Payments

Apple Pay still struggles to displace cash and cards in the U.S., but its recent integration with Western Union shows the mobile wallet has some untapped potential.

Ripple's distributed ledger platform has fed an appetite for cheaper and more efficient cross-border payments, but it may not measure up to the needs of a larger market. Ripple wants to scale its payment system to something resembling a large card network.

Check imaging reduces the need to handle paper, reduces clearing time and paves the way for mobile deposit and remote capture. However, this new functionality also means financial institutions take on greater risk from electronic acceptance, images in the cloud, and significantly reduced float times.

Jack Ma’s Ant Financial Services Group has deep enough pockets to win the bidding war against Euronet Worldwide for MoneyGram, but money may not be the deciding factor in this deal.

On Track Innovations will provide mobile EMV payment acceptance for the large cage-type vending machines that Outdoor Vending Solutions uses to sell bulk items at various sites within state parks in Texas.

Leaked documents appear to show NSA analysts were able to hack into Middle Eastern banks’ servers through the Swift service bureau EastNets. The same tools could conceivably be used by cybercriminals and nation-states with more sinister motives.

Ant Financial raised its agreed offer for MoneyGram International Inc. by 36 percent as the financial-services company controlled by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma tries to top a competing offer and overcome security concerns.

New mobile wallets and digital payment innovators are threatening banks' traditional relationships with consumers, forcing banking to respond.

A review of activity that long ago would not shed additional light on the scope of misconduct in Wells Fargo's retail banking unit, CFO John Shrewsberry said in an interview.

Earnings season kicked off with some banks capitalizing better than others on higher rates and still-low deposit costs. Banks will have to keep working on that balance as they contend with rising credit card losses, slower commercial lending and other issues.

Google can make up ground on its rivals with its new bank collaboration. But it will need help to expand the strategy quickly.

The service will start with transfers to India and the Phillipines, though Remitly plans to add more recipient countries in the near future.

Efforts to combine mobile wallets and loyalty programs have had mixed success over the years, but many companies are undeterred. Here are a few that are working to find the right mix of technologies.

South Africa doesn't rank as high on Mastercard's mobile readiness rankings as some other countries, but a need for convenience and security is drawing more attention to the channel, particularly among the young.

Despite some mixed signals, the Chinese government has shown a willingness to loosen restrictions on imports. That would be good news for international payments players.

The company is diversifying from its traditional payments processing business into a broad-based provider of payments technology and data services.

The bank said the test showed blockchain can be used to conduct secure, low-cost cross-border payments without intermediaries.

The new controls include transaction-screening parameters users may adjust to their own risk and compliance policies.

As security threats increase, companies are placing more emphasis on safety and less on speed for new initiatives.

The move is noteworthy because Delatinne had led customer engagement for Swift’s global payments innovation initiative, with which Ripple’s cross-border payment system competes.