Mobile Wallets

MintChip, a digital cash replacement, went live Tuesday with a handful of retailers and restaurants in a trendy Toronto neighborhood. Canadians anywhere also can use MintChip for peer-to-peer payments. A loyalty and payment-services startup called nanoPay Corp. bought MintChip, which was developed by the Royal Canadian Mint, early this year. …

•  Costco Wholesale Corp., along with Citigroup Inc. and Visa Inc., officially announced the new Citi-issued Costco Anywhere Visa consumer and business credit cards to replace Costco’s American Express Co. cobranded card; the new card gives 4% cash back on gas purchases, 3% back on restaurant and eligible travel purchases, …

• Visa Inc.’s Canadian unit posted an “open letter” in Canadian newspapers Thursday to protest Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s plan to stop accepting Visa cards in its 400 Canadian stores beginning July 18 because of allegedly high acceptance costs. “Wal-Mart has initiated a public flight—something we never wanted—as they are using …

• Merchant processor Square Inc. settled a lawsuit filed by a Washington University professor, Robert E. Morley, who said he invented Square’s card reader for smart phones. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but Square set aside $50 million in the first quarter to cover legal expenses from the …

Forecasters have long predicted that the U.S. payments market’s move to EMV chip cards for in-person transactions will drive criminals into e-commerce fraud. Now data is emerging to show the nuances these fraudsters are exploiting, and how the rise in online fraud is hardly limited to the U.S. market. In …

Apple Inc. is bringing its Apple Pay service, originally restricted to apps and the Apple mobile wallet, to e-commerce sites on the Web. Apple Pay on the Web will be available this fall as part of the iOS 10 mobile and macOS desktop software updates. “We wanted to bring the …

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is lining up the necessary elements for its Chase Pay mobile service. The bank announced Thursday that more than 14,000 Shell Oil Co. locations potentially could accept the nascent mobile wallet. Chase shared few details, such as when Chase Pay might be accepted at Shell stations, …

• ATM deployer Cardtronics Inc. reached a new agreement with the Chicago Transit Authority under which it will place almost 40 new ATMs at CTA passenger stations, replacing machines already at those stations, and install more machines at additional stations. The move, which expands on an agreement reached with the …

Issuers contending with payment card fraud will have to factor in mobile wallets, especially as the battle to thwart account takeovers intensifies. A majority of issuers—56%—said they cannot further reduce account takeovers without hurting the customer experience, according to a card-issuer fraud study released recently by LexisNexis Risk Solutions and …

When the Merchant Customer Exchange LLC announced last month it is postponing a rollout of its CurrentC pilot in Columbus, Ohio, observers suspected the news did not bode well for the merchant-controlled mobile wallet. On Monday, those suspicions were confirmed as MCX told CurrentC account holders in an email that …