John Adams

Square's diversification strategy has landed in coffee shops, as the company has upgraded an application that uses location-sensing technology to more closely match pre-order preparation with consumer arrival.

WePay is adding white-label risk management and other merchant services in an effort to reach digital marketplaces that are under pressure to improve user experience.

Mobile payment company Boku has acquired German-based mopay, adding considerable carrier billing volume and clients at a time when Boku and other payment companies face increasing competitive threats from new players.

Facebook's peer-to-peer (P2P) transfer app is currently only a screen grab circulating around Silicon Valley, but payments companies should brace for a series of competitive apps from the social network, according to industry experts.

Mobile handset manufacturer Samsung is tossing its hat into the mobile payment market in China, which is in its early stages but offers substantial opportunity.

The transit card may be on its way to joining tokens in the dustbin, as huge contactless payment deployments in cities like Beijing add flexibility for commuters and reveal the broader utility of Near Field Communication.

Small businesses can be hard to reach with new payments technology, so the Small Business Payments Co. (SBPC) is incrementally adding functions in an attempt to ease automation.

First Data made four executive appointments as part of its diversification beyond payments processing to include a broader set of merchant services. Its updated lineup, announced Oct. 1, creates new roles for Barry McCarthy, Andrew Gelb, Sanjiv Das and Adam Rosman.

Capital One's new Capital One Wallet is a cardholder app for Apple's devices that uses an Android-like pattern-recognition feature for authentication.

Capital One's new Capital One Wallet is a cardholder app for Apple's devices that uses an Android-like pattern-recognition feature for authentication.

Investor Carl Icahn, who earlier this year pushed eBay to make PayPal a separate company, says he is pleased with eBay's decision to do so but is not totally satisfied with the timing.

By hiring former American Express executive Dan Schulman to lead an independent PayPal, the company is betting that his expertise — bringing innovation to a well-established international payments company — can ensure PayPal's survival.

By hiring former American Express executive Dan Schulman to lead an independent PayPal, the company is betting that his expertise — bringing innovation to a well-established international payments company — can ensure PayPal's survival.

EBay's planned spinoff of PayPal, announced today, is a necessary and inevitable response to the influx of disruption coming to the payments industry from unconventional sources.

EBay's planned spinoff of PayPal, announced today, is a necessary and inevitable response to the influx of disruption coming to the payments industry from unconventional sources. As companies like Amazon.com, Apple and Wal-Mart take a growing interest in the payments market, PayPal's status as a unit of a rival e-commerce company limited its role.

Shopkick is being acquired by SK Planet (SKP), and aims to replicate success of its Seoul-based buyer, which serves three-quarters of South Korea's population of 50 million.

During World War II, Lockheed Martin created a program called Skunk Works, which used specialized teams of developers for lightning-fast brainstorming to accelerate the research and development of new planes. That is how a lot of payments innovation is getting done today.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s deal to distribute Green Dot Corp.'s mobile checking account, GoBank, signals a fundamental change in how both companies approach their audience.

Payments processor Stripe will partner with Facebook to provide technology behind the social network's "buy" button, according to a report in ReCode.

PayPal is going slow when it comes to Bitcoin, limiting its current focus to emerging channels and relying on partnerships with virtual-currency processors in North America.