Apple and Ripple may have a potential idea to remove friction from mobile payments, but the implementation could make for a rough ride.

Ant Financial, the Alibaba affiliate that operates Alipay, is planning an IPO that could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars — but the funds it could raise are secondary to the consumer population it already controls.

The rapid adoption of voice assistants only adds to the notion they could one day be disruptors in commerce, payments and financial services.

Voice assistants are on a fast track, with ownership of home devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home surging to between 20% and 25% of households from a mere 1% in about two years. The rapid growth is inviting keen interest in many circles about the potential for voice assistants to spark disruption in commerce, payments and financial services.

India’s Unified Payment Interface is a model that other developing economies can emulate, as they look to move away from cash-centricity and overhaul their own payments infrastructure in pursuit of speed, security, auditability and financial inclusion, writes Anoop Villait, managing director of corporate development at Transpay.

U.K.-based companies WorldRemit and Lebara have formed a strategic partnership that will give Lebara’s 3 million mobile telecom customers direct access to WorldRemit’s digital money transfer service.

The Middle East presents a rare opportunity for digital payment innovators to access a populous and high-spending region with good levels of connectivity, writes Tom MacDonald, financial and business services practice head for Global Growth Markets.

It's no surprise that London topped the chart of "Cashless Capitals" in a recent study, considering its status as a major fintech hub of the U.K. But this wasn't enough to make it the country's contactless capital.

Developers will struggle to create apps that can be used seamlessly across institutions unless banks can learn to share programming data in a consistent way.

In seeking to solidify that potential, FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium have created Web Authentication (WebAuthn), a new standard that allows approved FIDO Authentication methods to operate through browsers.

Tech-focused private equity firm Francisco Partners is leading a take-private deal of Verifone Systems Inc., a world leader in payment and commerce solutions.

Starbucks has reported an impressive number of in-store sales in the U.S. coming through its mobile app, a figure that has climbed quarter after quarter since the 2009 introduction of the Starbucks Card app — until July 2017, when it reached 30% and has not budged from that number since.

The Masterpass digital wallet will become embedded into the My Phillips 66 app later this year, enabling customers to pay at the pump or in the convenience store.

The agency should consider exempting some registered cryptocurrency exchanges from state money transmission laws.

Retail banking chief Christian Sewing will become CEO immediately; higher deposit rates could trim lending margins as banks head into earnings season.

Brand and access to capital can suffer if companies don't take proper care of data from payments and other online activities, according to David Thomas, CEO of Evident ID.

The U.K. government has committed to a 5G Urban Connected Communities Project for a city-wide trial of 5G wireless technology as part of the fourth phase of the government’s 5G strategy. This trial should spark substantial investment in new payments technology.

Companies that aspire to be the Uber of their industry should take a second look at the ride-sharing market, where Grab has become a lightning rod of payments investment and innovation.

More e-commerce companies see recurring billing as a key revenue model, a trend that convinced Stripe to try to lower the bar to entry.

Some of the biggest digital wallets in the world — including Alipay and WeChat Pay — succeed because they have very little in common with other big-brand wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.