The more than 72,000 students and faculty members of Arizona State University have a new app to help them find deals from local merchants. Dubbed ASU Deals, the app, available for iOS and Android mobile devices, enables users to search for local deals and receive notifications from merchants. Developed by …

Sales agents at independent sales organizations and software vendors have a new mobile point-of-sale service to sell merchants. MyOmny, which is available for smart phones and tablets using iOS and Android operating systems, has launched. Developed by Dallas-based Avalon Solutions Group, myOmny is an app that merchants download to their …

In the face of reports of generally mediocre mobile-wallet usage, a report issued this week indicates the picture may brighten soon. Thirty-nine percent of consumers have used a mobile-payments service in a store within the past year, and 73% of these have done so just within the past three months, …

  ISOs trying to figure out what kind of gear to sell small businesses are discovering the first step toward wisdom involves educating their merchants. Until a couple of years ago, marketing messages for new point-of-sale equipment did not have to focus much on the technology, other than to say …

As 2015 drew to a close, it became clear that the business of creating and processing tokens in place of actual card credentials has hit the big time. Three of the major general-purpose card networks—American Express Co., MasterCard Inc., and Visa Inc.—have now created so-called digital-enablement services that handle token …

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, …

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 …

As 2016 beckons, multiple challenges and opportunities await the payments industry and the Electronic Transactions Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group that represents the merchant-acquiring and -processing industry. Incoming ETA board president Greg Cohen says the association, and the payments industry it represents, are in the midst of a transformation …

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 …