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Google’s mobile wallet appears to be staggering to the finish line of 2012. After all, it was a year that started with a reported security breach and is ending with speculation that the search-engine giant will add a plastic card to the otherwise entirely digital wallet.

It's been a rocky year for digital currencies. Facebook began phasing out its Facebook Credits while Bitcoin continues to suffer a bad reputation. However, there are some promising developments on the horizon, with experienced payments providers joining in the digital currency game.

The Google Wallet we see today is a much different product from what we had a year ago. Here are the major changes that took place this year, and the challenges Google faced — and still faces today.

JPMorgan Chase's recent deal to buy the merchant-offer provider Bloomspot Inc. will expand the ways in which the largest U.S. bank by assets presents offers to customers.

At a pop-up market in New York's Union Square Park this week, locals and tourists squeeze past each other as they make their way through rows of candy cane-striped tents, perusing merchants' products as hurried commuters coming and going from a nearby subway entrance dart through the crowd.

Citigroup’s 2G card, developed with technology from Dynamics, promised to revolutionize the way consumers paid with plastic. But the product remains in pilot testing mode more than two years after the partnership was announced and more than a year after Citi reportedly aimed to mass-market the card.

MasterCard Inc., already facing at least 12 U.K. lawsuits after European Union regulators outlawed cross-border card fees, was sued by Deutsche Bahn AG and J Sainsbury Plc.

PNC has piled an abundance of features onto its Virtual Wallet online banking account since the product's 2008 launch, and the underlying technology has creaked loudly under the strain.

After enjoying strong growth in its credit card business in 2012, Discover Financial Services is investing some of those returns in a more diverse range of products.

As many individuals open their wallets and donate to a variety of charitable causes during the holidays, con artists and fraudsters are lurking online, using websites equipped with payments technologies, text messaging schemes and other methods to scam well-meaning do-gooders out of funds intended for worthy causes. It’s an ever-growing problem being addressed by e-commerce industry participants, law enforcement and other groups.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to acquire online coupon site Bloomspot Inc. for $35 million to bolster its credit card division, according to a memo.

Discover Financial Services Inc., the sixth-biggest U.S. credit-card lender, posted a fiscal fourth-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates as increased expenses offset a decline in soured loans.

The popularity of the Square payment-card reader has sparked a new market for accessories — smaller versions of the cases and sleeves people commonly buy for the iPhones which Square readers attach to.

Voltage Security, an encryption vendor, is touting Voltage Secure Stateless Tokenization technology, which the company says provides merchants and payment processors with a new approach to protecting card data.

American Express continues its move into a payments arena not often associated with the affluent customers served through the New York-based card network. It now accepts Amex card payments at gas stations commonly located in parking lots near Walmart stores.

The Electronic Transactions Association is remaining true to its original constituents in the acquiring business, even as it opens the doors to other types of companies, according to the trade group’s CEO.

Fulton Financial has agreed to sell a payments business to a Canadian payments processor and foreign exchange services provider.

Someone has paid tens of thousands of dollars for a piece of financial history that has borne billions of swipes and trillions in transactions.

Many payments startups face the difficult task of getting consumers to switch their lifelong habits. Waspit says college students are the best audience to target because they are tech-savvy and willing to experiment.

White House officials have approached American Express Co. CEO Kenneth Chenault about joining President Barack Obama’s second-term administration, possibly as Treasury secretary, according to two people familiar with the matter.