Low-fare US carrier Southwest Airlines introduces handheld credit card readers onboard all its flights and will no longer be accepting cash as payment for products such as cocktails, alcoholic and energy drinks. The new devices allow flight attendants to process customer orders faster and accept both credit and debit cards.

The US Department of Treasury launches a wide-scale information campaign aimed at offering Social Security Income and Supplemental Security Income recipients in Arizona and 11 additional Western states information on receiving their monthly payments via debit card.

eBay’s chief information and security officer (CISO) Dave Cullinane told Romanian central newspaper “Romania Libera” that to label Romania as the top source of eBay payment fraud means to over-simplify the matter, disregarding the latest developments – both positive and negative – in the area of cybercrime fight. 

Oil and petroleum company Shell South Africa (Shell SA) decided to fit all its service stations with debit card payment terminals and restrict fuel payment methods to Maestro and Visa Electron debit cards. The decision comes as Shell witnesses an increase in petrol station robberies, prompted by the large amounts of cash usually held in such locations.

Visa launches four new mobile payments initiatives through its Visa mobile platform in Brazil, Korea, along with two mobile offers and transaction notification pilots in the US. Visa teamed with Banco do Brasil’s Visa cardholders to pay with their mobile device and confirm the transaction via text message.

A report on mobile payments concludes that purchases via mobile devices of digital and physical goods by means of contactless NFC (Near Field Communications) transactions and money transfers will together generate transactions worth over USD 600 billion globally by 2013.