The shift away from human contact increased the popularity of kiosks, ATMs and other technologies that allow for more flexibility in payment methods.

The partnership pits the buy now/pay later company against the e-commerce company's issuer partners, JPMorgan Chase and Synchrony Financial, and adds to the fintech's allure as an alternative to payment cards.

The payments firm Boku is uniting hundreds of fragmented mobile apps to compete with Visa and Mastercard for unbanked consumers in different regions of the world.

The move means companies can give consumers options other than ACH transactions or debit cards to receive disbursements for insurance claims, health care or gig work.

The central bank wants financial institutions to enable additional routing options for online purchases, a change industry advocates say would strain the resources of smaller card issuers.

The card network is bringing Verizon into its innovation lab to turn more phones into payment acceptance devices and use the growing number of consumer gadgets and digital assistants to better verify consumer identities.

Card networks are working with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build on touchless fare collection for marketing and commerce.

If the new Facebook Pay feels underwhelming compared to the social network's past efforts, that's by design. It's now taking a slower approach that could help overcome the privacy concerns that plagued earlier projects.

A posting for a digital currency job at Amazon stirred speculation that the e-commerce giant might begin accepting bitcoin at checkout. The company denies that — and experts say it has many other ways to make the most of its intended hire.