Point-of-sale

The launch of the U.S.'s first regulated bitcoin exchange gives an already curious merchant base more of a reason to jump into virtual currency.

The processor Total System Services Inc. has entered into an agreement with terminal maker Ingenico to support a wide range of payment types, including magnetic stripe, EMV, Near Field Communication and Apple Pay.

Mergers and acquisitions among payments companies rose 44% in 2014 compared to the year before.

New, experimental consumer marketing programs have played a significant role in the way technology has upended the payment business in recent years. And Visa is looking to get in on the action.

Ingenico Group, a French maker of payment terminals, has completed its acquisition of Roam.

Retailers are adopting many innovations to counter the lure of online shopping, which is becoming more of a threat to brick-and-mortar stores as e-commerce spreads to a growing number of Internet-connected devices.

PayPal is revamping its lineup of mobile point of sale offerings, expanding developer tools and adding EMV in the U.S. But its new support for Microsoft devices may have the most impact as it pursues merchants that can already get payment capabilities elsewhere.

Wirecard, an electronic payments company based in Germany, has partnered with Bank Mega to provide retailer Carrefour Indonesia with point of sale technology.

Apriva is integrating its payments gateway with software that automatically updates point of sale systems connected with Apriva as new types of payments emerge.

The San Jose-based payment terminal maker Verifone launched a new mobile operating system and is separately working with Samsung on new mobile point of sale projects.

Global payment solutions provider Elavon has partnered with Verizon to bring mobile point of sale products to Verizon's small-business customers.

Tritium Partners has acquired a majority stake in Giact Systems LLC, an electric payments service.

Stage Stores, a department store chain based in in Houston, has beefed up its payment security with technology from Chase Paymentech and Ingenico.

Wirecard, a digital payments company based in Germany, has partnered with Five by Five, a software provider in Croatia, to provide mobile point of sale technology to small businesses.

Apple's reputation as a negotiator is rather simple—it doesn't negotiate. But Strategic Resource Management, a negotiation company with 200 clients in financial services, contends issuers and merchants have a chance to win more favorable terms with Apple.

Tablet-based point of sale and other integrated payment systems are advancing quickly, but there are some obstacles in the road to domination—particularly for providers that didn't plan ahead for EMV-chip cards in the U.S.

Though Amazon.com's Fire Phone sputtered out as soon as it launched, the company has built a solid foundation in mobile payments that will fuel its next big moves in 2015.

For MasterCard's Mung Ki Woo, the future of payments is an app that unlocks new consumer habits by literally unlocking their doors.

Staples Inc., the largest U.S. office-supply retailer, said 1.16 million payment cards may have been affected in a series of data breaches that occurred from July into September.

Retail stores have spent years fighting competition from the Internet, and Verifone plans to prove that it's a fight the brick-and-mortar side can win.