Economy

Alibaba needs help to build a market in the West and is openly courting cooperation with Apple and PayPal, suggesting sweeping e-commerce alliances and even acquisitions may soon follow.

A Brooklyn, N.Y., startup wants to eliminate fees long hated by ATM customers and replace the lost income with revenue from ads that play on teller-machine screens. Yet questions have been raised about whether that is easier said than done.

Acquirers are encouraging vending-machine operators to add card and mobile electronic-payment acceptance, which could represent a whole new category of transactions.

The much-anticipated launch of Apple's mobile wallet was followed by a series of minor disasters for the fledgling payment system. Apple must overcome all of these obstacles if Apple Pay is to succeed.

As the mobile point of sale market matures, more merchants will migrate from smartphones to tablets, which Roam's Scott Holt said requires device-specific changes in design and technology.

As banks struggle to make sense of their wealth of customer information, the burgeoning industry of online marketplace lending is finding novel ways to glean insights from unconventional data points.

Eugene Danilkis, CEO of fintech startup Mambu, discusses banks' efforts to finance small and medium-size enterprises in developing countries, either indirectly (by funding microfinance organizations) or directly (by creating special lending subsidiaries unencumbered by legacy processes). He also explains how microfinance has moved beyond old stereotypes of lending to "basket weavers and fruit sellers"; why banks should heed Bill Gates' financial-inclusion message; and what the U.S. can learn from London about financial innovation.

Acquirers are encouraging vending-machine operators to add card and mobile electronic-payment acceptance, which could represent a whole new category of transactions.

The "marriage" that Apple's CEO and Alibaba's founder are hinting at could create a mobile wallet with a global reach that well exceeds that of competitors in either company's home market.

An automated onboarding and underwriting tool for ISOs can capture the details of any interaction with merchants and make those details conveniently available for subsequent conversations.

The New York Department of Financial Services will likely institute an on-ramp for new Bitcoin businesses — and possibly any other kind of money transmitting startups — as a way for them to launch without being burdened by costly licensing requirements.

Apple Pay is still new to the scene, but it's already forced a number of other online and mobile wallets to change course. Some are rethinking their technology, while others are trying to find the best way to build on the buzz Apple created.

The Peterbrooke Chocolatier has a new recipe for mobile payments: it's blending Apple Pay with NCR's order-ahead and mobile point of sale technology to engage its customers in a new way.

Starbucks Corp., which now handles 16% of its U.S. sales through its mobile app, revealed today just how dominant its position has become even as it plots new features such as preordering.

The bank's partnership with a hot payments startup comes as regulators nudge the industry to speed transactions and as some who initially resisted such calls start to embrace quicker settlement.

The Northeast Acquirers Association winter conference is moving to Boston this year after a 14-year run at Mount Snow, Vt.

Apple Pay was supposed to deliver a victory blow for Near Field Communication payments, but its launch seems to be doing as much damage as good for the cause of NFC.

The power of an email blast offering merchant cash advances came as a shock to an ISO who was immediately inundated with more calls and email messages than he could handle.

Next year’s updates to the Payment Card Industry data security standards will provide retailers with better protection, but hackers will target the weaknesses of companies that don’t put in extra effort.