Silicon Valley companies like Marqeta, Stripe and Braintree cut their teeth on the open network concept, creating a place for themselves at the table of future embedded payments, instant card issuing or instant credit.

Most consumers, when dining, still enjoy the simplicity of dropping cash on the table than using something newer, like an EMV card or a mobile wallet, even when those payment forms are becoming more commonplace in other stores.

The smartwatch revolution didn't begin with Apple, and the early adopters of wearables may not want to upgrade just to add payments. Fit Pay Inc. has a plan to meet this audience halfway.

Visa is rolling out a new transaction-notification service service today through the application program interface-based Visa Developer Platform the network unveiled last week.

PayPal technology exec James Barrese will leave the company April 1, according to an SEC filing.

Cross-border payment provider Payoneer will partner with digital marketing company Tradedoubler to provide commission-based payments between advertisers and online publishers.

Hong Kong's status as an iconic financial capital stands in contrast to its relatively lackluster record for technology. The city is regarded as below average as a hub for startups, and MasterCard places Hong Kong in the middle of the pack for mobile payments readiness.

Fit Pay in San Francisco has launched a campaign on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter to raise funds for the final production of a payment-enabled wristband developed for Pebble Time smartwatches.

A consortium of Swiss banks hope the country's reputation for banking, technology and smartphones will give its financial institutions a commanding position for in-store and in-app payments.

For the first time in its nearly 60-year history, Visa is inviting third-party software developers onto its network with the goal of advancing digital commerce.

Seamless, a Swedish maker of mobile payments software, has partnered with Xpress Money for international money transfers.

Square, which has been selling its Apple-friendly new reader for $49 on its own site, revealed Feb. 3 that it will sell the readers for the same price at Apple stores.

Contactless payment company Zapper is integrating PayPal's One Touch to power faster execution for contactless transactions.

For many e-commerce merchants, the migration to EMV-chip card security at the point of sale — and the expected shift of fraud to the Web — is akin to a message in a bottle that hasn't washed ashore. Too many simply don't know about it.

Cross-border payments, even small ones, take days to clear, cost 5% to 10% of the payment amount, and can be baffling to the consumer. Zenbanx, TransferWise and Ripple and other startups are trying to change this.

A Federal Reserve task force has issued criteria for its faster payments initiative, part of a long journey to build a framework to securely and efficiently accommodate the near real-time processing for digital commerce.

Despite electronic payment innovations, cash is still the most efficient and simplest form of payment for low-value transactions.

Barclays is reportedly informing customers that it is planning to post an update to its U.K. website and through Twitter to indicate when it will support Apple Pay.

The digitizing of payment transactions has become important enough at Visa and MasterCard to remain a top investment priority, even as the networks brace for the economic fallout of collapsing oil prices and volatile stock markets.

The rush to be a "one stop shop" for merchants by bundling mobile, Web and in-store payment technology is prompting many companies to join forces, resulting in several high-priced mergers and acquisitions in recent years.