John Adams

The irony of the explosive growth of mobile P2P is this: As consumers get more comfortable with paying one another through mobile devices, they're thinking of P2P less as a service that one should find within a bank's app.

China hasn't exactly opened its arms wide to embrace U.S. payments companies, but the nation has gradually become more accepting of the foreign payments businesses that view its tech-savvy population as a lucrative market.

The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web. Today: Mastercard and Microsoft collaborate on urban technology; Google Pay expands travel payments; Blockchain cross-border grows in South Korea; Flipkart's founders have a past at Amazon.

The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web. Today: Facebook starts a blockchain unit; New York pushes ahead with cryptocurrency investigation; CPMI pushes security standards; St. Louis Fed recommends government virtual currency; Monzo adds proximity P2P technology.

Both executives assume their new roles as the Citi unit faces competition from both large banks and fintechs in the cross-border payments market.

The restaurant technology is a category-specific move that mirrors a broader strategy at Square, which has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the past few months to round out its merchant services products.

The expansion of Visa Direct is designed to speed disbursements for health care patients who can receive an instant payment versus waiting several days to a week for payout.

The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web. Today: Apple plans to meet with Toronto transit officials; Cryptocurrency goes to the movies; Swedish startup organizes APIs; Digital billing advances in Pakistan.

The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web. Today: JPMorgan files a patent app for transfer tech; Syncapay's looking for fintech investments; Ticketmaster's deploying new biometrics; Richard Branson warns about scams; Cryptocoin tax payments fall out of Arizona bill.

The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web. Today: Instagram adds payments; Alipay introduces money market funds for spare change; Ireland plans a fintech census; Reddit will resume bitcoin payments; California gets more cyrptocurrency ATMs.