Technology

Amazon.com is big enough to try things that other retailers would find too risky. Over the years it has developed many groundbreaking payment technologies and revolutionized e-commerce, but not all of its ideas have done well.

WorldRemit app users can now send funds to any bank account in Vietnam, as the money transfer provider expands into Southeast Asia.

The U.S. is a long way from widespread adoption of EMV, but security analysts say the boom in online shopping—plus a surge in consumers' use of mobile devices for holiday purchases—will make it easier for fraudsters to hide their moves as they redirect their efforts from retail to online channels.

Mobile payment users are still in short supply, and the growing range of options may be seen as too chaotic for consumers who haven't yet used a mobile wallet.

Apple Pay has reportedly made plans to launch in China by early February.

To counter the rising rate of e-commerce fraud, U.K.-based myPINpad plans to provide a virtual PIN pad for mobile-generated online transactions through the VocaLink network for the next five years.

ShopKeep's most recent survey of its 20,000 merchant clients shows two mobile payment trends at odds with one another.

The volume of payment apps is reaching critical mass. From retailers to coffee shops to airlines, companies across virtually every industry have developed a mobile app to make the payments experience simpler and faster for their customers – and to gather more data on who they are and how they spend their money.

Banks give a lot of reasons for providing chip cards that work with signatures, rather than four-digit PIN codes, but none of them are convincing.

The goal of adopting chip cards — to provide tighter security — is a noble one. But by going partway, authorizing transactions with signatures rather than four-digit codes, banks are watering down that security, at least for lost and stolen cards.