Payment processing

Recent developments suggest 2011 will be the year that mobile payments take hold in the United States in a big way.

The 200 million wireless subscribers connected to AT&T Inc., T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. may not be enough for the companies’ mobile payments joint venture to succeed; it still needs to attract large banks and merchants, one analyst says.

First American Payment Systems LP has signed Lenoir, N.C.-based Parkway Bank as its 26th referral-bank partner, the Fort Worth, Texas-based independent sales organization announced Nov. 9.

Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA will unveil more details on their joint venture to create a mobile payment network, which will be financially backed by Barclays PLC and Discover Financial Services, as soon as Tuesday, according to people familiar with the situation, Dow Jones is reporting.

In detecting merchant fraud, sometimes less is more.

Ixaris Systems Ltd. announced three payment applications Friday for its Opn platform.

Despite a 13.3% increase in payment-processing revenue, Newtek Business Services Inc. posted a third-quarter net loss of $342,000, the payment-services company announced Nov. 10. The company reported net income of $145,000 for the same quarter last year.

The ATM and debit card network practices of MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Inc. are anticompetitive, and their policies harm consumers by forcing ATM owners to increase surcharge fees and reduce ATM deployment in convenient locations, claims the National Association of ATM ISOs and Operators.

PayPal Inc.’s impending move into face-to-face transactions enabled by VeriFone Systems Inc. mobile point-of-sale terminals has the eBay unit developing a reseller program, Laura Chambers, PayPal senior director of mobile, tells PaymentsSource.

More than half of the nation’s largest financial institutions offer mobile-banking services, which continue to evolve from being an extension of online banking to supporting person-to-person funds transfers and other payment capabilities, according to a new report from First Annapolis Consulting Inc.

USA Technologies Inc. generated $4.4 million in total revenue during its fiscal first quarter ended Sept. 30, up 15.8% from $3.8 million during the same period last year, the provider of wireless payment acceptance announced Nov. 10. The company reported a net loss for the quarter of $1.9 million, an improvement from the $2.9 million loss a year earlier.

Three foreign nationals were charged Nov. 10 in Seattle with using ATM skimmers to steal credit card information from dozens of credit union and bank customers and using counterfeit cards to steal as much as $400,000 from area ATMs.

NetSpend Holdings Inc. says it would not shy away from offering new credit products to its prepaid card customers despite regulators clamping down on its largest issuer.

A recent partnership involving PaymentVision and PayNearMe Inc. is enabling consumers to use cash to pay for online purchases and bills at 7-Eleven Inc. convenience stores, PaymentVision, a Gaithersburg, Md.-based electronic payment services provider, announced Nov. 8.

Convenience-store chain Sheetz Inc. is offering customers a Discover-branded affinity decoupled debit card powered by Tempo Payments Inc., the companies announced Nov. 10.

Bling Nation Ltd. said Tuesday that its mobile contactless payment system will be accepted by the regional grocery chain Brookshire Grocery Co.

Declines in same-store sales at small and midsize businesses appear to be easing up, suggests the Small Business Credit Sales Report.

Fundtech Ltd. has begun offering clients of its PayPlus USA service access to American Express Co.’s FX International Payments services, the global banking-transaction services provider announced Nov. 9.

U.S. households sent at least $11.7 billion abroad through remittances during a 12-month period between 2007 and 2008, and typical amounts sent ranged between $500 and $1,000, the U.S. Census Bureau said in a report released Nov. 8.

With mobile access now widely accepted as a consumer channel, more banks are turning their attention to businesses.