David Heun

In its continuing expansion of the Visa Ready faster certification program, the card brand is targeting technology companies that develop software for Visa's business-to-business payments services.

At its core, PayPal remains sharply focused on digital payments. But like other payments providers and processors during what has been a renaissance period for payments technology, the San Jose-based company has had to reinvent itself to keep firm control of its role.

Counterfeit card fraud remains a fairly lucrative activity for criminals, mainly because the EMV chip migration the U.S. still has many gaps. As such, there was never a clear spike in card-not-present fraud since the anti-counterfeiting design arrived in the country, according to the card brands.

International payments and risk-based services provider INTL FCStone says its London-based global payments division will become a non-bank participant in Swift's global initiative to improve the cross-border transaction landscape.

Grocery shopping may not seem conducive to e-commerce due to the category's massive cart sizes and perishable goods, but many companies are trying to put a digital spin on the process. Here are a few of the latest innovations.

Hoping to convince e-commerce merchants to let Facebook target offers to customers, the social media giant is placing a strong emphasis on “dynamic ads” that include payment buttons.

Within two years, a consumer will be able to tell a voice-activated device like Amazon Echo to order the week's groceries – and the device will know exactly what to order and how to pay for it, without any further instructions.

Merchants increasingly sing the praises of analyzing customer payment data to learn more about spending habits and deliver customized offers through mobile devices. American Express is kicking off a project to do the same with corporate travel data.

Consumers who use person-to-person payment apps are twice as likely to hold a prepaid card, but the two payment methods are not always interchangeable.

In a partnership designed to protect online customers from attacks, digital security providers ThreatMetrix and Gemalto will provide holistic authentication options to an array of financial services providers.