Could a little-noted provision in the Durbin Amendment strangle the nascent U.S. contactless-payments market in its crib? It’s a very real possibility, says a pair of researchers, and the consequences could deal a blow to the prospects for mobile payments that depend on a promising technology called near-field communication (NFC). …

Tyfone Inc. this week launched what appears to be the first solution from a third-party vendor that allows any consumer with a mobile device to enroll in, and then use, mobile banking directly from a handset. The new product, which also features integration with Tyfone’s near-field communication (NFC) platform for …

The announcements last week that two top-10 U.S. banks will soon start issuing smart cards based on the EMV chip card standard, while largely symbolic for now, could herald bigger deployments later on. Normal banking competition, meanwhile, could also bring more U.S. banks to issue chip cards, bank executives and …

Charge volumes for some major payments-industry players, including American Express Co. and U.S. Bancorp, grew by double digits in the first quarter, an indication that consumer spending is recovering and generating more revenue-producing transactions for merchant acquirers. –American Express’s growth was especially strong. The company reported Wednesday that U.S. card-billed …

ModaSolutions Corp.’s eBillme bills itself as the cash-based way to pay for online purchases, but the company has put a new twist on its services: electronic gift cards. EBillme this week added a dozen new brands to the approximately 50 merchant brands it was already offering online. “We’d like to …

Banks are likely to become much more active as issuers of reloadable prepaid cards in response to new regulations that are making traditional bank accounts more expensive for consumers, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. “There’s an opportunity for banks to use prepaid as an account-replacement …

The freeze in U.S. bank card interchange rates, confirmed Wednesday by Visa Inc. for its network and last week by MasterCard Inc., is obviously good news for merchants and not-so-great news for credit and debit card issuers. But, somewhat surprisingly, it may not be all that welcome by merchant acquirers …

The government clamped down on Internet gambling on Friday with the Federal Bureau of Investigation seizing the domain names of the three leading Internet poker sites doing business in the U.S. and prosecutors announcing indictments against 11 defendants, including principals of the gambling sites and a Utah banker. The government …

Once avoided as a money-loser, person-to-person payments are picking up momentum, with Discover Financial Services as the latest entrant. Discover’s Money Messenger service, which went live Monday, allows cardholders to send cash to anyone with a PayPal account. Recipients who aren’t PayPal customers can set up an account quickly via …

Think Computer Corp., the startup behind the FaceCash mobile-payments system, has launched a browser-based point-of-sale register in an effort ease FaceCash integration for merchants. “The register lets any small business turn a Web browser into a cash register,” says Aaron Greenspan, Think’s chief executive and president. The product, which has …