David Heun

Visa and Mastercard are making a lot of noise for initiatives that adapt their existing technology for faster payments in the U.S., but the alternative payment provider Dwolla is moving just as aggressively.

If new research from NCR about a flaw in chip cards proves to be reproducible by fraudsters, it may undermine the core benefit of EMV security.

It may seem as if the Visa Direct payments platform came out of the blue this week as part of its collaboration with the bank-run clearXchange network, but the card brand has used the same technology in other countries for more than a decade.

Cash has been notoriously stubborn in light of the relentless onslaught of new payment methods, and though it has started a very slow decline, it is perhaps decades away from declaring defeat.

Visa announced Quick Chip four months ago, but until today the card brand has not had a place to showcase its faster EMV technology to merchants who feel burdened by the EMV payment process.

The payments and financial technology world is moving ahead at high speed. But an acquirer may feel like the only one on the road obeying the speed limit while other companies zoom ahead.

Few companies can claim to have created a wildly successful mobile wallet app. Even fewer can claim to have done it twice in a row.

In the first half of 2016, the payments industry had its most active six months of merger-and-acquisition activity since the second half of 2014.

The regulatory winds swirling around acquirers and independent sales organizations are so swift, those who can't stay abreast of the changes are likely to get blown away.

Every product has a "sell by" date, and so should every independent sales organization.