Payments

The acceleration of the Affordable Care Act, along with the longer trend toward consumer-directed health care finance and high deductible plans such as health savings accounts, are decentralizing health care payments.

How can banks benefit from a spurt of mobile payments innovation that is enabling faster checkouts with the advantage of greater security for customers?

Coin-counting machines came into vogue in the 1990s when Commerce Bank started installing "Penny Arcades" in its branches throughout New Jersey. They were a huge hit for a while, but banks have soured on the machines in recent years as usage declined and maintenance costs increased.

Well before the mobile payments explosion, incumbents were already focused on how to respond to nonbanks "piggybacking" on banks' payments infrastructure. As the consultant behind a 1994 banking industry report on the threat put it, "there is no time for delay."

PayPal next month will launch a new mobile app for its iOS and Android users, but anyone using the PayPal app designed for Windows Phone, BlackBerry or the Amazon Fire handset is out of luck.

Smartphones are an important window into understanding underbanked customers, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in a report released Wednesday in conjunction with a meeting of the agency's advisory committee on economic inclusion.

In the ongoing melee between the two major players, strong authentication has been put on the backburner in favor of the respective economies of implementing chip card technology.

E-commerce is eroding the appeal of shopping malls, so the operators of some of the largest shopping centers are starting to dish out their own share of digital disruption.

For a customer to switch from a tried and true payment method to a new one, the provider must be able to offer a unique payment experience which offers concrete and obvious advantages like top-level security, unique rewards and unprecedented agility. For these reasons, the Merchant Customer Exchange's retailer-led mobile payments initiative CurrentC was bound to fail.

New research findings challenge common assumptions about borrower behavior, illustrating how trended data — something mortgage lenders will soon be required to collect — could be a game-changer.

Apple Pay reached its sixth country last month when American Express extended it to customers in Singapore, and now banks issuing MasterCard and Visa products are adding its support as well.

As more mobile apps and businesses push plastic payments to the background, they also give prepaid card accounts a chance to reclaim the spotlight.

The debate over speeding up payments transactions should consider the necessity of allowing consumers time to rethink and abort their purchases.

When TableSafe launched in 2011 under the name Viableware, it was a simpler time in payments technology and the company had a simpler product to offer — a tablet-like check holder that lets customers complete card payments without leaving the table.

Wells Fargo & Co. has joined the growing ranks of banks that are building their own branded mobile wallets, pressuring other financial institutions to act quickly to keep pace.

Visa’s efforts to shed cash payments in Dubai and surrounding regions includes getting an early jump on new innovation, and it hopes a new development hub will serve as a focal point for local developers.

As drilling has slowed, energy firms have had to lay off workers, many of whom are falling behind on their bills – compounding the troubles of banks already dealing with higher commercial loan delinquencies in the same markets.

Everyone agrees that electronic transactions should be as safe as possible, but a PIN mandate will not prevent online or mobile fraud.

CO-OP Financial Services announced that Todd Clark will become its new president and CEO, effective June 27, succeeding Stan Hollen, who is retiring.

A former Citibank payments specialist has been appointed to the board of Meta Financial Group in Sioux Falls, S.D.