Economy

Many Bitcoin startups face the expensive and daunting task of obtaining multiple state money transmitter licenses. But these businesses could drum up enough support to create a more streamlined and affordable licensing process.

NetSpend stockholders voted to approve the prepaid card marketer's acquisition by Total System Services, clearing the way for the payments processor to complete the deal in mid-2013.

Online restaurant reservation provider OpenTable Inc. has acquired mobile payment startup JustChalo Inc. for $11 million.

Wendy's International Inc. is beefing up the payment functions of its My Wendy's mobile app, which furthers the company's strategy and plays on other quick service retailer's success with mobile payments.

Amazon.com Inc. added a new payments system called the Amazon Birthday Gift, which allows users to send Amazon.com gift cards with birthday messages to friends on Facebook and allow other friends to contribute more to the card's balance.

Starbucks now receives over 10% of its U.S. transactions as mobile payments, and over 30% of its transactions are made with the mobile or plastic version of its Starbucks Card accounts.

The Western States Acquirers Association and the Electronic Transactions Association are offering scholarships that could pay for 10 qualified candidates to take the ETA’s Certified Payments Professional test.

Punchey's tossing its hat into the mobile payments ring with a mix of mobile card acceptance, social network-driven marketing and other services designed for merchants that handle larger payments.

For digital payments to flourish, they must get bigger — and bigger payments require stronger authentication.

BuyReply, an Australian startup, is going back to the basics in allowing consumers to purchase items from television and magazine advertisements by sending just an email or a text message — no special hardware or software required.

MasterCard Inc. and telco VimpelCom Ltd. are testing a Near Field Communication-based mobile payments service at a Russian bank.

Eight months after giving the Project Oscar mobile commerce initiative a new name — Weve — and a new mission in the U.K., the telco joint venture has given its first hints of launching a Near Field Communication mobile payments service.

McDonald's and Kuwait International Bank are partnering with Seamless to pilot Seamless' SEQR mobile payment system in Kuwait.

Self-serve digital payments company USA Technologies will be the service provider for Setomatic Systems, a company that provides payment systems to the laundry industry.

Square has completed a major overhaul of the cloud-based Square Wallet, which allows consumers to make purchases from a linked payment card by "checking in" at a Square merchant. Here are some of the key differences in the new Wallet app.

Swift's offshoot Innotribe held a startup competition Thursday. Winners' products centered on mobile fraud, crowdfunding and P2P mobile payments.

Plastyc Inc. now does business as Banking Up, a name that signifies the direction in which it is taking its prepaid offerings, iBankUP and the UPside Visa card.

BitInstant, a purchasing platform for Bitcoin, is ramping up security by implementing Jumio Inc.'s Netverify software.

Electronic commerce services provider Billeo has purchased Swag.io, an e-commerce platform provider that allows companies to place purchase links directly into social media posts.

Two vendors are integrating their products in the hope of keeping security compliance on merchants’ minds nearly every day instead of a few times a year.