Person-to-Person Payments

U.S. automakers and lots of banks are finding their business models under severe stress, but not so money-transfer businesses despite a likely decline in transfer volume this year, according to new research from Aite Group LLC. The industry, especially big players such as The Western Union Co. and MoneyGram International …

In a move that may indicate a thawing of relations between mobile operators on the one hand and banks and card networks on the other, Visa Inc. announced on Wednesday it will work with the London-based GSM Association to develop standards for mobile payments and handset-based money transfers. The first …

The rapidly mounting popularity of a technology that lets businesses process checks by turning them into electronic images for deposit is giving rise to new methods that promise to relieve small businesses of the need to have either traditional check scanners or processing software. The latest example is a product …

MoneyGram International Inc.'s deal with Cardtronics Inc. to process remittances and bill payments on more than 2,000 sophisticated kiosks Cardtronics operates in 7-Eleven Inc. convenience stores may extend MoneyGram's reach, but at least one observer questions whether the service will get the traffic the Minneapolis-based money-transfer company is expecting. “I …

The Western Union Co. has found out that worsening economic conditions in the United States can take a toll on seemingly sure-fire high-growth products like electronic bill payments. Western Union's third-quarter earnings report out on Tuesday shows that consumer-to-business, or bill-pay, revenues and operating income are down 2% and 10% …

A person-to-person payment pilot based on mobile phones, launched on Tuesday by Citigroup Inc. and Obopay Inc., will become a commercial service in the U.S. next year if goals concerning user counts and transaction volumes are met, says a Citi executive. The pilot, which follows a trial the two companies …

Visa Inc. on Thursday said it will introduce transaction alerts and other services that will work with Google Inc.'s new Android operating system for mobile phones. The world's largest payments network also said it has developed contactless-payment and money-transfer applications for a new handset from Nokia that features near-field communication …

Mobile-payments processor Obopay Inc.'s recent agreement to provide services for a handset-based remittance product from MasterCard Worldwide (Digital Transactions News, June 19) is part of a wider strategy at Obopay to develop services in a variety of payment markets, including prepaid top-up, payroll, and benefits payments as well as remittances, …

Eyeing opportunities in the U.S. person-to-person payments market, MasterCard Worldwide announced on Thursday it plans to begin testing a service based on mobile phones later this year and introduce a commercial service early in 2009. The card network will use its existing MoneySend remittance system to clear and settle transactions, …

In its first move toward a software application for mobile commerce, PayPal Inc. has launched its mobile-payments service on a new product from Sprint Nextel Corp. The Sprint product, called MyMoneyManager, is a downloadable mobile wallet allowing customers to perform banking functions from their handsets. So far, regional banking companies …