Look for the real-time payments revolution to start in an unlikely place, the long-derided world of P2P payments, says Steve Mott. Payment networks are seemingly locked in the physical world. They expect compensation and eschew risk as if P2P or any real-time debit mechanism will behave like plastic cards. Steve …

Already a major player in the prepaid card industry, U.S. Bancorp on Tuesday announced plans to bolster that part of its payment card business by acquiring FSV Payment Services, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based prepaid card program manager and processor. Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank issues prepaid cards for more than 4 million account …

A controversial form of automated debit called the remotely created check (RCC) has figured prominently in the demise of a small bank that processed payments for fraudulent merchants and their third-party processors. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Philadelphia announced this week that First Bank of Delaware agreed to a settlement …

Total System Services Inc.’s announcement late last week that it has agreed to buy ProPay Inc. is the latest chapter in TSYS’s strategy of bulking up its position in the merchant-acquiring business through acquisitions. The deal will also hand the Columbus, Ga.-based processor a key stake in the rapidly growing …

Citing a weak economic climate and business setbacks, independent sales organization Pipeline Data Inc. and its affiliates on Monday filed for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Pipeline hopes to sell itself as a going concern with the help of an investment bank. Alpharetta, Ga.-based Pipeline …

As it turns out, digital wallets aren’t just a creature of the big banks. With Visa Inc.’s announcement on Tuesday that it has made its V.me digital wallet commercially available, the world’s largest payments network said some 53 financial institutions have signed on to offer the product to customers. Among …

Gideon Samid • Gideon@AGSgo.com In his startling 2011 book, “The Currency Wars,” James Rickards reports on financial war games conducted by the Pentagon in which our national security leaders increasingly recognize an emerging, unaddressed area of vulnerability. This vulnerability meanders through arcane Wall Street methodologies, cuts through full-blown cyber terrorism, …

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 …

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 …