Disruptors

Isis, the mobile wallet venture of AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile, has activated an average of 20,000 new mobile wallets per day in the past 30 days.

Square has removed its cloud-based Wallet app from the Apple iTunes and Google Play stores, apparently to make room for a new app called Square Order.

The car phone may be a relic of a bygone era, but more automobile and parking companies are looking for ways to put the mobile phone back in the driver's seat. And in many cases, payments are making the connection.

The explosion of startups developing payment tools hasn't ceased, and simple consumer mobile wallets are starting to make way for products suitable for large corporations.

Longtime friends and business partners Alex Charfen and Price Givens have formally launched BitcoinWallet.com, which they plan to market as a social, consumer-friendly and transparent digital currency wallet.

Alternative lenders, once considered competitive threats, are becoming allies for some banks. BBVA Compass now pitches its clients on OnDeck loans in the hopes of better retaining small-business customers.

As mobile devices become more integral to consumers’ lives, they present more opportunities for interaction with banks, payment companies and merchants. Here are a few companies that are pushing mobile technology into the future.

Bitcoin ATM provider Robocoin is touting its ATMs as bank branches after launching an online banking platform, Robocoin Bank.

Facebook's payment system has processed $3 billion in transactions for developers, with 100 of its developers making over $1 million a year through Facebook.

Key decision makers in the payments industry recently gathered for SourceMedia's 2014 Card Forum and Expo. They discussed the trends shaping the industry and their own strategies for surviving the challenges ahead. Here are a few highlights.

Square has launched an order-ahead feature and other services to boost its appeal to brick-and-mortar merchants, but history has shown that merchants can be fickle about which features they'll pay more to use.

Biometric authentication company NXT-ID will soon roll out a wallet that is designed to digitally store payment cards without a mobile phone.

PayPal and the mobile technology provider QikServe are working to enable U.K. hospitality businesses to accept orders and payments through the PayPal smartphone app.

American Express' Serve prepaid account has its roots as a digital wallet, but the card issuer is finding many of its enrollments are coming through a very non-digital process: in-person activations at mobile phone stores.

Biometric technology could eliminate the need to carry a payment card or even a smartphone by allowing users to authorize payments with a fingerprint, handprint, face or retina scan. But the technology has had a rocky past, and each new product comes with new quirks.

Walmart's new "Walmart-2-Walmart" transfer service will enable consumers to send money to each other by using the retail chain's store network.

Mobile wallets and mobile point of sale systems have tried many tactics to win over merchants by cutting costs. Some vendors have been extremely inventive in how they push cheaper payment options.

More companies are accepting "altcoins" such as Litecoin and Dogecoin in addition to the more common Bitcoin, showing that even silly currencies based on Internet memes can open merchants to new markets of consumers.

Online small business lender Kabbage has received $270 million in financing from institutional investors.

Walmart has long been as much a force in financial services as it has been in retail. Here are some of ways Walmart and its executives have shaped - and challenged - the payments industry.