Mobile payments

MasterCard, echoing remarks made 16 hours earlier by Visa, is placing security at the heart of its emerging payments strategy.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has stepped down from Square Inc.’s board, to be replaced by former Goldman Sachs CFO David Viniar.

Retailers that have long criticized the card networks' plan for them to accept EMV-chip cards are starting to view the smart-card migration as a reason to adopt mobile payments.

Visa, which reports its fraud rate is at a historic low of 6 cents for every hundred dollars processed, is positioning itself as a safe haven for payments services.

Starbucks Corp. reports that it receives 11% of its U.S. and Canadian sales through its mobile app, continuing its momentum in enticing customers to pay with the mobile version of its closed-loop Starbucks Card.

America First Credit Union introduced a mobile app this month that allows its Visa cardholders to personalize their debit or credit cards with photos they've uploaded from their smartphones.

PayPal is offering to waive $50,000 in processing fees for startups designing mobile or Web-based services through the eBay unit's Startup Blueprint Program.

Heartland Payment Systems is making investments in tablet technology to attract merchant clients while combatting mobile payments startups.

About 40% of Domino Pizza Inc.'s customers use digital methods of ordering, with about one-third of those customers choosing the mobile app.

Consumers are using retailer discounts linked to their payment cards, but banks and merchants have to simplify the deals and make sure their customers are aware of them.

Isis and Google have been very publicly testing their mobile wallets, exposing the developing technology to harsh scrutiny, and both companies say their hardships are about to pay off.

The Merchant Customer Exchange has signed many of the biggest names in retail, but it has yet to release its mobile wallet — and it asks merchants not to act hastily as they see other options clutter the market.

First Data's acquisition of marketing specialist Perka not only ups First Data's game in the loyalty space, it's also another sign that processors are willing to open their own wallets to ad digital expertise to woo merchants.

Square Inc. has added American Express and JCB credit card acceptance in Canada, expanding its payment options a year after launching in the country.

MasterCard's subsidiary DataCash is adding mobile heft to its merchant acquisition technology through a partnership with Shopgate.

Samsung is broadening its mobile wallet through new partnerships with companies in transportation, coupons and hospitality.

Merchant Warehouse is trying make the differences between competing mobile payments technology – such as Near Field Communication chips and QR codes – invisible to merchants.

Stockholm's homeless magazine vendors no longer need to ask if you can spare any krona. They take cards.

Digital content providers will have more options to accept payments through Live Gamer Inc.'s Pay+ product.

Wells Fargo, which was one of the first banks to offer mobile banking apps to business customers in 2007, has been making some updates. The site allows clients to divide tasks across different people — one person might initiate a payment template, another person may make a payment for that template, and a third might approve the payment, for instance.