David Heun

PayPal is expanding its Instant Transfer service beyond debit cards, establishing a service for instant money movement from PayPal accounts to bank accounts.

Italian payments provider Axepta-BNL Group is launching the WeChat Pay service to its clients, saying it is the first in the country to offer the popular Chinese mobile payment and social networking app.

Our annual Most Influential Women in Payments feature, now in its seventh year, highlights the women who are creating change and opportunities in the payments industry. For the first time, the editors of PaymentsSource have also recognized one woman for lifetime achievement.

Two years ago, Ellen Richey became Visa's vice chairman and chief risk officer, propelled to this role by over a decade of work that fundamentally changed how the average consumer makes a payment. Richey plans to retire this summer, ending a 40-year career in law and risk management.

As president of enterprise strategic partnerships at American Express, McNeal has been right in the middle of developing the technology and use cases for Amex to advance in a digital and virtual payments world.

Understanding how the payments ecosystem works is a basic tenet for anyone aspiring to work in the industry. Visa's Taira Hall has that understanding, plus she is ingrained with a trait many others may not have — she has experienced what happens when there is no accessible payments system in place.

Walmart has a good grasp of where it sits among global retail giants, but its position among the financial services industry is still evolving under the guidance of Karla Allen, its senior director of payments innovation.

In her 27 years working at Discover, Amy Parsons has always found herself in the right place at the right time. Or, more likely, decision makers at Discover have made a habit of putting Parsons right where they need her to tackle the hottest trends in payments.

During her seven years at U.S. Bank, Kristy Carstensen has always been a creator. After all, she had to define what her job would be when she accepted what was an entirely new role at U.S. Bank five years ago, that of senior vice president and chief financial officer of the Payments Group.

While a career in payments can allow a person to touch on many different aspects of payments services, PayPal's Prashanthi Ravanavarapu can say her focus has remained quite clear.