With non-stop data breaches and the coming of EMV chip cards, virtual currency, and mobile wallets, payments seemed to be all over the news in 2014. Here’s our annual review of the top issues in electronic payments. They all defy a soundbite solution. Heading toward its close, 2014 seemed to …

  While Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay mobile wallet has been grabbing the headlines, the telco-controlled Softcard mobile-payments service this week lined up another major fast-food chain. Consumers now can use their Softcard mobile wallets to pay for purchases at U.S. McDonald’s locations. Formerly known as Isis, Softcard is a smart …

By Jim Daly and Kevin Woodward Just hours after Merchant Customer Exchange LLC (MCX), the retailer-backed developer of the CurrentC mobile-payments service, posted a response to reports about some of its members dumping Apple Inc.’s rival Apple Pay service, the company notified customers that “unauthorized third parties” had obtained email …

By Jim Daly Attempting to do damage control in the wake of an email hack and unfavorable publicity about retailers who want to accept other mobile wallets, the chief executive of the retailer-sponsored Merchant Customer Exchange LLC (MCX) mobile-payments service said Wednesday that MCX is working with general-purpose credit card …

For the past decade, image exchange has been one of the undisputed success stories of electronic payments—so much so, in fact, that nearly all banking and retail executives take it for granted that paper checks will clear as images and funds will likely settle the same or next day. But …

  Merchants using the newly released Evo Snap Mobile smart-phone and tablet-based point-of-sale service from Evo Payments International can create and manage loyalty, rewards, and promotion programs in addition to accepting payments. Melville, N.Y.-based Evo says the Snap Mobile service, available globally, works with iOS and Android devices. In addition …

The effort to bring faster payment settlement to the United States gained momentum this week with an announcement by The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC that it plans to build what it calls a “real-time payment system.” The New York City-based organization, which is owned by the largest financial institutions …

By Jim Daly As a complex new technology-based service, Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay was certain to hit some speed bumps after it debuted Oct. 20. Sure enough, reports of glitches surfaced, such as about 1,000 double charges on Apple Pay transactions funded by Bank of America Corp. debit cards. But …

  Two payment-services companies have separately introduced services designed to make it easier for merchants and consumers to engage in e-commerce and mobile commerce. Payments-and-authentication-services provider Jumio Inc.’s newest service aims to make it easier for consumers to shop using smart phones and tablets. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Jumio says its …

  The big news about my test today of Apple Pay, the contactless payment scheme for use with Apple Inc. smart phones and tablets, is that there was no big news. It worked. Each transaction on the first day of availability went through quickly, with a notification popping up on …