Financial institutions, processors, and regulators have been moving toward systems that speed up electronic payments, but ironically their success in replacing paper checks with electronic processing may undermine their efforts. That’s because image exchange, the process by which paper checks are replaced by electronic images for clearing, has driven down …

While governments and established payments networks around the world reckon with Bitcoin, the upstart digital currency has itself had to reckon this year with volatility that has seen its price plunge about 50% since its $700-plus January high. But in other respects, Bitcoin is riding high. One of the latest …

By John Stewart The advent of younger users, combined with the rise of smart phones and a much-improved user experience, is helping to drive a surge in mobile person-to-person payments. But providers still haven’t figured out how to make money on the service, which lets consumers use smart phones to …

As small online merchants prepare for holiday-season sales, they’re seeking out financing to support extra help and added order fulfillment, and that’s boosting new financing options from online processors. PayPal Inc., for example, now has 20,000 mostly e-commerce businesses using its 15-month-old PayPal Working Capital merchant cash-advance service. It has …

Three years after the Durbin Amendment took effect, the law’s painful impact on the cost of selling soda, candy, newspapers, and other small-ticket items remains an issue. And things may stay that way unless the newly elected Congress acts after taking office at the turn of the year, observers say. …

With its clients going increasingly mobile, Intuit Inc. knew it needed a point-of-sale payments solution for its cloud-based QuickBooks Online accounting product. This week, it announced it had found one, and unlike most payments products it has introduced in the past, this one wasn’t homegrown. Intuit recruited Revel Systems Inc., …

At trade show after trade show, and in article after article, payments-industry executives have heard for years now that the U.S. migration to chip cards on the Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) standard, while protecting the point of sale from counterfeit fraud, will force fraudsters to ply their craft online. Indeed, the idea …

Before the emergence of Bitcoin and other such alternative currencies, people collected and traded airline miles. Many still do, which is what United Airlines and OTG Management, an operator of restaurants in 10 North American airports, are counting on. The two companies on Monday announced holders of United frequent-flyer miles …

In short order, competition in the business of funding small merchants has ratcheted up to new highs, with new, online and technology-based entrants flooding the market. One of the most recent, and successful, of these new entrants is Atlanta-based Kabbage Inc., which this year will hit the $500 million mark …

Tablet-based point-of-sale technology is moving apace in restaurants. Ziosk LLC, which installs tabletop tablets in eateries, announced this week Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill will install its system in all 65 of its U.S. locations. The rollout is expected to wind up by the end of February. Dallas-based Ziosk, which …