Disruptors

Today's the day Apple unveils the successor to the iPhone 5. Here's a look at the leaks, patent applications and other rumors that shed light on the company's mobile payment plans.

PayPal has unveiled PayPal Beacon, a plug-in device for merchants that will detect when shoppers running PayPal's mobile app enter a store.

Buttercoin wanted to be a Bitcoin exchange, but after being discouraged or outright rejected by over 76 financial institutions, it chose a different path.

Software created by developers at TechCrunch's Disrupt SF Hackathon shows Glass' potential for digital transactions beyond clothing.

The launch of PayPal's revamped mobile app is a coming out party for the eBay unit to prove it's laid the foundation to be a serious offline payments player by employing strategies that differ greatly from how it achieved success as an e-commerce payments scheme.

Target has emerged as a leader in store-branded debit cards. The goal of such cards is to use data analytics and discounts to cement customers’ loyalty.

Under new rules, health insurance companies must let consumers pay their monthly premiums with general purpose prepaid debit cards.

A new outsourcing model breaks work up into tiny pieces and farms it out to large groups of freelancers, taking advantage of "cognitive surplus."

Mobile bill pay app developer Check has received $24 million in Series C investment led by Menlo Ventures, a venture capital firm that has previously funded app developers Uber and Tumblr.

A new wearable computing wristband from Canadian startup Bionym that is expected to ship in early 2014 could be used to unlock banking apps and doors.

Cloud payment processor and mobile commerce vendor i2c Inc. is providing the technology for Boom Financial's entry into Haiti with its text-messaging money transfer service.

Tradehill Inc., a Bitcoin exchange, has ended its relationship with Internet Archive Federal Credit Union—announced only a few days earlier—and has suspended trading, blaming regulatory issues.

Any new payments technology is a gamble, and many major retailers refuse to take a risk on untested technology. But small merchants are usually more willing to experiment, and a few have bravely given new payments products their first big chance.

Retail giant Target is touting its success with a debit card that poses a threat to banks, but it's unclear whether other merchants will be able to follow suit.

City Bank Texas's latest mobile update points to its greater goal of enticing customers to a lower cost channel while also solving customer pain points.

In a crowded field of Square-like vendors, the Berlin-based SumUp hopes to stand out by virtue of its executive experience, its strong partnerships and funding, and a more comprehensive role in developing its own hardware as well as its software and services.

Twitter's decision to hire a head of commerce signals that the company plans to play a significant role alongside the many companies that have sought to transform the social media site into a platform for payments.

History tells us that post-crisis reforms should increase confidence, but still allow regulated entities to innovate and prosper, all in support of a stronger economy.

Developing the Starbucks mobile payment app stands as a badge of honor in the career of Chuck Davidson, who is now the head of product for CardFree, where he continues to work alongside several of the experts who helped make the Starbucks app a massive success.

PayPal's building its move into physical stores brick by brick, and its processing partnership with TSYS is one of its largest moves to date, threatening to grab payments business away from card-issuing banks.