Technology

MasterCard Worldwide is planning to open up its software format, enabling third-party programmers to develop payments applications for its network. The company on May 25 said it would release open application programming interfaces for developers later this year.

Equity Bank is partnering with telecommunication firm Safaricom Ltd. to launch a mobile funds-transfer service called M-Kesho, the Kenya-based bank announced in a statement. The service will launch by the end of this month.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has added two so-called Instant Action text-alert features to its mobile-banking service.

The best thing about mobile payment apps is not the speed of transactions made with phones, but how the apps let people manage their accounts on their own instead of wasting time at the register, according to early results from retailers.

With restaurants accounting for nearly 35% of Heartland Payment Systems Inc.’s merchant base, the payment processor thought it appropriate to introduce its advanced payment-encryption technology this week at the National Restaurant Association’s show in Chicago.

Japan Airlines International on June 1 plans to launch the “JAL Mile Phone,” a service that will enable members of the airline’s JAL Mileage Bank frequent-flyer program to earn miles using customized mobile phones and users of the airline’s JAL credit card to secure additional benefits.

UOB Bank Ltd. has begun offering an application for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android smartphones called the Lady’s Soulmate as part of the issuer’s effort to revamp its Lady’s credit card. The goal is to add 1 million cardholders by 2014 as part of the initiative, the Singapore-based bank said in a statement.

Best Buy Co. Inc.’s first store in Turkey will use a shared point-of-sale service, eliminating the multiple POS terminals commonly seen domestically on merchant countertops, according to Ingenico S.A., which is supplying the service.

Software platforms that have enabled developers to create payment applications for use on Apple's iPhone and social-networking websites will have a significant effect on the payments industry over the next decade, David Evans, founder of Market Platform Dynamics, said.

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