Mobile payments

Australian supermarket Coles is launching a tap-and-go mobile wallet to customers this week.

Apple has launched an automated account loading feature in Japan, a product that eliminates the need for plastic gift cards and may signal the beginnings of a pure digital wallet.

First Data Corp. has added technology from Perka, its customer loyalty subsidiary, to its Clover Station point of sale tablets. This is the latest of several updates First Data has made to boost the appeal of its Clover offering.

As Square's competitors pile on features to win business from the mobile payments pioneer, the company may be seeking to one-up its rivals by adding non-payment services.

Affirm, which launched in early 2013 with a product that resembles a digital version of a charge card, is making its payment schedules more flexible in an effort to attract more merchants and consumers.

Apple's iBeacon wireless technology, already used by payment companies like LevelUp and shopkick, may soon be incorporated into Apple-branded hardware, according to a report depicting a diagram Apple submitted to the FCC for certification.

What's in a name? Many payment companies have struggled with this question, finding out too late that the name they chose sent the wrong message or was rendered unusable by situations outside the brand's control.

MasterCard and Sacombank are equipping the Ben Thanh market in Vietnam with mobile point of sale capabilities, introducing digital payments to what had been a cash only market for more than a century.

DoubleBeam, a mobile commerce solutions provider, is partnering with SK Planet Inc. to integrate its Slyde beacon-enabled shopping app into the GoPago mobile point of sale system.

If Seamless Distribution AB is going to pitch U.S. merchants on being able to duplicate the successful Starbucks mobile payment experience at their businesses, its new relationship with prepaid product provider InComm potentially provides a significant boost.

For the financial and retail industries, mobile is becoming a significant part of the strategy for delivering valuable content and services to customers. Two technologies in particular are available on many of today’s smartphones and are being looked at to enhance consumer experience: Near Field Communications (NFC) and Bluetooth low energy (BLE).

Seamless' international expansion plans have gotten a boost via a deal with the Finnish sporting goods chain store Top-Sport.

Bindo wants to combine its cloud-based iPad point of sale product with an online marketplace, similar to how Square's iPad system links merchants to Square Marketplace. This hybrid approach is meant to make Bindo more appealing to local merchants.

Barclays has experimented with a number of mobile, wearable and online payment systems in its quest to bring its payment offerings into the modern age. Through its tests and live deployments of new technology around the world, the London-based issuer has learned how to entice consumers to move beyond plastic cards.

Capital One has snatched a designer from Google's touted advanced technology and projects team to help boost the bank's mobile commerce and payments technology development.

CaixaBank has started offering a wristband that can make contactless Visa payments at more than 300,000 businesses across Spain.

Yapital, a payment technology company based in Luxembourg, is testing a feature that will allow consumers to authorize payments with their fingerprints. The technology is aimed replacing PINs that consumers use to authorize purchases though the Yapital app.

SCVNGR's LevelUp mobile wallet has updated its Android app to support Android Wear, making LevelUp one of the first payment companies to support Google's smartwatch platform.

JCB plans to expand its current J/Speedy contactless card technology to allow Japanese consumers to make cross-border payments with EMV-chip cards or through smartphones and wearable devices.

Direct carrier billing is gaining in popularity as a way to make payments on – and, increasingly, off – a smartphone. Google is the latest company to put more muscle behind the emerging payment method.