Mobile payments

Tax compliance provider Avalara has made many connections within the payments industry to respond to merchant demand for built-in tax reporting functions at the point of sale.

Imagine that one day people from your country’s rural areas start paying with their mobiles. Would it be strange? Definitely. That would mean they are more advanced in mobile payments adoption than the majority of people living in cities, who still prefer to use plastic.

While banks struggle to get consumers to use Near Field Communication-enabled phones for mobile payments, the video game industry is having blockbuster success with NFC technology.

Barclays' April Fool's Day joke last year was a video about PayWag, a contactless payment system built into dog collars. In hindsight, maybe this wasn't a prank but an early prototype for bPay, the company's new payment-capable wristband for humans.

Expresscoin is launching a digital currency purchasing platform that the company says will offer the "personal customer service" that has been missing from the Bitcoin environment.

As Monitise debuts its new mobile design and development service, it's weighing how its clients view payments as a complement to their other business lines.

American Express Co. is entering partnerships that aggressively take aim at a very specific segment of spending: fare for taxis and other hired cars.

Just before eBay selected David Marcus to run PayPal in 2012, it named a number of executives who could have been prospects for the role. Now, as Marcus leaves to take a job at Facebook, some of these other executives may be in line to fill his shoes — but PayPal may also seek out new talent.

Israeli contactless payment technology provider On Track Innovations (oti) is expanding its reach to enable self-service payments on several fronts.

PayPal President David Marcus is leaving the eBay unit to lead Facebook's messaging products.

American Express Co. reached a deal that will allow customers of car-service firm Uber Technologies Inc. to book rides using rewards points.

Apple's plan to introduce a new Lightning connector for headphones, potentially replacing the standard 3.5mm jack, could give mobile payment companies a major hardware headache.

Mobile payments and ticketing promise a smoother process than waiting in line to purchase a paper ticket, but often, the reality is that a mobile ticket is only as good as the mobile phone's signal.

Square's new Order app allows consumers to order and pay at Square merchants before arriving at a merchant's store. The process for ordering is different for each merchant, based on the level of information they provide to Square.

LevelUp has updated its mobile payment app with a feature that empowers consumers to immediately notify the company of problems they experience with its mobile payment app.

Even though app development is considered a fast-paced environment, developers often wait a long time to receive payments, says Pollen CEO and co-founder Martin Macmillan.

Square is releasing a new service called Square Invoices, which allows merchants and other sellers to send bills to customers.

Starbucks customers in South Korea will be the first to use the coffee giant’s popular mobile payment app to place an order and pay for it before they show up at the store.

Elizabeth Buse, a former Visa executive who left the card network this year after a 16-year career with the company, has been named co-CEO of Monitise Group.

Harris and Hoole, a coffee chain supported by U.K. grocery company Tesco PLC, is accepting mobile payments at the point of sale in each of its 36 stores throughout the country.