Mobile payments are the all the rage in the banking, retailing, and software industries, but the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is cautioning banks to keep a short leash on their mobile-payments vendors. The FDIC also warned in a recent report that banks’ role in mobile payments could be reduced as …

Square Inc.’s announcement over the weekend that it is making digital gift cards available for its base of mostly small merchants heralded the San Francisco startup’s entry into what is turning into a hot market, particularly with the onset of the holiday-shopping season. Square, which in recent months revamped its …

Venture-capital and private-equity investors are on pace to meet or exceed the $753 million they infused into the payments industry in 2011, the most since the $1.4 billion they invested in payments in 2001. Through the first three quarters of 2012, venture-capital and private-equity investors pumped $711 million into startup …

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, …

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 …

MasterCard is getting close to announcing an EMV-related liability shift for online and other card-not-present transactions, a network executive said on Monday. “MasterCard will have a card-not-present liability shift,” said Melanie Gluck, vice president of emerging payments at the country’s second-largest payments network. “We haven’t announced it yet, it’s under …

Why aren’t consumers all that excited about mobile payments? Maybe it’s because providers are focusing on payments when what consumers want is a lot broader than that. Call it an Integrated App. By René M. Pelegero Remember the days when we had to look at newspapers to find out which …

Global Payments Inc. still expects it could spend about $120 million as a result of the data breach it reported in early March, but new information from the company gives a glimpse of just where that money is going. The big merchant processor, however, didn’t give any new details in …

David Douglas Stone Looking for an early sign of success for mobile commerce? Check out the linkage of digital gift cards and mobile devices. To say that “mobile payments” is the pervasive buzz phrase du jour would be an understatement. The mobile-payments ecosystem is getting more complex, not less, and …