Technology

Under the hood of U.S. Bank's new mobile app; BofA, Wells Fargo sour on blockchain; are Fannie and Freddie too big?; and more from this week's most-read stories.

The Clearing House announced moves to attract community banks and credit unions to its real-time payments system. Smaller depositories have generally been reluctant to sign up with what is seen as a large-bank effort.

The next step for trucking industry payment providers is tapping the full benefit of available data streams as they upgrade from decades-old paper-based payment systems to cloud-driven mobile apps.

Mobile technology provider Mahindra Comviva developed a software integration for issuing banks and third-party digital wallet providers to add contactless payment capabilities to their mobile products in India.

In the emerging ecosystem economy, merchants will need to provide a seamless buying journey for customers. That means everything from a dynamic user interface and smart authentication to contactless payment options for faster transaction times, writes Paul Perry, a contributor for the technology company Relay.

Community and regional banks may not be able to outspend their larger rivals, but they can be more nimble in implementing the necessary culture change.

The U.K. government is consulting with train operators on smart pay-as-you-go ticketing. The goal is to enable consumers to travel across the U.K.’s entire railway network by tapping in and out with contactless cards or smartphones instead of paper tickets.

Once Apple looked at the state of its existing ecosystem, it identified a space it could uniquely deliver on, and activated the partners needed to make it come to fruition — a perfect example of the concept of ecosystem enablement, argues Frank Kenney, director of market strategy for Cleo.

The internet giant's planned gaming service may create an omnichannel model for banks to emulate.

The firm wants to expand its acceptance in the United States only to accommodate Chinese tourists, a company official said Thursday. But the CEO of a U.S.-based payments firm expressed skepticism.