An updated edition of the February 4, 2026 article.

Mobile payments are steadily replacing physical wallets at checkout counters, cutting reliance on cash and traditional ATM networks, even in regions that have long preferred cash. Money can now move in real time, often at a lower cost, changing how people pay and how businesses get paid. What started as a simple convenience has evolved into a major financial ecosystem built around speed, data and digital access. Mobile wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal, powered by NFC, QR codes, and in-app checkout, have become a routine way to pay across both online and in-store channels.

This shift is being driven by rising smartphone usage, wearables, tablets, broader internet access and constant fintech innovation. Younger consumers, especially Gen Z and Millennials, are leading adoption as they favor faster and more seamless experiences. At the same time, artificial intelligence is strengthening fraud detection and risk monitoring, while blockchain-based tools are being explored for tokenization and faster settlement. A newer trend is agentic commerce, where AI could move beyond assisting users and begin completing purchases and payments automatically in the background.

Super apps, such as WeChat Pay, Alipay and PhonePe, are also changing behavior by combining messaging, shopping, banking and payments in one place. Mobile payments are now entering another stage as conversational commerce grows, allowing users to shop and pay through chat-based experiences.

Fortune Business Insights estimates the global mobile payments market reached $4.97 trillion in 2025 and could climb to $46.62 trillion by 2034, implying a 28% compound annual growth rate. Asia Pacific led the market last year. Mobile payments are also expanding on the merchant side, with tap-to-phone tools turning smartphones into payment terminals. Tokenized assets and digital currencies may further reshape how wallets process transactions. Our Mobile Payments Screen highlights the best opportunities in this fast-changing space.

As adoption rises, competition is heating up. Players like JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM Quick QuoteJPM - Free Report) , Block, Inc. (XYZ Quick QuoteXYZ - Free Report) , Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (JKHY Quick QuoteJKHY - Free Report) and Remitly Global, Inc. (RELY Quick QuoteRELY - Free Report) are expanding their reach through new partnerships and stronger product offerings. Regulators are updating rules around security, data privacy and financial inclusion. Initiatives such as FedNow in the United States, Europe’s PSD2 and India’s UPI are helping strengthen trust in digital payments and support wider adoption.

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JPMorgan Chase plays a significant role in mobile and digital payments through several channels that touch both consumers and businesses. At the consumer level, Chase lets customers add their credit and debit cards to popular mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and PayPal, so people can tap their phones or watches to pay in stores and online without using a physical card.

For person-to-person transfers, Chase offers Zelle inside its mobile banking app, allowing users to send and receive money instantly using just a mobile number or email address. Last year, the platform’s total volume jumped 20% year over year to $1.2 trillion. On the business side, Chase’s merchant payment solutions enable companies to accept mobile and contactless payments, including the ability to tap-to-pay on an iPhone or process transactions through apps and online gateways without traditional hardware.

JPMorgan Chase is also integrating real-time payments infrastructure like FedNow, helping move funds instantly between bank accounts at any time. Overall, its involvement spans enabling mobile spending for consumers, supporting instant transfers and powering acceptance for merchants, tying its traditional banking footprint to modern digital payment habits. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Block has become a major name in mobile payments by building services people use every day. At the center of its consumer offerings is Cash App, a mobile wallet that lets users send and receive money, pay with a linked debit card, and manage funds from their phone. Cash App has 59 million active users, making it one of the most popular payment apps in the country. It generated gross profit of $6.3 billion in 2025, a 21% year-over-year increase. Users can even buy or sell stocks and bitcoin through the app.

For businesses, Block’s Square platform helps sellers accept payments on mobile devices. It generated $3.9 billion in gross profits in 2025. With simple hardware or software, small shops, food vendors, and service providers can turn a smartphone or tablet into a payment terminal that accepts contactless, chip and swipe transactions. This has helped XYZ’s Square serve millions of merchants globally.

Between Cash App, Square point-of-sale tools and integrated payment services, Block’s mobile payment footprint continues to grow with both consumers and sellers. It currently has a Zacks Rank #2.

Jack Henry & Associates provides the plumbing that lets banks and credit unions offer mobile payment services to their customers. Rather than running its own wallet app, Jack Henry builds the technology behind mobile and digital payments that appear inside the banking apps people use every day. Its payments platform supports real-time person-to-person transfers, digital bill pay, account-to-account moves, and remote deposit capture, all of which customers can access from their phones.

Last year, Jack Henry began rolling out Tap2Local, a cloud-native solution in partnership with Moov that lets community banks and credit unions enable their clients to accept card payments directly on mobile devices. This is currently being tested with several institutions and is expected to expand to over 1,000 banks and credit unions on the Banno Digital Platform.

Jack Henry’s tools also help financial institutions offer seamless mobile check deposit via phone cameras and integrate faster payment rails like instant transfers. It helps roughly 7,400 clients bring their payment features to their account holders. It also has a Zacks Rank #2.

Remitly Global is a digital remittance company that uses mobile phones and apps to make international money transfers simple and fast. Instead of sending money through banks or physical locations, people use the Remitly app on their phone, enter the amount and destination, and send funds directly from their device. The service operates in more than 170 countries and supports transfers in more than 100 currencies, including direct deposits to mobile wallets like MTN Mobile Money, Vodafone Cash, GCash, bKash and others, depending on the country.

Customer adoption continues to accelerate, supported by rising smartphone penetration and increasing migration patterns. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Remitly’s active customers grew to 9.3 million, and total send volume reached $20.8 billion, up 35% year over year, showing strong usage of its mobile-centric tools.

Engagement remains high as repeat usage strengthens Remitly’s network effects. With global labor mobility and cross-border commerce rising, the company is well-positioned to benefit from the shift toward mobile-first payments. It has a Zacks Rank #2 at present.