Mobile payments

Consumers are using retailer discounts linked to their payment cards, but banks and merchants have to simplify the deals and make sure their customers are aware of them.

Isis and Google have been very publicly testing their mobile wallets, exposing the developing technology to harsh scrutiny, and both companies say their hardships are about to pay off.

The Merchant Customer Exchange has signed many of the biggest names in retail, but it has yet to release its mobile wallet — and it asks merchants not to act hastily as they see other options clutter the market.

First Data's acquisition of marketing specialist Perka not only ups First Data's game in the loyalty space, it's also another sign that processors are willing to open their own wallets to ad digital expertise to woo merchants.

Square Inc. has added American Express and JCB credit card acceptance in Canada, expanding its payment options a year after launching in the country.

MasterCard's subsidiary DataCash is adding mobile heft to its merchant acquisition technology through a partnership with Shopgate.

Samsung is broadening its mobile wallet through new partnerships with companies in transportation, coupons and hospitality.

Merchant Warehouse is trying make the differences between competing mobile payments technology – such as Near Field Communication chips and QR codes – invisible to merchants.

Stockholm's homeless magazine vendors no longer need to ask if you can spare any krona. They take cards.

Digital content providers will have more options to accept payments through Live Gamer Inc.'s Pay+ product.

Wells Fargo, which was one of the first banks to offer mobile banking apps to business customers in 2007, has been making some updates. The site allows clients to divide tasks across different people — one person might initiate a payment template, another person may make a payment for that template, and a third might approve the payment, for instance.

Intuit is experimenting with payments applications for Google Glass, smartwatches and fitness bands.

Payfone Inc., a provider of mobile- phone security, is raising $10 million from Early Warning Services LLC, a provider of fraud-detection tools for banks and financial-services companies.

Hong Kong-based MPayMe has every intention of taking its Znap mobile commerce app to the U.S., but doesn't want to be categorized as just another mobile payments option.

The payments industry is facing pressure from outside companies that are toppling many preconceptions about how payments should work. But industry veterans are fighting back, and they shared their strategies at SourceMedia's 2013 ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum.

Prepaid card service provider InComm has launched a new product that enables payment companies to deliver loyalty, mobile wallet and coupons without a reliance on hardware.

CU Wallet has added 10 new credit union partners since the initiative's September unveiling, for a total of 25 credit unions representing 3 million members across 17 states.

Flint has raised $6 million to expand its staff and boost development of its mobile payments application.

LevelUp is launching a "connected app" technology that lets merchants tap into its mobile payment system for online commerce and a variety of other uses.

The newest member of the European Union (as of July), the Republic of Croatia is also relatively new to Near Field Communication-based mobile payments, which the nation's transit and mobile companies began publicly testing this year.