The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency hasn't moved as quickly as it could to address risks posed by large national banks, according to an external review released Thursday.

The unemployment rate fell to 7.0% in November - the lowest mark since November 2008, as more people said they got jobs and joined the labor force. The U.S. economy added a total of 203,000 jobs in the month.

Financial institution call centers are one of the biggest targets for phone fraudsters, according to a report released by Pindrop Security.

Thailand's state-owned telecommunications provider TOT says it will launch a Near Field Communication-based mobile pay service in the country next year.

For Cyriac Roeding, CEO and co-founder of shopkick, the marriage of virtual and physical shopping has never as close as it is now.

The Federal Reserve Board says it followed a proper system for establishing debit interchange caps and fully abided by the Durbin Amendment's requirement for merchants to have two unaffiliated networks to choose from for routing debit transactions.

American Airlines and US Airways have argued that the combined airline will be good for "competition, consumers and choice." But just days before the merger's closing, changes that the airlines have made to a popular credit card reward may end up having the opposite effect.

The Fed's vision of a vastly improved payments system within 10 years is getting a chilly reception from a group representing the nation's largest banks.

China's central bank barred financial institutions from handling Bitcoin transactions, moving to regulate the virtual currency after an 89-fold jump in its value sparked a surge of investor interest in the country.

Clinkle, the payments startup that's generated financial backing from Silicon Valley investors and rampant speculation about its technology model, has hired a pair of Web technology veterans as it ramps up for a launch next year.

Several Canadian banks have taken on the challenge of managing and protecting their customers' usernames and passwords across banking and government sites. U.S. banks are invited to join a similar pilot starting in the U.S.

While Bitcoin sometimes gets a bad rap with law enforcement officials, the police chief of Vicco, Ky. will begin getting his salary in the digital currency.

Airtag has added PayPal as a payment option for consumers using the KFC Fast Track mobile wallet to order and purchase food in advance at the fast food chain's U.K. restaurants.

CO-OP Financial Services is upgrading its Sprig digital wallet to allow broader person-to-person payments, and is also adding mobile credit and debit card control and alert features.

With a goal of speeding up delivery of Near Field Communication-enabled handsets, China Mobile Limited has purchased EMV chip-card testing capabilities from Fime, as well as received a license to begin operating a new, fourth-generation wireless network.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. — Sprig by CO-OP, a digital wallet for credit union members introduced earlier this year, is being upgraded to enable out-of-network, pay-anyone payments, according to CO-OP Financial Services.

Coinplug, a startup Bitcoin merchant services and trading platform being developed for the Korean market, has received $400,000 in funding from Cupertino, Calif.-based Silverblue Inc.

Mobile technology builder C-Sam has created a version of its mobile app development platform that's preconfigured with MasterPass specifications for financial institutions and processors to more easily build custom versions of MasterCard's digital wallet.

Google Wallet has undergone several major revisions since it launched and while the issues solved with its latest iteration were among its biggest hurdles, it's still too soon to declare a winner in the mobile wallet race.

If retail stores seemed a little less crowded over the holiday weekend, tablets or smartphones are likely to blame, as the volume of e-commerce payments made via mobile devices surged during what some are now calling the "Cyber Five" shopping days — from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday.