Payments

Thanks to Spiral Toys, now even your children's piggy bank has gone mobile.

Many emerging innovators want to incorporate digital advances into the incumbent financial services sphere, not necessarily leapfrog banks.

There is a lingering fear that enabling real-time transfers between consumer bank accounts will open a window for fraud that cannot be closed. But as the demand for real-time payments grows, two large bank-led consortia hope to address the banking industry's fraud concerns by developing an interoperable identity shield.

Consumers increasingly fell behind on their payments in several loan categories in the third quarter as economic growth cooled.

Payment cards aren't dead, but they are buried under a growing pile of new and high-tech payment devices.

The explosion of mobile over the last few years has been staggering. By next year, the twenty billionth mobile phone will be sold. And not only are there many more mobile devices, we’re all becoming more reliant on them. In fact, 9 out of 10 consumers in the U.S. keep their phones within reach 24/7.

Following a new blueprint, card issuers are seeing returns on assets above 4% for the first time since before the financial crisis. How long the good times last will depend partly on how well the U.S. economy weathers turmoil in China and other markets.

Though Apple Pay is advertised primarily as a high-tech way to make payments in stores, the Apple wallet's in-app purchase volume is a significant key to its growth.

Apple Pay is seeing a surge in U.S. bank support, with the number of participating banks rising past 900 with the recent addition of 60 regional and community banks, bringing it closer to full coverage in its home market. But Apple isn't having the same luck everywhere else.

With technology in this arena advancing at light speed and disruptors joining the field at every turn, credit unions will have to be at the top of their games if they are to successfully compete in 2016.

Millions of consumers without traditional banking relationships can use Apple Pay, now that ADP, a major provider of payroll cards, has joined the mobile payments bandwagon.

NXT-ID and vacation and entertainment club memberships retailer WorldVentures have formed a strategic alliance.

To facilitate its push into the U.S. market, Splitit (formerly PayItSimple) recently added its cloud-based interest-free installment payment technology as a free plugin for e-commerce merchants using the WooCommerce platform.

Person-to-person payments are a sudden hotbed of innovation. Many banks and technology companies are rethinking their approach to P2P and finding ways to offer the service in a way that is genuinely appealing to the mobile generation.

The research says it over and over: Banks should move quickly to adopt or develop new payments technology, but it leaves banks with a very long 'to do' list.

Mobile technology companies love baking purchase capabilities into websites and mobile apps, providing myriad choices that make securing merchant buy-in the next big play. But there is a question of whether the rapid growth of in-app purchase may be "too much."

The Seattle-based tech giant, in its latest foray into the financial services business, has begun offering installment loans to British consumers.

Technology and applications platform Envestnet | Yodlee has partnered with white-label app provider Magpie on a full-service platform.

Ingo Money in Atlanta, Ga., has added former MasterCard president and chief executive H. Eugene Lockhart to its board of directors.

With emerging payments technology, it's important for legacy companies cover as many bases as possible. For MasterCard, this means putting its technology into everything from jewelry to home appliances to a reimagined take on the classic plastic payment card.