Technology

In Ireland, credit unions are speeding up the launch of their electronic payment alternatives and working with Visa and MasterCard to offer debit cards to compete more aggressively with local banks.

For the financial and retail industries, mobile is becoming a significant part of the strategy for delivering valuable content and services to customers. Two technologies in particular are available on many of today’s smartphones and are being looked at to enhance consumer experience: Near Field Communications (NFC) and Bluetooth low energy (BLE).

When even a millennial with a six-figure income and a 750 FICO score can't snag a loan with a decent interest rate, there's something wrong with the system.

First Data has launched a payments platform for online and casino-based gaming.

Wallaby Financial has hired Scott Grimes to be senior vice president of risk and operations, a new position for Wallaby, which sells mobile and web-based payment marketing.

Like many payments executives, Martin Ferenczi believes the U.S. payments market will not meet the card network-imposed October 2015 target for migration to chip-based EMV technology.

Alternative finance provider CAN Capital is offering its payments industry partners a digital platform to give merchant clients a fast application process for funds.

The telco-operated Isis mobile payments initiative plans to rebrand to avoid carrying the same name as a Middle Eastern militant group referred to as "ISIS" by western journalists.

A recent GAO report called for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to be involved in interagency discussions about virtual currencies, but others say the bureau's jurisdiction is murky, technology may move too fast for consumer rulemaking and too much regulation too early could kill innovation.

London has ended cash payments for city buses, leaving the transit system's Oyster and other contactless cards as the methods to pay fares.