Three years ago banks rushed to be first to offer mobile text-message alerts notifying customers of suspicious credit and debit card transactions. Now Visa Inc. is trying to up the stakes by emphasizing the superior speed of its mobile transaction-notification service compared with other such services.

When The Fortunate Cup Coffee Cafe Inc. began accepting a new form of mobile payments last week, it also began to brew up more business for the bank that made it possible.

Gift and loyalty services company SparkBase says its deal announced this week with Apriva will expand the potential number of merchants that can accept SparkBase products.

The mobile banking technology provider ClairMail Inc. announced a platform that it says makes it easier to adapt mobile banking systems as a bank's business and technology needs change.

Citigroup Inc. is learning many consumers today do not share its enthusiasm for mobile payments.

PayPal's new iPhone application is more than a payment system — the company is also trying to make it easier for people to use the app as a cash replacement.

MasterCard Worldwide for years has offered ATM Hunter only on its Web site, but interest in the ATM-finder service skyrocketed when the card brand made it available for smartphones, says Cheryl Guerin, MasterCard senior vice president, U.S. and digital marketing.

First Data Corp. plans to use technology embedded into a digital memory card as the next step in evolving the payment processor’s contactless-payment technology.

MasterCard Worldwide today launched an ATM-finder application for Blackberry smartphones, nearly a year after the card brand rolled out the same free downloadable, customizable application for the Apple iPhone.

Barclaycard reportedly plans to deploy mobile phones enabled with Near Field Communication payment technology in conjunction with France-based mobile-network operator Orange during the second half of this year. The report did not specify where the phone would be available, and both companies operate in multiple countries.

A mobile payments business model Citigroup Inc. tested in India has proven a hit among all the key players, even wireless carriers.

Visa Inc. is looking outside the U.S. for growth and hopes to derive more than half of its revenues from international markets within the next five years, executives from the card company today told investors gathered in San Francisco for its annual Investor Day presentation.

Tio Networks, which today announced the planned launch of a mobile bill-payment platform, estimates it will generate 20% of its revenue from the service by 2011, according to the Burnaby, British Columbia-based expedited bill-payment processor.

Target Corp. has begun delivering coupons to customers' mobile phones.

China Mobile plans to purchase a 20% stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank for 39.8 billion yuan (US$5.7 billion or 4.2 billion euros) as part of its plans to develop a mobile-payment system in the country, China Mobile announced on March 10.

One of the world’s largest trials of Near Field Communication payments, which Citigroup Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide launched last year in India, provided a glimpse into the challenges of incorporating merchant-sponsored product discounts and coupons within mobile payments.

WorldNet, an Ireland-based online payment gateway, says its virtual payment-terminal application released this week for Apple Inc.’s iPhone is the company’s first, and it plans to add chip-and-PIN capability to the software in later versions.

Firethorn Holdings LLC is offering consumers free access to their accounts at more than 3,700 financial institutions through a single mobile application, according to the Atlanta-based mobile-service provider.

Merchants appear to like VeriFone Holdings Inc.’s PayWare mobile-phone payment service on Apple Inc.’s iPhone and their customers are completing big-ticket purchases using the devices.

Nokia Corp. plans to team up with Mumbai-based Yes Bank to plot Nokia Money, a mobile-commerce platform, in India, a Bangalore-based official at the Finnish Handset Maker tells PaymentsSource.