David Heun

Turning off your phone before you go into church is probably a good idea — unless you plan to make a donation.

The upcoming Apple Watch, which does not have a built-in fingerprint reader for Touch ID authentication, will use a four-digit passcode to engage Apple Pay for mobile payments.

Businesses that don't take full advantage of their security software are wasting money and facilitating the hackers seeking access to their payment data.

Cloud-based payments and financial services provider Bottomline Technologies has acquired Intellinx Ltd., enabling it to offer clients anti-fraud and risk management software.

Banks in Europe are selling digital gift cards alongside traditional bank accounts, allowing online consumers to buy credit for Facebook, Nintendo, Spotify and other content providers.

In a push to get commuters in Athens, Greece away from paying cash for public transit tickets, the mobile ticketing provider Masabi will add MasterCard's MasterPass as a payment option.

Processor First Data is working more closely with long-time partner Underwriters Laboratories to speed up the EMV testing process and certify the chip-card technology in the U.S.

Government officials in Gujarat will partner with MasterCard to pursue a goal of being the first state in India to have a digital payments system.

A Swiss bank has partnered with acquirer SIX Payment Services to issue a debit card that enables both contactless and regular transactions.

ICICI Bank has launched what it calls India's first contactless debit and credit cards using Near Field Communication technology.

Nine Polish banks are pushing ahead with the country's mobile payment efforts, promising to launch a Visa-backed, cloud-based contactless service early this year.

The European Commission last month drafted another version of its proposed revision of the Payment Services Directive, known as PSD2 in Europe, with a goal of enacting a wider regulation of payments and interchange fees that reflects modern technology, security threats and stakeholders in payments.

The earliest implementations of the 3D Secure e-commerce system amounted to a password for consumers' payment cards and a link between consumer and card issuer — an idea that is growing stale in a world where consumers are able to authenticate payments with more sophisticated tech.

Like a coach turning to an old playbook, fraudsters have resurrected an e-mail spam method to attempt to steal personal and card data from bank customers in the U.K.

Financial messaging service provider Swift has made good on a 2010 commitment to reduce fees and will issue more than 30 million euros (U.S. $35.8 million) in rebates to service users worldwide.

Though Amazon.com's Fire Phone sputtered out as soon as it launched, the company has built a solid foundation in mobile payments that will fuel its next big moves in 2015.

Sellers using e-commerce marketplace Atomic Mail can now add Dwolla as a payment option on the checkout pages of their websites.

Mobile operators in Taiwan now support the nation's largest mobile commerce platform, which enables Near Field Communication mobile payments.

Brazil's central bank has approved a joint venture between Banco do Brasil SA, the nation's largest bank by assets, and card payment processor Cielo SA, but the bank cannot claim accounting gains in its projected profits.

To say the Softcard mobile wallet had an interesting year would be an understatement. By the end of 2014, it had a new name and a new competitor: the formidable Apple Pay.