Evan Schuman

Amazon.com has been one of the most active companies working to remove friction from payments. This summer, it reached the finish line, removing payments entirely from a portion of its catalog.

When Apple revealed that Starbucks plans to accept Apple Pay in its U.S. stores, the move spoke less to Apple's persuasiveness and more to the fallout of the country's ongoing shift to EMV security.

In a new book, PayPal founder and former exec Elon Musk argues that big thinking is missing from PayPal and payment startups. Put another way, NFC and QR codes won't repair the global economy. The problem is Musk's big-picture approach is it would challenge interoperability and ultimately stagnate the very industry he's trying to save.

When Cumberland Farms said this month that it had processed $1 billion worth of gas via its decoupled debit card over the course of nearly three years, it was the latest example of the power of the decoupled debit card. And yet, other than Target's RED card, decoupled debit has barely moved beyond the convenience and petroleum segment.

Like everywhere else on the planet, African retailers are struggling with the mobile payment chicken-and-egg dilemma — how can they accept mobile payments if consumers aren't using the technology?

As quick-service restaurants increase their support for buy-online-pickup-in-store—as Starbucks did last week and as Taco Bell is doing this week—they are pushing customer convenience and reduced lines.

Klarna—a receive-now pay-later company—has added American Express to its supported payment methods in Sweden, Finland, Germany and the United States, as of Thursday, the company announced.

The Alibaba Group is pouring more money into Indian payments powerhouse Paytm, with one report putting the investment at the equivalent of about $680 million, giving Alibaba control of 20% of Paytm's parent company, One97 Communications.

When Samsung Pay launched in the U.S. on Monday, it did so on schedule but with less issuer support than had been expected, with only Bank of America, Citi, American Express and U.S. Bank announced as participants.

South Korean purchases via Samsung Pay have topped the equivalent of $30 million U.S. as of Sept. 20, according to the first figures released by Samsung.

Verifone has entered an agreement to use Barclays' Pingit mobile payment app as part of Verifone's PAYware Ocius mobile gateway. Initially, this deal will support only e-commerce sites but Barclays said the pair may bring the technology to the physical point of sale in a later phase.

Retailers beware: Starbucks is changing consumers' expectations in mobile payments yet again.

In a new book, PayPal founder and former exec Elon Musk argues that big thinking is missing from PayPal and payment startups. Put another way, NFC and QR codes won't repair the global economy. The problem is Musk’s big picture approach is it would challenge interoperability and ultimately stagnate the very industry he’s trying to save.

Another vendor, Card1, has joined the ranks of all-in-one payment card makers, but with a slightly different approach. Where most rivals focus on hardware, Card1 is betting big on the cloud.

Visa's ATM biometric trial in South Africa has the potential to spread a security technology that has encountered resistance in other parts of the world, including the U.S.

As the Merchant Customer Exchange's CurrentC mobile wallet goes to trial in Columbus, Ohio—along with a limited test in Target stores nationally—the industry gets it first peek at the venture's priorities.

Visa has created a prototype of a car designed to initiate payments, the first step in a five-year plan of changing the way motorists pay for gas and other needs while in transit.

The Federal Reserve has named Todd Aadland—who had been a senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank Of Chicago—as its new payments security strategy leader. Aadland will also chair the Secure Payments Task Force.

Loss prevention firm Global Risk Technologies and Quatrro Processing have entered a strategic partnership to take advantage of the growing demand for fraud technology following major data breaches.

When wading through the sea of social media comments, it's easy to find evidence to support any theory.