In the past 12 months, 51% of consumers purchased a physical good using a mobile phone, the highest percentage in five years, potentially signaling a greater propensity for consumer adoption of mobile wallets, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. That is up from 45% in …

Square Inc.’s 6-month-old cash-advance product, Square Capital, has distributed $75 million to some 15,000 small businesses, the San Francisco-based payments company announced via Twitter this week. Further, merchants that have accepted the advances have processed in excess of $1 billion in sales through Square, the company said. It also pointed …

By John Stewart Merchant Customer Exchange LLC (MCX) has launched its CurrentC mobile-payment service with “thousands” of consumers in “several American cities,” the program’s chief executive said on Wednesday. The “consumers,” employees of retailers that make up the Needham, Mass.-based MCX consortium, are part of a pilot for the fledgling …

By Jim Daly Results of a merchant processor’s survey released Wednesday claim that only 4% of small businesses have point-of-sale terminals that can accept near-field communication (NFC) contactless mobile payments, and only a small minority currently plan to upgrade their equipment so they can. Meanwhile, payment processor Vantiv Inc. on …

A confident Kenneth I. Chenault appeared before 7,000 payments and financial-services executives on Tuesday to talk about what he touted as American Express Co.’s recent record of success in digital payments. While he runs a 164-year-old company with roots in plastic cards and travelers’ checks, Chenault conceded nothing to his …

  Money-transfer provider MoneyGram International Inc. has launched MGiAlloy, a technology platform to enable greater use of alternative financial services. MGiAlloy, which can be used on kiosks, online, on mobile device or at points-of-sale, enables consumers to transfer money, pay bills, cash checks, reload prepaid cards and other services. Dallas-based MoneyGram …

Payments entrepreneurs and veterans alike view Bitcoin and other so-called cryptocurrencies as the new land of opportunity, but with the territory comes a considerable amount of legal risk. Federal authorities busted the Liberty Reserve and Silk Road ventures, the latter because it attempted to hide illegal activity by requiring customers …

Bank of America Corp. last month began issuing debit cards that adhere to the Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip card standard, thus becoming the first mega-bank to begin a wide-scale EMV conversion. Cards for existing customers will be issued as old cards expire or are replaced for other reasons. The U.S. payment …

Driven mostly by higher surcharges, average out-of-network ATM fees set a record in 2014 for the eighth straight year. Plus, the average overdraft fee, now $32.74, set a record for the 16th consecutive year, according to Bankrate Inc.’s annual study of checking-account pricing. Total out-of-network ATM fees are up 5.3% …

Five leading U.S. merchant processors have spent more than $5.4 billion buying other companies in the past two years. New tech and new channels have a lot to do with the shopping frenzy. Time was, when a merchant processor set out on the acquisition trail, it usually was hunting for …