Data Insecurity Part 8 Few payment innovations have produced the stark schizophrenia that we are experiencing with mobile commerce. Normally somber business types are rubbing their hands together at the prospects of reaching consumers on a one-to-one basis, online, all the time, anywhere they happen to be. Meanwhile, typically apprehensive …

A merchant trade group and at least one bank card network are exchanging fire again this week over the fees merchants pay to accept cards. Triggering the skirmish this time was a press release and report prepared by the Merchants Payments Coalition as a follow-up to a July 19 Congressional …

For the raft of processors either moving into mobile payments or hammering out business plans to make an entry, the top executive with one company that has been in the market for six years has some advice: Focus on the market made up of people who lack bank accounts, and …

Unlike efforts during the dotcom boom to introduce mobile payments and banking?efforts that turned out to be more about hype than substance?initiatives emerging now to deliver financial services via mobile phones will find a ready and willing market, according to executives with a major wireless carrier and bank card network …

Intuit Inc. has notched yet another acquisition calculated to augment its widely used accounting software with electronic-payments capability by agreeing to pay $142 million in cash to buy Electronic Clearing House Inc. (ECHO), a publicly held, Camarillo, Calif.-based processor of card and automated clearing house transactions. The deal, which is …

Seeking to distinguish itself in a growing crowd of mobile-payment processors, Obopay Inc. saw its application go live this week on Amp'd Mobile Inc., a wireless network aimed at the youth market. This development follows by one week an agreement the Redwood City, Calif.-based startup struck with ViVOtech Inc. that …

Bitpass Inc. is expected to announce next week a new processing platform that will, among other things, allow consumers to set up electronic wallets they can use to both pay for and store digital content like songs, videos, and games. The new platform, called the iMedia Commerce Engine, will support …

A Conshohocken, Pa.-based processor has begun marketing a service that allows employees covered by flexible-spending health-care plans to use any payment or loyalty card they have to access benefits. Finpago Inc. announced this week an agreement with health-benefits administrator WageWorks Inc., San Mateo, Calif., to launch its FSAok AnyCard program …

The chief executive of the company holding the largest market share of installed readers for contactless payments predicts the technology, assisted by near-field communication (NFC) capability, will move rapidly from the physical point of sale to e-commerce. Mohammad Khan, president and founder of ViVOtech Inc., which makes electronic wallets for …

Motorola Inc.'s new payment software for mobile phones, called M-Wallet, will begin commercial rollout within three to six months with wireless carriers, the Schaumburg, Ill.-based technology company tells Digital Transactions News. A test of M-Wallet is already in progress, officials say, though they can't give details. The company is in …