Online payments

JPMorgan Chase is warning 465,000 holders of prepaid cash cards that their personal information may have been accessed by hackers who attacked the bank's network earlier this year.

China's central bank barred financial institutions from handling Bitcoin transactions, moving to regulate the virtual currency after an 89-fold jump in its value sparked a surge of investor interest in the country.

Billing outsourcer BillTrust has developed new invoice technology that uses streamlined processing and dispute resolution to boost businesses payments automation, a segment that has traditionally lagged consumer payments in reducing paper processing.

Clinkle, the payments startup that's generated financial backing from Silicon Valley investors and rampant speculation about its technology model, has hired a pair of Web technology veterans as it ramps up for a launch next year.

Several Canadian banks have taken on the challenge of managing and protecting their customers' usernames and passwords across banking and government sites. U.S. banks are invited to join a similar pilot starting in the U.S.

While Bitcoin sometimes gets a bad rap with law enforcement officials, the police chief of Vicco, Ky. will begin getting his salary in the digital currency.

CO-OP Financial Services is upgrading its Sprig digital wallet to allow broader person-to-person payments, and is also adding mobile credit and debit card control and alert features.

Mobile technology builder C-Sam has created a version of its mobile app development platform that's preconfigured with MasterPass specifications for financial institutions and processors to more easily build custom versions of MasterCard's digital wallet.

Google Wallet has undergone several major revisions since it launched and while the issues solved with its latest iteration were among its biggest hurdles, it's still too soon to declare a winner in the mobile wallet race.

If retail stores seemed a little less crowded over the holiday weekend, tablets or smartphones are likely to blame, as the volume of e-commerce payments made via mobile devices surged during what some are now calling the "Cyber Five" shopping days — from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday.

Fraud prevention provider ValidSoft has joined the Fast Identity Online Alliance to help create standards for online authentication, the company announced Dec. 3.

Online remittance provider Xoom has followed up the quick start to its mobile payment services with local partnerships to allow the company's money transfer service to work across multiple channels.

The PayPal Digital Gifts website is a new e-commerce hub that sells virtual gift cards that can only be purchased using the eBay subsidiary's digital wallet.

Citigroup Inc. is expanding its ThankYou Rewards program by providing customers with virtual account numbers linked to their Citi credit cards and rewards accounts to redeem points at online merchants.

BTC China, the nation's largest Bitcoin exchange, has had low-level discussions with regulators seeking recognition of the digital currency that would allow it to be used to buy goods and services in the country.

NCR has been working to become a "hardware-enabled, software-driven business" for eight years. With its purchase of online and mobile banking vendor Digital Insight and transaction switching and fraud detection software company Alaric Systems, it's taken a big step forward.

Because of the changes that mobile will bring to the point of sale, the payments industry can expect to see acquisitions, consolidations and investments in that market over the next six to 12 months.

While nearly two thirds, or 61%, of U.S. online consumers have heard of a digital wallet, only 11% actually use one, an indicator that wallet providers still face challenges reaching consumers, according to Forrester Research.

MasterCard worked with Intel and Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors to establish a digital service that allows consumers to initiate online transactions by tapping their MasterPass card or Near Field Communication-enabled smartphone against a built-in NFC reader.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. started offering a cloud computing service known as Ju Baopen for banks and securities firms, as China's largest e-commerce company ventures into financial-related services.