Mobile Commerce

It’s social payments, person-to-person payments, and micropayments all in one. And it’s sweet too. That’s the essence of a new electronic-gift service dubbed “eGift Social” that payment processor First Data Corp. launched recently with ice cream purveyor Cold Stone Creamery as its first client. Cold Stone, a unit of Scottsdale, …

Now that same-day clearing is coming to the automated clearing house network, payments players are starting to parse the impact the faster settlement time will have on emerging payment methods that rely at least in part on the ACH. While many payments executives are enthusiastic about the change, some experts …

As the young market for mobile payments on smart phones takes shape, industry players are scrambling to pair up with world-famous partners with massive numbers of consumer and business customers. Point-of-sale terminal maker VeriFone Systems Inc., for example, is selling hardware for its PAYware Mobile application in Apple Inc.’s retail …

Non-bank threats to banking franchises like electronic payments are nothing new, but if a researcher is correct, banks and the card networks they built could soon find themselves under assault from a whole new batch of players that have found a niche in social networks and online gaming. “I don’t …

Evidence mounted over the past week of the interest at least some major e-commerce processors have in using mobile platforms to penetrate the physical point of sale. First came word that Bling Nation Ltd., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based mobile-payments processor that depends on contactless stickers, is working on an integration …

JPMorgan Chase & Co. burst onto the consumer mobile remote deposit capture stage in a big way last week when it unveiled an updated online-banking app for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPod touch that facilitates remote capture and, for added measure, person-to-person payments. The application makes Chase the biggest bank …

Already claiming to be the leader in mobile payments, PayPal Inc. on Thursday announced it had optimized its Express Checkout service for mobile devices. The new mobile service caps a busy week for PayPal that included the disclosure that alternative-payment provider Bling Nation Ltd. is developing a PayPal application. PayPal …

As the payments industry waits for the commercial rollout of near-field communication technology, startups are jumping into mobile payments to fill the void. One of the latest attempts to bridge the gap between physical stores and mobile devices is FaceCash, which launched last month and allows consumers to pay merchants …

While NACHA’s members officially signed off this week on using the existing WEB transaction code for mobile payments that use the automated clearing house network, the working group that recommended using WEB is already at work on further developments for mobile—including the issue of whether these payments should have their …

It started out as a way to pay other people through the wildly popular Twitter social network, but now a recapitalized and re-energized Twitpay Inc. is concentrating on much narrower niches where it sees greater potential. In March, using a homegrown, in-house platform, it started processing charitable donations, and in …