Transaction Processing

Mobile payments emerged on the scene a few years ago, but now it’s clear every market they touch—from the point of sale to peer-to-peer transfers to online lending—has become hot for investment. For proof, look no further than the latest list of so-called unicorns, privately held startups valued at $1 …

Prepaid card issuer and services provider Green Dot Corp. lost considerable reload volume and revenues in the first quarter because of the discontinuance of its popular MoneyPak product, but the company late Thursday said its core businesses demonstrated good organic growth and recent acquisitions gave a big boost to the …

  Carrier billing as an e-commerce and mobile-commerce payment option is poised to expand significantly beyond the mobile phone realm when Microsoft Corp. releases Windows 10 later this year. And carrier-billing specialist Boku Inc. says direct carrier billing is a payment option for apps and digital content available from Google …

By Jim Daly The federal government sent a message Tuesday that the new virtual-currency providers are subject to the same regulations as long-established money-transfer firms when it announced that Ripple Labs Inc. would pay a $700,000 civil penalty and take remedial actions in lieu of criminal prosecution. The announcements came …

By Jim Daly Wire-transfer market leader The Western Union Co. issued a brief statement early Wednesday afternoon saying reports that it is in early talks to buy rival MoneyGram International Inc. “are not accurate.” The statement appeared to quickly deflate the two companies’ stock prices, especially MoneyGram’s, which had soared …

Processing giant First Data Corp. didn’t manage to record a second consecutive profitable quarter, but its financial picture did continue to brighten. Simultaneously, First Data officially launched two new, smaller-footprint products in its Clover line of mobile point-of-sale technology. The Atlanta-based company on Monday announced it had taken a $112 …

Confidence in the security of new payments systems is not high among businesses executives, finds the “Data Security in the Evolving Payments Ecosystem” report released Monday by the Ponemon Institute LLC. In the report, commissioned by Experian, 36% of respondents said they are not confident about the security of a …

It’s becoming a familiar refrain in the payments industry: Payments made using mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets, continue to garner more and more traction. The latest Mobile Payments Index from international payments company Adyen finds that such payments accounted for 27.2% of total global online payments made …

Transaction volumes, revenues and profits all headed up smartly for MasterCard Inc. in the first quarter. But MasterCard on Wednesday also reported laying out nearly $900 million in rebates and incentives during the quarter to build future volume in an increasingly competitive global card marketplace. In the United States, total …

MasterCard Inc. announced Monday it is spending $600 million to buy Applied Predictive Technologies Inc., an Arlington, Va.-based company that provides analytics services to retailers, financial institutions, and other companies. The deal, expected to close in the second quarter, provides MasterCard with yet another service for merchants. “Merchants, like financial …