Mobile payments

Google Payment, a company owned by Alphabet Inc., obtained an e-money license in Lithuania, joining a growing number of fintech firms that have secured permission from the Baltic nation to offer financial services across the European Union.

While credit cards have been around since the 1950s and debit cards introduced years later, they both have become indispensable to the modern consumer. In fact, in certain retail sectors consumers can only use payment cards or mobile payments to make a purchase.

Neither Amazon nor Starbucks could be described as a traditional retailer. But they both use their shared headquarters city as a playground for developing digital and in-store innovations that all merchants and payment companies will have to respond to the years ahead.

PayPay, a mobile payments company backed by SoftBank Group Corp., Yahoo Japan Corp. and India’s largest digital-payments company Paytm, said it’s updating its app to strengthen security after multiple complaints from users of wrongful charges.

Beyond flashy and visible mobile-driven innovation and transaction options, many executives don’t see the need and opportunity that resides behind the scenes, according to Don Halliwell, director of marketing and communications at Zafin.

If they don't have them in place already, financial services firms need to provide digital budgeting tools, mobile payment and banking services before young consumers flee to other providers, says Chris Koeneman, senior vice president of strategic solutions for MOBI.

Cross-border payment startups like TransferWise and Xoom achieved rapid market growth by enabling consumers in emerging markets to receive funds via mobile wallets, cutting out intermediaries. Now legacy remittance giants Western Union and MoneyGram are improving their own resources to send funds directly to recipients' mobile wallets.

Mobile payments technology has fallen short of expectations in major markets, particularly the U.S., where less than 10 percent of consumers routinely use devices to pay in stores — despite more than four years of aggressive development from large technology companies and banks.

Mastercard and white label payment software company Cardstream are partnering to accelerate the deployment of Mastercard’s Secure Remote Commerce (SRC)-ready Masterpass wallet and its “Pay by Bank” solution.

Germany-based Wirecard is working with Google to enable users of Wirecard’s boon mobile app to pay at any French merchant that accepts Google Pay as it becomes available in France.