Mobile payments

While mobile snapshots are becoming a popular way to authenticate consumers, Citrus Pay is turning the idea toward merchants by developing a mobile app that will allow users to create an online store with the snap of a photo.

China is a huge but challenging market for external payments companies, and Canadian contactless payment provider Mobeewave is seeking help in the ground by partnering with the Alliance Development Group.

Bokis, a consortium of 62 small- to midsize banks in Denmark, will launch an NFC-based digital wallet this fall powered by host card emulation (HCE) that will be available to all its members, according to Nets A/S, the Denmark payments technology firm heading the wallet’s development.

Consumers show no signs of broadly embracing mobile wallets, but it’s clear from the aggressive mobile wallet plays of huge companies like Microsoft and Walmart that laying a foundation is important.

Consumers making payments to the federal government will be able to do so through the Amazon Payments digital wallet.

Bankers, fintech entrepreneurs, regulators and other financial services players gathered in New Orleans last week to discuss the future of the industry at SourceMedia's Digital Banking 2016 conference. Here are some of the highlights of the conference. For more, check out the hashtag #digibank16 on Twitter.

Barclays Africa Group has a market penetration problem.

Big banks like Canada’s RBC, Capital One and Wells Fargo are pouring resources into proprietary NFC-based digital wallets to outflank third parties like Apple, Samsung and Android and regain top-of-wallet status.

Wells Fargo is joining other members of Early Warning's clearXchange network in providing real time person-to-person payments.

Visa has had a major sponsorship role at past summer Olympics, using the setting to test new technology. This type of "global lab experiment" lets the card brand view the four years between this major athletic event as a gauge for payments advancements.