Mobile payments

Square's updated mobile card reader adds a lot of new technology, but its omissions speak volumes about the company's strategy.

State financial regulators have received few applications for licensing Bitcoin businesses even as they've handled many inquiries about them, according to David Cotney, the commissioner of banks in Massachusetts.

PreCash Inc. says consumers using its Evolve Money online and mobile application for cash bill payments will now have the option to use a debit or prepaid card.

The Merchant Customer Exchange has added Exxon Mobil, Rite Aid, Kum & Go and Giant Eagle as participating merchants in its mobile wallet.

PayPal is increasing investment in mobile systems as the electronic-payment service bets that smartphones will increasingly be used instead of cash and credit cards, President David Marcus said.

The many factors necessary for mobile commerce to succeed are finally converging at the start of the 2013 holiday shopping season.

Monitise is starting with a relatively simple mobile money deployment in Hong Kong, with plans to turn it into a major payments business throughout China.

Clinkle, the mobile payments startup that's attracted high-profile investment form Silicon Valley, has laid off 16 employees.

Singapore commuters using EZ-Link transit payment cards now have the option of adding money to those cards with a tap from a Near Field Communication-enabled smartphone.

DNB is the first bank in Norway to deploy a new Near Field Communication-based mobile payments scheme that will eventually involve most of the country's largest financial institutions.

Square has released a new mobile card reader that is meant to improve accuracy and durability.

Adyen has developed encryption software that protects payment data for consumers shopping online through desktop or mobile devices.

Many payments companies are testing Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, which has a wider range, and is considered an alternative to, Near Field Communication for executing mobile payments. BLE-based technologies are also being developed for customers to check into stores and for merchants to deliver marketing and loyalty programs. Here are few companies giving BLE and other NFC alternatives a try.

Entertainment and mobile technology company Pimovi has released CamFusion, a mobile app that enables in-app payments for content accessed by wearable computing.

Square's Jack Dorsey sparked a price war over Japanese credit-card transactions with SoftBank Corp.'s Masayoshi Son. Entrepreneurs like Yukiko Kurano are the biggest winners so far.

Thailand's state-owned telecommunications provider TOT says it will launch a Near Field Communication-based mobile pay service in the country next year.

For Cyriac Roeding, CEO and co-founder of shopkick, the marriage of virtual and physical shopping has never as close as it is now.

Airtag has added PayPal as a payment option for consumers using the KFC Fast Track mobile wallet to order and purchase food in advance at the fast food chain's U.K. restaurants.

CO-OP Financial Services is upgrading its Sprig digital wallet to allow broader person-to-person payments, and is also adding mobile credit and debit card control and alert features.

With a goal of speeding up delivery of Near Field Communication-enabled handsets, China Mobile Limited has purchased EMV chip-card testing capabilities from Fime, as well as received a license to begin operating a new, fourth-generation wireless network.