POS and Retail

In the wake of Zelle, Venmo and Apple Cash getting more active users and potential revenue, Square is relying on its Square Cash App and Cash Card as key drivers for its own growth.

To fuel growth, Apple's mobile wallet needs to go beyond its core use cases of NFC and in-app payments. Apple Pay's latest project leans more heavily on NFC to do work typically handled by apps.

Apple Card's advantages are mostly available elsewhere, but Apple's marketing prowess will make it a formidable competitor, according to Jonathan Ebinger, a general partner at Blue Run Ventures.

China's massive card network UnionPay has signed a merchant acquiring agreement with Worldline to bring acceptance of UnionPay cards into 40,000 merchant locations across northwest Europe.

Generation Z is scarred by the financial crisis, but has an awareness of technology that gives payment and financial companies a point of entry, according to Mickey Goldwasser, vice president of marketing at Payrailz.

Mobile point-of-sale provider Lavu has acquired online and mobile ordering platform MenuDrive to aid both restaurant management and online presence — and skip the costs of incorporating third-party services.

The U.S. is already very late to the party when it comes to contactless payments. But even so, there are signs that many merchants still aren't prepared for an influx of contactless cards.

JCPenney ended support for Apple Pay in its stores and also removed the mobile payment option from its app, a surprising reversal for a brand that offered Apple Pay in 2015, within a year of its rollout. There are multiple factors in play here.

Allied Irish Banks and First Data's joint venture have agreed to a $112 million deal to purchase the consumer payment network and merchant acquirer.

If American Express is going to soar in the future, it plans to do so firmly attached to the new 11-year contract it has signed with Delta Airlines.