Mobile payments

Paytm’s decision to open its own app store after Google forced developers to use its billing system was a predictable move, as is the potential for fintechs to steal payment volume from the technology giants.

Parking payments have long been a pain point for many motorists, but it's a category that has also resisted a shift to mobile or digital payments in many regions.

Payments technology provider Ingenico is launching a platform for vending operators to enable faster payments and management of their unattended machines.

Argentina’s Ualá, the mobile payments startup backed by heavyweight billionaire investors George Soros and Steve Cohen, is launching its prepaid card operations in Mexico.

For invisible payments to gain mass consumer adoption, there are several cultural and logistical barriers that retailers and the payment industry must consider first, says PPRO's Matt Jackson.

Mastercard is making the much-admired Apple Card-like experience—nearly instant access to a payment card issued on the spot through a mobile device—available through mainstream and digital card processors.

Burger King envisions a future in which the only thing its patrons will touch is their actual food, a redesign acknowledging 2020’s emergency workarounds have permanently shifted how people engage businesses and gained habits that go beyond their fear of spreading germs.

COVID-19 has accelerated changes in payments behavior that would otherwise have taken years to occur, laying the foundation for global expansion post-pandemic. But for different parts of the world, this digital transformation had very different outcomes.

Mercari Inc. wants to become the top provider of mobile payments in Japan even as its biggest rivals join forces, but that ambition is second to making the business profitable.

The humble QR code — invented for automobile manufacturing in 1994 — had been on the rise as a payment method for many years, but the pandemic expanded its use in the U.S. in some unforeseen ways.

Ant Group was dealt another blow by more regulations to contain risks in the country’s burgeoning online lending industry as Jack Ma’s financial technology giant prepares for its initial public offering.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced retailers and consumers alike to consider the benefits of shopping via a mobile app, providers of shopping and loyalty apps were seeking partnerships with security vendors to deploy fraud prevention technology.

Apple's legal dispute with Epic Games, the publisher of Fortnite, has exposed a potential nuclear option that the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant can use against any company that sells online.

Besides providing a safe, sanitary no-touch payment option for consumers, there are other advantages to contactless payments, such as line-busting, says Todd Barstow, vice president of payment solutions for GK Software USA.

Many of the changes on the horizon were inevitable, but the pandemic has accelerated the shift to digital payments and finance, forcing banks to reevaluate their models and pivot toward faster technology adoption.

The fintech and the Minnesota bank it acquired last week, renamed Mid-Central National Bank, intend to pioneer a new method of storing and moving money for consumers.

Donor management provider Pushpay has added new software that will help churches target donations through digital channels while providing more interactions and communication within congregations.

Walmart’s membership service undercuts Amazon Prime on price and offers myriad perks, including access to streamlined checkout and deliveries — two areas where Walmart has struggled in the past.

The retailers seeing exponential growth are the ones who have tailored and localized their payments offering to a global audience, says PPRO's Steve Villegas.

Close collaboration between leading payment innovators and regulators could help regulators better understand the direction the industry is headed, says Arkose Labs' Vanita Pandey.