Payments

An estimated 30% of American smartphone owners will use Apple Pay or Google Wallet while holiday shopping, according to a study commissioned by Stratos Inc.

Mobile payments provider iZettle is expanding into the Netherlands with its payments application, mobile card reader and business management software.

PayStand has established flat rates for online payments through electronic checks, saying its new format will allow non-profit organizations and service businesses to avoid credit card fees.

PayPal's support of the Pebble smartwatch, an older and less expensive alternative to the Apple Watch and Android Wear watches, signals the acceleration of mobile payments in devices other than smartphones.

Back in the early 2000s, it was considered risky for credit-card companies to lean heavily on their websites to sign up new customers. The perception was that people who were scouring the Web for credit offers tended to be desperate and unreliable.

In my dreams, I can walk up to any cashier and make a payment by waving my hand over a terminal, much like Obi Wan Kenobi's "These aren't the droids you're looking for" trick in Star Wars. And that's all I would have to do.

It's not just merchants, issuers and technology companies that are using mobile technology to sell new payment services. As a business software provider, Intuit has been uniquely positioned to link its products to a number of payment initiatives.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), commonly referred to as Metro, will launch a contactless payment pilot to open doors for open-loop mobile wallets to be used for transit fare.

Snapchat, in unveiling a person-to-person payment function this week through a partnership with Square Inc., joins a growing number of companies treating social media accounts as payment instruments.

Square, which made a short-lived attempt at digital gift cards in late 2012, is debuting a new gift card service today with a heavy emphasis on an older payment instrument: plastic.

V-Key, a mobile security provider in Singapore, has received a $12 million investment from the Ant Financial Services Group, the Chinese financial services company that operates Alipay.

Conferma has integrated the MasterCard inControl service into its global travel payment network.

A week after making Discover the first credit card offered in its mobile bill-pay service, PreCash Inc. has already seen a spike in the use of Evolve Money, which previously accepted only debit cards.

A week after making Discover the first credit card offered in its mobile bill-pay service, PreCash Inc. has already seen a spike in the use of Evolve Money, which previously accepted only debit cards.

Snapchat, a photo-based messaging service, has added a payment capability based on Square Cash, Square Inc.'s person-to-person payment system.

Apple Pay's launch about a month ago was accompanied by an almost unprecedented amount of hype and media attention, but it takes more than buzz to shift the world to mobile payments, and Apple's job is far from over.

Apple Inc. said customers in China can now use the country's most popular payment card for transactions on the App Store, as the iPhone maker seeks to woo users in the world's largest smartphone market.

McDonald's Corp. has tested a wide range of mobile payment technology throughout the world, and its ability to do so is rooted in an old decision based as much on customer service as technology.

As Apple Pay creates more consumer and merchant awareness of mobile payments, Benefit Mobile Inc. figures the time is right to focus on enabling charitable donations from smartphones.

Business-to-business payments are ripe for disruption and there are plenty of startups innovating in the space today. These newcomers, after being thwarted by corporate red tape, are finding a more welcoming audience from small businesses.