Evan Schuman

MasterCard's decision to do a 500-person trial of facial recognition for payment authentication next month may seem like a bold move in security, but it's really taking aim at friction.

Lloyds Bank is exploring a way to use Near Field Communication to authenticate shoppers, but in a twist, it is using the mobile phones to receive – rather than send – the NFC signal.

Most merchants are trying to eliminate the barriers between their online and physical storefronts, yet the U.K. retailer John Lewis has put a small but meaningful barrier between these two channels.

Alibaba is reportedly upping its game in India, on the heels of its half-billion-dollar investment in Paytm in May.

Consumers in China are making more purchases online than in-store, prompting the country's retailers to support payment options that are normally associated with e-commerce.

A new version of Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) guidelines to be published by the PCI Council today will allow retailers—for the first time—to be able to create and seek certification for their own P2PE system, addressing a longstanding retailer concern about the earlier rules locking them into certain vendor relationships.

Although it's been widely suspected that merchant EMV compliance will be low in October when the liability shift deadline kicks in, a new Javelin Strategy & Research report is projecting as many as 75% of all merchants will not make the deadline.

As mobile payments fuel financial services in countries where traditional banking infrastructure is underwhelming, many in the payments world applaud.

Apple realizes that retailers are uniquely well-positioned to encourage mobile payments adoption. That's why the company's decision to start accepting retailer loyalty cards on Apple Pay before launching a loyalty program of its own makes good sense.

What good is having a mobile point of sale (mPOS) device if retailers glue it to the countertop? In a new IHL report that tries to size up the mPOS market, IHL points out that most merchants are happy to ignore the mobility inherent in their new technology.