There is a surge of activity in person-to-person payments, with the biggest banks going head-to-head with technology giant Google and other significant rivals.

American Express Co. is working with VeriFone Systems to allow consumers to redeem membership rewards to pay for rides in New York City taxis.

Square's new P2P service, Square Cash, is meant to be so straightforward that you don't need an app to use it — but Square published an app anyway. The Square Cash app joins a growing suite of Square apps for merchants and consumers.

Flint has released an Android version of its swipeless mobile card acceptance product, which relies on the smartphone's embedded camera to scan an image of a card to accept payments.

Wonga, a London-based provider of short-term loans, has purchased BillPay, a Berlin-based online payment and financing platform.

Udi's, which operates a group of cafes and pizza establishments in the Denver area, just launched a customized mobile payments program with the goal of obtaining the data that is normally invisible to it when patrons pay with credit and debit cards.

GlassPay, a new Google Glass app from RedBottle Design LLC, allows consumers to make purchases with bitcoins, a prominent digital currency.

Visa and global e-commerce company Borderfree are offering free shipping from Borderfree's clients to Visa cardholders in Southeast Asia.

Homeland Stores, a grocery store chain based in Oklahoma City, wanted to digitize its plastic loyalty card without having a vendor's brand get in the way.

While digital initiatives take longer to show their effect in the company's revenue, American Express Co. is still making investments in emerging payments and prepaid cards.

Mobile software developers increasingly use common platforms for payments and other functions. And many of those developers rely on Braintree, a company eBay is purchasing for $800 million.

MasterCard Inc. has certified On Track Innovations Ltd.’s Wave Near Field Communication device, which plugs into a phone's headphone jack to allow consumers to make contactless mobile payments.

If independent sales organizations aren't willing to shift their business models in the coming years, they'll go extinct in a payments industry bustling with aggressive, agile startups that skip the middleman and go directly to the merchant.

Mobile point of sale processor payworks and European hospitality technology provider Orderman are designing mobile terminals for chip-and-PIN cards.

Square has officially launched its person-to-person payment system, Square Cash, which lets debit card users send funds by typing an email.

PayPal's plans to extend its payments business inside of stores includes technology that attempts to reduce the need for customers to wait in line at the cash register.

At 800 stores, the Checkers/Rally's fast-food chain may seem overshadowed by giants like McDonald's. But to CardFree, merchants of Checkers' size are ideal customers for its mobile payments technology.

As new mobile payment options storm the market, plastic cards refuse to bend, according to a new study of consumer habits.

Virtual Piggy will deploy Kount's fraud management technology to provide payments security.

Revel is offering PayPal’s mobile payment capabilities as an integrated service within the Revel point of sale system.