The links between the growing payment sectors of prepaid cards and online banking just got a little tighter with the creation by Online Resources Corp. of a new service that lets consumers buy private-label gift cards through their financial institutions' online banking and bill-payment sites. The service, called CardHQ, currently …

Following a year of on-again, off-again speculation about its plans in online payments, Google Inc. launched a transaction service Thursday with at least 92 online merchants of various sizes already signed on, from Ace Hardware, Ritz Camera, and Buy.com to Trendy Togs and FaucetDirect. The new service, called Google Checkout, …

The U.S. cash-payment market is enormous, but banks' hopes of penetrating it with so-called contactless technology could falter if high acceptance costs spur merchants to look at alternative electronic payment methods. That's one among a number of findings in a new study released this week on the market for transactions …

Executives who are counting on loyalty applications to help justify new transaction technologies like smart cards and radio-frequency ID devices may have to reconsider their strategies in light of recent developments, according to an expert in electronic loyalty programs. Speaking at Thomson Media's CardTech SecurTech conference and exhibition this week …