Mobile payments

Great service is important, but in the changing financial services landscape, credit unions aren’t likely to get top-of-wallet status from members without a digital payments strategy.

The incumbents, such as Visa, Mastercard and First Data, are prepared to compete in all segments of the market, writes Subhajit Das, a visiting research fellow at the Christensen Institute from Tata Consultancy Services.

Despite the considerable momentum behind contactless technologies such as NFC, the unloved but effective QR code continues to live on. QR's success keeps outweighing its clunkiness, winning more support from companies that might otherwise prefer newer technology.

Varo Money, an app designed for people who want to exclusively bank on their cell phones, announced Tuesday that it has filed formal applications for a national bank charter, adding another credit union competitor to the banking landscape.

Varo Money, an app designed for people who want to bank exclusively on their cellphones, announced Tuesday that it has filed formal applications for a national bank charter.

As ATMs on large bank networks increasingly use mobile phones for account access — a trend driven in part by mobile banking — non-bank ATM operators are working to enable the same features to attract mobile-savvy cash users.

Visa’s efforts to expand its mobile payments service mVisa in developing nations reached a milestone this month in Nigeria, the first country where banks are enabling cross-border payments with the QR code-based mVisa technology.

Mobile wallets have failed to excite many consumers, but Canada has an extreme case of paralysis underscoring the stark need for ongoing incentives to get consumers to change their payment habits.

The payments industry has come a long way with how it treats loyalty and rewards. Here are some of the more creative offerings to come about this year.

Citigroup is expanding its payments partnership to allow its card members to use their ThankYou rewards points for purchases at PayPal checkout in the U.S.