Online payments

As Square's competitors pile on features to win business from the mobile payments pioneer, the company may be seeking to one-up its rivals by adding non-payment services.

The alternative payments provider Dwolla insists that regulating Internet traffic will hurt startups, and it is among a group of companies that will argue this point before the Federal Communications Commission on July 15.

Visa has partnered with international e-commerce company Borderfree to promote shopping at U.S. merchants by customers in the Middle East, extending a partnership that began last year with a focus on Southeast Asia.

What's in a name? Many payment companies have struggled with this question, finding out too late that the name they chose sent the wrong message or was rendered unusable by situations outside the brand's control.

Oink is partnering with Optimal Payments to provide an payments option for products purchased online.

In Ireland, credit unions are speeding up the launch of their electronic payment alternatives and working with Visa and MasterCard to offer debit cards to compete more aggressively with local banks.

Barclays has experimented with a number of mobile, wearable and online payment systems in its quest to bring its payment offerings into the modern age. Through its tests and live deployments of new technology around the world, the London-based issuer has learned how to entice consumers to move beyond plastic cards.

Facebook has expanded its relationship with payments provider Braintree, which is part of eBay's PayPal, to power a program for mobile application developers.

Virtual credit cards, which have struggled with adoption in other regions, are picking up steam in India as a means to combat online fraud.

JCB plans to expand its current J/Speedy contactless card technology to allow Japanese consumers to make cross-border payments with EMV-chip cards or through smartphones and wearable devices.

Newegg's recent acceptance of Bitcoin is just the latest of the online electronics retailer's many digital payment options. Its tech-savvy audience demands digital currency and digital wallets, and accommodating these needs is critical to Newegg's expansion into new markets.

London-based Payza now offers its online payment processing and eWallet services in the United States. Payza is currently used by over 10 million people worldwide as well as 75,000 merchants.

AsiaPay has integrated its payment offerings with Micros Systems to offer technology to the hotel sector in Asia.

Twitter appears to be preparing to add "Buy Now" buttons to tweets in a move to transform its microblogging service into an e-commerce platform.

Paysafecard is bringing its prepaid online payment service to Peru and Uruguay, providing those who may not have a bank account with an e-commerce shopping option.

Optimal Payments, a payments and risk management company based in London, is acquiring two online payment firms in an effort to expand its business in the U.S.

The U.S. would be at a clear disadvantage if its financial institutions fail to adopt the ISO 20022 standard, which many other regions use to handle electronic payments, the Federal Reserve Banks say.

The website hosting company GoDaddy built its first mobile and online payments service using APIs from PayPal, Dwolla and Stripe.

PayPal has at least temporarily shut off two-factor authentication for the PayPal mobile app after a security researcher found a way to bypass that second factor.

Stripe is partnering with China's Alipay online payments service to streamline checkout for consumers in China who make purchases from Stripe's merchant clients.