Mobile payments

As with many mobile apps and services, I think we underestimated the fragmentation issue. That includes consumers preferring different operating ecosystems, and also different versions of Android or iPhone hardware, according to Ankit Kumar, manager of digital payments and mobile financial services at Gemalto.

Australians' love for contactless payments is driving the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group to incorporate mobile withdrawal technology to its ATM network.

Contactless payments are a big success story in most countries around the world—including developing markets—but not in the U.S.

Even among the experts in the payments industry, people still use cash. Banks can't ignore this, according to Paul Amisano, senior vice president for enterprise digital and payments strategy at BB&T.

The Merchant Customer Exchange may not have succeeded, but there is still value to the concept that drove the retailer-driven wallet, according to Brian Crist, chief payments counsel at Uber.

Stripe has just closed a $245 million funding round that ups its value from $9 billion to $20 billion, said co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Collison. Several large new customers have also been listed on Stripe's website this week, including Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Uber Technologies Inc.

Wells Fargo exec Michelle Ziolkowski was fed up with writing checks, but her piano teacher didn't want to go digital. So Ziolkowski started tracking her check-cashing behavior.

Merchants increasingly fall short of security standards as digital commerce innovation pressures risk management.

Square’s online payments APIs and Square Invoices are adding support for Google Pay, which the mobile point of sale company hopes will streamline checkout for online stores and websites.

The variety of these new devices may seem random or experimental, but each is responding to a specific threat to Amazon's work in voice-controlled commerce.