Some 400,000 small merchants now accept American Express Co. payment cards through the OptBlue program that AmEx announced nearly a year ago. OptBlue enables bank card merchant acquirers and independent sales organizations to offer AmEx acceptance to small businesses and set the pricing through a one-stop-shopping option when they sell …

The United States with its several thousand credit and debit card issuers and more than a dozen payment networks presents a stiff challenge to the card industry as it tries to convert from magnetic-stripe stripe cards to Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip cards, two industry veterans told a group of independent sales …

By Jim Daly U.S. credit and debit card issuers will be mailing hundreds of millions of Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip cards to their customers this year and next now that the payment card networks’ EMV liability shift looms just eight months away. Estimates about chip card issuance vary, but all involve …

Softcard, the mobile-payments venture of Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile USA, has laid of 60 employees in a restructuring, according to media reports. The layoffs raise questions about the future of Softcard, formerly known as Isis, which has had trouble gaining consumer and merchant acceptance for its near-field communication-based …

Online wire-transfer provider Xoom Inc. reported Monday that it will take a $30.8 million one-time charge as a result of a scam in which the same amount of its cash was transferred abroad. Xoom also said that its chief financial officer had resigned. San Francisco-based Xoom declared in a regulatory …

The number of credit and debit cards compromised in data breaches hit 64.4 million in 2014, up 38% from 46.6 million in 2013, according to preliminary figures from the Identity Theft Resource Center, a San Diego-based non-profit that tracks breaches. Some 133 of 2014’s breaches involved payment cards, up 39% …

Mobile payments in New York City soon could get access to a large amount of raw material for transactions if a proposal by the city’s Department of Finance becomes reality. The DoF recently issued a request for information (RFI) from vendors about developing a mobile-payments system for paying parking violations. …

Green Dot Corp.’s stock fell 8% Tuesday morning after the prepaid card services provider reported Monday that it had extended its agreement with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to issue and manage the Walmart MoneyCard only until Dec. 31, 2015. In the view of investors, the short extension of a five-year agreement …

Mobile-payments platform developer Mozido Inc. expanded its footprint in the budding industry sector with its announcement Thursday that it acquired a majority interest in CorFire, a U.S. m-commerce subsidiary of South Korea-based information-technology provider SK C&C. Mozido already provides the MoTeaf white-label payments platform as well as various person-to-person, bill-payment, …

Investors in Digital River Inc.’s stock reacted with exultation Wednesday morning when the gateway and e-commerce services provider disclosed that Microsoft Corp., its biggest customer, had renewed an agreement under which Digital River hosts the Microsoft Store online site. Not only has Digital River retained a client that accounts for …