As mobile devices become more integral to consumers’ lives, they present more opportunities for interaction with banks, payment companies and merchants. Here are a few companies that are pushing mobile technology into the future.

WorldPay Group, of London, has acquired Cobre Bem Tecnologia, one of the largest payment processors in Latin America.

Masabi Ltd. will provide its mobile ticketing service to commuters using rail lines on New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority system, the London-based transit payment provider says.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the Chinese e-commerce operator headed for an initial public offering, is in talks to regain a stake in the Alipay payments affiliate, according to a person familiar with the matter.

PayPal is launching a new logo and brand campaign to appeal to a broader audience.

Bringing a point of sale terminal to market isn't as easy as it used to be. Since the introduction of contactless and mobile payment tech, the number of tests a manufacturer must pass for certification is "unbelievable," executives at U.K.-based Spire Payments say.

Sports Fusion and MasterCard processing subsidiary DataCash are working to unify the normally siloed purchasing experiences at sporting events.

For a technology still in the midst of evolving, mobile payments attract an overwhelming amount of interest. Competition between payment systems is intense — as the Wall Street Journal recently noted, AngelList’s mobile payments startup roster includes more than 640 players.

Perhaps the biggest question swirling around this week's Finovate conference is: why are mobile payments still more hope than reality?

Facebook's payment system has processed $3 billion in transactions for developers, with 100 of its developers making over $1 million a year through Facebook.

Owners of Sony's PlayStation 4 video game console, which launched in November, can now use PayPal to purchase games and other media from the console's built-in PlayStation Store.

Spreedly is launching a vaulting service that allows e-commerce merchants to manage payments without using a third-party gateway provider to authorize online transactions or handle related tasks such as data security.

Intuit is in discussions to purchase bill payment company Check Inc., according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Revel Systems is offering a new accessibility bundle for its tablet-based point of sale system.

U.S. Bank's addition of "instant" person to person payments is a response to consumer expectations: If mobile payments are supposed to replace cash, they should be as fast as cash.

EBay Inc. is looking at ways it can bring Venmo's mobile person-to-person payment method and the Venmo Touch mobile purchasing system into PayPal's ecosystem, eBay executives said in a conference call to discuss first-quarter earnings.

Equifax is working with the mobile payments company Zumigo to jointly develop fraud prevention software.

MasterCard has launched its MasterPass digital wallet technology in New Zealand.

Shopify is working with payment services provider 2Checkout to allow merchants to accept payments in more currencies and regions.

Square has launched an order-ahead feature and other services to boost its appeal to brick-and-mortar merchants, but history has shown that merchants can be fickle about which features they'll pay more to use.