Economy

Square has taken its biggest shot yet at traditional payment terminal manufacturers with Square Stand, a new card reader built to house an iPad that can be used in place of a stationary point of sale terminal.

PayPal will offer free payment processing through the end of 2013 to merchants that “trade in” their cash registers and adopt mobile point of sale technologies, in a move to entice small merchants to adopt digital payments.

Groupon's new Breadcrumb POS, a free app enabling merchants to use iPads as point of sale systems, is the latest part of the company's strategy to build a payments business for the small-merchant community it also serves through its daily-deals business.

Australian debit card company eftpos has signed a five-year agreement with mobile wallet technology developer C-Sam.

Earlier today Groupon POS, a mobile payment app for merchants using iPads as point of sale systems, was released on iTunes, but the app has since been pulled from the app store.

Amazon.com's virtual currency Amazon Coins, which launched today, has the potential to become a successful alternative to card payments — if the currency expands beyond digital app purchases.

U.S. consumers conducted nearly half of their online shopping using mobile devices, spending $5.9 billion in mobile commerce sales during the first quarter of 2013, according to Internet analytics firm Comscore.

A company that helps e-commerce merchants take domestic and international payments is looking for ISOs to promote its platform.

Amazon launched its virtual currency, Amazon Coins, giving all U.S. Kindle Fire tablet owners $5 worth of free coins in their Amazon accounts and discounts for purchasing more in bulk.

Typically, I don't cover or analyze so-called payments innovations that merely embrace and extend the legacy infrastructure, but a new middleware startup, CardFlight, could actually operate as a payments "air traffic controller" because its code sits directly between the consumer and the processor.

Simon Haslam is becoming president and CEO of Elavon at a time of extreme stress for payments processors, which face nimble competitors, new payment standards and high-profile security risks.

Newtek Business Services, a New York-based national super-ISO, intends to expand its stable of 10 or so active independent sales organizations to as many as 250.

Facebook Connect is an increasingly prevalent way for Internet users to skip registration for other websites by using their Facebook credentials instead — and to WePay, it's also a tool for fighting payment fraud.

New POS schemes bring uncertainties. Merchants need partners who can help them scale their solutions while growing sales and increasing customers.

Through a partnership with Bitcoin payment processor BitPay Inc., Gyft now accepts bitcoins for its mobile gift card product. This extends the virtual currency's reach to more than 50,000 retail locations.

MasterCard delivered its biggest commitment to financial inclusion to date, announcing the rollout of 13 million smart cards that would also serve as national identity cards for Nigerians.

Advantage Refreshments knows its vending machines look just like those operated by rivals, so it's trying to attract repeat business with a loyalty program from payments hardware maker USA Technologies.

Koupah, which is providing a new point of sale card acceptance tablet, aims to offset credit card transaction fees with ads.

CardFlight aims to make in-person purchases easier by enabling merchants to accept swiped card payments within their own mobile apps.

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council is introducing a security credential for people who set up transaction services for merchants.