Convenience for the receiver will ultimately drive mass adoption of P2P payments and give financial institutions that deploy this service a competitive advantage.

BitPay Inc., a Bitcoin payment gateway for online merchants, has created a simplified interface for consumers and added several plugins to encourage more merchants to accept the virtual currency without writing new code.

Facebook shocked the payments industry during its IPO when it revealed it already got 15% of its revenue from payments. The social network has also proven a fertile ground to other companies that have figured out how to incorporate Facebook's platform into their own offerings.

Vodafone and ICICI Bank are offering the M-Pesa mobile money service in New Delhi and Mumbai, according to reports.

Gas station owners may have the most difficult task of any retailers in preparing for mobile payments and EMV cards because of their dated systems and equipment — and because many of their customers fear that using their phones at the pump will cause fires.

PayPal has made its portable chip-and-PIN card reader, called PayPal Here, available to all merchants in the U.K.

Harris Teeter will pilot Paydiant's mobile wallet as part of its Express Lane online shopping service, starting at a grocery store location in Matthews, N.C.

Moven has contracted with online and mobile payments company Payveris to provide payment services for the financial services startup.

London-based Powa Technologies Ltd. received $76 million in investment to expand its mPowa mobile payments technology beyond the U.K.

PayPal is paying attention to locally owned stores in its initiative to support in-store payments, but the small-business segment has posed many challenges for companies that try to introduce new technology.

Motorola Mobility will phase out its use of Xoom branding for its tablet, following a trademark infringement fight with Xoom, an online remittance company.

Near Field Communication technology is regaining its momentum as a payments tool with Desjardins Group's planned mobile payments rollout.

Since becoming CEO of U.K.-based VocaLink last year, David Yates has launched a separate mobile payments unit while keeping the processor focused on speeding up payments throughout Europe.

Micros Systems, which provides services for the hospitality and retail industries, is collaborating with PayPal to provide payments technology.

Payment processor Mercury Payment Systems is collaborating with PayPal to allow Mercury's software developers, resellers and 80,000 mostly local merchant clients to accept PayPal payments in stores.

Schools are increasingly relying on digital payments for the cafeteria and activities — a trend that is proving to be fertile ground for payments technology as frantic parents seek ways to keep their kids properly fed and supplied for their education.

As check registers and passbooks fade into obscurity for a growing number of bank customers, Realex seeks to further modernize payments by putting a human face on accounts.

With another iPhone announcement expected in the next month, a recent Apple patent application for digital content gifting could provide insight into how Apple would develop Near Field Communication technology for payments.

Recognition by a market-based standards organization such as ISO, in the form of a three-letter code, would set the stage for increasing market depth and liquidity of bitcoin trading — in turn facilitating overall consumer and merchant adoption.

Youth e-commerce company Virtual Piggy will provide its payment engine to Marvelous USA, which sells video games.