Mobile payments

Silicon Valley Bank and MasterCard Inc. launched the Commerce.Innovated. accelerator to find and nurture innovators in payments technology.

French terminal maker Ingenico SA and electronics giant Samsung are combining their mobile payment products to offer merchants an integrated mobile payment system.

Smartphone commerce company LoopPay has released LoopWallet, as well as a fob that enables users to store payment credentials.

French secure-chip testing provider Fime says it has strengthened its technology for EMV and mobile payment certification through an agreement with Agilent Technologies.

PayPal has hired Danese Cooper for the new position of Head of Open Source, a role meant to improve PayPal's engagement with external software engineers.

Visa and MasterCard are adopting emerging communications technology called host card emulation (HCE), which is designed to power bank and merchant-led mobile payments apps with less reliance on phone hardware.

Amazon.com Inc. is expanding the use of its digital currency, Amazon Coins, to all apps and games in the mobile Amazon Appstore.

Bankinter plans to bring Near Field Communication mobile payments to its customers in Spain, using host card emulation (HCE) technology to support the mobile virtual card it developed last year.

American Express Co. drew from the ranks of Google Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to bolster its technology unit by hiring Brian Saluzzo and Nik Sathe.

Mobile payments and messaging provider Infobip has added direct mobile billing connections for its network of merchants and retailers in Russia.

Mobile point of sale devices typically clip onto phones to allow the handsets to read card payments, but this approach is not the only option.

The U.K. mobile commerce initiative Weve has added a digital "pouch" for consumers in the U.K. to store loyalty cards and offers as the telco-owned joint venture continues to develop its product.

Bangkok Bank Public Co. Ltd. hopes to take advantage of Thailand's easy financial infrastructure to enable a number of new payment options, such as cross-institutional person-to-person payments made from a mobile phone or an ATM.

The Merchant Customer Exchange's mobile wallet is still taking form. The retailer-driven initiative hasn't even given its product a name in the year and a half it's been in development, but a steady stream of news about its technology and partnerships show what the fully assembled product might look like.

A bank-owned payment organization in Hong Kong will use technology from Gemalto to help it create a Near Field Communications mobile payments service.

Orange has launched its Orange Cash mobile contactless payments system this week in two French cities.

A new security update on PayPal's mobile application aims to prevent fraudsters from taking over customer accounts.

Shopping and banking on a mobile device has always been clunky, as processes designed for a full screen and keyboard have often been crushed inelegantly to fit a smartphone's much smaller screen.

Square's plans to install payments technology in Whole Foods stores will not hurt the processor Vantiv, CEO Charles Drucker contends.

Square Inc. has introduced a new feature to its Square Cash person-to-person payment system, allowing users to request payments from a group of people or an individual.