PreCash Inc. says consumers using its Evolve Money online and mobile application for cash bill payments will now have the option to use a debit or prepaid card.

The Merchant Customer Exchange has added Exxon Mobil, Rite Aid, Kum & Go and Giant Eagle as participating merchants in its mobile wallet.

PayPal is increasing investment in mobile systems as the electronic-payment service bets that smartphones will increasingly be used instead of cash and credit cards, President David Marcus said.

The many factors necessary for mobile commerce to succeed are finally converging at the start of the 2013 holiday shopping season.

Monitise is starting with a relatively simple mobile money deployment in Hong Kong, with plans to turn it into a major payments business throughout China.

Clinkle, the mobile payments startup that's attracted high-profile investment form Silicon Valley, has laid off 16 employees.

Singapore commuters using EZ-Link transit payment cards now have the option of adding money to those cards with a tap from a Near Field Communication-enabled smartphone.

DNB is the first bank in Norway to deploy a new Near Field Communication-based mobile payments scheme that will eventually involve most of the country's largest financial institutions.

Square has released a new mobile card reader that is meant to improve accuracy and durability.

Adyen has developed encryption software that protects payment data for consumers shopping online through desktop or mobile devices.

Many payments companies are testing Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, which has a wider range, and is considered an alternative to, Near Field Communication for executing mobile payments. BLE-based technologies are also being developed for customers to check into stores and for merchants to deliver marketing and loyalty programs. Here are few companies giving BLE and other NFC alternatives a try.

Entertainment and mobile technology company Pimovi has released CamFusion, a mobile app that enables in-app payments for content accessed by wearable computing.

Square's Jack Dorsey sparked a price war over Japanese credit-card transactions with SoftBank Corp.'s Masayoshi Son. Entrepreneurs like Yukiko Kurano are the biggest winners so far.

JPMorgan Chase is warning 465,000 holders of prepaid cash cards that their personal information may have been accessed by hackers who attacked the bank's network earlier this year.

Thailand's state-owned telecommunications provider TOT says it will launch a Near Field Communication-based mobile pay service in the country next year.

For Cyriac Roeding, CEO and co-founder of shopkick, the marriage of virtual and physical shopping has never as close as it is now.

China's central bank barred financial institutions from handling Bitcoin transactions, moving to regulate the virtual currency after an 89-fold jump in its value sparked a surge of investor interest in the country.

Billing outsourcer BillTrust has developed new invoice technology that uses streamlined processing and dispute resolution to boost businesses payments automation, a segment that has traditionally lagged consumer payments in reducing paper processing.

Clinkle, the payments startup that's generated financial backing from Silicon Valley investors and rampant speculation about its technology model, has hired a pair of Web technology veterans as it ramps up for a launch next year.

Several Canadian banks have taken on the challenge of managing and protecting their customers' usernames and passwords across banking and government sites. U.S. banks are invited to join a similar pilot starting in the U.S.