P-to-P payments

U.S. Bank's addition of "instant" person to person payments is a response to consumer expectations: If mobile payments are supposed to replace cash, they should be as fast as cash.

U.S. Bank will enable real-time person-to-person payments through Fiserv's Popmoney.

MoneyGram is working with PicomoPay to enable U.S.-based Facebook users to send funds to MoneyGram agent locations in 200 countries using PicomoPay's Facebook app.

Facebook is reportedly close to obtaining a license to operate as an electronic money institution in Ireland, a move that builds on the company's years of experience handling payments on its home turf.

Digital person-to-person payments, also known as social payments, have proliferated in the last few years, with the often-heard promise of providing an easier and faster way to split the dinner check.

Clinkle Corp., a San Francisco startup that specializes in mobile transactions, has appointed Josh Brewer as its vice president of design.

Payments innovation comes quickly, and often from outside the banking industry, leading Associated Bank to create a special procedure to monitor the tech market and customer preferences.

Capital One has joined clearXchange, providing a flood of new potential end users to the bank-led person-to-person payments initiative.

Bangkok Bank Public Co. Ltd. hopes to take advantage of Thailand's easy financial infrastructure to enable a number of new payment options, such as cross-institutional person-to-person payments made from a mobile phone or an ATM.

Square Inc. has introduced a new feature to its Square Cash person-to-person payment system, allowing users to request payments from a group of people or an individual.

Payveris and D3 Banking are integrating their technology to allow banks and credit unions to use Payveris' digital payments functions with D3 Banking's multichannel digital banking service.

The likes of Apple and Amazon are becoming bigger threats to incumbent payments companies, but MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga says his company views these players as potential allies.

Amazon.com is developing a person-to-person payments system that would compete against the likes of PayPal, according to a job listing on the e-commerce company's website.

Ribbon is extending its payments services beyond merchant acceptance to include person-to-person payments.

OnPoint Community Credit Union is using person-to-person payments as the foundation of building consumer comfort with mobile as a channel for money movement.

A pair of companies has launched services on Twitter that allow users to transact in Bitcoin across the microblogging site. And while Twitter has been selective of what companies facilitate payments in the past, the social networking giant hasn't yet touched these Bitcoin services.

Even though nonbanks seem to be taking the lead in the mobile wallet race, U.S. consumers still put more trust in banks to protect their money.

Mozido LLC, a white-label mobile technology provider, is piloting a person-to-person payment method using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, allowing users within proximity of each other to transfer funds with their mobile devices.

VoiP provider Rebtel has debuted Sendly, an app that allows users to send money to prepaid mobile subscribers in more than 50 countries.

JPMorgan Chase's recently published patent application for a free online payment system offers some hints about the bank's future payment plans.