Mobile payments

Snapchat, a photo-based messaging service, has added a payment capability based on Square Cash, Square Inc.'s person-to-person payment system.

Apple Pay's launch about a month ago was accompanied by an almost unprecedented amount of hype and media attention, but it takes more than buzz to shift the world to mobile payments, and Apple's job is far from over.

McDonald's Corp. has tested a wide range of mobile payment technology throughout the world, and its ability to do so is rooted in an old decision based as much on customer service as technology.

As Apple Pay creates more consumer and merchant awareness of mobile payments, Benefit Mobile Inc. figures the time is right to focus on enabling charitable donations from smartphones.

Mobile tech providers are racing to incorporate EMV chip-and-PIN or chip-and-signature security into their offerings. But many of these companies are taking fundamentally different approaches to linking EMV and mobile technology.

The co-founders of Mopay have officially joined the executive team of Boku, which acquired the German company last month.

New Zealand-based financial services institution Westpac has contracted Gemalto, a Dutch digital security company, to provide its mobile payment technology to Westpac's customers.

Co-branding credit card partnerships has never been smooth sailing, but competition has clearly gotten tougher amid Apple Pay's launch.

Banks and merchants are under threat to lose millions of dollars in investment in their apps by allowing them to become obsolete because they don’t provide the most desired functionality of all: Payment.

For payment technology developers, the stakes couldn't be higher as the FCC develops new rules that could support or eliminate net neutrality, a system in which Web access is equal for most users, regardless of size.

Alibaba's cooperation with Apple may start with offering Apple Pay in the Chinese market through an intermediary to skirt regulatory hurdles, Alibaba Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai told a Chinese-language news wire.

Xapo, a bitcoin startup headed by financial services entrepreneur Wences Casares, is launching its wallet app on iOS, a move that shows the company has turned some attention to ease of use.

Uber, the ubiquitous black-car company that popularized the use of mobile apps to book rides, will switch to a two-tiered payment system to continue operations in India.

Check, a mobile payments and financial management provider owned by Intuit, has completed updates to two of its mobile apps.

Square Inc. may have more incentive than other acquirers in urging merchant clients to accept EMV-chip cards, but its pricing strategy could deter some from adopting the secure technology.

There is lots of talk about mobile payments and where banks play, but the real opportunity has less to do with payments and more to do with “mobile commerce services," or all of those things banks (and merchants) can do via mobile to attract, engage, motivate and reinforce customer relationships to protect existing revenue streams and create new ones.

MasterCard has emphasized prepaid cards to replace cash as a first step to extend financial services to the underbanked, and is adding mobile technology to add more services to its financial inclusion initiative.

American Express Global Payments is adding cloud-based software from Intacct, a move that can make it easier to automate corporate payments, which still include paper-based processes.

Security passwords that have become common for e-commerce transactions and financial accounts translate poorly to mobile devices, fueling consumers' bad habits regarding weak or reused passwords.

The launch of Apple Pay last month was undoubtedly a defining moment in the evolution of mobile payments.