Mobile payments

Banks give toasters to new customers, but what can tech companies give? The companies behind Android Pay and Samsung Pay hope to entice users with as much as $25 in gift cards (which, yes, can still be used to buy toasters).

Banks are positioned well to be the trusted digital intermediaries, especially in the business-to-business segment, but only if they stay ahead of the innovation curve.

Crowdfunding platform provider Veterans Call has launched a payment application that allows users to donate to veteran charities from their mobile phones and pay through their phone bill.

Following its promise to make mobile point of sale products a key revenue-driver for the company, Verifone Payment Systems released a new mobile card reader for independent and micro merchants.

Google Wallet was seemingly sidelined this year when Android Pay replaced it as Google’s flagship mobile payments app, but a recent update to the Wallet app shows that Google still sees potential in the aging brand.

Google's mobile wallet, Android Pay, can now be used for in-app purchases on Android devices.

UnionPay has partnered with more than 20 commercial banks to launch its QuickPass mobile wallet service in Beijing.

It can often seem that some of the biggest names in payments were established a long time ago in a galaxy far away, and today are constantly defending their empires from scrappy startups launched by digital natives.

Visa has begun rolling out the Visa Token Service in the Asia Pacific region, starting with United Overseas Bank in Singapore.

The uncertain state of the prepaid card market doesn’t faze Texas entrepreneur Houston Frost, who has relaunched the Akimbo prepaid card, a concept he’s championed since 2011.