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The Clearing House, the oldest banking association in the U.S., is hoping to provide a solution for some of the newest issues facing payments, namely, how to handle consumers' information in a world of digital wallets.

At the inaugural Wired Money conference Tom Blomfield, founder of online payments start-up GoCardless, declared a long overdue revolution in B2B payments that could leave 90% of accounts teams redundant.

The Google-backed distributed currency exchange, which is part of a new wave of international financial technology outfits, is trying to make it easier for people to pay others in the crypto-currency Bitcoin.

US Bank has expanded its NFC mobile payment service for iPhone users nationwide following its beta test in Salt Lake City and Portland earlier this year. The Go Mobile service is now available to anyone who signs up and qualifies for a FlexPerks Visa card and has the iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S.

According to technology research firm, Gartner, mobile commerce will see a 44 percent increase globally, reaching $235 billion this year. These increases will only continue, forecasting a $721 billion market with 450 million mobile commerce users by 2017. This figure includes transactions such as bill payments, money transfers and consumer payments.

Using your phone to get through the train turnstile or pay for a coffee still, in general, seems like a fairly alien concept - so what's the hold up?

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Bank has launched an NFC mobile payment service in partnership with mobile network operator PCCW Mobile, MasterCard, Gemalto and Samsung. Bank of China (Hong Kong) is also in the final stages of testing an NFC service that uses a mixture of secure digital memory cards, SIM cards and NFC add-on devices. The service is due to launch in the second half of this year.

A number of near field communication-enabled devices are constantly hitting the market and many marketers are experimenting with their own mobile payment technology. However, consumer education about NFC is still rather low and although the technology is somewhat new, 2013 may not be the year of contactless payments.

With close to billion subscribers, mobile is one of the biggest opportunities for tech entrepreneurs in India. But it is yet to make it big as a medium for transaction. Ventures in this space often struggle with key challenges such as monetising through apps/services, resolving mobile payment issues and making mobile ads really tick. The second edition ofTechcircle Mobile Forum 2013, held in Delhi on June 27, discussed such pertinent questions and brought forth various suggestions that provided deep insights into the upcoming industry.

Near field communication capabilities will soon give German drivers a new way to pay for gas. Starting in 2014, the Shell stations operating in Germany will be introducing a new form of mobile payment.

If you're not sold on mobile payments or NFC, then you probably haven't considered how the smartwatch is going to change both of them.

MasterCard has announced a partnership with Web.com Group Inc., a provider of Internet services and online marketing solutions for small businesses, that will let Web.com's merchants offer MasterPass payment options to customers. The deal will not only significantly increase the number of merchants accepting MasterPass, it also will let some smaller merchants offer their customers a better payment experience, the companies said.

Bitcoin’s roller coaster ride over the past few months has been well documented. We watched Bitcoin’s meteoric rise in value from $33 at the end of February (then an all-time high) to a peak of nearly $266 on April 10, followed by the crash of as much as 70 percent. But Bitcoin prices are not the story. The opportunities that Bitcoin creates and the new virtual algorithmic currency companies are the true story.

Payment start-up Square Inc scrapped its gift card service less than a year after it launched the effort. "Square gift cards were a fun way to send gifts from local businesses to anyone over the holiday season," a Square spokesman said on Thursday. "They are no longer available for purchase."

Clinkle, an intriguing startup with roots at Stanford, thinks it has a new way replace cash, credit cards and checks, TechCrunch reports in a profile of the company. The startup is building a e-payment app designed to route around the entrenched systems that support cash and credit cards.

The development of a suite of mobile card acceptance solutions for micro-merchants and small business owners follows the partnership between the two companies. The combining of Lloyds and Monitise will offer its payment products from Autumn 2013, which will be a fast and secure option for the businesses to take payments.

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