John Adams

As CEO of the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) mobile wallet venture, Brian Mooney must remain calm as his company faces an increasingly stormy market with no product to show for its years-long efforts.

Many payment companies are hosting hackathons to attract developer talent from outside their own ranks; MasterCard found that its own people are just as eager to bring their ideas to life.

The technology vendor Nymi is drawing the attention of major companies like MasterCard and TD Bank, which are testing its contactless payments device that authenticates users by detecting their heartbeat.

Many payment companies are hosting hackathons to attract developer talent from outside their own ranks; MasterCard found that its own people are just as eager to bring their ideas to life.

Twitter is reportedly integrating with Shopify and other e-commerce companies to find merchants to support its buy button.

Target is deploying Bluetooth beacons to offer time-sensitive deals and product recommendations to shoppers in its stores, and it has more ambitious plans for the technology later in the year.

Health and wellness apps may not much in common with small business payments and merchant services, but it was the fitness-tracking craze that lit a fire under Intuit to build an Apple Watch app for its clients.

The U.S. card networks have been trying to gain a foothold in the huge Indian payments market for years, and both Visa and MasterCard have upped the ante in the past year by opening development centers to launch new payments technology directly into the market.

Even an entrepreneur who specializes in products for young people can be taken aback by how fast a new mobile technology becomes an everyday necessity for its users.

The swarm of new mobile payment initiatives has left traditional bank issuers with little choice but to shoehorn modern mobile wallets into their aging infrastructure.