Mobile payments

The U.K. launch of Google's mobile wallet will have the support of Visa and MasterCard, as well as several local financial institutions. Its partners include Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank, MBNA and Nationwide Building Society.

Minneapolis' new transit deployment seems limited and even old school—it's a closed loop payment system that's only available on buses and not on the Twin Cities' expanding light rail system.

President Barack Obama is in Cuba, and Silicon Valley is tagging along for the ride.

Apple's newest iPhone, a throwback to the smaller models it sold in previous years, is designed to maintain Apple Pay's momentum as it lands in new regions.

Samsung is fond of using cash rewards to drive Samsung Pay signups, offering consumers $25 to $100 in recent months for enrolling a payment card in the handset maker's mobile wallet. But that strategy is not a fit for all card issuers, according to the fine print in the latest Samsung Pay promotion.

PayPal Holdings Inc. said an updated order-ahead function on its redesigned mobile app is helping the company win more customers in the digital wallet race.

As the white-label force behind a growing number of mobile wallets in Asia, Latin America and Europe, Mozido LLC is familiar with the limitations of building consumer awareness and usage through relatively narrow channels.

A lot of companies want to be the "Uber" of banking and payments. And it's starting to look like Uber itself wants that role as well.

Thames Card Technology Ltd. is providing the plastic payment card production for startup "challenger bank" Mondo in the U.K. to test a debit card paired with a mobile banking app.

Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India says it has launched the first Host Card Emulation-based contactless mobile wallet in India.

MasterCard has a few tricks up its sleeve, or rather, its golf glove.

NFC mobile payments continue to grab headlines, but to really drive uptake and ensure full market coverage, combining contactless cards with next-gen mobile banking apps is surely the right way to go for new banks.

Biometric authentication has been "replacing" passwords for a long time, but for the most part accounts still rely more on remembered credentials than physical identifiers.

The focus on the smart-home device marks the latest frontier in the ways in which banks and payment companies are testing features on cars, fridges, watches and other internet of things.

Bluetooth beacons — small nightlight-sized devices that can communicate with a mobile app as shoppers move throughout a store — may have the same potential for bank branches as they do for mega-retailers like Target Corp.

The card brand is updating the Visa Checkout online payment platform with a new button that asks users to swipe, rather than click, to initiate a payment.

Verifone's presence in the mobile point of sale market is as old as Square's, but it has had a bit more trouble reaching Square's market. This year, Verifone's strategy will be to move the goalpost — and to chop it up into smaller segments.

Nothing accelerates innovation quite like a new car. But before consumers can outfit their vehicles with James Bond gadgetry, they need a way to pay for it all from behind the wheel.

The mobile point of sale market is getting more and more crowded, even as the market's largest and most established players struggle to find footing.