Disruptors

Western Union on March 20 launched a new top-up program and technology to improve the ease of use of its stored-value services.

As VeriFone Systems Inc. seeks new leadership to help it tackle its ongoing challenges, smaller rivals are looking at their own operations to determine which opportunities to seize in the payments hardware market.

More large incumbents are establishing in-house teams that mimic the culture — and, they hope, the success — of the increasingly prominent startups they compete with.

The fragile Bitcoin economy will change drastically as companies scramble to obtain the proper licensing in response to guidance from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which categorizes administrators and exchangers of virtual currencies as money services businesses.

Planet Payment’s financial performance declined in the past year due in part to investments in new technology, which the company expects will improve acquirers’ ability to add services directly to point of sale systems, says CEO Philip Beck.

About six months after its successful debut of a mobile payment app at College Fest 2012 in Fenway Park, PXT Payments Inc. has another deal in place with Fenway Sports Management for its app, called "looped in."

In the low-margin farming industry, companies are particularly sensitive to credit card transaction fees or the time it takes for checks to clear. Dwolla has started targeting these industries with its alternative payment service.

Planet Payment will allow electronic commerce merchants in the U.S. and Canada to accept UnionPay cards, one of the largest card brands in the world, with more than 3.5 billion cards issued internationally.

Spindle announced this month that it has purchased MeNetwork of Denver, Colo. in an all-stock deal potentially worth about $11.2 million.

Twitter and Square co-founder Jack Dorsey told "60 Minutes" he would like to move to New York and run for mayor.

Payair's technology supports many mobile-payment methods, but the Swedish company is promoting only the most straightforward forms through its integration with Cash IT.

Apple's Passbook wallet is a blank canvas for developers of mobile payment apps. Some Passbook apps take a conventional approach to payments, and others put a more imaginative spin on what a mobile wallet can be.

An embedded feature of the Samsung Wallet on the upcoming Galaxy S4 smartphone could give merchants an easier and cheaper way to accept mobile payments and coupons at the point of sale.

Only 30% of community banks communicate via social media, and that needs to change if they want to attract younger customers, members of the industry said.

Apple updated its Mac OS operating system to allow its Mac App Store to accept gift cards by scanning them with the computer's camera.

Many Bitcoin enthusiasts expect the U.S. government will take steps towards regulating the digital currency. Whether this regulation will threaten or legitimize the currency is still an open question.

PayPal announced it has acquired Duff Research, a group of mobile app developers, keeping with the company's growing focus on mobile devices.

Belt Valley Bank is small even by community bank standards—it's got about $62 million in assets and 18 employees. But it has the tools to compete directly with the likes of Square for accepting payments on mobile devices.

As it plots its expansion, payments tech developer Stripe is also building expertise via acquisition. It recently purchased Kickoff, a task management and collaboration application designed for teams.

Just three months after reaching 500,000 users, LevelUp hit one million customers, with a meaningful portion of that new audience attracted by adapting the company's offer system to work over Facebook.