Peter Lucas Despite backing from some of the country’s biggest carriers and tech firms, NFC-based mobile wallets are struggling to win acceptance with merchants and consumers alike. Does the solution lie in the cloud? It’s been tough sledding of late for digital wallets based on near-field communication (NFC), the contactless …

Lauri Giesen The big retail growth is online and in mobile commerce, but ISOs looking to crack this market must be willing to clear some high technological and operational hurdles. During times of overall sluggish retail sales and low profit margins on basic payment services, many independent sales organizations might …

Jim Daly Can the old Hypercom Corp.’s reborn U.S. operation make a go of it with a new name, new owner, and new products in a fast-changing POS terminal market? After 15 months in the Makeover Department, the U.S. operation of the former Hypercom Corp., now known as Equinox Payments …

From continued interchange challenges to pokey transactions to uppity merchants, the payments business has a full agenda of pesky problems. Here’s our look at the latest crop, ranked in order of gnarliness. By John Stewart and Jim Daly If it is true that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, …

Money transfers can bring in new customers, new revenue, and repeat business, but only if the service provider has your back, says Merrick Theobald. If this all makes it seem that entering into international electronic payment services is complicated, it’s not. Merrick Theobald is vice president for marketing at iSend …

In a move that will greatly expand its business in card-not-present transaction processing, merchant processor Vantiv Inc. announced on Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire Lowell, Mass.-based Litle & Co. for $361 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close later this year and will result in 11-year-old …

Obopay Inc., a pioneer in mobile payments whose profile fell as mobile wallets gained momentum, has put itself up for sale, according to sources familiar with the matter. Details about the sale remain sketchy, including possible valuations and the identity of bidders, but sources say the 7-year-old company and its …

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 …

The judge overseeing the mammoth litigation involving credit card interchange said on Wednesday the controversial proposed settlement appears to meet the requirements for preliminary approval. Judge John Gleeson, however, also said he would hear merchants’ objections to the settlement struck by lawyers for the merchant plaintiffs and the payment card …

Google Inc. will launch yet another new version of its mobile wallet in about a month, Google’s top executive for the product said on Monday. The latest version, which Osama Bedier, vice president of  Google Wallet and payments, referred to as “the 2.0 version” of the product, comes just short …