahead with its drive to become the payment option of choice at the point of sale, has entered an agreement with hardware maker NCR Corp.