P-to-P payments

While credit cards have been around since the 1950s and debit cards introduced years later, they both have become indispensable to the modern consumer. In fact, in certain retail sectors consumers can only use payment cards or mobile payments to make a purchase.

Kleiner Perkins and Ribbit Capital led an $80 million funding round in Viva Republica, the South Korean maker of the popular P2P payment app Toss.

The first wave of data from this year's holiday shopping season is in, providing insights into where the biggest fraud threats are likely to originate in the final weeks of the year.

Proponents of real-time payments systems say banks must embrace them given consumer demand for more immediacy and transparency, even if criminals will try to exploit them.

PayPal is using Venmo's fast growth to power several initiatives, but the app suffered a damaging fraud surge early this year, showing it's not immune from enrollment fraud that challenges the entire P2P sector.

A year after its launch, Zelle’s P2P payment volume has rapidly expanded through usage at the nation’s largest banks. But enabling smaller institutions to offer it to their customers is proving to be more challenging.

Cargo, a provider of in-car commerce systems to the ride-sharing market, is now accepting Venmo as a payment option to complete in-car transactions.

Taking a cue from his previous success in commercial cash checking services, Conext CEO Michael Casalini hopes a Venmo-style mobile app that supports a quick conversion of checks to digital money can attract small businesses.

After advancing into some retail settings in Italy last year, the Jiffy P2P payment service is now an option at the country's Carrefour Italia "super stores," supermarkets and express stores.

Western Union and Amazon are collaborating to bring the e-commerce giant's services to consumers who may not currently have access to online shopping or those who prefer not to make digital payments.