Two years after the launch of Apple Pay, here’s a look at Cupertino’s entry and at services from the other tech titans that have joined the mobile-payments game—and at how financial institutions are reacting. Of the three major third-party wallets, Apple Pay is now 2 years old while Alphabet Inc.’s …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews As payments firms seek to commercialize emerging online marketplaces, they’re starting to leverage automated routines that promise to overturn traditional transaction methods and, just possibly, deliver on the long-sought goal of so-called frictionless payments. This week, both MasterCard Inc. and PayPal Holdings Inc. announced new initiatives …

• Chip card standards body EMVCo issued 3-D Secure 2.0, its update of the 3-D Secure technology for protecting e-commerce transactions. The new specification supports app-based purchases on mobile and other devices and will streamline the checkout process in order reduce transaction abandonment, EMVCo says. • MasterCard Inc. announced plans to …

• 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 …

• Payments provider TransFirst, a unit of Total System Services Inc. (TSYS), and Raintree Systems, which provides specialized practice-management software, formed a partnership that sees TransFirst as the integrated payments provider in Raintree’s software. • Following its decision earlier this week to halt production, sale, and exchange of its troubled …

• Vantiv Inc. has agreed to provide processing services to McCoy Federal Credit Union in central Florida. Services include ATM, debit, and credit card processing as well as MobiMoney, a feature that lets customers use their mobile device to turn cards on and off and receive alerts. • The U.S. …

With an abundance of smart-terminal options available, the question is, when will EMV-weary merchants be ready to deploy this newfangled technology? Emerging from the haze surrounding U.S. EMV merchant adoption, vendor strategies are taking shape aimed at supplanting traditional payment terminals with flashy platforms that promise access to rich ecosystems …

There have been some successes, but loyalty programs tied into mobile-payment systems are still few and far between. What will it take to strengthen the relationship? When you think of loyalty programs seamlessly integrated with mobile payments, only two examples loom large in the minds of the public and many …

A gift card marketed by a little-known startup and backed by shares of stock in big-name companies is coming to J-hooks near you. Gift card marketers have dominated the holiday season and other gift-giving occasions in recent years, but now a card is coming to thousands of those checkout-lane racks …

As the automated clearing house network gets set to start a process that will over time speed up all ACH credit and debit transactions to same-day settlement, the ACH’s governing body late this summer took an important step toward controlling the risk posed by certain non-bank players that stand between …