Digital coupon company Savor has extended the reach of its mobile shopping app, and plans to add Bluetooth beacons and card-linked offers to bring deals to consumers while they are in a store.

Amazon.com Inc.'s Fire Phone, unveiled today, has a button that blends mobile purchasing with real-world shopping.

To move the U.S. toward a faster electronic payments system, it may be necessary to design a completely new payments infrastructure.

Dwolla, an alternative payments provider, has launched a service that allows customers to send money to a business without having to enter bank account information.

Xpress Money has partnered with Kenya's Safaricom Ltd. to offer money transfer services through the M-Pesa mobile money platform.

Global Payments, an Atlanta-based payment processor, has signed a deal with Bigcommerce, an e-commerce software firm, to provide its merchants with online shopping sites.

Seamless' mobile payments system is currently available in only a few countries, but the Swedish company has its eyes set on quickly adding bigger markets.

VeriFone is introducing its sound-based mobile app for proximity payments, Way2ride, to taxi passengers in Philadelphia.

SCVNGR's LevelUp has seen a sharp rise in spending at merchants that use iBeacon, Apple's version of a Bluetooth Low Energy system for detecting consumers and providing location-based offers.

Chick-Fil-A has joined a growing number of quick-service franchises that are testing or deploying a mobile payment app for customers.

Swedish mobile payments provider Seamless has entered a distribution deal with retail tech provider PCMS Group.

PNC Financial Services has begun offering a new tool for merchants to accept payments on their mobile devices.

Powa's Asia Pacific strategy took a fortuitous leap when MPayMe became available to acquire, says CEO Dan Wagner.

While there is much attention on mobile payments at the point of sale, several companies are working on mobile payments for commuting, parking and other scenarios where a mobile app could replace a paper ticket or fare card. But it hasn't always been a smooth ride for these new technologies.

BlackBerry has suffered its share of lumps in the payment market, but it has scored an apparent victory in a partnership deal with Canadian mobile payment venture EnStream, which is owned by Bell, Rogers and Telus.

Balanced's new Push to Card program allows its marketplace clients to pay sellers directly onto their debit cards, enabling those sellers to instantly spend those funds.

Businesses often receive payments in a variety of ways, which can cause headaches when it comes to tracking and managing transactions, says Greg Hammermaster, president of Sage's payments division.

API Software Inc. has created a mobile app for independent sales organizations to help merchants tabulate the best payment services deals.

Zimbabwe-based banking software provider Edgetech Solutions has begun testing EdgePay, a payment system that uses sound waves to provide added security at the point of sale.

Green Dot has hired a PayPal executive to become general manager of its mobile bank account, known as GoBank.