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.

While Bitcoin sometimes gets a bad rap with law enforcement officials, the police chief of Vicco, Ky. will begin getting his salary in the digital currency.

Airtag has added PayPal as a payment option for consumers using the KFC Fast Track mobile wallet to order and purchase food in advance at the fast food chain's U.K. restaurants.

CO-OP Financial Services is upgrading its Sprig digital wallet to allow broader person-to-person payments, and is also adding mobile credit and debit card control and alert features.

With a goal of speeding up delivery of Near Field Communication-enabled handsets, China Mobile Limited has purchased EMV chip-card testing capabilities from Fime, as well as received a license to begin operating a new, fourth-generation wireless network.

Mobile technology builder C-Sam has created a version of its mobile app development platform that's preconfigured with MasterPass specifications for financial institutions and processors to more easily build custom versions of MasterCard's digital wallet.

Google Wallet has undergone several major revisions since it launched and while the issues solved with its latest iteration were among its biggest hurdles, it's still too soon to declare a winner in the mobile wallet race.

If retail stores seemed a little less crowded over the holiday weekend, tablets or smartphones are likely to blame, as the volume of e-commerce payments made via mobile devices surged during what some are now calling the "Cyber Five" shopping days — from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday.

Fraud prevention provider ValidSoft has joined the Fast Identity Online Alliance to help create standards for online authentication, the company announced Dec. 3.

Online remittance provider Xoom has followed up the quick start to its mobile payment services with local partnerships to allow the company's money transfer service to work across multiple channels.

The PayPal Digital Gifts website is a new e-commerce hub that sells virtual gift cards that can only be purchased using the eBay subsidiary's digital wallet.