If the start of the holiday-shopping season this year has demonstrated anything, it is the new prominence of mobile in the mix of payments. But for all the talk among online merchants about mobile payments, not all will benefit equally from the trend, according to Bill Ready, chief executive of …

If there’s a weak link in the chain of card-data security, it’s small merchants. Many of them represent easy targets for hackers and other data thieves. Worse, the businesses themselves don’t see themselves as vulnerable, and far too many remain unaware of security protocols like the Payment Card Industry data-security …

Loyalty systems, rapidly adaptable mobile and e-commerce technology, and data-security applications are attracting lots of venture capital. Here’s a look into the minds of investors. Hint: They’re not too keen on NFC. Peter Lucas If you want to know what the next hot new company in the payments industry will …

The reports about consumer spending over the long Thanksgiving shopping period extending into today, Cyber Monday, continue to flow ad nauseam in the mainstream press. Digital Transactions News sifted through the statistical stew to find the numerical nuggets of greatest interest to merchant acquirers. The early data indicate that, when …

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 …

The music and movie industries as well as retailers are next on startup Dynamics Inc.’s list of targeted industries for its ePlate loyalty application. Launched in April, ePlate embeds computer architecture into a credit card, enabling consumers to rewrite information from a choice of loyalty programs to the card’s magnetic …

Just as payments executives were preparing to plunge into the Memorial Day holiday weekend, reports emerged that Groupon Inc. is testing a mobile-acceptance application in and around San Francisco. The reports, which are based in part on a solicitation received via e-mail by a merchant, indicate that the Chicago-based daily-deal …

The strong increases in online payment transactions noticed by merchant acquirers and others in November continued through the entire holiday shopping season, according to recently released data. Leading e-commerce acquirer Chase Paymentech reported on Thursday that its Cyber Holiday Pulse Index recorded nearly 360 million transactions valued at approximately $14.5 …

A Comeback for Credit Cards Online Thanks in part to debit card regulation, e-commerce shoppers in the next few years will reverse a recent trend away from credit, according to new research. General-purpose credit cards will capture 40% of online spending in 2011 and 2012, level with 2010, but that …

n Bowing to an outcry of opposition, telecommunications giant Verizon Wireless cancelled a controversial $2 fee for one-time telephone and online payments just one day after announcing it. The carrier’s reversal came less than two months after Bank of America Corp. cancelled its enormously unpopular plan to charge some customers …