The explosion of mobile applications, especially those involving banking and payments, is almost certain to lead to ingenious new hacker attacks on consumer data next year. After all, why should 2012 be different from any other year, as crooks continually look for holes in security in hopes of reaping financial rewards?

The wild gyrations in credit card charge-off rates of the last two years is finally subsiding, providing more certainty for bankcard issuers planning their loan-loss contingency funds for 2012.

Security managers guarding bank account, credit and debit card data should take protective measures up a notch in 2012, new research suggests. Perhaps even two notches.

Online banking customers for King's Town Bank in Taipei, Taiwan, now may send and receive Western Union Co. funds transfers internationally.

The serious mortgage delinquency rate in the 100 largest metropolitan areas has slowed a bit from 10.4% at its peak in December 2009 to 9.3% in June 2011, according to data from Foreclosure-Response.org.

The chatter coming from the industry near the end of last year was that 2011 would be when mobile card acceptance and payments finally emerge as legitimate experiences for consumers and merchants in the United States.

China UnionPay has signed an agreement with BesTV Network Television Technology Development Co. Ltd. to support bill payments initiated on consumers’ televisions. But it faces a market that is becoming less reliant on TV for information.

This year saw two of the U.S. payments industry's most stagnant technologies–chip cards and decoupled debit–take divergent paths.

Mobile-payment advocates can take heart knowing that new survey data from Visa Europe suggest most consumers in the region believe contactless-payment technology will help to drive widespread mobile-payment adoption.

Citibank India Pvt. Ltd. has launched a mobile payment-based cash-management facility for its corporate clients in India, the Gurgaon-based bank announced on Dec. 14.

In the realm of payment card data security, 2011 qualifies as the year in which “more” became a key term on many levels.

Anticipation over the emergence of a broad mobile-payments market has gone on for years, and it might continue through 2012. Analysts instead believe financial institutions first will focus on person-to-person funds transfers.

Can’t pay with a credit card online? Try charging the sale to an Internet service provider account, where the purchase will appear on the monthly broadband statement.

The Federal Trade Commission is asking the public to comment on the issues raised during a recent workshop exploring the use of facial recognition technology and the privacy and security implications raised by its increasing use.

Fifth Third Bank set an aggressive goal for bill-payment penetration among its online banking customers: a 40% increase in two years. To achieve this, the bank knew it would need to modify the service.

From the beginning, Asian countries have been ahead of the curve in testing and deploying mobile-payment systems.

With more business owners and information technology personnel accessing payments networks with smartphones and other mobile devices, Trustwave figured it was time to put up more walls of defense to keep out hackers.

The Reserve Bank of India has removed the daily limit on mobile transactions to help boost India’s mobile payments market.

A Canadian independent sales organization is offering its merchants a proprietary mobile-payment acceptance device that other Canadian ISOs also could sell.

A Northern Michigan gas-station owner wanted to give his cash-paying customers the freedom to fill their cars’ tanks first, then pay. But when dishonest drivers skipping the payment process became a problem, he decided to take a different approach.