In an effort to bring some order to the Wild West of person-to-person payments over the automated clearing house network, ACH governing body NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association is proposing a new credit version of its WEB code for online person-to-person payments that would include standardized formatting for the transactions. Herndon, …

The announcement late on Tuesday that Square Inc. struck a deal with coffee giant Starbucks Corp. for the first time puts Square, a specialist in bringing mobile-payment acceptance to small businesses and consumers, into the role of a more traditional card processor for a large national merchant. And at least …

Google Inc. on Wednesday announced an overhaul of its struggling mobile wallet product that the online search giant hopes will make the product more attractive to consumers and banks alike. Indeed, a key feature of the new Google Wallet is that is now open to any credit or debit card …

Worried about getting too far in debt and nearly oblivious to the ongoing debate in the banking and payments industries about the controversial Durbin Amendment, consumers in June continued to display their allegiance to debit cards, according to new figures from First Data Corp. The nation’s leading payment card processor …

Person-to-person payments continue to improve technologically and attract consumers, but providers still haven’t figured out how to make money from them, according to new findings from First Annapolis Consulting Inc. Linthicum, Md.-based First Annapolis in the second quarter tested a dozen P2P services from large banks and processors down to …

Regular readers of these ramblings will have noted in them a skeptical stance toward government meddling in the affairs of private actors, such as merchants, issuers, and processors. We have dissected, more often perhaps than necessary, the regrettable urge to control interchange pricing that has so far found its most …

When PayPal Inc. announced last month that it plans soon to process transactions for people as they watch TV, it looked like just the latest foray by the c-commerce processor into yet another new market. After all, the San Jose, Calif.-based eBay Inc. unit has been pretty aggressive lately about …

Steve Mott Banks and merchants aren’t natural enemies—they’re only set at odds by the distortions created by the current payments system. In fact, most banks and retailers have much to gain, and little to lose, by working together on a new system built on mobile payments and marketing. (Editor’s note: …

Linda Punch A consensus is forming that regulations specific to mobile payments are coming, but questions about when, who will be involved, and exactly what issues they’ll address are far from settled. With mobile payments increasingly capturing headlines and consumers’ imaginations, can the attention of lawmakers and regulators be far …

A new Georgia law allows non-bank payment processors to charter their own merchant-acquiring banks. Will this charter upend the traditional sponsorship model in the U.S.? By Jim Daly Already a major center for payments companies, Atlanta’s gravitational pull in the merchant-acquiring industry could strengthen thanks to a new Georgia law. …