One of Europe's newest digital wallet initiatives is relying on technology that sidesteps carriers, another blow to an industry that's suffered greatly in its attempts to gain share of the mobile payments market.

The mobile wallet is still a niche product, but many companies worldwide made big strides in bringing secure payments to handheld devices. Some of the most groundbreaking changes happened just in the past year.

CU Direct, provider of lending, automotive and strategic solutions to the credit union industry, on Wednesday announced partnership agreements with eight credit unions to implement the company’s Lending 360 Loan Origination System (LOS).

So-called containers can lessen the IT workload and help companies bring applications into the cloud. New security and management tools, like automatic patching, are bringing containers into the mainstream.

Digital money transfer provider Xoom has launched a service for sending funds to Bangladesh.

Mobile wallet and commerce provider Mozido continues to spread its wings with the launch of contactless payment capabilities for TWallet users in Indonesia.

It used to be that chargebacks were just another cost of doing business. But with the e-commerce world growing by leaps and bounds, online merchants are experiencing a corresponding spike in chargeback rates that's eroding their bottom lines and jeopardizing their merchant accounts.

Merchants today face the daunting task of investing in several payment technology upgrades at once, and the confusion surrounding this process could bolster many pre-existing security vulnerabilities, argues point of sale security expert Chris Strand.

While Apple Pay has been received favorably since its launch last year, Google was technically the first mobile payments system on the block with their since re-branded Google Wallet. Android Pay is their latest foray into mobile payments and Google is set to drive agenda forward with significant advantages in adoption, capability, and compatibility.

Q2, in Austin, Texas, paid $10.6 million to acquire all outstanding interests in Social Money, according to a Tuesday news release. The purchase price was subject to a customary working capital adjustment.

Bank of the Ozarks' taste for M&A means its information-technology staff has to juggle integration projects and experiments with new software, mobile and other technologies.

Target has agreed to pay $39 million to settle loss claims from a two-year-old data breach that were brought by MasterCard and a group of financial institutions, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Lloyds Banking Group in the U.K. has made Deborah McWhinney its third nonexecutive director. She joined the board at Lloyds Monday and also serves on its audit and risk committees.

The long-running tension between anti-money-laundering rules and data privacy concerns is especially pronounced in the awkward relationship between regulated financial institutions and digital currency businesses.

Unlike the high-profile hacking incidents at big banks, smaller institutions have their own breed of threats such as cyberextortion that they must focus on in strengthening their security.

Krispy Kreme's new payment and loyalty app is betting big on customers' appetite for donating to charity.

Despite being widely encouraged to do so, most banks have not rushed to build their own mobile wallets to maintain their brand identities while complementing the capabilities of existing payment apps.

Innovation and flexibility aren’t attributes often associated with public transportation. But by deploying cutting edge open payment ticketing technologies, transit operators can give their customers greater flexibility and create a more engaging transit network.

Services are cropping up that help banks analyze bitcoin transactions for signs of criminal behavior such as money laundering. But such services come with their own risks.

Business leaders know their enterprises thrive on efficiency and productivity. But learning to capitalize on those goals for maximum returns – well, that's another challenge altogether.