Payment processing

The Alibaba Group is pouring more money into Indian payments powerhouse Paytm, with one report putting the investment at the equivalent of about $680 million, giving Alibaba control of 20% of Paytm's parent company, One97 Communications.

When Samsung Pay launched in the U.S. on Monday, it did so on schedule but with less issuer support than had been expected, with only Bank of America, Citi, American Express and U.S. Bank announced as participants.

Verifone has entered an agreement to use Barclays' Pingit mobile payment app as part of Verifone's PAYware Ocius mobile gateway. Initially, this deal will support only e-commerce sites but Barclays said the pair may bring the technology to the physical point of sale in a later phase.

Once placed inside of payment cards, computer chips can catalyze uses well beyond merchant security, argues MasterCard's Carlos Cornejo, who adds the card network plans to expand card utility through the mix of chips and tablets.

The boost of wearables also has significant potential to drive mobile payment adoption. This potential is based on the ability of wearables to expand the number of devices and places from which mobile payments can be made.

Square has opened an office in St. Louis, which will serve the mobile point of sale company's clients in the Midwest.

As payments technology went into warp speed the past four years, many banks, acquirers and independent sales organizations (ISOs) faced the difficult task of keeping up with all of the potential changes.

The U.S. restaurant industry is still challenged to fit EMV-chip card payments into an ordering and payment structure built around cash and magstripe cards. The vendor MyCheck sees this uncertainty as an opportunity to win restaurants over to its mobile payment system.

It wasn't long ago that mobile point of sale companies like Shopkeep were the alternative, the way for very small merchants to finally start accepting cards.

Buy buttons are shaping up to be the next battleground in tech-driven retail, and retailers are gearing up to take the field on social media sites like Twitter, Pinterest and others. But the new payments technology presents challenges that retailers must consider.