Retailers are being inventive in their use of prepaid cards and mobile wallets to improve their store loyalty programs. Many are learning to use payments technology in ways that may change the way banks view their partnerships with merchants.

Citi and Barclaycard US will both have a seat at the table after American Airlines and US Airways combine their frequent flier programs and affinity credit cards, but the issuers will have somewhat different roles.

E-commerce technology provider Wirecard has integrated Bluetooth Low Energy into its mobile wallet for wireless payments.

Mobile payments company WePay has raised $15 million in new funding, led long-time payments and bank executive Phil Purcell's Continental Investors, as it places more emphasis on working with third-party developers.

Receipts, typically a scrap of paper many shoppers throw away, can be easily reimagined as a tool to improve customer engagement, says Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square.

The latest quarterly survey of U.S. and Canadian bank risk professionals found expectations for delinquencies on auto loans hit their highest level since Q4 2012, and expectations for delinquencies on credit cards reached their highest level in two years.

Retail mobile wallet strategies are evolving as merchants' views of the opportunity that mobile presents matures beyond payment acceptance and technical considerations.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- DDoS attacks are getting worse.

The EMV Migration Forum has recruited a test group of merchants, retailers and issuers to begin handling EMV-chip cards in Orlando, Fla., early to spot and fix problems before the card networks' deadline of October 2015.

High end fashion retailer Guess is working with MicroStrategy Inc., which has been in data analytics for more than 20 years, to use MicroStrategy's Alert app to track and reward users.

The biggest takeaway from a roundtable discussion PayPal hosted at its New York offices this week: Size matters.

Identification card manufacturer Datacard Group has completed its acquisition of digital identity and information firm Entrust.

Microsoft has made a series of recent partnerships with payments companies such as AnywhereCommerce, Vantiv and FreedomPay.

AT&T and Vantiv have partnered to offer mobile card readers and in-store payment technology.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said it replaced 2 million payment cards after the breach of consumer data at retailers including Target Corp.

Heartland Payment Systems has partnered with AJB Software Design to offer security-related technology and services.

Bad-debt classification practices across Europe show "material differences that, if not considered, would severely affect the consistency and credibility of the exercise," according to a European Central Bank document obtained by Bloomberg News.

Square Inc., the payments startup co-founded by Twitter Inc. Chairman Jack Dorsey, has authorized a tender offer of 1 million shares at $135.28 each, valuing the closely held company at $5 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said.

For the first merchants to adopt the Isis mobile wallet, the loyalty and data opportunities that it presents are of far greater value than the contactless payment capabilities it provides.

Toshiba's new entry into the crowded retail mobile payments market is a tablet that can quickly morph back and forth between mobile and more conventional payment methods.