Google’s upcoming personal assistant and cross-platform messaging apps make substantial use of payments, though the transactions exist entirely in the background to encourage a smooth user experience.

Android Pay went live in the U.K. Wednesday, making the nation the first outside of the U.S. to support the service.

Back in 2014, Dekkers Davidson, then CEO of the Merchant Customer Exchange, declared that the mobile wallet venture would draw inspiration from Uber and be just as disruptive to financial services as the popular ride-sharing app was to the taxi industry. But Uber's success stems largely from its decision to make payments invisible, whereas MCX was developing its CurrentC wallet to do just the opposite.

Fifth Third Bancorp has hired Citigroup's Melissa Stevens to the newly created position of chief digital officer and head of omnichannel banking.

When Walmart switched on Walmart Pay this week at 600 stores in two states, it marked the beginning of a new era, when merchants finally take the reins in mobile payments — and, by extension, the future of digital commerce.

The Merchant Customer Exchange, a retailer-backed mobile wallet venture of over three years in the works, has postponed its plans for a national rollout of its mobile wallet.

Walmart Pay, the mega-retailer's mobile wallet, has gone live at its stores in Texas and Arkansas in anticipation of a national rollout.

More banks in Australia are lining up support for Android Pay, giving Google's contactless payment system some firmer footing in international markets.

WePay's bread and butter has been offering a streamlined e-payments hookup for online merchant platforms, and it's now adding in-person payments to keep businesses with offline needs from turning to the likes of Square.

Like any long-term relationship, Walmart and Visa have had their ups and downs. Sometimes these interactions were solely between the two companies; but many times, Walmart and Visa's conflicts gave a voice to the entire retail and payments industries.

If he's worried about fintech upstarts or bitcoin offering a high-tech alternative to Western Union's bread-and-butter business of money transfer, Chief Information Officer David Thompson doesn't let on.

As a supermarket chain with no supermarkets, FreshDirect has always been an early mover by design. That made Samsung's Internet-connected refrigerator a natural fit.

Walt Disney Co., having found success with its wearable MagicBand payment system, is retiring the paper "Disney Dollars" it has long accepted from parkgoers.

Citigroup is testing Bluetooth beacon technology in a pilot that gives customers cardless access to branch ATMs after business hours, among other services.

Apple Pay's slow expansion around the world seems to have gotten a jolt with the announcement of multiple Canadian issuers signing on, but it still faces many of the same roadblocks that have plagued adoption elsewhere.

The 'app economy' is getting larger by the year, and a team of entrepreneurs firmly rooted in the payments establishment sees big trouble ahead when it comes to facilitating transactions.

PayPal next month is cutting off purchase protection for payments to crowdfunding sites, as the model for raising seed money for projects online begins to mature. The new policy goes into effect June 25, the company noted in an update to its user agreement.

Corporate payments services company Bottomline Technologies has introduced a mobile solution that would allow U.K businesses to pay customers quickly and directly.

Carrier billing provider Bango has purchased BilltoMobile and its contracts from Danal Inc., making Bango a processor of carrier billing transactions across all major mobile networks in the U.S.

Dwolla has forwarded its proposal for faster payments to a Federal Reserve Board task force studying submissions as part of a national initiative, and its voice is one of several seeking to make a difference in the country's move to faster payments.