Mobile payments

Two payments industry veterans have come up with a way to make mobile phones and terminals communicate wirelessly without a conventional wireless or Near Field Communication signal.

U.S. Bank and Monitise are partnering to develop mobile shopping technology, including product selection and instant checkout.

DataCash, a MasterCard subsidiary, will add Swiff's mobile point of sale technology to DataCash's range of processing and risk management services.

ShopKeep POS has hired Drew Schwartz as vice president of product management and David Herzog as director of business development for the company's channel business.

CU Wallet has partnered with Paydiant, DoubleBeam and CheckAlt to power components of its credit union-focused mobile wallet.

PayPal is developing a new checkout process for its mobile app, allowing users to scan a QR code or type a PIN at the point of sale to authenticate purchases made with its cloud-based mobile payment app.

Wired is deploying MasterCard technology that is designed to allow readers to purchase items directly from advertising and editorial content.

Credit and debit card payments at vending machines could present a whole new realm of opportunity for independent sales organizations.

London-based Proxama Plc will help mobile payment venture Isis develop its mobile wallet app for use on Blackberry 10 devices.

Nearly a year after making its mobile card reader available in Canada, Square Inc. has decided to locate a permanent office in the country.

South Korean mobile payment provider Danal will partner with biometric technology provider Crucialtec to develop an app for mobile payments in South Korea, and eventually in China and the U.S.

Mobile commerce provider CashStar Inc. has named Ben Kaplan as its new president and CEO.

To adapt to changes in the payments industry, Ceridian, a Minneapolis-based human resources, payroll and payment card company, has split its payments business from its human capital management unit.

Visa, MasterCard and American Express are seeking ways to replace account numbers for digital payments. As they research possibilities, they can learn from the many existing and developing technologies that already accomplish much of what the card networks want.

The mobile payments market is overrun with companies offering clip-on card readers in a variety of shapes and sizes. Tantrum Street is betting that it can offer the same service without any add-on hardware at all.

An ISO based in Southern California is using LeafPresenter point-of-sale tablets to differentiate itself from competitors and save money for merchants.

The mobile carrier Sprint is launching Pinsight Touch, a national, open platform for securely storing and accessing credentials on a mobile device.

Subway sandwich shops are using Paydiant's mobile payments, offers and loyalty platform as part of the restaurant chain's mobile wallet app, which it plans to launch this year.

The original iPhone revolutionized consumer technology and breathed life into the market for mobile payments — but the newest iPhone's most futuristic feature may signal a growing problem for banks and card networks.

MasterCard is adapting its rewards technology to better suit a world that's swimming in smartphones and abundant in app developers.