Technology

WEX has selected Roberto Simon to become the fleet card company's next chief financial officer.

Financial institutions are often thought of as major consumers of technology, but a pair of recent examples show that more tech is being developed in-house and, once proven feasible, monetizing it. Expect more spin-offs, observers predict.

Point-of-sale payment provider payworks has released a white-label software development kit (SDK) that outside parties can use to develop mobile point of sale services.

Unlike Rite Aid and CVS pharmacies, which cut off contactless Near Field Communication (NFC) payments when Apple Pay launched in October of 2014, Walgreens never bucked the Apple Pay trend and did not take long to start accepting transactions from Apple's mobile pay service.

Raj Date, the consumer bureau's former deputy director, said Thursday regulators need to be flexible, responsive and use discretion when it comes to dealing with financial technology startups.

Digital payment provider Mozido will provide the technology behind the Deutsche Telekom AG mobile wallet in Germany.

The U.S. was one of the last countries to convert to EMV chip cards, at least partly because of the cost involved for the country's massive payments system to replace the easy-to-duplicate mag-stripe cards and halt counterfeit fraud.

Mobile payment initiatives in Canada are adding perks such as shopper loyalty programs, which can help differentiate the bank and carrier-branded mobile wallets when Apple Pay arrives.

In what could be seen as another salvo in the battle between payments and financial services 'disruptors' and more traditional financial institutions, five large technology companies — Google, Amazon, Apple, PayPal and Intuit — have formed a lobbying and advocacy group.

The number of startup companies opting out of the State of New York — more than a dozen — since the financial services department's BitLicense regulation was finalized is troublesome.