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Apple's iWallet is much anticipated but, due to Apple's notorious secrecy, still very hard to picture. A new patent lends some slight clarity to the company's mobile-payment vision.

Isis, the mobile-payment joint venture backed by AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA, is on track for a debut in September, following months of delays and a change in strategy last year.

With their "Project Oscar" mobile payment joint venture remaining uncertain because of a regulator's investigations, major European telcos are turning to traditional payment companies to get back in the mobile payments game. MasterCard's new five-year agreement with Everything Everywhere is a case in point.

USA Technologies has added a Web service called QuickConnect, which helps developers and original equipment manufacturers use the vendor's ePort Connect platform for accepting card payments.

MasterCard continued to expand its partnerships with European telcos, announcing an exclusive, five-year agreement with Everything Everywhere to develop mobile and digital payment applications.

The rate at which lenders declare credit card loans uncollectible ticked up at four of the six largest issuers in July from the previous month.

The number of open retail credit card accounts in the U.S. has reached heights not seen since the end of 2009.

Prospects for the Visa/MasterCard antitrust settlement received another jolt last week when the Retail Industry Leaders Association weighed in against the terms, joining other influential opponents of the landmark deal.

Small business owners in Europe certainly won't have a shortage of mobile payment options to choose from, as more companies enter the market locally and from the U.S.

Just as the plastic card liberated many consumers from a reliance on cash and coin, alternative payment sources are gaining enough adoption to steal transactions from plastic — with a little help from the very companies these digital currencies threaten.

Payments-industry rivals sometimes put their differences aside to achieve a common goal.

Live Gamer Inc. has typically provided virtual currency services to video game developers, but as Nevada prepares to let casinos take their high-stakes games online, the vendor is betting that its expertise will prove valuable when the games put real cash at stake.

Borrowers are paying down their card and loan debts. The big exception is student loans, according to new data published by Equifax.

All eyes have been on Square this month with its investment from Starbucks and its new pricing option, but Intuit says it still has an advantage in mobile payments that Square can't match.

Some experts question whether the United States can meet the deadlines the card brands have set for converting to the EMV chip-card standard from magnetic-stripe cards.

It was inevitable that Gen X consumers would overtake Baby Boomers as the generation most often using credit cards. But their habits may leave card brands unsure of how to develop products for even younger consumers in the future.

Fair Isaac spotted a spike in U.S. credit card fraud taking place online, by mail and over the telephone.

Securitized credit card charge-offs in July rose from the previous month, but the jump was due to one-time factors. Charge-offs should resume their downward trend this month and reach about 4% by the end of the year, according to Moody's Investor Service.

Nearly a third of acquirers surveyed still view mobile payments as a threat.

U.S. gasoline demand rose 1.9% last week as prices at the pump jumped to a 13-week high, according to data from MasterCard Inc.