Disruptors

T-Mobile is launching a prepaid card, aiming to use mobile account access as a selling point to attract underbanked consumers.

As with any new technology, mobile wallets must earn the trust of the consumers and merchants who would use them. Many mobile payment apps may attempt to beef up security with password and PIN protection, but a few have had their security scrutinized very publicly.

BBVA Compass is testing a new drive-through concept that includes units that stream video so car-bound customers can communicate with tellers. It's the latest example of how banks are rethinking physical and digital channels.

Starbucks is reportedly storing mobile app users' passwords in a manner that makes them accessible to a hacker with access to a user's phone, creating potential security risks that could erode consumer confidence in mobile payments.

A tour of PayPal's innovation showroom offers a glimpse of the company's latest technology, how PayPal is tying together e-commerce channels, and how it intends to dominate the mobile wallet the way it has online payments.

Receipts, typically a scrap of paper many shoppers throw away, can be easily reimagined as a tool to improve customer engagement, says Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square.

Bitcoin is gaining legitimacy as an alternative to cash and card payments, but for all its popularity, the digital currency has many limitations. Here are a few.

SmartMetric Inc. is launching a Bitcoin card protected with biometric fingerprint authentication. The card can be used as offline storage for bitcoins, but in the future it might also be used for payment.

The new online savings account Dream adds to the online bank's existing savings and CD mix and comes with some twists: deposit restrictions and goal-based account tools expected to come by yearend.

SCVNGR's LevelUp expected merchants would prefer its Interchange Zero pricing for mobile payments, but many clients told the company they would prefer to pay a 2% transaction fee.

OnPoint Community Credit Union is using person-to-person payments as the foundation of building consumer comfort with mobile as a channel for money movement.

TrueCar, Tesla Motors and Uber approach auto lending from sharply different perspectives , but each, in its own way, is dragging the slow-to-adapt industry into the future.

Cloud-based wallets, QR code wallets and other software-based wallets seem to be shoving Near Field Communication hardware out of the spotlight. But reports of the death of NFC, which enables contactless payments from many mobile devices, have been greatly exaggerated.

Chirpify founder and CEO Chris Teso's five o'clock shadow and plaid shirt identify him as one of the new breed of payments entrepreneurs. His advice to newcomers: be fearless.

ISOs and agents can lose established clients and miss out on new business if they fail to offer a full complement of loans and merchant cash advances, a vendor warns.

As more payments companies seek the next big thing, they are finding that mobile payments tech is due for a makeover, and a lot more attention surrounds digital currency such as Bitcoin.

Optimize Capital Markets has created a portal to automate capitalization deals of $2 million to $20 million. But along the way, it has found investors are not willing to part with their money in a completely automated way.

The payments industry is full of big ideas that haven't always found the right audience. As we enter 2014, a few trends are bringing new relevance to some older technologies.

TipperCoin is attempting to combine two concepts that have faced strong headwinds in the past year: digital currency and Twitter-based payments.

Banks need startups to test the waters with new products and services, but startups need banks for their capital, infrastructure, large customer bases, established regulatory relationships and compliance training.