David Heun

The bank owners of the clearXchange payments network and the Early Warning risk management service hope that by combining the two programs, they can remain in control of technologies that will become core to mobile commerce.

In responding to advancements in digital payments and consumer tech-savviness, Western Union has launched WU Connect to link its global money transfer services to messaging and social media platforms.

Nok Nok Labs has expanded its suite of payment authentication services for the Fast IDentity Online Alliance infrastructure, adding one-touch biometrics, out-of-band authentication and measures to address friendly fraud.

Bluetooth beacons are gradually appearing in more stores, and some experts predict their use will grow more rapidly once the devices establish a strong link to payments and other vital retail systems.

The combination of location-based marketing and mobile wallets is relatively new territory for merchants and consumers, bringing these two parties so close together that they may start to overlap.

Addressing the desire of small merchants that want a straightforward way to sell online, Square and Ecwid are partnering to synchronize sales and inventory between the physical and digital worlds.

Adyen wants fraud-detection software to learn from its mistakes, but it also wants a system that can teach the user about why it is reaching certain conclusions.

MasterCard plans to add its tokenization service to the MasterPass digital wallet to boost security for online and in-app purchasing.

With EMV cards fighting counterfeit fraud at the point of sale, Gemalto Inc. says the timing is perfect to launch a payment card with a dynamic verification code to provide a similar improvement to e-commerce security.

Even before Apple Pay burst onto the scene last year as an enabler — and, in many ways, a competitor — of bank mobile wallets, U.S. banks have been told by investors, industry experts and customers to develop their own payment apps.