Technology

Fast-developing technologies are dumping fresh risk on a payments industry already reeling from a parade of data breaches, placing more pressure on cross-industry efforts to improve security.

Matt Swann, who was in charge of Amazon Register and the defunct Amazon Wallet, has left Amazon.com for a role at Citigroup, according to a report by TechCrunch.

The mobile wallet market takes no prisoners. Startups and big companies have an even playing field, and many have already scrapped one or more products — while others have given up the fight entirely.

In just one week, Swedish company Seamless has expanded its SEQR mobile payment service to three more countries in Europe.

UnionPay International, a Shanghai-based subsidiary of China UnionPay, has launched a rewards program with duty free businesses at airports around the world.

Large banks and card issuers are ready for the U.S. shift to chip-and-PIN technology, according to a report issued Wednesday. But the drop in fraud that is expected to result is unlikely to come any time soon.

In the Chinese payment processing space, which is dominated by government-controlled entities such as UnionPay, the dynamic of pursuing new customers is markedly different from in the U.S. This point was a key factor when investment firm TA Associates chose to invest in YeePay, a company with limited ambitions.

Everlink Payment Services has created a prototype wearable payment device that works with Interac Flash.

Flint Mobile is joining the many technology companies that are evolving from their roots as payment providers to become enablers of a broad range of services.

Four House lawmakers announced Thursday that they had formed a bipartisan group to focus on "the new and innovative technologies in the payments industry."