Pundits have predicted the demise of the password for years, yet the simple user-name-and-password combination lives on, frustrating security pros and helping to fuel a spiraling epidemic of data breaches. The reason for the password’s longevity lies in its familiarity compared to newer, more effective authentication methods, says a report …

Amazon.com Inc. announced an integration this week with an e-commerce platform called BigCommerce for its Amazon Pay service, but the company also clearly entertains big ambitions for the payment product it organized as a business in 2015. For now, Amazon Pay is on an upward trend. Some 33 million consumers, …

If it seems payments networks and processors are opening up to outside developers right and left these days, it may be because they are. “I don’t know when the tipping point was, but it feels like it was over the last 12 months,” says Ben Milne, chief executive of Des …

The idea of allowing consumers to use PIN debit cards to pay online merchants has been a tough sell in the payments business, but observers hope a deal announced Thursday may give it a much-needed boost. Processing kingpin First Data Corp. said it will acquire Acculynk Inc., a 9-year-old Atlanta-based …

Boston-based Flywire Corp., which for years has been processing tuition payments for students attending universities in foreign countries, is in the closing stage of a plan to enter the enormous market for processing payments between businesses in different countries. Pilots involving nine companies will run through the end of this …

Chatbots have been carrying out commerce on messenger apps only since last spring, yet already some observers are less than thrilled with the experience, says Zephrin Lasker, chief executive and cofounder of a startup called ShopChat. “Many companies are pursuing robot assistant chatbots to interact with people on messaging. These …

Alphabet Inc.’s Google Inc. unit converted its Android-based Google Wallet into a peer-to-peer payment service two years ago, and on Tuesday Google extended that service to Gmail, its popular email application. With the new feature, Gmail users can send and request money on Android phones, much as they have been …

The long downward spiral of Merchant Customer Exchange LLC reached another milestone Friday with JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s announcement that it is acquiring technology assets from MCX. The money-center bank will use the technology to help launch its fledgling Chase Pay mobile wallet with more merchants. Waltham, Mass.-based MCX is …

Facing a Congressional effort to overturn its recently released prepaid rule, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday issued a proposal to delay the rule’s effective date by six months. In the 16-page proposal, the agency suggests moving the effective date from Oct. 1 of this year to April 1, …

All eyes in the person-to-person payments business may be on Venmo these days, but a few tantalizing numbers released last week by JPMorgan Chase & Co. could indicate that a new, bank-controlled payments service set to launch this year will literally give PayPal Holdings Inc.’s P2P app a run for …