David Heun

China's declaration on Wednesday that its payments market is now open to foreign companies gives Chinese payments processors an opportunity to grow globally — but it's made similar moves before, with little effect.

Visa has appointed Marcello Baricordi as general manager for Middle East and North Africa, replacing Ihab Ayoub, who has left the company for personal reasons.

As gas stations add EMV-chip card acceptance at the pump, they will also find themselves rebuilding systems for loyalty programs and special offers that were reliant on their older hardware.

A partnership between SumUp and iZettle to provide mobile card readers will help the Church of England offer contactless, virtual terminal and mobile payments to its congregations.

The Clearing House expected to take some time to introduce its new network to financial institutions and play up its benefits.

BBVA has started testing a facial recognition payment application for employees to use at cafeterias and restaurants at the Ciudad BBVA office and business conference complex in Madrid.

Nacha has completed the third and final phase of the faster payments launch, requiring banks and credit unions to make Same-Day ACH funds available to depositors by 5 p.m. in local time.

Global payments processor Payscout has launched a self-service payment portal to process transactions between a business and its debtors, in effect linking businesses to back-end processing facilities without involving bill-collection agents.

For all the hype around prepaid, Netspend's new president, Kelley Knutson, is convinced that there won't be much talk about the "prepaid industry" in another 10 years.

On-demand transportation and mobile payments provider Grab has launched Grab Financial, which will serve as its fintech platform.

Quick service restaurant and other small business owners are warming up to new technology, giving Verifone and Paysafe a chance to sell their collaborative payment products.

A motivating speech from a female executive at the Ogilvy ad agency 15 years ago helped steer Denise Pickett to new heights at American Express. As did having a family willing to move to the U.S. from Canada.

To accomplish what she has in her 10-year tenure with Mastercard, Dana J. Lorberg simply had to be two things: "I am a programmer and a girl geek."

Ask Carleigh Jaques to build a new digital payments system, and there's a very good chance she'll turn to her "inner architect" and deliver the goods. After all, the senior vice president and global head of digital products for Visa has designed and built three houses — in her spare time.

In a 26-year career at Discover Financial Services, it would seem that Amy Parsons has earned the title of a "doctor" of payments.

To hear Archie Puri tell it, the technology changing the payments market is every bit as dramatic as laser eye surgery is to someone with poor vision.

This year, as PaymentsSource honors The Most Influential Women in Payments, a new pattern has emerged. This year's list recognizes the contributions of entrepreneurs who took their ideas directly to market, showcasing new ways of handling business in an industry that is forced to quickly adapt to rapid changes in technology and global culture.

Against the backdrop that is the contentious immigration debate in the U.S., Louise Pentland can say she has a passion and firsthand experience for improving the lives of those navigating the process of being accepted into this country.

The many fintech startups that burst on the scene to compete with Western Union or MoneyGram are morphing into something else — white label providers for companies running on dated infrastructure.

Total System Services is implementing software at Walmart and Sam's Club locations nationwide to link loyalty rewards to health care payments, while also recognizing qualified purchases from a consumer's health plan.