Digital payments have been the primary enabler of new financial services in Africa, as evidenced by the M-PESA-driven development of an entire financial ecosystem in Kenya. Further south, MTM MobileMoney has developed an electronic commerce payments system that enables debit payments, which should decrease seller discomfort with the credit-based digital commerce that has prevailed in that country.

One of the most significant challenges to widespread adoption of Near Field Communication-enabled mobile payments has been determining how the card brands, issuers, mobile operators and handset manufacturers will divvy up transaction revenues.

To help distribute its Serve digital payment and wallet service, American Express Co. on Aug. 1 announced a deal in which Verizon Wireless will integrate the platform into many of its mobile phones and tablets.

While the media, analysts and other industry observers all devote enormous amounts of time and attention to mobile banking and mobile payment developments, of which there seem to be new several new ones each day, there’s a quieter channel change going on that’s received little attention. That is the growth in online banking.

Spend some time in Apple's App Store browsing the free online banking apps for the iPad, and you see a quite a few iPhone apps masquerading as iPad apps, failing to take advantage of the iPad's bigger screen and ability to host more sophisticated graphics.

Observers have speculated that now that ISIS has signed on card networks Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express to work with its telecom members AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon on mobile payments, it will muscle out competing scheme Google Wallet. To date, Google has signed on one card network, MasterCard, and one telecom operator, Sprint, as well as Citi, First Data and sixteen merchants as tenant partners.

Suvidha Starnet Pvt. Ltd. will invest more than 5 billion rupees (US$113 million or 80 million euros) to expand the operations of its Beam mobile-wallet service, a sign of the growing confidence in India’s mobile-payments market.

Varying opinions exist on how quickly mobile payments will grow in the U.S., but payments executives generally believe the technology could become a mainstream option for purchasing goods and services within 36 months, new survey data suggest.

The smartphone market is maturing rapidly, but banks risk getting left behind because a growing number of users consider the channel to be unsafe for financial transactions.

USAA has already processed nearly $4 billion in mobile banking transactions in the two years it has offered its Deposit@Mobile smartphone app. The company is now expanding this service, which lets customers deposit checks by snapping pictures of them with their mobile device, to the iPad 2 and plotting a new wave of digital banking products.

Two-year-old mobile payment startup Dwolla has gone from zero to $1 million per day in transactions.

Buoyed by the fast uptake of smartphones and tablets in the country, First National Bank Ltd. says it has become the first financial institution in South Africa to offer a mobile-banking application to its customers.

Though contactless payments have long been advertised for their ease of use, recent trials have departed from that premise. Some banks are putting the focus back on simplicity — and making payments as easy as a flick of the wrist.

As the hype for widespread Near Field Communication-enabled mobile payments continues to heat up, eBay Inc.’s CEO doused some cold water on the concept, suggesting instead that large merchants will resist the unproven technology.

Mobile payments will surpass 141.1 million users worldwide this year, a 38.2% increase from 102.1 million users in 2010, according to Gartner estimates released July 21. Worldwide mobile payment sales volume is forecast to total $86.1 billion, up 75.9% from 2010 volume of $48.9 billion.

Giftango Corp. wants to give merchants a head start on the mobile-wallet age by placing two-dimensional barcodes on the back of their proprietary, closed-loop gift cards to enable consumers to convert the plastic to a digital format via a smartphone camera, among other capabilities.

The biggest trend in merchant acquiring this year is a concentration on developing and selling mobile card acceptance to micromerchants, a new report suggests.

Isis, the wireless carrier-led mobile-payments venture, just crossed off a relatively small but integral item on its to-do list in signing Visa Inc., American Express Co. and MasterCard Worldwide to its system.

Isis, the mobile carrier-led mobile payments venture that initially planned to compete against incumbent payment networks, now has formed relationships with them, it announced July 19.

U.S. Bancorp has increased its mobile-banking options for prepaid card customers.