Mobile payments

By experimenting with palm-print hand wave transactions, Amazon is putting its resources behind another work-in-progress technology that traditional retailers will almost certainly have to invest in just to keep pace.

French mobile payments app Lydia has raised €40 million (about $45 million) in a Series B fundraising round led by Tencent Holdings, owner of WeChat Pay.

Having grown up with smartphones in hand, these digital natives crave high speed and instant results, says Wirecard's Susanne Steidl.

Fearful of being the last one standing, banks and credit unions of all sizes will become more aggressive about real-time payments — or risk getting left in the past.

The new Karma Points card donates 10% of revenue to charitable funds established by the company that help people living on the street.

Samsung's upcoming XCover Pro phone, which can accept contactless payments without add-on hardware, is the first of what Visa hopes will be many devices capable of natively handling NFC payments.

After getting a reprieve from a 2017 deadline, gas stations now have less than a year to upgrade to EMV security at the pump — and the card brands aren't showing signs that they will be willing to postpone this mandate another time.

Concerns about security and expense have dogged payments innovation for decades, and have always faded, argues Nvoicepay's Alyssa Callahan.

The NFC Forum, the global standards body and advocacy association for the use of NFC, released the specifications to improve communication speed and the ability to use NFC in areas in which "noisy radio environments" might cause interference.

The annual Consumer Electronics Show, taking place in Las Vegas, is a showcase of bizarre and revolutionary new technologies — with a few providing glimpses into the future of fintech and payments.