A startup processor on Monday launched a service intended to allow consumers to pay online merchants with cash. Retail Expansion Network Inc., Oakland, Calif., says its PaidByCash service will attract consumers who are reluctant to use credit cards online or who don't have bank accounts, and will be cheaper for …

Microsoft Corp. is denying reports that have appeared since the weekend that the computing giant is working on an electronic payment system that could handle micropayments for online content and undercut the merchant pricing for such transactions when handled with bank cards. According to widespread press accounts, William H. Gates, …

In a move that may signal the limited utility of the digital-content market for micropayments processors, San Mateo, Calif-based processor Bitpass Inc. has announced it is shutting down. Users of the service, which allows consumers to pay for content online with prepaid accounts, have until Friday of this week to …

The latest U.S. trial of contactless payment involving mobile phones and near-field communication technology (NFC), set to begin Jan. 10 in New York City, will combine key elements of the two other U.S. pilots mounted so far, and represents the first in which users can access credit cards issued by …

Intuit Inc. has notched yet another acquisition calculated to augment its widely used accounting software with electronic-payments capability by agreeing to pay $142 million in cash to buy Electronic Clearing House Inc. (ECHO), a publicly held, Camarillo, Calif.-based processor of card and automated clearing house transactions. The deal, which is …

The links between the growing payment sectors of prepaid cards and online banking just got a little tighter with the creation by Online Resources Corp. of a new service that lets consumers buy private-label gift cards through their financial institutions' online banking and bill-payment sites. The service, called CardHQ, currently …

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s decision to accept MasterCard Worldwide credit cards?but not credit cards from Visa USA–at its 500-plus Sam's Club stores stems from competitive forces in the warehouse retailing business, but may also signal the beginning of the end of uniformity of merchant acceptance of the two bank card brands. …

It's not yet four months old, but already Google Inc.'s Checkout Internet payment service is making an impact, with 7% of online retailers surveyed in recent weeks by CyberSource Corp. having adopted it. That compares with 35% for PayPal, 24% for e-checks and other automated clearing house debits, and 16% …

Visa USA, which on Wednesday announced it has completed a massive, five-year project to overhaul its authorization platform, says the new system will allow the network to handle expected jumps in both the volume and diversity of electronic transactions. The overhaul, which its chief architect, John Partridge, calls “the single …

The U.S. person-to-person payments business, including P2P payments on cell phones, attracted yet another entrant with the announcement Tuesday by BankServ Inc. that it had acquired the managed-payments platform of Magex Holdings Ltd., a U.K. company, for an undisclosed sum. In the deal, San Francisco-based BankServ, a 10-year-old private company …