Payments

Alliance Data Systems Corp. replaced Barclaycard US as the issuer of Virgin America's affinity credit card this week, launching two products that are co-branded with the airline's Elevate frequent flier program through its Alliance Data Retail Services and Comenity Capital Bank divisions.

Chinese E-payment provider Alipay and microblogging platform provider Weibo have developed an online payment system that enables users to buy products through communication with acquaintances, Alipay announced Jan. 7.

Mobile technology vendor 1OAK says it can enable any point of sale machine to accept payments from a smartphone without changes to infrastructure or back-end payment processing systems.

The new Square iPhone case, designed with accessory developer Griffin Technology, kicks off a program that encourages the development of accessories for Square payments hardware.

Total Merchant Services says it will expand its tablet-based point of sale and cloud-based offerings after acquiring Registroid LLC and its products.

A pair of companies has launched services on Twitter that allow users to transact in Bitcoin across the microblogging site. And while Twitter has been selective of what companies facilitate payments in the past, the social networking giant hasn't yet touched these Bitcoin services.

Acquirers say they're signing up new merchants and retaining established customers with the help of software that bundles payment services.

The new year got off to a mixed start for virtual currency, with regulators in Asia clamping down on Bitcoin and gaming company Zynga embracing the emerging payments option.

The data security breach impacting 40 million credit and debit cards at Target during the holiday shopping season boosts the wisdom of larger transaction fees charged by credit unions to retailers, CUNA Senior Vice President for Research and Policy Analysis Bill Hampel said Monday.

The Target Corp. data breach just before the holiday shopping season triggered another round of rhetoric on the merits and shortcomings of chip-based cards. But the breach's direct effect on merchant EMV plans is largely up in the air.

Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission is barring Bitcoin ATMs because the country's regulatory body views Bitcoin as a false currency that should not be used by people or banks for payments.

Consumers demand far more flexibility from their card reward programs — and some banks are getting creative about delivering it.

Alabama State Employees Credit Union has filed the first class action by a financial services company against Target Corp. over costs from the massive card security data breach.

Following the lead of other retailers, the National Retail Federation filed an appeal Jan. 2 of a U.S. District Court ruling to approve the years-long class action against the card brands that resulted in a $5.7 billion swipe-fee settlement.

Mobile payments company I Love Velvet plans to win the business of international merchants by combining its mobile point of sale offering with broader e-commerce and security compliance tools.

One of the newest location-based payment apps came out of Brett Neese's house on a Friday night.

DES MOINES, Iowa - Shrinking refi business, falling debit swipe fees and banks ramping up card marketing have credit unions increasing their emphasis on their cards' portfolio.

TAMPA, Fla. - Expect credit unions to pay greater attention to P2P, upgrade aging home banking systems, ramp up EMV migration timelines and increase credit card marketing and analytics in 2014.

BROOKFIELD, Wis. - As mobile wallets mature, so will attempts to use the technology to marry payments and marketing, according to Fiserv's Matt Wilcox.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Alabama State Employees Credit Union has filed what appears to be the first class action lawsuit by a financial services company against Target Corp. over costs from the massive card security data breach.