It sometimes seems that two issues dominate payments: the ongoing battle over the price of payments between major retailers and issuing banks, and the organizations in developed markets that are tumbling over each over to announce their latest wallet, wearable token or smartphone app is going to revolutionise the payments world as we know it.

First Data has a number of payments initiatives planned for the next year in Brazil, where the mix of mobile and card adoption suggests big potential for electronic card payments.

London-based Currency Cloud plans to expand its payment offerings to the U.S. to serve businesses that are having a hard time adding automated cross-border transactions to their workflows.

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — Twitter Inc. has dialed back a rule implemented late last year that restricted how financial institutions could promote themselves on the site, but some credit unions are still unsure as to what those changes mean in terms of how effective the social-networking site can ultimately be for CUs.

EBay Inc.'s stock price rose as much as 6.8 percent today after The Information reported the company could spin off its payment unit as soon as next year.

By adding data analytics to its Square Register platform, Square Inc. says it is giving merchants of all sizes the kind of tools that larger retailers use to increase sales.

PayPal has released an upgraded app for Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system, adding several features already available on iOS and Android devices.

With NCUA focusing on cybersecurity at credit unions, the agency has outlined key areas on which examiners will focus when analyzing a CU's fraud defense.

United Parcel Service Inc. said a breach of computer security at some of its UPS Store retail outlets may have exposed customers’ personal and payment data this year.

Evolution is occurring rapidly in mobile payments. While the innovation headlines are being made by the digital innovators and new industry entrants, banks still have a window of opportunity to take strategic advantage and preserve their traditional payments franchise.

Lamassu Bitcoin Ventures is sending its Bitcoin ATMs to areas that may not be completely welcoming to digital currency, with its newest machine touching down today in the West Village of New York City, the birthplace of the "BitLicense" regulatory concept.

Almare Gelato Italiano accepts many alternative payment methods, and hasn't paid a dime for them because its vendors want a taste of the foot traffic at store's prime location in downtown Berkeley, Calif.

VeriFone is targeting a wide range of markets for its taxi and merchant applications. The company has reached an agreement with Bharti Airtel Group in Africa and, separately, entered taxi payment deals in Turkey and Mexico.

Square won't require users of its $99 Square Stand to replace their hardware when they are ready to accept EMV-chip cards. Instead, the vendor will support EMV cards through the hardware's included USB hub.

Payza, a payment processor and digital wallet provider based in London, has released a tool that allows its merchant clients to accept payments from shoppers who have not previously enrolled with Payza.

Amazon's Square-like card reader comes at a very un-Square-like price, undercutting Amazon's competitor by a full 1% per swipe. But that promotion will eventually go away — and when it does, Amazon's merchants might go with it.

Riskified is halving its fees for its Shop Protection service, which guarantees against chargebacks but requires merchants to let Riskified fully control which sales go through and which get blocked.

The Backoff malware, which targets point of sale systems and has hit hundreds of businesses, may catalyze adoption of EMV "chip and PIN" cards and two-factor authentication as merchants look for ways to soften the impact of the next attack.

SumUp is preparing to bring its mobile point of sale device to a number of new countries, and hopes its practice of developing its technology in-house will help it contain the costs of chip and PIN card payments.

Braintree and PayPal are testing an integrated mobile payments feature, delivering on the company's promise to integrate technology from Braintree's Venmo unit.