Mobile payments

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.

Square is developing an app that allows people to place orders in advance of visits to Square merchants.

After every major Samsung product unveiling this week, PayPal was quick to say: we have an app for that.

JPMorgan Chase plans to develop a one-click checkout option for its customers when shopping online or through mobile devices.

PayPal has entered into an agreement that will allow Deutsche Telekom subscribers to make purchases and have them billed to their mobile phone account.

Swedish bank Handelsbanken plans to resell a VeriFone-built chip-and-PIN mobile card reader to enable the country's micro merchants to accept card payments through smartphones and tablets.

MasterCard, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica Deutschland, Vodafone and Trevica are partnering on a mobile payments initiative in Germany, where interoperability issues have long hampered the mobile commerce market.

PayPal will support mobile fingerprint authentication on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S5 mobile phone, enabling Samsung customers to use their fingers to log in to shop at merchants who accept PayPal.

Broadcom is making a move into mobile payments with a line of Near Field Communication chips for less expensive smartphones and wearable devices.

Accenture has launched a new mobile wallet that will include consumer analytics and data capabilities, allowing its clients to handle payments and create personalized offers.

Activist investor Carl Icahn, who last month proposed that eBay Inc. spin off its PayPal unit and nominated two employees to the board, criticized the online marketplace for "lapses" in corporate governance and asked shareholders to vote in favor of the split.

Forbes Media signed a licensing agreement with Lotaris that will allow the Swiss technology company the rights to the name Forbes Digital Commerce.