Nearly every social media site is experimenting with 'buy buttons' today, but consumers' actual buying habits sometimes challenge the expectations of merchants and platform providers.

PayPal Holdings Inc.'s third-quarter sales missed estimates in its first report since the company's July separation from eBay Inc., revealing a rocky start to its first few months as a stand-alone company.

Making its first entry into the financial exchange space, Dwolla will provide real-time payments clearing and settlement capabilities for the CME Group futures and options marketplace.

Apple Pay will launch in Canada later this year with American Express — and no other issuers named for the mobile wallet's launch in the region.

Consumers still aren't eager to make payments from their phones, despite the immense security boost mobile wallets provide through encryption, tokenization, dynamic account data and biometrics. So MasterCard is taking these technologies and hiding them in other products.

JPMorgan Chase entered the digital wallet wars in announcing Chase Pay, a product that will launch next year. Although mobile payments have been more bark than bite so far, the company says that its product plans to use loyalty programs to lure reluctant consumers.

The alliance between JPMorgan Chase and the Merchant Customer Exchange represents more than an olive branch between two industries that have typically been at war over fee revenue — it's a result of a years-long transformation in how Chase approaches its relationships with the retail sector.

As one of the fastest growing payment companies, all eyes are on Stripe. But if the industry expects the company to launch a sexy, new application they're unlikely to get it.

New mobile wallets like the Merchant Customer Exchange's CurrentC may find themselves in conflict with other high-tech mobile apps that came to market sooner.

Microsoft Corp. has never been a dominant name in mobile payments, but it has dabbled enough in the process to draw interest around the payment potential of its Windows operating system.

Most mobile wallets clearly favor one industry over another, with banks and retailers often pitted against each other in a battle over payment card fees. JPMorgan Chase just made a stunning move by conceding some of this ground to the benefit of the Merchant Customer Exchange.

The bank owners of the clearXchange payments network and the Early Warning risk management service hope that by combining the two programs, they can remain in control of technologies that will become core to mobile commerce.

In responding to advancements in digital payments and consumer tech-savviness, Western Union has launched WU Connect to link its global money transfer services to messaging and social media platforms.

Nok Nok Labs has expanded its suite of payment authentication services for the Fast IDentity Online Alliance infrastructure, adding one-touch biometrics, out-of-band authentication and measures to address friendly fraud.

The best time to get someone to buy something is when they're actually discussing buying it, according to Teamchat CEO Beerud Sheth.

From mobile wallets to machine learning, from biometrics to Bitcoin, many examples of what the industry calls "emerging technology" have finally emerged. But change is happening slowly, as is usual in the complex financial services space.

Visa has introduced Visa Checkout, its online and digital wallet service, to Brazil.

Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey is giving a third of his Twitter stock to the company's employees, he said in a tweet Oct. 22.

Apple Pay debuted last year as an enabler for many banks that were itching to get involved with mobile payments. But a few banks were able to leap ahead of Apple Pay with their own technology.

Bluetooth beacons are gradually appearing in more stores, and some experts predict their use will grow more rapidly once the devices establish a strong link to payments and other vital retail systems.