Disruptors

The PayVest event in New York, presented by PaymentsSource, American Banker and NYPAY, brought together many key players in emerging payments and technology. Many of them are taking different paths to the future.

PayPal increased its presence in Australian bars, cafes and restaurants today by securing agreements with hospitality technology companies EatNow, OrderMate and Beat the Q.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

Green Dot Corp.'s GoBank account is being featured on Lifetime's Project Runway.

Innovations from nonbanks will need a platform to provide distribution and the ability to scale quickly. Smart bankers will partner with startups to provide together what neither could do alone.

DeviceFidelity, which has spent years supporting hardware-based mobile payment systems with the likes of Visa and MasterCard, is reporting success in devoting more attention to the software-based aspects of its moneto wallet.

In supporting the Square Wallet as a mobile payment option for its customers, U.S. Bank is taking a step that other financial institutions might view as embracing a competitor.

Banks need to have an open mind when evaluating disruptive mobile technologies and the developers behind them, says Sergi Herrero, the vice president of business development, payments and mobile finance at BNP Paribas and CEO of its L'Atelier North America division.

Royal Bank of Canada chose to store data in the cloud, rather than use the mobile phone's secure element, in a mobile payment system it plans to launch this year.

After failing to respond to customer demand and missing tectonic shifts in money transmission and online and mobile payments, banks have an opportunity in the emerging area of cryptographic money.

The Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) has hired Dekkers Davidson to be its CEO. Davidson was most recently a managing director at Barclaycard US.

Three weeks after completing a mobile payment development agreement with China Mobile, the China UnionPay card brand has signed on eight banks to launch a contactless mobile payment system in Shanghai.

After years of government and telco-backed testing of contactless mobile payments in France, a major bank is ready to provide a significant boost to the country's Near Field Communication project.

PayPal and its parent eBay each expect $20 billion in mobile commerce and payment volume this year, eBay CEO John Donahoe says.

Australian startup Pin Payments has acquired billing technology and the global customer base of a U.S. company to continue its push to provide developers with software that handles credit card acceptance online.

Financial Prepaid Services (PFS), a MasterCard prepaid partner, has introduced the SmartPayCard Prepaid MasterCard in Slovenia, the first domestically issued prepaid MasterCard in that country.

Shopzilla, a technology company that manages a portfolio of shopping, product comparison and coupon websites, is expanding its mobile payments capabilities by acquiring startup Zappli.

Companies that provide on-demand, cross-account control and recommendations are best positioned to serve evolving consumer behavior. Banks that don’t get ahead of this shift could be relegated to the role of back-end infrastructure provider.

Zapp, a new company allowing consumers to link their mobile phone numbers to their bank account to make peer-to-peer payments, announced its system will be built on Oracle technology.

Payvia is looking to burst through the traditional mobile funds transfer model in emerging markets by adding a wide range of digital services and new forms of content.