BlackBerry once seemed to be a good bet for mobile payments, with a large installed userbase even when iPhone and Android handsets were still considered a luxury rather than a necessity.

Many times, it seems, the best way for a company to learn whether it was compliant with the Payment Card Industry data security standard is to experience a data breach.

LevelUp is offering users a monthly cash back bonus for linking a debit card as a funding source for its mobile payment app.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. sued Visa Inc. for allegedly conspiring to fix credit card transaction fees, according to a complaint filed March 25 in federal court in Fayetteville, Ark., the latest salvo in multi-year litigation fight between retailers and card companies.

Payments processor Stripe will enable its clients to accept bitcoins as a payment option.

The payment processors Global Payments Inc. and Optimal Payments Plc have begun supporting MasterCard's MasterPass digital wallet.

TSYS has signed a long-term agreement with Virgin Money to provide payment processing services for the retail bank's consumer credit card business.

GoDaddy, a web hosting provider, has designed an online invoicing system using the alternative payment company Dwolla's network application programming interface (API) and services.

The recent IRS ruling on how Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are taxed brings the U.S. in line with regulations in Canada, Australia, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Allied Payment Network and Malauzai Software plan to use video and chat to develop new mobile payment methods.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for a national payment system, according a report of an address he delivered Thursday to the Russian parliament.

EMV-chip technology has driven down fraud on Canada's Interac debit network, but that fraud isn't moving online. It's fleeing the country.

Retail and consumer financial services veteran Jane J. Thompson has become a member of the VeriFone Systems Inc. board of directors, the terminal manufacturer announced March 26.

There's a painfully wide innovation gap between the heavily regulated, slow-moving banking industry and the nimble tech companies concentrated in Silicon Valley. Now Hans Morris, a longtime banker and the former president of Visa, is trying to bridge the distance.

Lawmakers keep trying to move legislation aimed at strengthening data security even if they are still not finished upbraiding retailers for recent breaches.

Bitcoin companies are getting more recognition as serious contenders, and as they grow they are filling their ranks with people who established their careers in the mainstream payments industry.

Payzone, a provider of payment technology for retail stores, hotels and restaurants, is planning to offer Seamless' SEQR mobile wallet to its approximately 20,000 clients.

Circle Internet Financial, a startup aiming to make the digital currency Bitcoin more user-friendly for merchants and consumers, has raised another $17 million, bringing its total funding to $26 million.

Most digital wallets are focused on shopping, marketing and recurring payments, though mobile payment company PyxPay and donation payments company Interactive Donor Corp. are applying the concept to charitable giving.

A growing number of home lenders are lowering their minimum credit scores in an attempt to boost origination volumes that have suffered as interest rates climb.