Competitive Strategies

• 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 …

Payment with a wearable device, such as a smart watch, wristband, or fitness monitor, has the potential to be used by 45% of wearables-owning consumers by 2020, finds the IHS “Wearable Payment Devices Report—2016” issued Wednesday. In four years, the global market for wearables will reach 340 million devices shipped, …

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 …

MasterCard Inc. reportedly wants to acquire VocaLink Ltd., operator of the United Kingdom’s Faster Payments system, for just under £1 billion ($1.4 billion), according to reports in the British media Thursday. Such a deal, if consummated, could shake up the budding faster-payments movement in the U.S., where VocaLink is building …

The role of EMV in pushing tap-and-pay solutions is well known, but research released on Tuesday indicates the brand value of Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. can’t be underestimated. At the same time, a cloud-based technology called host card emulation is also playing a role in spreading contactless …

Cash, it seems, remains king, especially among younger consumers who want to use person-to-person payments. Of the 1,000 18-to-34-year-old U.S. consumers surveyed, 58% prefer cash for their P2P payments, says GoBankingRates.com, a financial-services site that conducted the online survey in January. The popularity of cash, even among Millennials, for P2P …

The cessation of the cobranded Costco Wholesale Corp. credit card issued by American Express Co. moved another step closer with Monday’s announcement that Citigroup will buy the AmEx Costco portfolio for an unspecified sum. Citi’s acquisition of the portfolio is expected to close this summer. That’s when Citi will begin to …

Many consumers will find it easier to make onboard entertainment purchases when flying on Southwest Airlines Inc. now that the airline is accepting Pay with Amazon. Announced Wednesday, the service enables Southwest passengers who have stored payment data in their Amazon.com Inc. accounts to pay with those credentials. To pay for …

HalCash North America is making its cardless-cash ATM service available in four U.S. cities prior to eventual national expansion later this year. Under the Pin4 moniker, the HalCash North America service enables consumers to securely send cash that recipients can retrieve at participating ATMs without having to insert a card …

Green Dot Corp. announced a number of a new products Wednesday and said it was getting into lending in order to generate new revenues and expand beyond its prepaid card base. Under pressure from a large investor to boost its bottom line and flagging stock price, Pasadena, Calif.-based Green Dot reported …