By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Alphabet Inc.’s Android Pay mobile wallet made some headlines recently with the company’s announcement that the app would be available to Masterpass and Visa Checkout users for Softcard mobile-payments venture managed by leading telecom companies. Smart Tap is available now in all U.S. Walgreen’s stores as …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Retailer Kohl’s Corp. plans to tweak its newly launched OmnyPay Inc. The service works only with the Kohl’s Charge card, issued by Capital One N.A. Lavu predicts Kohl’s Pay will generate copious amounts of data, especially given that enrollment in the app is up by 70% following …

By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Consumers with Samsung Pay mobile-wallet accounts will be able to use them as a payment method for online transactions thanks to a partnership with Samsung Pay to shop using Masterpass starting in 2017. To use the service, consumers select the Masterpass button on a participating merchant’s e-commerce …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews In its short lifetime, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has already established itself as one of the most aggressive regulators confronting the financial-services industry, including payments services. But in a speech on Sunday the director of the 5-year-old federal agency sounded a number of conciliatory notes …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews While many experts have cited anecdotal evidence that more consumers would adopt and use mobile wallets if they could earn, manage, and redeem

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Ever since the advent of mobile shopping, experts have cautioned that spending in the new channel would be hampered by small screens and clunky interfaces. Now, though, relatively new technology like natural-language interfaces and so-called bots may be coming to the rescue. A new study released …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Its many critics have labeled the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as the regulatory agency run amok, but the CFPB declined to regulate virtual currencies in its newly released rule governing prepaid card accounts even though banks and consumer groups urged it to do so. The CFPB issued …

Kohl’s Corp. joins the ranks of retailers with their own mobile-wallet services with the launch this week of Kohl’s Pay. Menomonee Falls, Wis.-based Kohl’s said the barcode mobile-payment service exclusively uses the private-label Kohl’s Charge card as the payment mechanism in more than 1,100 Kohl’s stores. To use Kohl’s Pay, …

By Peter Lucas@DTPaymentNews Consumers continue to pay higher fees for out-of-network ATM transactions, but have more access to free, non-interest checking accounts, says Bankrate Inc.’s annual survey of checking-account fees. Combined surcharges levied by

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews For years, pundits have said consumers trust banks more than any other entity when it comes to payments options, but that doesn’t mean financial institutions are always delivering the most innovative services. Now a review of mobile-banking and -payments offerings indicates even the nation’s biggest banks …