The North American card processor Moneris Solutions' gift and loyalty card program for medium to large businesses is now compatible with Apple's Passbook app. Merchants can now provide cardholders with the ability to digitize their physical gift or loyalty cards into Passbook, Moneris said.

"One of Passbook's biggest challenges to date has been the slow uptake in point-of-sale acceptance by merchants," Jeff Guthrie, chief sales and marketing officer at Moneris, said in a news release. "Through our gift and loyalty program offering, coupled with our POS solutions and relationships with merchants, we can implement Passbook's end-to-end experience on a broad scale, providing merchants and consumers with the convenience of virtual gift and loyalty programs."

Passbook, which is pre-loaded onto all Apple iPhone and iPod touch devices using iOS 6 or 7, allows users to virtually store such content as airline boarding passes, coupons and loyalty and gift cards. To use a Passbook-stored gift or loyalty card, a user simply opens the mobile application at a participating merchant's point-of-sale terminal, and the sales clerk then keys in or scans the card number. The card account balance updates instantly on Passbook.

In November, Moneris launched a pilot Passbook service for Kernels Popcorn's gift and loyalty card program in more than 70 locations across Canada.

Separately, Redwood City, Calif.-based Flint Mobile said it has added invoicing, coupons and Apple Passbook support to its no-card-reader mobile payment app. Flint's app, which is aimed at small, service-centric businesses operating outside traditional storefront environments, enables merchants to scan card numbers using their mobile device's camera.

Flint said merchants can use the Flint app or merchant portal to create and send invoices to customers via email, enabling customers to pay online from their mobile phone, tablet or computer.

Merchants can create customized coupon offers from the Flint app or merchant portal, and email these coupons to customers. Once they have received the coupons, the customers can add them to their Passbook app, Flint said.

Learn more about loyalty programs.