As many as 65% of the consumers testing the Isis Mobile Wallet are revisiting merchants often or taking advantage of mobile offers, an Isis executive says.

MACH, looking for a way to sell carrier billing services in the U.S. and expand in other markets, says it’s found the right partner in mobile payments company payvia.

What did mobile wallets look like before Apple and its peers invented the consumer smartphone market and launched App Stores to distribute systems like Passbook, Isis and Google Wallet?

Quick-response (QR) codes, the increasingly common square bar codes used in advertising and mobile payments, are stepping into new territory as a tool for bill payment.

The prepaid card provider Plastyc Inc. has added a mobile remote deposit capture feature that provides instant access to funds.

Mainstream consumers are still slow to adopt newer payment technology, but several cities are pushing ahead of the rest of the world.

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.

PayPal has won repeated partnerships with large merchants for its new point of sale payment system, but it paced itself with consumer adoption — a strategy the eBay unit seeks to change in 2013.

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.

Payments acquirer WorldPay US is working with Discover Financial Services to allow merchants with brick-and-mortar stores to accept PayPal at the point of sale.

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.

If Apple Inc. wants to make a strong move into mobile payments, it could do so by transforming its iTunes database into a payment and loyalty program, a recent industry report says.

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.

"We're open to partnering and playing with the existing networks, but not under the existing rule base," says Jamie Henry, senior payment director of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. "The existing rules that are in place for card-based payments are not going to be acceptable for mobile-based payments."

VeriFone Systems announced Jan. 14 a suite of payment products, including an iPad mini version of its Payware Mobile card reader, a similar sleeve for the iPhone 5 and VeriFone HQ, a cloud-based system that allows retailers to monitor their terminals and manage their brands.

It's been more than two months since Lower Manhattan was engulfed by flood waters from Superstorm Sandy and many merchants are still without the ability to accept credit and debit cards.

It's going to be a big year for mobile payments. Now that several mobile wallets are in consumers' hands, the companies behind them are refining their products. What do Apple, Isis, Google, PayPal and others have in mind for the near future?

ATMs do a lot more now than they did in 2011. They still accept deposits and dispense cash, but today a few also dispense prepaid cards, connect to Facebook, and interact with smartphones. Other types of machines are also treading on ATMs' turf.