U.K.

Samsung Electronics Co. has made its Android and Apple Pay competitor available in the U.K. Tuesday, as it attempts to play catch-up in one of the major markets for contactless payments.

Toreson Lloyd was a vice president of relationship management at WorldPay and a business development manager at American Express before joining London-based APEXX.

Regulators are calling for the boards of the three separate faster-payments initiatives to review and endorse the consolidation plan and complete most of the consolidation before the end of 2017.

Even as consumers embrace digital payments in the U.K., the value and amount of cash in circulation remain high.

Samsung Pay last week went live in four more regions—Hong Kong, Sweden, Switzerland and the UAE—but despite reaching 14 major global markets, it’s still not officially available in the U.K., one of the world’s most active zones for contactless payments.

Visa Inc. has partnered with Dallas-based Active Network, whose customers organize activities and events, to make Visa Checkout available as a payment option at events in the U.S., Canada, Ireland and the U.K.

PayByPhone will add Apple Pay as a payment option for U.K. drivers later this year, as competition in the fast-growing market for mobile payment apps intensifies.

Check imaging reduces the need to handle paper, reduces clearing time and paves the way for mobile deposit and remote capture. However, this new functionality also means financial institutions take on greater risk from electronic acceptance, images in the cloud, and significantly reduced float times.

The service will start with transfers to India and the Phillipines, though Remitly plans to add more recipient countries in the near future.

For London-based fintech provider Tramonex, seeing so many Chinese tourists visiting the U.K. meant a chance to join the success of WeChat Pay. But how to accomplish this was less clear.