Visa, MasterCard and American Express are seeking ways to replace account numbers for digital payments. As they research possibilities, they can learn from the many existing and developing technologies that already accomplish much of what the card networks want.

Online payment provider BlueSnap will provide its global payments gateway software to Voxy, a New York-based company that offers language-learning courses online and through smartphones.

The mobile payments market is overrun with companies offering clip-on card readers in a variety of shapes and sizes. Tantrum Street is betting that it can offer the same service without any add-on hardware at all.

An ISO based in Southern California is using LeafPresenter point-of-sale tablets to differentiate itself from competitors and save money for merchants.

The mobile carrier Sprint is launching Pinsight Touch, a national, open platform for securely storing and accessing credentials on a mobile device.

Subway sandwich shops are using Paydiant's mobile payments, offers and loyalty platform as part of the restaurant chain's mobile wallet app, which it plans to launch this year.

The original iPhone revolutionized consumer technology and breathed life into the market for mobile payments — but the newest iPhone's most futuristic feature may signal a growing problem for banks and card networks.

MasterCard is adapting its rewards technology to better suit a world that's swimming in smartphones and abundant in app developers.

CardFlight, a mobile payments hardware and software developer, raised $1.6 million in funding from New York-based ff Venture Capital.

PayPal is now a payment option for Samsung Apps and Samsung Hub, and a payout option for Samsung Apps developers.

The payments industry has a significant security challenge on its hands as too many consumers become "chronic oversharers" of their personal and payment card data, says Ellen Richey, chief enterprise risk officer for Visa Inc.

In his first day as Global Payments' chief executive, Jeff Sloan shared his thoughts about how a new security initiative from Visa, MasterCard and American Express could affect his company.

The details of Clinkle's new payments service appear to have been leaked in an online video, though the company says the video is not a legitimate representation of its service.

Visa, MasterCard and American Express introduced a proposed framework for new global standards that would replace traditional account numbers with a digital payment "token" for online and mobile transactions.

Blackbaud MobilePay is using mobile commerce technology provider Roam, an Ingenico subsidiary, to support a mobile point of sale system for nonprofit payments.

Heartland Payment Systems has invested $20 million in its first round of funding for Leaf, a company that offers a tablet designed for accepting payments.

Matt Wilcox has joined Fiserv, where he will be the financial services technology company's director of digital payments marketing strategy and innovation.

Mobile technology company Monitise has developed a technology platform meant to support a suite of integrated mobile financial services, payments and electronic commerce.

PCI services and merchant intelligence provider Sysnet Global Solutions is working with iScan Online, which specializes in security scanning of devices, to provide acquirers with new mobile security.

Ingenico is planning to deploy a new lightweight payments acceptance device in North American markets this fall.