The mobile payments race just kicked into high gear, with Google Inc. today announcing the immediate launch of Android Pay, joining Apple Pay with a little more than two weeks to go before Samsung Pay rolls out Sept. 28 in the U.S.
Digital wallet providers have an easier route to issuer integration with the new MasterCard Digital Enablement Express service, but one analyst suggests it may be more difficult for providers—outside of Apple Pay—to collect issuer fees.
PayPal more or less invented P2P payments with its core service enabling individuals to pay one another via email through various funding sources. Now it’s introduced a URL-based approach.
Samsung Pay is off to a brisk start in Korea after its launch there Aug. 20, about five weeks ahead of the mobile payment service’s pending debut in the U.S. on Sept. 28, but it’s nowhere near Apple Pay levels, which hit 1 million registered cards in the first 72 hours.
Digital gifting continues to make inroads, with more than half of consumers surveyed by Blackhawk Network reporting the purchase of an e-gift over the previous year.
Google Inc. in May said Android Pay would launch “soon,” and this week notifications surfaced at some McDonald’s stores suggesting the rollout could come as early as this week.
PayPal’s purchase last week of Chicago-based Modest—its first acquisition since its spinoff from eBay—could be the beginning of a major shopping spree.
Building on a contactless payments boom in Russia, Visa and Russian payment services provider QIWI have integrated Visa’s payWave contactless technology into the Visa QIWI Wallet, providing millions of users with a new mobile payment option at contactless terminals.
Mobile commerce providers and retailers left a potential $24.5 billion in revenue on the table because of user experience issues, according to a new report from Jumio Inc.
Mobile phones will take an increasingly leading role in the payments space over the next five years as a result of technologies that allow safe storage of payment details in smartphones, according to a report prepared by the Consult Hyperion on behalf of Payments UK.
Apple Inc.’s plan to roll out Apple Pay soon in Australia—which has a high penetration of contactless cards and NFC terminals—has hit a snag as the country’s largest banks balk at paying the toll Apple requires, according to reports.
The State Bank of India this week enters India’s increasingly competitive mobile wallet field with “SBI Buddy,” an m-wallet enabling consumers to make purchases directly from participating merchants’ e-commerce offerings.
There has been hype around wearable technology for some time now but only now is it reaching market maturity with the introduction and subsequent adoption by consumers of smart watches and wristbands. Just as we saw with smart phones and tablets, consumer technology, in this case wearables, has the potential to have a huge impact on the business world. The implications for the financial services industry are significant
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. today announced that Samsung Pay will launch next week in Korea and on Sept. 28 will get in the m-wallet ring with Apple Pay in the U.S., enabling consumers with the latest generation of Samsung’s handsets to tap their devices and pay contactlessly “nearly everywhere” cards are accepted, including NFC-ready locations and those that are not yet NFC-ready, the company said.
Financial technology investment remains hot, with several fintech providers involved in major acquisitions announced over the past week.
MasterCard, Canada’s TD Bank Group and technology provider Nymi, formerly Bionym, are getting to the heart of payments security.
Pharmacy retailer Rite Aid this week said it will resume NFC acceptance at its 4,600 stores nationwide beginning Aug. 15, following months disabling contactless payments acceptance in the wake of Apple Pay’s rollout.
To compete in a mobile world, financial services providers must focus on speed, convenience and security when designing mobile banking and payments services, according to a new report.
Target is tackling showrooming and hopes to increase shopper engagement with its latest test of location-based beacon technology in 50 of its stores, with a nationwide rollout slated for later this year.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) this week sent a letter to the retail consortium Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), which is readying the launch of its CurrentC mobile payments service, demanding details about its exclusivity policy requiring participants to block rival mobile wallets, along with other information.
Green Dot Corp. is using barcode-generation technology to enable customers to add cash to their accounts using their mobile devices at more than 65,000 retailers in its reload network.
Amid Facebook’s better-than-expected, second-quarter earnings report last week, payments revenue fell 8.1 percent.
Samsung plans to launch its m-payments service Samsung Pay in Europe, by extending its global partnership with MasterCard and leveraging the MasterCard Digital Enablement Service platform to connect European card issuers to the m-payment service.
Indian mobile wallet provider MobiKwik is launching a new, Uber-like service.
Visa Inc. this week announced a new partnership with and investment in Stripe, a startup specializing in mobile and online payments technology, to work on new approaches to online payments and increasingly popular “buy buttons.”
MasterCard and Citibank India are teaming up to bring the payment network’s MasterPass digital wallet to India.
SUBWAY will launch a revamped version of its mobile app and Web ordering service, adding PayPal’s OneTouch mobile checkout as a payment option.
Santander, a financial services provider in the U.K., has made it easy for up to 100 consumers at least 18 years old to pool their funds via an app available on iOS and Android.
Ingo Money and NetSpend today announced an agreement that will enable NetSpend prepaid cardholders to deposit checks to their accounts via smartphones by combining Ingo’s mobile check deposit capture service with NetSpend’s mobile banking platforms.
CurrentC—the mobile payments service backed by a consortium of major retailers—reportedly will launch next month, and curiosity is running high about how the merchant-centric app will stack up against Apple Pay and other emerging mobile wallets.
After more than a year of rumors, it appears Square finally could be taking the plunge and going public. The m-POS pioneer—which has been expanding steadily into other verticals—has filed confidentially for an IPO with the SEC, according to Bloomberg, which cited sources with knowledge of the plan.
Mobile money transfers are projected to balloon nearly 150 percent this year, with social media services driving much of that growth.
Apple Pay this month has reached a new milestone: More than 1 million U.S. merchants now accept the m-payments service, according to new data from Ingenico.
Sri Lanka’s largest telco, Dialog Axiata, is partnering with MasterCard joint venture HomeSend to enable mobile remittances to the country, which represents a US$7.2 billion money transfer market.
Apple Pay went live today in the U.K., and analysts say its prospects of catching on with consumers are promising, at least from the hardware perspective.
First Data Corp. has made another move to bolster digital gifting options for its retail clients, acquiring digital gift card platform Transaction Wireless Inc. (TWI).
Biometrics authentication continues to draw interest from some of payments’ biggest players, with MasterCard unveiling a new pilot program that will enable online shoppers to approve purchases with a facial scan.
Two days after revising its earnings expectations for the year, London-based financial technology firm Monitise plc told investors today that Visa Europe plans to withdraw its remaining investment in the company.
iPhone devices account for more than one in three mobile transactions, and are used for 10% of all global online transactions, according to new figures published by payment specialist Adyen.
P2P providers may have to brace for yet another competitor to enter the crowded field—Apple Inc.—which has filed a patent suggesting plans to extend P2P services to its Apple Pay users.
