Mobile payments

McDonald's customers throughout Sweden can now pay for their meals with their phone using Seamless' QR code-based mobile wallet, SEQR, from within the McDonald's app.

PayPal has added 15 partners to its Startup Blueprint program, expanding the network's reach to 5,000 startups.

First Data Corp. has appointed Frank Bisignano as the Atlanta-based company's chairman, adding to his role as chief executive officer.

EBay has been adamant that its auction and payments businesses are best kept united, but if activist investor Carl Icahn succeeds in his mission to split off PayPal, eBay probably would not exit the payments business completely.

Chase Merchant Services has developed technology that could have helped its parent company, JPMorgan Chase, deal with the hefty task of reissuing 2 million cards in the wake of the massive Target data breach.

Beacons, or Bluetooth Low Energy transmitters, are seeing a burst in popularity as components of mobile payment systems. The devices, which can be roughly the size and shape of a nightlight, allow retailers to detect a mobile app user's presence in the store.

Clinkle Corp., a San Francisco startup that specializes in mobile transactions, has appointed Josh Brewer as its vice president of design.

Wirecard, based in Munich, Germany, is supporting mobile ticketing services from sunhill technologies GmbH, which allows motorists to pay for parking from a smartphone.

A new partnership between online shopping service provider Billeo and mobile billing firm Danal aims to give smartphone shoppers fewer hoops to jump through when making a purchase.

Foodler, a food ordering service, is one of the first to build on top of the "connected apps" technology recently added to the LevelUp mobile wallet.

As Isis shifts its marketing into high gear, the mobile wallet venture is positioning card issuers as vital to driving adoption of its app.

A new loyalty feature in NCR Corp.'s Silver point of sale system for iPads aims to help small businesses develop and manage customer rewards programs.

Mobile payments startup CardFree and processor Mercury Payment Systems have entered a partnership to provide their clients with a broader range of services.

New Media Insight Group and Loop are promoting different types of mobile payment technology designed to avoid interoperability issues with current payment terminals.

Powa Technologies has launched a system that enables shoppers to respond to in-store advertisements by using their smartphones to buy the advertised product.

When Apple makes its long-awaited plunge into mobile payments, it is more likely to create a closed system for Apple customers than a truly open mobile wallet for all consumers, a new study from Celent says.

As consumer preferences shift, billers must have the resources to deal with the growing demand to pay bills on a mobile device, according to a recent study by the technology vendor Fiserv.

The Nigerian mobile payments company Teasy Mobile is expanding its range of services through a partnership with VeriFone Mobile, a joint venture of payment terminal maker VeriFone and mobile money provider Mobilis Networks.

Mobile payment and marketing company Mozido has acquired StickyStreet, which creates and manages customer loyalty programs, for an undisclosed price.

Payments innovation comes quickly, and often from outside the banking industry, leading Associated Bank to create a special procedure to monitor the tech market and customer preferences.