LevelUp, the mobile-payments unit of Boston-based SCVNGR Inc., announced a partnership with the big merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc. on Thursday that will dramatically expand its national reach with merchants and make its white-label mobile app more affordable to merchants wanting to increase their loyalty marketing. The agreement gives …

Using a three-pronged technology play that includes enabling consumers to share merchant offers through social media, Boston-based SCVNGR Inc.’s mobile-payments unit LevelUp has added 500,000 new consumer users in just the past four months, bringing its total user base to 1 million. The strategy is part of a larger plan …

Despite the nearly universal opinion that near-field communication (NFC) is a high-capacity, fast, and secure technology for mobile payments, it isn’t exactly winning popularity contests. Mobile-payments leaders PayPal Inc., Square Inc., and Starbucks Corp., along with many other industry players, use other technologies, often quick-response (QR) codes or other 2-D …

  The effort to bring near-real-time person-to-person payments to the customers of smaller financial institutions took another step on Wednesday with the announcement the Sprig digital-wallet service from Co-Op Financial Services, a processor and network operator that links some 3,000 credit unions. The new service, available for both mobile devices …

Atlanta-based InComm, a major provider of plastic gift card programs, will be gaining a bigger presence in the growing digital card market through its acquisition announced on Wednesday of Portland, Ore.-based Giftango Corp. Although both companies are involved in managing plastic and digital gift card programs for retailers, InComm had …

It’s only human nature to be captivated by the new, the emerging, the sensational. In the case of mobile payments, about which we have heard much in recent months, many payments watchers have fallen head over heels for technologies that are not only new, but, shall we say, “cool.” But …

It’s coming sooner for some players than for others. Here’s why—and how to be a survivor.  By John Stewart and Jim Daly If you’re a purveyor of mobile wallets or a vendor of mobile-acceptance gear, you don’t have to be told that you have plenty of company. What’s less clear …

Elizabeth Whalen The long-awaited test of the telco-backed Isis mobile wallet is under way in Salt Lake City and Austin. What are merchants experiencing? Many in the payments industry believe in the bright future of mobile payments and the potential benefits to consumers and merchants. But after the much-anticipated launch …

Discover Financial Services is about to team up with Google Inc. to bring the Google Wallet to the physical point of sale with a Discover-branded plastic card, according to the latest rumor sweeping Silicon Valley. Discover recently began issuing cards for PayPal Inc., so if the Google rumor proves true, …

The retailers behind the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) mobile-payments initiative are united in backing the effort and remain committed to supporting only MCX for mobile payments in their stores, retail executives said during a panel discussion this week. While details surrounding how customers will use the yet-to-be-launched MCX and how …