Payments

I'd be hesitant to say that mobile payments are ubiquitous today, but during a four-day trip to Texas, I got to see just how far the technology has come when I lost my physical wallet with all my plastic cards.

Alipay, the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. financial affiliate controlled by Jack Ma, is trying to gain a foothold with U.S. retailers by offering them tools to help sell to consumers in China.

The merchants and issuers invested in Apple Pay must maintain a strong emphasis on employee education — especially if the stakeholders want Apple's mobile wallet to avoid the fate of the many previous payment technologies that sought to displace plastic cards.

Visa Europe is working with edo, a Chicago and Nashville-based card-linked marketing firm, to launch a pilot of edo's technology in the U.K. this year and eventually expand to other European countries.

OpenTable has released its mobile payment offering in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

A Twitter Inc. account and a bank card is all you'll need in France to tweet money to a friend or a charity. The transfers will be based on a simple rule: no retweets.

American Express Co. customers whose reward points are too meager for flights, ballet tickets or even a yoga mat are getting a new list of options: a McDonald's menu.

PALM BEACH, Fla.—Handling transactions is secondary for the tech giants now entering the payments industry, says Diane Offereins, Discover Financial Services executive vice president of payments.

Sears' Kmart discount chain, the latest victim of hacker attacks on retailers, said it detected a security breach this week and is investigating the incident with law enforcement officials.

Early next year, consumers in New Zealand will have the option of making payments through the Semble mobile wallet.

PALM BEACH, Fla.—Few at the Electronic Transaction Association's Strategic Leadership Forum would deny Apple Pay could help prepare the nation for mobile payments and rescue Near Field Communication from obscurity.

Mobile wallets, at their most basic, enable consumers to manage their accounts and/or make purchases without cash or cards. On top of that foundation, many companies have come up with inventive features to set their apps apart.

A future where consumers make payments with wearable devices is not far off, especially in Spain where CaixaBank is working with Gemalto to launch a contactless EMV payment wristband.

PagBrasil, a payment processor in Brazil, has launched a product that provides accelerated confirmation for online payments made using boleto bancario, the electronic payment method in Brazil.

Square's diversification strategy has landed in coffee shops, as the company has upgraded an application that uses location-sensing technology to more closely match pre-order preparation with consumer arrival.

The introduction of Apple Pay as a mobile wallet competitor illustrates that the payments landscape calls for partnerships and collaboration, rather than a “winner take all” mentality.

Chase is working with Apple to vet potential developers and merchants after more than 500 people attended and responded to Chase's two live webinars about its three Apple Pay developer labs in Columbus, Ohio, Tampa, Fla., and San Francisco, Calif.

Mobile payment provider Powa is partnering with DataCap Systems to shorten the time it takes merchants to deploy mobile point of sale applications, a move the companies hope will provide differentiation in a crowded marketplace.

Providers of rapidly changing payments products such as prepaid cards, automated payments and dispute resolution are continuing to turn to independent sales organizations to reach targeted merchants.

Mobile payment company Boku has acquired German-based mopay, adding considerable carrier billing volume and clients at a time when Boku and other payment companies face increasing competitive threats from new players.