Credit

U.S. Bank in Minneapolis has committed to becoming the first large U.S. bank to offer mobile bill payment in the manner of mobile check deposit—letting users pay a bill by simply taking a picture of it with the camera on their smartphone or tablet.

Online payments provider Optimal Payments Ltd. established the foundation for expanding its payment gateways to U.S. merchants and prepaid business in Europe with separate deals announced this week.

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

Discover Financial Services said that its board has approved a change in the company’s fiscal yearend from Nov. 30 to Dec. 31 of each year.

American Express chief executive Ken Chenault says the company’s new Bluebird prepaid card is off to a promising start.

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.

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.

As growth in the credit card industry has stalled nationally, a group of small issuers have kept their foot on the gas.

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.

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.

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.

Wex Inc., partnering with CashStar, now allows its retailers in Australia and New Zealand to offer customized eGift cards. This move is part of an ongoing strategy on the Wex's part to diversify its offerings and its audience.

With each new mobile-payment function developers create for smartphones, a correlating new security risk arises. The riskiest aspect for merchants, issuers and consumers remains the initial phase — when consumers enroll for a product, says ValidSoft Ltd.

SCVNGR-created LevelUp announced today that it has 500,000 users, which it says is validation of its unconventional approach to point of sale payments.

Online spending rose 17 percent on the Monday after Thanksgiving, one of the busiest days of the year for Internet retailers, as tablets and smartphones let customers shop anytime and anywhere. EBay mobile sales volume more than doubled on Cyber Monday, compared with the previous year, and PayPal payment volume nearly tripled.

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council's participating organizations voted that third-party security assurance and best practices will be the two key areas for the PCI special interest groups to study in 2013.