Mobile payments

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.

Leaf, a provider of tablets for payments, has hired several executives including a director at Heartland Payment Systems, which recently invested in the startup.

VerifyValid is offering businesses and consumers a mobile application that enables users to write, approve, sign, receive and deposit checks from an iOS device.

Payments played a major role in the 2014 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Here are some of the biggest announcements that came out during the conference, and a few from just before or afterwards that were no less important to the mobile payments community.

Cellum, a mobile commerce provider, has integrated MasterCard's MasterPass digital wallet with its own mobile wallet offering, OTPay, making it the first third-party in Europe to integrate MasterPass.

Dash Software LLC, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based mobile payment provider that targets restaurants and bars, has raised $1.2 million in investment to launch its updated iPhone app in Manhattan.

The Dutch startup Eaze introduced a "Nod to Pay" app for Google Glass that uses the headset's camera and ability to sense motion to enable Bitcoin payments.

Revel Systems and Index are partnering to bring the kind of personalized consumer messaging that's common in e-commerce to the countertops of retail stores.

IKaaz is launching a Near Field Communication mobile payments platform in Nigeria to take advantage of the proliferation of mobile devices locally and in other nations in Africa.

Square has purchased BookFresh, a company that sells booking and appointment management technology to merchants.