• Mobile e-commerce grew 60% last year to reach $120 billion, with 70% of that total coming through browsers (50%) and apps (20%) accessed via smart phones, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. • Routine usage of mobile devices to make payments remains flat with last …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews While the payments business is caught up these days in working out strategies for mobile apps and social media, it turns out these aren’t the cutting-edge technologies they once were. Instead, fields like virtual reality, machine learning, and natural language are winning the spotlight. That’s according …

With an eye on having tangible proposals out by mid-2017, two Federal Reserve task forces are about to evaluate 19 plans to make electronic payments faster. Speed and security usually come to mind first when payments executives talk about improving the U.S. payment system, but other factors increasingly important to …

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 …

• To Go Stores, a Puerto Rico-based convenience-store chain, will use P97 Networks’ PetroZone mobile commerce and digital marketing platform to enable mobile payments at the pump and for in-store transactions, P97 Networks announced. • Mattress retailer Casper Sleep Inc. said it is now accepting Apple Pay for online purchases. …

• Office-supply giant Staples Inc. has begun accepting Apple Pay on its mobile Web site, m.staples.com. Staples early on began accepting Apple Inc.’s mobile wallet in its stores and on its app. Apple recently made the service available for browser-based payments using Safari. • More than half of consumers believe …

• A federal judge in California has allowed an antitrust case to move forward against American Express Co., Discover Financial Services, MasterCard Inc., and Visa Inc. The case was filed in March by Florida merchants as a class-action suit alleging the networks had conspired to shift chargeback liability from banks …

• ATM network operator Cardtronics plc announced it plans to buy Canadian ATM operator DirectCash Payments Inc. (DCPayments) for $460 million; DC Payments operates 25,000 ATMs and will give Cardtronics its first presence in Australia and New Zealand and expand its operations in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Mexico. • …

• The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to a New York state law barring retailers from imposing credit card surcharges, Reuters reported. A federal appellate court upheld the law a year ago; nine other states have similar laws. • Online business lender Merchant Advance Capital said it …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Payments networks face a competitive landscape marked by rapid innovation, so the two biggest systems, Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., are responding by increasing the access developers have to their once tightly guarded skunk works. The latest move comes Wednesday from MasterCard, which announced MasterCard Developers. …