Payment innovation quickened its pace from technology to strategic partnerships last year, setting the stage for some dominant trends in 2012.

Elavon has launched a secure payment product that turns mobile devices, such as cell phones, into chip card payment terminals, the unit of U.S. Bancorp announced Jan.4.

Independent safety-science firm UL LLC signaled its desire to enter growing payment areas such as mobile transactions with its purchase this week of Australia-based payment card security-assessment company Witham Laboratories Ltd.

Banking applications for Apple Inc. iPhones and iPads, Google Inc. Android phones, and Research in Motion Ltd. BlackBerry and other mobile devices are growing fast, but not all consumers are keen to download specialized apps from their bank. Some prefer to bank using just a Web browser on their device.

The Better Business Bureau has named a phishing scam that cites the organization as the top scam of 2011.

PITTSBURGH – Riverset CU has introduced its new mobile banking product, Riverset Mobile Money, and has downloadable apps for iPhone, Blackberry and Android.

Citigroup Inc.'s new Facebook application moves the ball forward for banks that want to combine social media with banking activity, but it also raises concerns about privacy and security of consumer data.

Justice Department lawyers say a former government informant convicted of hacking into TJX and more than a dozen other leading retailers was never authorized by the U.S. Secret Service, which was employing him as an undercover informant, to steal data on more than 150 million credit card accounts.

The economy may be crawling back to normal in some sectors, but credit card industry revenue continues to fall, according to one longtime observer.

Consumers outside the United States for years have relied on mobile phones to conduct crucial financial transactions such as collecting funds sent through remittances. M-Pesa in particular has helped millions of consumers in Africa to receive funds-transfers through a branchless mobile-banking service.

Which has their heads in the clouds? Merchants and consumers who fear a lack of data security in a cloud-based payment system? Or the vendors selling the systems that assure they are safer than centralized security platforms?

If mobile-payment technology providers stub their toes with security, or if merchants deem a vendor’s mobile payments too complex, another company likely is working to resolve the problem.

The Federal Trade Commission has approved a biennial report to Congress focusing on the use of the Do Not Call Registry by both consumers and businesses over the past two years, as well as the impact that new technologies have had on the Registry.

Ask Texas banker Edward Smith for the key to surviving the worst economic slump in recent memory and he's apt to give a simple response: guns and ammo.

SALEM, Ore.-As credit unions continue to look for new methods of reaching members and potential new members, $410-million Maps Credit Union recently debuted its Ustream account with a virtual press conference.

The recent discovery of payment-terminal tampering at 24 outlets of California’s Lucky Supermarkets chain is raising fresh questions about the possible role of insiders in such highly coordinated crimes.

In a trend that gained strength the past year, payments and fraud-protection software and hardware providers continue to view Latin America as a land of opportunity.

A court in the United Arab Emirates has passed a landmark card-fraud judgment, laying the legal ground rules for the responsibilities of all involved parties, including card issuers, cardholders and merchants.

MEMPHIS, Tenn.–The $535-million Orion FCU has selected Corelation as its new core processing provider. The credit union will move to San Diego-based Corelation’s KeyStone core solution in August of 2012.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.–CO-OP Financial Services, W.C.U.L. Services Corp. and Wisconsin Credit Union Shared Service Centers, Inc. (WCUSSC) said they have entered into a partnership to market CO-OP Network and Payment Processing services.