Acquirers

Square Inc. is introducing a new e-commerce tool that lets merchants collect payments on their websites, putting the San Francisco company in more direct competition with online payments leader PayPal Holdings Inc.

Square wants to ease the anxiety many small merchants may feel around no-shows when they accept online appointments for their businesses.

I made a provocative comment, as it turned out, during my keynote at a recent conference. The comment was picked up in a press article that reported I said "the coding behind virtual currency bitcoin could also prove to be enormously transformational, potentially even replacing the Swift network for interbank payments."

The focus on the smart-home device marks the latest frontier in the ways in which banks and payment companies are testing features on cars, fridges, watches and other internet of things.

Verifone's presence in the mobile point of sale market is as old as Square's, but it has had a bit more trouble reaching Square's market. This year, Verifone's strategy will be to move the goalpost — and to chop it up into smaller segments.

The mobile point of sale market is getting more and more crowded, even as the market's largest and most established players struggle to find footing.

Square is "betting big on Near Field Communication," but not to the point the company would consider bringing back its own Square Wallet app, CEO Jack Dorsey says.

Square Inc. reported fourth-quarter revenue that topped analysts’ estimates, suggesting the digital-payments business will continue to grow in the face of increasing competition from PayPal Holdings Inc. and Apple Inc.

Capital One Financial in McLean, Va., has added Amazon's former chief information security officer to its board of directors.

As the spread of mobile technology continues to erase borders, more companies are teaming up to bring their offerings to audiences they would have been unable to serve just 10 years ago. Many of these companies already had global reach, but needed the technology or local expertise of a partner from overseas.

Visa has accumulated a 9.99% stake in Square, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, giving a boost to the mobile point of sale company, which has faced challenges recently.

Global Payments Inc. has finalized an agreement to distribute Mobeewave’s contactless mobile card acceptance technology to its Canadian clients beginning this spring.

First Data has unveiled Clover Go, a new EMV-enabled card reader for mobile devices and the latest device in its Clover mobile point of sale product line.

Through a partnership with Intel, terminal maker Ingenico Group has developed a contactless payment technology that is being used in a Panasonic tablet.

Revel Systems has opened a new office in London to facilitate its growing business in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Following its promise to make mobile point of sale products a key revenue-driver for the company, Verifone Payment Systems released a new mobile card reader for independent and micro merchants.

Boku had to stay mum last week about its involvement in powering Apple Inc.'s carrier billing option in Russia, but there is no such gag order this week regarding the company's partnership with Microsoft.

The mobile wallet is still a niche product, but many companies worldwide made big strides in bringing secure payments to handheld devices. Some of the most groundbreaking changes happened just in the past year.

Payments technology company BlueSnap has launched its mobile checkout gateway, the Powered Buy Platform.

Amazon.com is big enough to try things that other retailers would find too risky. Over the years it has developed many groundbreaking payment technologies and revolutionized e-commerce, but not all of its ideas have done well.