Cheryl Winokur Munk

Financial services companies such as PayPal, Lydia and RBC are testing chatbots on platforms such as Slack and Facebook Messenger.

Payment companies thinking about a future in the cannabis market have much to learn from the past experiences of other high-risk industries.

Now that the holiday sales rush is over, merchants are starting to look more closely at game-changing sales models like Amazon Go as models to reinvent their own point of sale.

A growing number of U.S. merchants, both large and small, are using online marketplaces to sell their wares worldwide. Payment companies that specialize in currency exchange have taken note.

Though cash remains the most prevalent form of payment in Africa, some companies are setting the wheels in motion for a much-anticipated e-commerce revolution.

As global e-commerce proliferates, payment platforms are stepping up to cater to U.S. merchants eager to sell their wares in emerging markets. But there can be as many risks as there are opportunities when entering a new market.

To launch its payments platform, Digitzs used crowdfunding as an alternative to the traditional venture capital. Its founder explains how it made that happen.

As a payments industry professional, Reetika Grewal took the situation in stride, but her experience using mobile wallets and EMV exemplifies an issue many consumers are facing.

As online fraud becomes more pervasive, merchants need to strengthen their defenses against would-be cyber thieves.

As EMV's sales draw starts to fade, ISOs are starting to move on to other products.

The rise of equity crowdfunding is drawing more interest from U.S. entrepreneurs who can’t get seed-stage funding from a VC, from those who can’t get the money as quickly as the founders would like and from others who simply like the idea of getting buy-in from the mass market.

MagTek CEO Annmarie ‘Mimi’ Hart is eager to witness the potential of futuristic payment technologies, from wearables to ‘edibles’ and ‘injectables.’ But first, she must work with the merchant community to address the shortcomings of today’s approaches to payment security.

Between regulatory and competitive pressures, ISOs have a lot on their plate for 2016, particularly for the most growth-hungry companies. Here is some food for thought for ISOs as they plan their strategies for the year ahead:

Amazon is constantly unleashing new payment-related products and services. Some efforts succeed, some fail and the rest are a mixed bag — but regardless of the outcome, retailers have a golden opportunity to learn from Amazon's experimentation.