Biometrics once seemed worlds away from mainstream use. But as this category of security technology gains momentum, has its time as a bank account authentication tool finally come?

Albert Einstein once said, "If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions."

Intuit Inc., a longtime frenemy of banks, may end up raising the bar for mobile financial services with its latest acquisition.

B2B payments technology provider IQ Back Office insists that many companies can turn their accounts payable department into profit centers by using electronic and virtual card payments for vendor invoices.

Orderbird says it is ready to migrate into new markets after adding 400 new customers for its iPad-based point of sale system in recent months and adding payments industry veterans to its supervisory board.

The CardLinx Association is forming councils for Europe and Canada in an effort to facilitate standards for card-linked offers in those regions.

Parx, a subsidiary of On Track Innovations Ltd., has signed a 20-year parking space management contract with Albania's TIS Ltd.

A Near Field Communication patent application Apple Inc. submitted 18 months ago might demonstrate how future iPhones would make contactless payments at the point of sale.

Youth payments company Oink, formerly Virtual Piggy, is expanding its international e-commerce presence by working with the payment service company GlobalCollect.

Dish Network Corp. subscribers will soon be able to pay their bills using bitcoin, the online virtual currency that's drawn scrutiny from regulators.

Dwolla is expanding its next-day payments network to all business customers after launching it initially for government agencies and large corporations.

WASHINGTON — Banks are still feeling negative effects from last year's sudden rise in medium- and long-term interest rates, but plenty of signs in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s latest industry update continue to point to a lending resurgence in the near future.

MeaWallet is prepping to launch in a number of countries, and it is starting in Sweden through the use of a nationalized authentication standard.

Payoneer, a cross-border payment provider, is exceeding its 40% predicted growth rate with nearly 100,000 applications coming in every month.

Square, which built its business on the simplicity of its plug-in payment device, is piling on services that should make banks and other companies take notice.

AnywhereCommerce is approaching established retailers and merchant service providers with a toolkit for a quick upgrade.

Square has launched Square Capital, a credit program for small business, joining a growing number of companies breaking into small-business lending.

WASHINGTON — A battle over social media about how well the current housing finance system treats African-Americans and other minorities has spurred a critical discussion about racial disparities in the mortgage market.

MasterCard Inc. plans to help its cardholders address issues that arise from identity theft, while also extending its zero liability policy to include PIN-based and ATM transactions.

SumUp's plan to create an end-to-end mobile payment system without reliance on third parties became a reality this week with the rollout of a chip-and-PIN mobile card reader and terminal system.