How do you combine mobile check deposit with prepaid cards to offer immediate funds to customers without bank accounts? Ingo Money says its mobile app is the answer. Mobile deposit capture technology has made it easier than ever for consumers with bank accounts to deposit a check. Simply open the …

Not long after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. shook the industry last month with its announcement that the chain plans to roll out its own mobile-payment service, questions arose about its commitment to Merchant Customer Exchange LLC (MCX), the mobile-wallet consortium that Wal-Mart helped launch three years ago. Starting in December, Wal-Mart …

Ever since the launch of Apple Pay more than a year ago, mobile wallets have followed a pattern of recruiting financial institutions to enable their network-branded credit and debit cards to work in the wallet apps. But with their proprietary cards, retailers are getting in on this action, as well, …

What do industry leaders foresee for 2016? Many feel the number of announcements will level off, but there will be a few big, even game-changing, ones. Drew Luca, a partner at PwC, feels we will see mobile-payments companies undergoing the industry consolidation and interoperability that is necessary to fulfill the …

The real reason mobile payments haven’t taken off is that they haven’t offered anyone a compelling reason to replace cash or cards, says Nick Holland. Around 15 years ago, I wrote a thesis on the potential for mobile payments using radio-frequency ID technologies, such as Bluetooth and the recently announced …

By John Stewart Market signals may be mixed, but on balance the 2015 holiday season will be a merry one for plastic and digital gift cards, according to Mercator Advisory Group. The Maynard, Mass.-based research firm’s annual forecast for November and December estimates loads on closed-loop U.S. gift cards will …

With Target Corp. reportedly planning its own mobile wallet, the nation’s fourth-largest retailer may some time next year join the largest, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., in launching a proprietary wallet app. That could not only add to the fragmentation of the nascent digital-wallet market, it could also indicate weakening attachment to …

By John Stewart Acting in response to comment from the industry, the PCI Security Standards Council has extended a key security deadline for payments processors, merchants, and banks by fully two years. These players now have until June 30, 2018, to stop using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption and instead …

Confirming rumors that have been rife for days, merchant acquirer Global Payments Inc. announced late Tuesday that it will buy smaller rival Heartland Payment Systems Inc. in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $4.3 billion. At $100 per share, the deal represents an 18% premium over Heartland’s closing share price Tuesday. …

By John Stewart While many observers might argue the U.S. payments market has plenty of mobile-wallet entries for the time being, a U.K. startup called Yoyo Wallet figures there’s room for one more. London-based Yoyo, which launched with university cafeterias nearly two years ago and has expanded to catering operations …