Mobile wallets

Google Wallet may have passed the in-store and in-app payments baton to Android Pay late in 2015, but it has simplified its person-to-person payment capabilities by extending its Gmail integration to Android phones.

The technology from MCX's CurrentC wallet, which never formally launched, will get new life with Chase Pay, which debuted in 2016 with Starbucks, Best Buy and commitments from MCX members such as Walmart.

The move may prove particularly helpful in reaching rural parts of India, where the latest smartphone technology has not arrived.

The steady march of smartphone technology makes mobile wallet adoption seem inevitable, but consumers still need convincing.

Bank of the West waited until the fall of 2016—many months longer than most banks—to offer its customers any mobile wallet. And when it did finally join the mobile wallet craze, it went all in.

The Most Influential Women in Payments are the ones taking risks with new ideas and investments, and developing the technology that will forever change the way people handle money. Not only do they set an example for their peers, they are unafraid to learn from newcomers and are diligent about encouraging a freshness and diversity of ideas.

Digital transactions tied to travel are growing quickly, putting pressure on airlines to support third party mobile wallets and other e-commerce options.

London-based Prepaid Financial Services (PFS) has purchased Malta-based financial services software development company Spectre Technologies.

India's latest government-supported payments initiative, Bharat QR, officially launched on Monday, aiming to provide an interoperable mobile payments platform linking small merchants and consumers across channels via several major card payment networks.

The attack goes after the social network customer service channels for issuers and other financial services, and is hard for consumers to spot.

A consortium of 106 Norwegian banks are taking over Vipps, the mobile payments service DNB Group launched that supports person-to-person, mobile, online and in-store payments across Norway.

As chat technology advances, making a purchase could be as easy as typing "Buy, Robot." Several banks and fintech companies are developing ways to advance chatbots for commerce and customer service.

The story of MPESA, Kenya’s mobile money system, and how it came to partner with banks to give all people access to financial services.

Now that the holiday sales rush is over, merchants are starting to look more closely at game-changing sales models like Amazon Go as models to reinvent their own point of sale.

After testing mobile order-and-pay at Tim Hortons cafes and Burger King restaurants for nearly two months, Restaurant Brands International is preparing to launch the app throughout Canada in the spring.

As technology evolves, payment capabilities become more deeply embedded, becoming practically invisible to the end user. This concept works already in specific use cases such as Uber, and many companies have yearned to implement a hands-free payment experience for all of retail.

Traditional brick & mortar stores must upgrade and innovate their experiences to again become destinations in their own right in order to lure back spoiled online shoppers.

People are warming up to mobile payment apps like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, but concerns over fraud and ID theft could still pose headwinds.

The chip card migration took up a lot of merchants' energy over the past couple of years. As chip cards mature, merchants can and should turn to the variety of new payment options in the year ahead.

The third party wallets and mobile point of sale systems are advancing, making the next year the right time for merchants to work on strategies to improve user experience at checkout.