Youth payments company Oink is partnering with Discover to add scale to Oink's efforts to adapt its online payment system for in-store use.

Smartphone commerce company LoopPay has released LoopWallet, as well as a fob that enables users to store payment credentials.

French secure-chip testing provider Fime says it has strengthened its technology for EMV and mobile payment certification through an agreement with Agilent Technologies.

PayPal has hired Danese Cooper for the new position of Head of Open Source, a role meant to improve PayPal's engagement with external software engineers.

Visa and MasterCard are adopting emerging communications technology called host card emulation (HCE), which is designed to power bank and merchant-led mobile payments apps with less reliance on phone hardware.

Amazon.com Inc. is expanding the use of its digital currency, Amazon Coins, to all apps and games in the mobile Amazon Appstore.

Bankinter plans to bring Near Field Communication mobile payments to its customers in Spain, using host card emulation (HCE) technology to support the mobile virtual card it developed last year.

American Express Co. drew from the ranks of Google Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to bolster its technology unit by hiring Brian Saluzzo and Nik Sathe.

E-commerce technology provider Payza will offer an outsourced service that allows U.S. merchants to accept card payments directly into their business bank accounts.

Mobile payments and messaging provider Infobip has added direct mobile billing connections for its network of merchants and retailers in Russia.

Mangopay has begun accepting several new currencies and offering new features to its payment system for marketplaces and crowdfunding platforms as it expands outside of Europe.

Mobile point of sale devices typically clip onto phones to allow the handsets to read card payments, but this approach is not the only option.

The U.K. mobile commerce initiative Weve has added a digital "pouch" for consumers in the U.K. to store loyalty cards and offers as the telco-owned joint venture continues to develop its product.

MasterCard Inc. and Points International Ltd. will partner to deliver more options for cardholders to redeem, exchange or trade their rewards points.

Bangkok Bank Public Co. Ltd. hopes to take advantage of Thailand's easy financial infrastructure to enable a number of new payment options, such as cross-institutional person-to-person payments made from a mobile phone or an ATM.

The Merchant Customer Exchange's mobile wallet is still taking form. The retailer-driven initiative hasn't even given its product a name in the year and a half it's been in development, but a steady stream of news about its technology and partnerships show what the fully assembled product might look like.

A bank-owned payment organization in Hong Kong will use technology from Gemalto to help it create a Near Field Communications mobile payments service.

Orange has launched its Orange Cash mobile contactless payments system this week in two French cities.

A new security update on PayPal's mobile application aims to prevent fraudsters from taking over customer accounts.

Shopping and banking on a mobile device has always been clunky, as processes designed for a full screen and keyboard have often been crushed inelegantly to fit a smartphone's much smaller screen.