Many of the payments industry's longtime veterans and new entrants started their careers in other industries or founded their companies with a different purpose in mind. Here are some highlights from the many diverse career paths in the payments world.

LINCOLN, Neb. — Credit unions are still discovering the scope and power of social media, as well as how to leverage it and the pitfalls to avoid. Here are five things credit unions need to know about social media.

On Track Innovations' (OTI) contactless readers have received certification from the mobile wallet venture Isis, which recently launched its Near Field Communication-based payment system nationwide.

Web commerce provider Digital River will supply online payments technology for HarperCollins, which has recently redesigned websites for author C.S. Lewis.

Virgin Galactic, billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson’s commercial space travel venture will accept the digital currency Bitcoin for payments, founder Richard Branson told CNBC today.

Payment technology provider Yespay and retail services company PMC are partnering to build mobile payment products for retailers.

Mobile phone numbers and e-mail addresses are increasingly vital to verifying a consumer's identity to protect against fraud.

Rather than simply continuing to absorb the losses from account takeover attacks, institutions should be reevaluating the effectiveness of their authentication methods and increase security to better prevent fraud.

Mobile phone numbers and e-mail addresses are increasingly vital to verifying a consumer's identity to protect against fraud.

Electronic and social media payments provider Ribbon is building a person to person payment service, joining a market that's small yet fiercely competitive, analysts say, adding that Ribbon will be pressured to pair P2P with other products.

Airtag figures it has landed its mobile payment system in the right places at the right time, concentrating on the fast-food and grocery markets.

The wireless carriers' Isis mobile wallet venture is launching a new program to build merchant support for its technology.

A new multi-purse card called Coin recently caused a commotion as it sparked interest in the concept of a card with a dynamic magnetic stripe. But other companies have pitched similar concepts before.

Atos is studying potential acquisitions to help make the French computer-services supplier's Worldline unit Europe's biggest payments company.

Bank of East Asia will launch a mobile payment service for its credit card customers in Hong Kong early next year.

Andrea Scerch is the new president of DataCash, an e-commerce payments company MasterCard acquired in 2010. Scerch replaces Ajay Bhalla, who is taking on a larger role at MasterCard.

Electronic payments in Bangladesh may increase 20-fold over the next five years as mobile-phone transactions increase and the government pulls citizens into the formal financial system, MasterCard Inc. says.

ACA International released a white paper Thursday analyzing Consumer Financial Protection Bureau consumer complaints regarding debt collection.

Allied Wallet is developing new payment technology that allows users to identify themselves by using an add-on fingerprint sensor, and also plans to build biometric acceptance for merchants.

Google Wallet now offers a plastic Google Wallet debit card designed as an alternative to using a smartphone to pay at the point of sale.