John Adams

The 'app economy' is getting larger by the year, and a team of entrepreneurs firmly rooted in the payments establishment sees big trouble ahead when it comes to facilitating transactions.

MasterCard is taking an obscure domestic mobile service global, with the hope of jump-starting innovations that would otherwise be locked to a specific region of the world.

While it's generally good news when a business gets larger, that growth can quickly get stunted if the company gets hamstrung by a more complicated supply chain.

Blockchain technology still has not proven itself invaluable to cross border transactions and remittance, but it's turning enough heads that Western Union has begun investing in its possibilities.

RBC is giving up the revenue it gets from its $1-per-transfer service by offering free Interac transfers from all personal checking accounts, in effect betting that the relationship it builds with customers will be more valuable than its fee income.

Eager to appease EMV-weary stores, Sionic Mobile is finishing tests on a system that uses a three-digit code to execute payments via mobile devices.

As the European online marketplace Trouva plots a global expansion, it's getting an early validation of its decision to bolster mobile transaction performance and security through an open development platform.

Loyalty marketing is considered a substantial lure for mobile payments, but the introduction of new channels also complicates the strategy, according to Kevin Wray, the chief commercial officer at Switchfly.

McDonald's has been at the fore of many new digital initiatives around the world, and it has played a significant role in demonstrating how MasterCard can flex its international scale to build new services and avoid being disrupted.

It's been a tough time to be a mobile point of sale company, but SumUp believes it's found the right formula to not only get through the shakeout but to thrive.