Payments

If the European Commission's revamped Payment Services Directive had a goal of enticing more innovation and, thus, more startups to enter financial services, Modulr Finance Ltd. CEO Myles Stephenson got the message.

The next phase of India’s national digital payments initiative begins next month when 20 banks launch Aadhaar Pay, an app enabling merchants to accept payments on smartphones from consumers using biometric authentication.

Siam Commercial Bank Pcl, Thailand’s oldest homegrown lender, plans to reinvent its mobile digital payment platform as a lifestyle app to help fend off competition from upstart financial technology providers.

Machine learning, Siri and Alexa are taking off quickly, particularly among younger consumers. Banks and payment companies need to get in the game now.

U.S. restaurants' EMV migration has lagged behind other retail categories for several reasons, including the hassles of replacing centralized payment systems with pay-at-the-table routines that chip cards often require. But another reason: Restaurateurs have other priorities.

Business-to-business payments network provider Viewpost will encourage more small and mid-size clients to convert to electronic payments through Visa virtual commercial cards.

Swedish startup Truecaller has become the newest entrant in India’s busy digital payments space, via a tie-up with ICICI Bank Ltd. to offer a local mobile-payments service.

Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to buy Dubai-based online retailer Souq.com, betting that e-commerce in the Middle East is poised to take off.

With AmazonFresh Pickup, a brick-and-mortar extension of its grocery delivery services, Amazon is edging further into the crowded grocery market with a model that downplays the process of wandering the aisles of a physical store. But unlike some of Amazon's other retail efforts, this one is not as big a departure as it first seems.

Passwords are often restrictive, undynanmic and draw attention from fraudsters. And there's also the risk of repeated cybercrime linked to old authentication.

The business-to-business payments market is one of the laggards in transaction automation, and a reason often given is the lack of customization options. Businesses are using consumer-style technology for business purposes, and the fit isn't right.

Given the pressures of cart abandonment and showrooming brought about by digital marketplaces, traditional retailers are trying lots of ways to fight back with digital techniques of their own.

The Ollo card has the backing of former Citi CEO Vikram Pandit and several other big names in finance.

Large merchants are re-energized in their conflict with Visa and Mastercard on the issue of swipe-fee costs, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to reinstate a class-action settlement that deeply divided many of the plaintiffs.

It's difficult for acquirers to have the proper payments technology available when merchant interest peaks. This is even more difficult as efforts such as Smart Cities and Internet of Things initiatives overwhelm retailers with options.

Financial technology provider Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) has entered an agreement that will help create the "ballpark of the future" with Minor League Baseball.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to revive a $5.7 billion settlement of retailer claims that Visa and Mastercard improperly fixed credit card swipe fees, in a rebuff that could mean years of additional litigation.

As trends in payments technology take hold or taper off, it's safe to say that one is firmly entrenched: The shift to mobile and integrated point of sale devices.

As multi-factor identification becomes the norm, biometrics can be one or more steps that consumers can easily execute.

Banks are asking Hong Kong property agents to stop accepting China-issued UnionPay cards, as mainland authorities escalate their crackdown on capital flows out of the country.