Technology

As independent sales organizations (ISOs) offer new payment technology and other services to improve merchant relationships, the ISOs have to decide whether to charge a fee—a difficult decision that can differ from one merchant to another.

After previous tests resulted in mobile phone payments taking a little longer to complete a transaction than a contactless Oyster card, Transport for London is again trying Near Field Communication-enabled phones for payment on its rail network and Tube underground rails.

Swift, the financial messaging service, has launched a new version of its Bankers World Online directory, which includes added information to aid international payments.

Starbucks may soon make the tools behind its successful m-commerce strategy available to other retailers.

To improve the chances that consumers will value a particular issuer's card out of the many in their wallets, that issuer must use all of the data at its disposal to make the card experience personal, bankers say.

Facebook knows that if it misuses consumer data, it will scare its users off. But the social network also knows that by keeping consumers aware of what it is doing and giving them a chance to opt out, it can fundamentally change the way advertisers such as card issuers do business.

According to the Millennial Disruption Index, millennials believe payments innovation will come from outside their bank, with nearly half showing more confidence in what startups and technology companies add to payments than what their banks do. This presents a challenge and an opportunity for financial institutions moving forward.

PayPal and the mobile technology provider QikServe are working to enable U.K. hospitality businesses to accept orders and payments through the PayPal smartphone app.

Online video game developer and publisher InnoGames has chosen payment processor Worldpay to manage its local and international transactions.

Mobile imaging is vital to Green Dot's GoBank account, which relies on the mobile device for nearly all customer interaction.