Technology

JCPenney ended support for Apple Pay in its stores and also removed the mobile payment option from its app, a surprising reversal for a brand that offered Apple Pay in 2015, within a year of its rollout. There are multiple factors in play here.

PSD2 and other moves push a higher level of authentication, and are a welcome development for biometrics, according to Lina Andolf-Orup, a senior director at Fingerprints.

Banks say easing rules on people with some criminal records will diversify the applicant pool; deal with Synchrony may be near.

The SEC and other regulators are taking a closer look at ICOs and mergers involving cryptocurrencies and distributed ledgers, which requires careful diligence for payment companies and dealmakers, according to Will Turner, a partner in the blockchain and cryptocurrency practice at Steptoe & Johnson.

The reasons for banks to not embrace faster payments schemes are quickly dwindling. But many are still watching from the sidelines.

Readers debate the Federal Reserve's potential entry into real-time payments, consider the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's guidance for assessing fines, discuss the efficacy of financial education programs and more.

Allied Irish Banks and First Data's joint venture have agreed to a $112 million deal to purchase the consumer payment network and merchant acquirer.

T-Mobile, which announced Thursday that its four-month testing phase for the T-Mobile Money app is complete and that the banking/payments service is available nationwide, said the next step is to establish itself as a mainstream financial services company.

Flywire is partnering with True North to allow Canadian educational institutions to better manage payments from international students by integrating them with application, enrollment and accounts receivable processes.

Arguments that the central bank should develop its own system for faster payments ignore current market realities, says The Clearing House, which has developed its own network.