Economy

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.

Tranzlogic LLC is targeting independent sales organizations to scale its customer intelligence and marketing strategy more quickly than it could by selling to end users.

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.

A legal notice informing merchants of the proposed swipe-fee settlement appeared in several hundred publications.

In an interview with PaymentsSource, Cohen describes the opportunities that arise for companies like Merchant Warehouse amid the rapid changes taking place in the payments industry.

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.

ISOs and agents can use ACH and credit card data to identify the most likely prospects for transaction services, a vendor says.

The 2013 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue has important information on the swipe-fee antitrust lawsuit.

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.

BIPS’ strategy: Make it easy for merchants to get started with Bitcoin, aggregate their balances with the company, and make money over time on foreign exchange conversion and premium services.