The vision that Apple’s founder Steve Jobs once had of a new type of mobile phone that could become so instrumental and integrated into people’s lives that they’d rather leave their wallet at home than their iPhone is starting to take shape.

As the Bitcoin industry matures, narrowly-focused companies are working to take market share from the companies that came first to the digital currency ecosystem.

Alliance Data Systems Corp. agreed to buy Conversant Inc. for $2.3 billion, gaining technology to distribute advertising across the Internet and measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

Automakers routinely track and measure the failure rates of everything from a car's brakes to air bags to power steering. Now banks and lenders are being forced to think much the same way about mortgages.

MasterCard is establishing a foundation for mobile wallets in Europe by requiring the continent's merchants to accept contactless payments by the end of the decade.

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council is providing updated guidance for merchants to protect against fraudulent card skimming, which it says costs U.S. businesses and consumers $8 billion a year.

The shopping technology vendor Slice is extending its application programming interface (API) for the analysis of electronic payments data, giving merchants visibility into a wide range of consumer e-commerce spending.

The financial services executives involved don't want to talk about it. But listen closely and read between the lines, and you can see why they might be willing to sacrifice some fees to participate in Apple's mobile payment platform.

If you can't beat them, join them — and join them fast. The other mobile wallets that already exist on Apple's ecosystem, such as LevelUp and Softcard (formerly Isis), are quickly working to integrate with Apple Pay and the iPhone 6 rather than try to defeat them.

Apple Pay appears to be missing one key thing: A reason to use it. Most other mobile wallets come with a reward program, but Apple currently isn't going that route.

The bankers involved don't want to talk about it. But listen closely and read between the lines, and you can see why they might be willing to sacrifice some fees to participate in Apple's mobile payment platform.

Discover plans to join American Express, MasterCard and Visa in the Apple Pay service, enabling storage of Discover cards in Passbook.

Apple has a long list of supporters for its new mobile wallet, including a few key companies that had already thrown their hats in with PayPal and MCX. Retailers' support of Apple makes NFC a more likely prospect for PayPal mobile payments going forward.

Yapital Financial AG in Luxembourg is integrating its cross-channel payment system into the platforms of VeriFone Systems and the Ingenico Group.

The financial technology company Fiserv has added token-based security from Visa and MasterCard.

Apple Inc. will reap fees from banks when consumers use an iPhone in place of credit and debit cards for purchases, a deal that gives the handset maker a cut of the growing market for mobile payments, according to three people with knowledge of the arrangement.

Cubic Transportation Systems is working on technology that will allow people to pay for bus and subway rides without stopping to swipe or tap a card.

Apple is betting that tokenization systems offered by payment processors will provide a security boost to its new Apple Pay system at a time when consumers are wary of Apple's cloud-based services.

Apple has officially unveiled Apple Pay, a new mobile payment system in its upcoming line of smartphones and its smartwatch, using a model that involves legacy payment companies but adds a new spin.

MoneyGram has acquired the assets of Nexxo Financial, a money transfer and prepaid technology provider in Burlingame, Calif.