Mobile payments

As the digital age reduces the wear on physical cards, how is it that some consumers are requesting new cards more frequently?

Subway is a classic example of an analog company that needed a digital upgrade.

Starbucks has hit a mobile payments milestone, with 30% of all U.S. transactions now coming through mobile, and to smooth operations surrounding its popular Mobile Order & Pay service, the company is introducing digital-ordering specialists at its busiest stores.

A task force convened by the Federal Reserve released its evaluations last week of 16 proposals to build a faster U.S. payment system. What follows is a brief look at some of the plans that received high marks.

Snapdeal’s co-founders are resisting the latest acquisition bid from rival Flipkart Online Services Pvt. and the company’s board plans to let all shareholders vote on the offer to reach a final resolution, according to people familiar with the matter.

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.

Turning a pre-existing digital payment network into an in-store line buster has been a key play for Starbucks and Square, and Amazon is weighing in with its own app that allows its huge network of users to streamline retail experiences.

Mass transit systems have been proven as an effective way of introducing new technologies and driving adoption in many regions, but in many ways they are still vastly behind schedule.

The white-label banking platform provider Urban FT has purchased the mobile banking technology firm iParse and several of its patents.

The feature instructs consumers to follow an object on the screen with their eyes, in a randomized pattern Jumio said will be nearly impossible for fraudsters to fake.

As retailers scratch their heads to find ways to counter Amazon's ongoing disruption of their industry, investment is flowing to technology companies that meld shopping, payments and fulfillment.