Starbucks Corp.’s ability to integrate its closed-loop prepaid card with a loyalty program has helped drive customer usage of the company’s smartphone application to make mobile payments, notes one industry observer.

Meriwest Credit Union of San Jose, Calif., will use VSoft Corp.’s technology for remote deposit capture in branches and at ATMs, the vendor announced Dec. 6.

As it charts its course in mobile banking, Ameriana Bank faces competition in its eastern Indiana footprint from much larger banks that have been offering mobile banking for years, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and PNC Financial Services Group Inc.

MFoundry Inc. has received $18 million in growth capital, the mobile banking technology provider announced Dec. 5.

PhoneFactor Inc. has added a smartphone application to its suite of out-of-band security products, the company announced Dec. 5. But its effectiveness will depend on user participation, one observer contends.

Fundtech Inc. on Nov. 30 announced the completion of its merger with Bankserv Inc. and, in conjunction, the company discussed plans for a new set of products.

MasterCard Worldwide and mFoundry Inc. are developing an application that will combine mFoundry’s mobile-banking software with MasterCard’s PayPass contactless-chip functionality, the companies announced Dec. 1.

China UnionPay has enabled more than 3.8 million merchants to accept Near Field Communication-based payments as part of a push to expand mobile-payments acceptance in China, a spokesperson for the card organization tells PaymentsSource.

The Indian Ministry of Finance is considering reducing the interest rates banks can charge on consumers’ outstanding card debts to make owning credit cards more affordable and to encourage mobile payments.

Seamless Distribution AB believes it has developed a mobile-payment method that replaces the need to shop with credit and debit cards, thus saving money for merchants who no longer would have to pay card-related fees, the payments software company announced Nov. 29.

Starbucks Corp. plans to ride the U.S. success of its in-store mobile-payment method by introducing the application to customers in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Jan. 5, the Seattle-based company announced Nov. 24.

London’s O2 arena has begun accepting contactless payments via card or mobile phone in conjunction with card issuer BarclayCard and Visa Europe..

Mark Jamison, who joined Capital One Financial Corp. in January as a managing vice president to help start up and lead the institution’s new Digital Innovation lab, has spent the past year building a staff of about 10 workers, many of whom have a combination of technology and startup expertise.

The nature of security threats against banks continues to change as fraudsters quickly refresh their efforts against digital and mobile banking.

Google next year plans to expand its application program interfaces to make it easier for third parties such as Groupon, merchants and banks to interact with the Google Wallet, according to Rob von Behren, co-founding engineer for Google Wallet.

Two years after launching its first version of mobile banking, U.S. Bancorp has upgraded the service by integrating it with online banking and expanding its remote deposit check capture offering to include more devices.

South Korea’s telecommunication regulator is partnering with mobile-phone operators and card networks in a pilot to test a Near Field Communication-based mobile-payment system on the country’s busiest shopping street.

Retail shoppers who download a Shopkick Inc. mobile application on their smartphones to earn rewards points, or “kicks,” by walking into a store now may earn extra points by paying for purchases with a Visa-branded credit or debit card, Visa announced Nov. 21.

International funds-transfer providers have begun to acknowledge that most consumers in their remittance-heavy target markets use mobile phones as a primary tool. As such, services that require visits to a physical location or access to a personal computer are unlikely to catch on, some insiders say.

Isis has had a big week, as 45 partners of the GSM Association mobile operator trade group agreed to support the joint venture’s preferred payments model: Near Field Communication that uses SIM cards used in many mobile phones.