By using simplified processes for payments and other services, a new generation of innovators is disrupting major financial institutions and demonstrating how a technology-first approach can vastly improve customer experience.

Strategic Link, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Northwest Credit Union Association, has added Mirador Financial, a small business lending platform for financial institutions, to the list of service providers available to CUs.

The San Francisco bank has added three more young technology firms to its accelerator program, which is aimed at adapting products from outside the financial services world for creative uses in banking.

No security offering can totally eliminate network data breaches, but fast detection can prevent a successful attack from becoming a large-scale disaster.

Despite a series of challenges and missteps from Google Wallet's earliest days, the app has tightened its grip on the Android ecosystem and squeezed out the competition — and Google must now decide whether Apple Pay is its next target or its most unlikely ally.

The University of Nicosia has been pretty bullish on Bitcoin. But it's not just that the digital currency reduces international transfer costs; Bitcoin's rise also pressures traditional financial institutions to lower their fees more generally.

SEATAC, Wash., and TIGARD, Ore. — The Northwest Credit Union Association on Tuesday said it has unveiled a "new online dating website" for its CUs.

Online and mobile payment giant PayPal announced two major additions to its leadership.

Uber Technologies Inc. and Capital One Financial Corp. have joined to give the credit-card issuer's customers cheaper rides on the car-sharing service.

An advanced strain of malware is capable of attacking Windows point of sale terminals, stealing cardholder data and upgrading itself while hiding in plain sight.

Even with the card networks' U.S. EMV migration deadline half a year away, basic knowledge of EMV technology is still poor. Fime is addressing this concern by offering its expertise to American issuers such as credit unions and community banks, which may need additional knowledge but are reluctant to outsource their entire EMV project.

When a mobile wallet fails, it doesn't go away. Companies can upgrade dormant apps and remove their functionality, but the apps stay on users' phones, each one a headstone in a growing digital graveyard.

It's been a year and a half since Twitter Inc. hired the CEO of Ticketmaster to be its head of e- commerce. While the social site hasn't exactly morphed into a shopping destination, hints of the company's plans are starting to emerge.

Google Wallet is making a significant change in how it handles funds, in the latest of a series of moves that gives Google a stronger footing against Apple Pay's rising tide.

CoinTent, a San Francisco-based micropayments company, has released a product to enable media companies to sell individual articles to non-subscribers.

Amazon long ago redesigned the way consumers shop and pay online, and it envisions a retail environment where payments happen just as seamlessly and shoppers never even need to slow down to check out.

EMV will require new payment processes that, while seemingly small to those instituting the change, require a shift in behavior that could feel monumental to consumers.

MasterCard is betting that there is a third choice besides plastic cards and mobile wallets. And that choice is one that has sputtered in the past.

China's renminbi is quickly climbing the ladder of global acceptance, but many multi-national corporations are not prepared to accept cross-border payments using that currency.

Sales of cyberinsurance are rising among financial services companies, a sign of the times as data breaches, distributed denial of services and other types of attacks continue. But policies can be misleading, and they definitely are no silver bullet.