Payments

Evolution is occurring rapidly in mobile payments. While the innovation headlines are being made by the digital innovators and new industry entrants, banks still have a window of opportunity to take strategic advantage and preserve their traditional payments franchise.

Almare Gelato Italiano accepts many alternative payment methods, and hasn't paid a dime for them because its vendors want a taste of the foot traffic at store's prime location in downtown Berkeley, Calif.

VeriFone is targeting a wide range of markets for its taxi and merchant applications. The company has reached an agreement with Bharti Airtel Group in Africa and, separately, entered taxi payment deals in Turkey and Mexico.

Square won't require users of its $99 Square Stand to replace their hardware when they are ready to accept EMV-chip cards. Instead, the vendor will support EMV cards through the hardware's included USB hub.

Payza, a payment processor and digital wallet provider based in London, has released a tool that allows its merchant clients to accept payments from shoppers who have not previously enrolled with Payza.

SumUp is preparing to bring its mobile point of sale device to a number of new countries, and hopes its practice of developing its technology in-house will help it contain the costs of chip and PIN card payments.

Braintree and PayPal are testing an integrated mobile payments feature, delivering on the company's promise to integrate technology from Braintree's Venmo unit.

Square Inc. has received an investment from Victory Park Capital that it says will allow the company to significantly expand its Square Capital business financing program.

Payment software provider Oxigen Services India Pvt. Ltd. plans to update its mobile wallet with a virtual Visa card for online payments, a move that furthers both its financial inclusion efforts and its bank partnerships.

WASHINGTON — A group of retail trade associations and large retailers wants the Supreme Court to review the Federal Reserve Board's cap on debit card swipe fees that merchants say is higher than the fee limit envisioned in the Dodd-Frank Act.

Square and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has been in Ferguson, Mo., as part of the protests that followed the police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed African American teenager, earlier this month.

As consumers make more payments through mobile devices, the vendors who design mobile wallet apps are addressing any growing pains through in-app customer support.

Park Bank of Madison, Wis., is offering Buzz Points to provide consumers with bonus rewards for shopping at local merchants.

Navicure introduced a new patient payment platform that allows health care organizations to facilitate bill collections.

The pieces for a robust digital payments market in India are in place, and are waiting for a merchant-friendly catalyst, says Srinivas Nidugondi, head of mobile financial solutions at Mahindra Comviva, which is partnering with First Data to offer a mobile point of sale product in India.

Tanjarine is looking to improve card security in restaurant payments as it deploys a tablet-based system that is also meant to improve the customer experience.

Ever since Google announced the availability of Host Card Emulation (HCE) in the last version of Android, the discussion in the world of mobile payments has taken a very interesting turn.

Square is under pressure to adapt to the onslaught of competition from the likes of Amazon, PayPal, Groupon and Fiserv, all of which have applied their own spin to the mobile card reader concept. Square has recently made a number of moves to improve its offerings and its image.

First Data is bringing a new electronic payment offering to Brazil in collaboration with Bancoob, the banking arm of the credit union cooperative system Sicoob.

Using the format of a Top 10 list, Square Inc. attempted to set the record straight on various perceptions of its business that it insists "are totally bogus."