Disruptors

Payleven's EMV-chip mobile card reader has found a spot on Apple Inc.'s retail shelves in Europe and on the company's website.

A young company called Bionym is testing a wristband that it says will authenticate online and mobile banking customers through a quick electrocardiogram.

Mike Passilla, JPMorgan Chase's new merchant services boss, didn't take a sledge hammer to the digital payment startups that are chewing away at incumbent payments companies, but his message was clear—Chase is one of the biggest guys on the block, and it plans to use its data and technology heft to win in the merchant acquiring game.

In an increasingly crowded mobile card reader market, American Express Co. and Groupon have given a double-digit million euro investment to SumUp.

Vesta Corp. wants to provide the wallet that mobile operators would use to offer core financial services to underbanked customers through their prepaid mobile phones.

Google is adding a Chrome Wallet App to allow payments within apps that run in Google's Chrome browser.

Because Bitcoin transactions are virtually instant, free and near-anonymous, charitable organizations are collecting and distributing donations in bitcoin.

Indiana's Centier Bank has triggered a new source of payments volume by giving consumers new debit cards in three minutes.

Bitcoin has had as much bad publicity as good in recent months. But even its setbacks have served to strengthen the community that supports the fledgling alternative currency.

Phillips 66 has joined the retailer-driven Merchant Customer Exchange mobile payments and commerce initiative, the Houston-based gas station chain announced May 23. Phillips 66 also operates Conoco stations. The company joins MCX only two weeks after the mobile payment venture added another petroleum provider, Pacific Convenience & Fuels LLC.

Charge Anywhere LLC will have gateway software available when small U.S. merchants need to accept EMV-chip card payments with their smartphones.

Blaze Mobile is developing a new Near Field Communication mobile phone attachment that attempts to build a more open mobile wallet by allowing consumers to choose from a series of payment accounts.

ZooZ is one several companies building new technology that attempts to improve the integration between marketing and mobile payments.

Square announced expansion into Japan with updated Register features today, after seeing two executives, Alyssa Cutright and Alex Petrov, leave the mobile payments company.

AnywhereCommerce is introducing a card reader about the size of a Zippo lighter that plugs into the audio jacks of mobile devices to accept both magnetic-stripe and chip-and-signature EMV payment cards.

A turn towards small local Bitcoin exchanges could keep the digital currency out of trouble while preserving the self-sufficient ethos of the Bitcoin community.

Sprint's Boost Mobile prepaid phone service developed a mobile wallet as a way to provide financial services for its underbanked target audience.

Attendees at the Bitcoin2013 conference were excited about the technology's potential to disrupt the payments business – specifically micropayments, international remittances and charitable giving.

EBay Inc. said PayPal will be available in 2 million retail stores this year as it takes on Square Inc. and Intuit Inc. in the market for mobile payments.