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AmEx Serves Up Digital Payment System

Challenging PayPal and a host of new digital payment platforms, American Express just debuted a new service to consumers make purchases, take cash withdrawals from ATMs and make person-to-person payments from their computer or phone.

Serve, so-called, should be accepted anywhere that American Express is accepted, but eventually it could give way to a mobile payments solution on the phone, using such technologies as near-field communication, eMoney reports. "What we are trying to do is put into place a platform--not a card, or an e-wallet--that enables digital payments and commerce that allows consumers and merchants to seamlessly move between online and offline," Dan Schulman, Group President, Enterprise Growth at American Express, tells eMoney.

In Serve's crosshairs stand eBay-owned PayPal, Visa, MasterCard and a slew of start-ups, including Boku, Zong, BilltoMobile and Square. As eMoney points out, the Serve platform came from American Express's $300 million acquisition of Web-based payments network Revolution Money, which was once part of America Online.

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