Online payments

Subway, Fresh Direct and The Cheesecake Factory are among the first to use Masterpass-enabled bots on Facebook Messenger to sell their wares over social media.

New mobile wallets and digital payment innovators are threatening banks' traditional relationships with consumers, forcing banking to respond.

Despite some mixed signals, the Chinese government has shown a willingness to loosen restrictions on imports. That would be good news for international payments players.

As security threats increase, companies are placing more emphasis on safety and less on speed for new initiatives.

Final is a combination of a virtual and plastic card that brings an 'as-a-service' model to card issuance.

Given the spike in online fraud that accompanies the chip card migration, there are a lot of new authentication methods. Most of them still rely on information that's not dymanic and vulnerable.

The company's selling product that's similar to a store-branded card, but without the physical plastic. It hopes to appeal to small or midsize stores that don't want to run their own credit programs.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi and PNC Bank are the first three banks to adopt the service, which is aimed at customers who use Visa commercial cards to buy supplies from Amazon Business.

A technology development program will provide access to mentors and collaboration for developers.

Merchants are concerned emerging technology can't keep up with the growing online fraud threat. But there are some steps that can increase security.

Shortly after spinning off PayPal, eBay shed another unit, the e-commerce powerhouse Magento Commerce, which is working to spread its wings beyond its core specialty of e-commerce sites.

New payment standards have banks worried about compliance costs, but there is an opportunity for innovation for aggressive institutions.

Businesses are shedding paper checks in favor of electronic payments, but the migration is not as easy as consumer payments.

Splitit has partnered with Magento, the open-source e-commerce platform, enabling merchants to integrate Splitit’s monthly credit payment option into their checkout processes.

There's been a lot of funding flowing into technology that targets the spending of Chinese travelers as they visit other countries. But this narrow use case isn't the only opportunity for investment and innovation.

The 2012 Jobs Act let regular Americans invest in startups, spawning a glut of crowdfunding sites offering real ownership stakes in return for cash, rather than the new smartwatches or electric skateboards available on pioneering platform Kickstarter.

Germany's Wirecard is expanding again through the acquisition of MyGate Communications, a small but fast-growing payment services provider based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Visa, Global Payments Inc., Samsung and Arval will help the bank operate Spain's first Payment Innovation Hub in Barcelona.

Machine learning, Siri and Alexa are taking off quickly, particularly among younger consumers. Banks and payment companies need to get in the game now.

Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to buy Dubai-based online retailer Souq.com, betting that e-commerce in the Middle East is poised to take off.