Online PINless debit transactions could get a boost if a package of four new mobile-payments services from Obopay Inc. proves to be a hit. Dubbed Mobile Money for Banks, Obopay’s new white-label service has another interesting twist besides PINless debit in that it will enable consumers to accept payment cards. …
Read More »Square Founders Get Rock Star Welcome But Give Few Details
The founders of the much-hyped Square Inc. payments system may have wowed a full-house crowd of bankers on Monday, but they added little to public understanding of how their product will actually work and how it will stack up competitively with similar offerings for mobile merchants. While polite and talkative …
Read More »Ebay Chief Touts PayPal Innovation As Processor Logs Strong Results
Online auctioneer eBay Inc. on Wednesday said its PayPal Inc. unit has generated more than $30 million in payments so far on the open platform it introduced in November. Thousands of developers have now written applications using application programming interfaces PayPal has introduced for the platform, eBay officials said, allowing …
Read More »Mobile Capture’s Profile Rises As Smart Phone Adoption Climbs
Remote deposit capture by means of smart phones, a technology that seemed futuristic only a year ago, is rapidly taking root, but questions remain about smart-phone adoption, security, and the type of financial institution for which it makes sense. Two recent studies, one of which was released this week, document …
Read More »Just Days After Its Debut, Square Changes Its Processing Fees
Square Inc., the new payment system from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, has adjusted its merchant pricing less than three weeks after its debut. Merchants will pay more on card-present transactions under $100 and less on bigger sales compared with the original plan. Card-not-present transactions, however, will cost more until a …
Read More »As 2-D Barcodes Gain Steam for M-Payments, a Novel Twist Emerges
The use of two-dimensional bar-code technology for mobile payments appears to be picking up momentum. On the heels of a major expansion of the technology, announced last week by Starbucks Coffee Co. and Target Corp., a startup company this week announced it is launching a so-called private beta for a …
Read More »Eye on Mobile: An Apple-ViVOtech Rumor; Google Invests in a Gateway
In an example of how fast news can spread in the over heated atmosphere of mobile payments, news items and blog postings appeared on Monday and Tuesday suggesting that Apple Inc. is angling to buy Vivotech Inc., a vendor of hardware and software for contactless payments. At the same time, …
Read More »In Bypassing iPhone for iPad, Square Shows Its Hand?Or Some of It
The mysterious Square Inc. payment service made a name for itself Monday by joining a somewhat exclusive club of companies to offer the first applications for Apple Inc.'s iPad notepad computer within a couple of days of the iPad's much-hyped April 3 debut. Square also revealed its pricing. San Francisco-based …
Read More »TNS Enters a Crowded Market for Card Acceptance on Handsets
Transaction Network Services Inc. this week announced its entry in what is becoming an increasingly crowded market?applications that let smart phones act as credit and debit card acceptance devices. But TNS, which specializes in providing the transaction-transport systems for point-of-sale and ATM networks, says it will set itself apart by …
Read More »Bill-to-Carrier Rivalry Heats up with Danal’s Verizon Breakthrough
Competition in the bill-to-carrier mobile payments market is heating up with Verizon Wireless's announcement it will offer the service directly to consumers through Danal Inc.'s BilltoMobile payment service within the next few weeks. The deal marks Seoul, Korea-based mobile payments operator Danal's first contract in the U.S. Danal is in …
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