CHICAGO — Mobile payments got the kind of promotional kick it will need in the future — from a veteran country music star — at the annual Mobile Payments Conference this week.

Short of a major data breach, it could be a financial technology executive's worst nightmare: a critical piece of software crashes, disrupting an important and highly visible activity like processing consumer payments or setting net asset values for mutual fund clients.

ShopKeep and MasterCard have entered a marketing partnership that includes pushing merchants to adopt the EMV standards.

Software problems have recently plagued Bank of New York Mellon, HSBC and the New York Stock Exchange. Thorough testing and new quality standards can help financial institutions weed out weaknesses in their code that could (literally) break the bank.

CHICAGO — The mobile commerce revolution is pressuring legacy payment companies to quickly diversify to stay relevant, leading Discover Financial Services to build a gateway where merchants can add digital transactions and other services.

The smartphone can add significant security to payments, but it is also a tool that fraudsters can exploit. Researchers and scammers have already found several unique attacks that rely on mobile devices.

The San Francisco company hopes to lower its costs by driving out human intervention as much as possible. To get there, it has made the counterintuitive decision to locate its operations staff in one of the country’s most expensive cities.

CHICAGO — Financial institutions have fallen behind the payments innovation curve, though they can catch up quickly by adopting the faster payments initiatives that are accompanying mobile and digital transactions.

What happens when you combine mobile wallets with the emerging hype about beacons? You get a winning combination for retailers that boosts shopper loyalty and in-store spending.

Barclays is attempting a diverse range of tactics to move customers beyond plastic cards, with its latest attempt being a "fashionable" jacket that's linked to the wearer's bank account.

CHICAGO — First-generation mobile wallets found themselves in an "unfair fight" against the likes of Starbucks and its branded mobile pay and loyalty system, forcing Google to rethink how it would position Android Pay, Google executive Jack Connors said.

Symphony, the instant messaging service supported by fifteen large banks, says it will be ready to roll on Sept. 15 despite the objections of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and regulators who fear its encryption technology will impede supervision.

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP has named Marco Santori to head a team at the lawfirm that's focused on digital currency and blockchain technology.

Three large U.K. banks have suffered recent payment glitches, including temporary outages at HSBC, Natwest and Royal Bank of Scotland—suggesting existing bank payment systems are challenged to process digital transactions.

Hoteliers, U.S. military brass and bankers are in very different lines of work, but they share at least one common concern—cybersecurity.

PayPal is targeting what it estimates to be a $51 billion global market for small debts owed between friends and family members, enabling consumers to set up their own URL to collect payments.

A data breach-related court case involving Wyndham hotels and new Defense Department rules governing contractors provide banks some dos and don'ts in bringing vendors' security practices into line.

K2 Intelligence, an adviser on compliance and cybersecurity, has hired a former FBI cryptocurrency expert and a former regulator who worked on New York's digital currency regulations.

Even though consumers generally avoid liability if their payment card or account is breached, their troubles can go well beyond the initial financial hit for the bank or merchant, said long-time data security expert Brian Huntley.

As Samsung Pay’s Sept. 28 launch date nears, industry analysts and credit unions alike have measured expectations due to uncertainty surrounding the platform it will use.