Mobile payments

With Visa Inc. set to merge with Visa Europe, the U.S. company stands to benefit from the experience its London-based counterpart has in mobile and digital payments. It could also supercharge these projects with added resources.

Point-of-sale payment provider payworks has released a white-label software development kit (SDK) that outside parties can use to develop mobile point of sale services.

Unlike Rite Aid and CVS pharmacies, which cut off contactless Near Field Communication (NFC) payments when Apple Pay launched in October of 2014, Walgreens never bucked the Apple Pay trend and did not take long to start accepting transactions from Apple's mobile pay service.

Digital payment provider Mozido will provide the technology behind the Deutsche Telekom AG mobile wallet in Germany.

Mobile payment initiatives in Canada are adding perks such as shopper loyalty programs, which can help differentiate the bank and carrier-branded mobile wallets when Apple Pay arrives.

In what could be seen as another salvo in the battle between payments and financial services 'disruptors' and more traditional financial institutions, five large technology companies — Google, Amazon, Apple, PayPal and Intuit — have formed a lobbying and advocacy group.

Mobile commerce provider P97 is partnering with SAP Vehicles Network to include its fuel payment platform with SAP's cloud-based automobile operating system.

By dropping out of the mobile card reader business, Amazon is focusing on the one-click Pay with Amazon app and further embedding payments into its customer relationship management.

Financial services technology company Fiserv and bank-owned risk management provider Early Warning are partnering to add scale for deposit accounts and bill payment services.

Mobile payments provider iZettle has expanded into Italy, where it will offer its free mobile card reader to small merchants as well as its wireless contactless payment acceptance device.