Neither Amazon nor Starbucks could be described as a traditional retailer. But they both use their shared headquarters city as a playground for developing digital and in-store innovations that all merchants and payment companies will have to respond to the years ahead.

PayPay, a mobile payments company backed by SoftBank Group Corp., Yahoo Japan Corp. and India’s largest digital-payments company Paytm, said it’s updating its app to strengthen security after multiple complaints from users of wrongful charges.

Beyond flashy and visible mobile-driven innovation and transaction options, many executives don’t see the need and opportunity that resides behind the scenes, according to Don Halliwell, director of marketing and communications at Zafin.

If they don't have them in place already, financial services firms need to provide digital budgeting tools, mobile payment and banking services before young consumers flee to other providers, says Chris Koeneman, senior vice president of strategic solutions for MOBI.

Cross-border payment startups like TransferWise and Xoom achieved rapid market growth by enabling consumers in emerging markets to receive funds via mobile wallets, cutting out intermediaries. Now legacy remittance giants Western Union and MoneyGram are improving their own resources to send funds directly to recipients' mobile wallets.

Many banks and government officials are dubious about crypto, but Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel lets businesses pay their taxes with it and has put all the state government’s expenses on a public ledger.

The video game industry serves a decidedly digital, tech-savvy audience with a propensity toward digital payments, but has been plagued by inconsistencies in payments to developers and a lack of a consistent rewards program for loyal players.

TransferGo will use the funding to fuel international expansion and increase market share particularly across Turkey, India, Ukraine and Russia.

Regulatory and demographic shifts have altered the path to credit for younger American consumers. Those shifts have opened up lending opportunities, particularly at the digital point of sale. Merchants, startups and financial institutions are all vying for a share of this (potentially very) lucrative business.

Mobile payments technology has fallen short of expectations in major markets, particularly the U.S., where less than 10 percent of consumers routinely use devices to pay in stores — despite more than four years of aggressive development from large technology companies and banks.

As the U.S. plays catch-up in contactless card adoption and biometric cards gain momentum, Mastercard senses an opportunity in the convergence.

Banks have the opportunity to transform from being the trusted custodians of our money to being the trusted custodians of our data, writes Martijn Moerbeek, director of group digital strategy and innovation at Legal & General.

It turns out that cryptocurrency enthusiasts were committed well beyond the HODL rallying call that urged them to hold on during this year’s digital-asset market collapse.

The Fed's faster payments task force is not likely to receive welcoming feedback from current operators who aren't convinced a hands-on role for the Fed is needed.

Mastercard and white label payment software company Cardstream are partnering to accelerate the deployment of Mastercard’s Secure Remote Commerce (SRC)-ready Masterpass wallet and its “Pay by Bank” solution.

Germany-based Wirecard is working with Google to enable users of Wirecard’s boon mobile app to pay at any French merchant that accepts Google Pay as it becomes available in France.

Vipps International, a Norway-based payments service operated by a coalition of more than 100 Norwegian banks, is the latest to collaborate with China’s Alipay mobile wallet in a partnership to capture more payments from Chinese tourists.

Jason Brown explains why his company, Tally, helps consumers by paying their monthly balances, providing advice and offering a lower-rate credit line.

Mobile banking, e-commerce integration, loyalty and rewards schemes and even IoT payments all link to cards. That’s a lot to ask of a back-end system, writes Rune Sorensen, a product manager at Nets.

ACI Worldwide is the latest to adopt technology from Israel-based BioCatch that monitors shoppers’ behavior to spot irregularities signaling potential fraud.