Evan Schuman

One of the stumbling blocks with the global expansion of digital wallets is the resistance to payment cards in many countries, including India, China and Brazil, notes Forrester Research in a recent report.

According to new stats released from The Payments Council in the U.K., consumers and businesses in the U.K.—for the first time—are making more non-cash payments than cash ones.

The state has moved against the Embassy Suites hotel chain after one of its hotels was breached, affecting about 17 customers.

Alibaba has started using a modified version of a QR code to fight counterfeit fraud and enable individualized marketing. And the payments potential for such an offering is huge, delivering something akin to a non-wireless version of item-level RFID.

The proposed $19 million settlement to cover financial institutions' losses from the Target data breach in 2013 has failed, and financial institutions believe public data security fears provide a strong hand in future talks.

MasterCard issuers had to cast at least 90% of their votes in favor of the Target settlement by May 20, and not enough did, the companies said. Banks and credit unions will fight for a better deal.

The proposed $19 million settlement to cover financial institutions' losses from the Target data breach in 2013 has failed, and financial institutions believe public data security fears provide a strong hand in future talks.

It's hard to find a more competitive mobile wallet market than India, with 1.3 billion consumers and multiple viable wallet apps, including Freecharge, Paytm, Citrus Payment, Oxigen, Mobikwik, Zaakpay and ItzCash. But this crowd is competing for a consumer base that favors cash for all transactions.

Google's reported efforts to launch a buy button within mobile search results—and only mobile search results—is the latest sign that traditional e-commerce processes may not survive the transition to mobile devices.

The multi-account card world is getting crowded, especially for a product segment that is viewed as a bridge between plastic and mobile, meaning any entrant to this market has a very short window of opportunity.

Beacons—those little Bluetooth mechanisms stores use to beam ads to shoppers' phones—may someday play a critical role in payments. But the technology is still years away from being a practical alternative to cards and NFC-based mobile wallets.

Paytm, a major mobile wallet in India with backing from China's Alibaba, is gaining acceptance through restaurants like Domino's and setting the foundation for a larger Alibaba presence in the country.

Visa has tapped Google research scientist Min Wang to run Visa Research Labs, an organization designed to expand Visa's development capabilities worldwide.

On Amazon.com, shoppers can spend hours browsing and buying products, watching movies and listening to music; on the Apple Watch, however, Amazon is challenged to complete all interactions in a matter of seconds.

MCX CEO Dekkers Davidson has left the merchant-led mobile payments initiative, and will be replaced on an interim basis by Brian Mooney, a former Bank of America and First Data payments executive.

Best Buy's move to accept Apple Pay in its stores is the clearest public sign yet that the Merchant Customer Exchange has radically altered its vision of and ambitions regarding a retailer mobile wallet.

Success seems to come easily for Starbucks' mobile payment efforts, but only because the company did its heavy lifting elsewhere.

Despite a series of challenges and missteps from Google Wallet's earliest days, the app has tightened its grip on the Android ecosystem and squeezed out the competition — and Google must now decide whether Apple Pay is its next target or its most unlikely ally.

Google Wallet is making a significant change in how it handles funds, in the latest of a series of moves that gives Google a stronger footing against Apple Pay's rising tide.

Google Wallet is making a significant change in how it handles funds, in the latest of a series of moves that gives Google a stronger footing against Apple Pay's rising tide.