PayPal has purchased StackMob, which provides a development platform for mobile payments.

As payment companies add more mobile applications to accept transactions and speed processing, authentication will become more complex, says Todd Wilkinson, CEO of Datacard, which plans to bolster its identity technology for government and financial services clients via its acquisition of Entrust.

Discover Financial Services has begun testing a mobile payment system using biometric technology at its Riverwoods, Ill., headquarters.

Online bill pay technology developed with small business users in mind is lacking. But new offerings could provide companies with greater functionality, while also helping financial institutions reduce risk and build stronger customer relationships.

Amazon has purchased GoPago, a company that enables consumers to use mobile apps to prepay for goods before picking them up at a store, according to reports.

Prepaid payment network Blackhawk is offering a selection of electronic gift codes at Coinstar's coin-counting kiosks.

Facebook has deployed a feature called Donate that allows people to contribute directly to nonprofits through the social networking site.

Mitek, having successfully promoted its imaging technology as a way to deposit checks and pay bills with a smartphone's camera, is now taking aim at retail payments.

VoiP provider Rebtel has debuted Sendly, an app that allows users to send money to prepaid mobile subscribers in more than 50 countries.

Mobile point of sale services provider I Love Velvet has purchased WeXpay, an electronic wallet company.

Mobile commerce provider Spindle and mobile payment company iPayMobil have partnered to enable merchants to offer credit.

Lemon Inc. has made several significant updates within its mobile wallet this year, moving the storage app to an actual payments-facilitating product. But to scale, Lemon needed a partner with brand recognition, which it found in LifeLock Inc.

Flint is adding a number of new features to its software-based mobile acceptance app, including invoicing, Apple Passbook support and multi-item transactions.

Many companies are already looking past the mobile phone to find the next high-tech payment device. A few companies are also equipping fashion items with Near Field Communication chips and other technology that can be repurposed by the payments industry.

Tim Hortons was quick to take advantage of the host card emulation technology available in Google's new Android KitKat mobile operating system.

BillTrust will provide access to Open Scan Technologies' Order to Cash (O2C) services in an effort to increase visibility into business payments processing.

Vodafone Germany has debuted a new mobile wallet including the Vodafone SmartPass Visa payment application.

Capital One and PushPoint are planning to launch a system that matches payments activity with other elements of the shopping process, such as a consumer's location in a store, in real time.

Wells Fargo & Co. will link its Visa consumer credit card to the Isis Mobile Wallet in what it calls the "first phase" of an agreement with the payments venture, giving Isis a prominent new supporter shortly after the wallet's nationwide launch.

LifeLock Inc., an identity theft protection provider, has purchased Lemon Inc. and its mobile wallet to absorb Lemon's features into its new LifeLock Wallet app.