Walmart Pay, the mobile-payments app developed by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is now broadly available to consumers as part of version 6.8 of the retailing titan’s shopping app, introduced this week for Apple Inc. smart phones. The app update, available on the iTunes store, says Walmart Pay will be “available in …

Universal mobile wallets have yet to gain the hearty embrace of merchants and consumers, unlike those serving a solitary merchant. But that will change, forecasts the “Merchant Mobile Wallets: Mobile Payments in Action” report released Wednesday by Mercator Advisory Group Inc. The report from the Maynard, Mass.-based payments consultancy predicts …

While the U.S. market wrestles with its nearly 6-month-long transition to EMV chip cards and contactless payments based on near-field communication (NFC) technology, the rest of the world is surging ahead with contactless, online, and mobile transactions, according to the latest report from Juniper Research. Total digital payments worldwide will …

• In-store mobile payments made with wallets enabled with near-field communication will total nearly $240 billion worldwide by 2021 as mobile-wallet competition intensifies and the contactless-payment infrastructure matures, predicts researcher Strategy Analytics. • Closed-loop gift card provider SVM LP acquired 1to1 Card, a prepaid card management-services firm for incentive, loyalty and …

• Processor Jack Henry & Associates Inc. said its JHA Payment Solutions unit will hook into the The Clearing House Payment Co.’s pending real-time payment system, which could bring 6,300 banks and credit unions served by Jack Henry into the new network. • Digital Check Corp. launched two products this …

• Four directors of cash-strapped Powa Technologies Ltd., including the startup’s founder and chief executive, Dan Wagner, were ousted from the board as long ago as Feb. 19, according to a report on BusinessInsider.com. The news follows the development on Thursday in which accounting firm Deloitte, appointed as administrator of …

While the mobile wallets launched by corporate giants Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit, and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. have sparked a good deal of publicity, not much is known about actual adoption and usage so far, since the companies have been characteristically tightlipped. But that doesn’t mean researchers who …

Dallas-based MoneyGram International Inc. posted a mixed set of financial results for all of 2015 and for the fourth quarter as it looks to continued growth in its online business. The money-transfer specialist also said Thursday it has settled for $13 million a legal inquiry into its fraud-prevention measures. For …

In the face of reports of generally mediocre mobile-wallet usage, a report issued this week indicates the picture may brighten soon. Thirty-nine percent of consumers have used a mobile-payments service in a store within the past year, and 73% of these have done so just within the past three months, …

Ever since the launch of Apple Pay more than a year ago, mobile wallets have followed a pattern of recruiting financial institutions to enable their network-branded credit and debit cards to work in the wallet apps. But with their proprietary cards, retailers are getting in on this action, as well, …