Mobile payments

MasterCard has a few tricks up its sleeve, or rather, its golf glove.

NFC mobile payments continue to grab headlines, but to really drive uptake and ensure full market coverage, combining contactless cards with next-gen mobile banking apps is surely the right way to go for new banks.

Biometric authentication has been "replacing" passwords for a long time, but for the most part accounts still rely more on remembered credentials than physical identifiers.

The focus on the smart-home device marks the latest frontier in the ways in which banks and payment companies are testing features on cars, fridges, watches and other internet of things.

Bluetooth beacons — small nightlight-sized devices that can communicate with a mobile app as shoppers move throughout a store — may have the same potential for bank branches as they do for mega-retailers like Target Corp.

The card brand is updating the Visa Checkout online payment platform with a new button that asks users to swipe, rather than click, to initiate a payment.

Verifone's presence in the mobile point of sale market is as old as Square's, but it has had a bit more trouble reaching Square's market. This year, Verifone's strategy will be to move the goalpost — and to chop it up into smaller segments.

Nothing accelerates innovation quite like a new car. But before consumers can outfit their vehicles with James Bond gadgetry, they need a way to pay for it all from behind the wheel.

The mobile point of sale market is getting more and more crowded, even as the market's largest and most established players struggle to find footing.

Square is "betting big on Near Field Communication," but not to the point the company would consider bringing back its own Square Wallet app, CEO Jack Dorsey says.