MasterCard has added seven new markets in Africa, and now operates in 48 of the continent's 55 markets.

Consumers are more concerned than ever about how to protect their payment card data, but they also know they have very little skin in the game because of card issuers' zero liability policies.

Payments innovation comes quickly, and often from outside the banking industry, leading Associated Bank to create a special procedure to monitor the tech market and customer preferences.

Pock.io is allowing consumers in the U.K. to buy gift cards from large merchants such as Apple by using Bitcoin and other digital currencies.

Leaf, a provider of tablets for payments, has hired several executives including a director at Heartland Payment Systems, which recently invested in the startup.

Most issuing banks are not allowing recent retailer data breaches to change their schedules for adopting EMV-chip cards, even though Target and other companies have said they would fast-track their own plans.

VerifyValid is offering businesses and consumers a mobile application that enables users to write, approve, sign, receive and deposit checks from an iOS device.

Customers who use Amadeus IT Group's payment transaction management technology will soon have access to processing services by Wirecard.

American Express Co. is seeking to broaden its customer base by offering its first no-fee credit product that grants holders access to all of the lender’s rewards programs.

As U.S. issuers and financial institutions prepare for the shift to EMV, two significant benefits over traditional magnetic stripe cards are clear: increased security and reduced incidences of card fraud. However, the migration itself poses risks that must be addressed.

Payments played a major role in the 2014 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Here are some of the biggest announcements that came out during the conference, and a few from just before or afterwards that were no less important to the mobile payments community.

Square has reportedly delayed an initial public offering, which gives the company a chance to build more services that position it for sustainable growth in the future, according to payments consultant Richard Crone.

Isis expects a lot of banks will leverage host card emulation (HCE) to build their own mobile wallets, though the telecom-led mobile payments scheme also hopes the technology will add breadth to its own service.

Cellum, a mobile commerce provider, has integrated MasterCard's MasterPass digital wallet with its own mobile wallet offering, OTPay, making it the first third-party in Europe to integrate MasterPass.

As banks continue to study the use of host card emulation (HCE) for Near Field Communication-based mobile payments, Ukraine's PrivatBank says it is one of the first to publicly launch an HCE service.

Mt. Gox, once the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, filed for bankruptcy in Japan, focusing attention on the digital currency’s risks.

Target's profit fell nearly 50 percent in its fourth fiscal quarter and declined by more than a third for all of 2013, the retailer reports, damage likely the result of the credit card data breach that compromised information on as many as 110 million customers.

Some governments are getting into the digital currency game, offering their own alternatives to cash with traits that differ in meaningful ways from cross-border cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

NakedWines' website, featuring a pastoral northern California winery, looks calm and comforting. But the company, which uses a crowdfunding payments model to reduce steps in wine sales, is trying to stir up some chaos.

Visa has developed a new service that aims to reduce prepaid card fraud.