Technology

Swedish pharmacy chain Apoteksgruppen will launch SEQR, Seamless' mobile wallet.

The country's Federal Reserve banks have made clear that they want to see a much faster nationwide payments system within 10 years. Now comes the hard part: developing a plan to make that happen.

VeriFone reported a loss in the fiscal fourth quarter, but beat its internal guidance, and is touting new mobile payments initiatives as a way to improve performance in the future.

PayPal has purchased StackMob, which provides a development platform for mobile payments.

As payment companies add more mobile applications to accept transactions and speed processing, authentication will become more complex, says Todd Wilkinson, CEO of Datacard, which plans to bolster its identity technology for government and financial services clients via its acquisition of Entrust.

Discover Financial Services has begun testing a mobile payment system using biometric technology at its Riverwoods, Ill., headquarters.

Discover Financial Services has joined the Fast Identity Online Alliance, or FIDO, a group of companies working to develop new standards for online authentication.

Online bill pay technology developed with small business users in mind is lacking. But new offerings could provide companies with greater functionality, while also helping financial institutions reduce risk and build stronger customer relationships.

Amazon has purchased GoPago, a company that enables consumers to use mobile apps to prepay for goods before picking them up at a store, according to reports.

Prepaid payment network Blackhawk is offering a selection of electronic gift codes at Coinstar's coin-counting kiosks.