Retailers

Mobile payment technology at restaurants is gaining favor with wait staff, who find shedding paper leads to quicker orders, faster service and higher gratuities.

San Francisco, Calif.-based startup Balanced says it is gaining traction with online marketplaces, the eBay-like venues where small merchants gather to sell products and services online.

There will be significant growth in mobile payments over the next five years, Javelin Strategy & Research predicts, but most people still don't make payments with their mobile phones today.

The United States has long resisted adopting the EMV smart-card standard to replace magnetic-stripe credit and debit cards. But the card networks report success in the years-long push to modernize plastic payments.

Milan-based mobile point-of-sale startup Jusp has secured $6 million in an initial round of funding for its chip-and-PIN mobile card reader, which it plans to launch in Italy.

PXT Payments, which operates the mobile payments and rewards app "looped in," is partnering with Boston College-based startup Jebbit for a student-focused marketing program that combines mobile payments and gaming.

Seattle-based iKaaz LLC figures the best way to make contactless Near Field Communication payments truly mobile is to create a reader that turns mobile phones into point of sale terminals.

The Canadian government has hired BMO to provide integrated travel and expense management services, in partnership with MasterCard and corporate services provider HRG.

Signature Card Services, a Los Angeles-based independent sales organization, is making sure its sales agents and merchants understand the benefits of EMV chip cards.

Lawyers representing retail trade organizations in the class action over card swipe fees are preparing "a strong response" to allegations that they are misleading in how they urge their members to oppose the proposed settlement in the eight-year-long case.

The person VeriFone's board of directors chooses as its next CEO must move quickly to address the myriad challenges facing the point of sale terminal maker. But opportunities abound that make the company's revival a worthwhile undertaking.

Online merchants reacted to Visa's creation of 3D Secure to protect card-not-present transactions more than a decade ago with a resounding thud. But the software has become a viable option to protect card data online, according to a new report from Aite Group.

The organizers of a brand new Dallas-based acquiring and processing company called Anovia Payments plan to operate in 23 countries by the end of next year.

With an eye toward making sure more small and medium-size merchants are aware of the need to comply with the Payment Card Industry data security standards, Dallas-based acquirer SignaPay will utilize ControlScan services.

It took three years to build a portfolio of 3,000 merchants at Unified Payments, an independent sales organization based in North Miami Beach, Fla. A year after the ISO started its charitable giving subsidiary, Process Pink Payments, that number reached 5,000. By the end of 2012, it reached 15,000 merchants for Process Pink and more than 100,000 merchants overall.

Heartland Payment Systems and SCVNGR's LevelUp are taking their merchant services and payments bundle, which they earlier tested in a handful of cities, nationwide.

Leaf, a company that offers a payments-specific tablet, is opening to more processors in an effort to lure merchants away from Square and other point of sale acceptance companies.

A pending MasterCard "staged wallet" fee, set to take effect in June, is setting a new tone for the emerging payments landscape.

VeriFone promoted its executive vice president of operations to the role of chief operating officer and appointed three other executives to regional president posts, the point of sale terminal manufacturer announced this week.