There’s clearly consumer demand to speed up settlement, and it’s been done overseas. The challenges here, though, are formidable, starting with defining just what ‘real time’ is. By Jim Daly Doctors often tell their harried patients to slow down, but in payments it’s just the opposite. In an effort to …

Peter Lucas The availability of NFC-enabled smart phones is finally ramping up in the U.S. But handset makers are promoting the snazzy other stuff that NFC delivers, not payments. For years, champions of mobile wallets based on near-field communication (NFC) technology have evangelized how their applications will revolutionize the way …

  If the Federal Trade Commission has its way, all telemarketers will be banned from using remotely created checks and three other payment methods in any transaction. The sweeping ban, which the FTC posted this week in a proposed rulemaking, would also prohibit telemarketers from collecting payment via remotely created …

  The nearly 7-year-old Google Checkout online payment service, once touted as a rival to PayPal, will cease operations in November, Google Inc. announced in a blog post on Monday. In the post, online-search kingpin Google Inc. says it is “retiring” Checkout as part of a “transition to Google Wallet,” …

Mobile dominates this year’s Guide, as you’d expect, but so does the urge toward faster payments. Neither trend is going away any time soon. The obvious theme running through alternative payments nowadays is the predominance of mobile. Processors, solutions vendors, and startups alike are scrambling to make it possible to …

  With a major expansion of its arrangement with PayPal Inc. due later this year, Discover Financial Services is now “the alternative network for alternative payments in the United States,” Discover chief executive David W. Nelms told an audience of merchant acquirers on Wednesday. Hinting that more deals similar to …

  Discover Financial Services on Tuesday named six prominent merchant acquirers among 50 committed to helping the network bring acceptance of leading online payment system PayPal to more than 2 million physical merchant locations by year’s end. But a notable missing link is No. 1 merchant processor First Data Corp., …

  Nearly 20,000 U.S. merchant locations now accept PayPal, up from 18,000 three months ago, according to data released on Wednesday in tandem with eBay Inc.’s quarterly earnings report. San Jose, Calif.-based PayPal Inc. is a unit of eBay. The roughly 11% jump in merchant acceptance for PayPal since eBay’s …

Jim Daly Apple has rolled out its Passbook mobile app for storing and redeeming electronic coupons, boarding passes, and other digital content. Can full-blown payments be far behind? No company is the subject of more speculation than the notoriously secretive Apple Inc. Lately, frenzied tongues have been wagging about what …

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 …