Technology

Software problems have recently plagued Bank of New York Mellon, HSBC and the New York Stock Exchange. Thorough testing and new quality standards can help financial institutions weed out weaknesses in their code that could (literally) break the bank.

CHICAGO — The mobile commerce revolution is pressuring legacy payment companies to quickly diversify to stay relevant, leading Discover Financial Services to build a gateway where merchants can add digital transactions and other services.

The smartphone can add significant security to payments, but it is also a tool that fraudsters can exploit. Researchers and scammers have already found several unique attacks that rely on mobile devices.

Young people have a much different relationship with credit, requiring retailers to find different ways to enable financing to encourage larger purchases.

The San Francisco company hopes to lower its costs by driving out human intervention as much as possible. To get there, it has made the counterintuitive decision to locate its operations staff in one of the country’s most expensive cities.

CHICAGO — Financial institutions have fallen behind the payments innovation curve, though they can catch up quickly by adopting the faster payments initiatives that are accompanying mobile and digital transactions.

What happens when you combine mobile wallets with the emerging hype about beacons? You get a winning combination for retailers that boosts shopper loyalty and in-store spending.

Barclays is attempting a diverse range of tactics to move customers beyond plastic cards, with its latest attempt being a "fashionable" jacket that's linked to the wearer's bank account.

The Automated Clearing House is too expensive and complex to provide faster payments for smaller banks and businesses, claims Dwolla, which contends its open system is a better option for those market segments.

CHICAGO — First-generation mobile wallets found themselves in an "unfair fight" against the likes of Starbucks and its branded mobile pay and loyalty system, forcing Google to rethink how it would position Android Pay, Google executive Jack Connors said.