John Adams

As computing devices get closer to the body, Westpac New Zealand is exploring how wearables such as smartwatches and Google Glass can be used for payments and other financial services.

The Oyster contactless payment card is no longer the only fish in the sea for London's mass transit network, which will accept contactless payments via credit and debit cards by mid-September.

Comerica has hired payments processor Vantiv as the financial institution continues a legal battle stemming from a discontinued joint venture with Global Payments, which a judge says has taken a "hostile attitude" toward the bank.

In politics, every penny counts to secure a candidate's position in office. Bitcoin's low cost of acceptance, accompanied by increasing clarity from regulators over its role in campaigns, is making it a more appealing choice for accepting donations.

The Justice Department's legal case against American Express will not benefit consumers and will weaken competition, said Jeff Campbell, executive vice president and CFO of American Express.

Westpac New Zealand plans to leverage mobile technology on several fronts in the coming year, powering contactless payments while maintaining more control over customer relationships than it would have if it signed on to a telco-led venture.

The Justice Department's legal case against American Express will not benefit consumers and will weaken competition, said Jeff Campbell, executive vice president and CFO of American Express.

First Data is making a push into offline and online gambling payments processing, providing new services that cover a riskier set of transactions than those it already handles for businesses that operate casinos.

The credit union-driven CU Wallet is mindful that if it comes on too strong with its mobile-payment pitch, consumers will be turned off.

PayPal will support the new Amazon Fire phone, which went on sale this week, in the latest move by the eBay subsidiary to make sure it has an app for any newly launched mobile device.

Zing is releasing an iPad app that leverages Web hosted technology to access a large selection of business functions through the point of sale.

Visa, which just revamped its digital payment system, will introduce secure "tokens" in September to replace the 16-digit account number for online payments.

Happy Belly Curbside Kitchen, which operates out of food trucks, is planning to become a sit-down restaurant within the next year and is relying on mobile point of sale technology to make the transition.

Apple may have to place more emphasis on the iPad's capabilities as mobile point of sale devices to help it recover from a small but sharp decline in tablet sales.

MasterCard is planting its roots deeper into mobile commerce as a growing number of rivals try to edge it out of the market.

Total System Services (TSYS) is working with well-known brands like Western Union and Brinks to boost adoption of prepaid cards as the CEO of its NetSpend prepaid unit prepares to leave the company.

Amazon has released a beta version of an Amazon Wallet App that is currently focused on shopping and discounts, though it could serve as a launch pad for mobile payments.

A PayPal-run promotion provided a measurable mobile payments boost for Van Leeuwen Ice Cream Artisans, suggesting there's an appetite for a type of mobile payment that rival companies like Square have abandoned.

As the U.S. shifts to EMV-chip cards to improve security at the point of sale, fraud will move online, and ACI Worldwide is preparing for that challenge. The payment technology company's $205 million purchase of ReD will help it close up vulnerabilities in card-not-present transactions.

There's still a lot of paper used in transactions, and document automation company DocuSign's scaling up in an attempt to grab a share of paper-reducing efforts in several markets.