David Heun

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.

The payments industry is a complex ecosystem, one that Carolyn Homberger is happy to navigate. As president of global sales for ACI the past seven years, Homberger views the payments industry as akin to "a supersonic airline driven by some of the most skilled pilots in the business."

INTL FCStone's Global Payments Division's foreign currency pricing has picked up enough momentum to extend beyond its initial launch to more than 350 correspondent banks globally.

The State Bank of India and Hitachi Payment Services plan to bring their heft to a joint merchant acquiring venture to expand digital payments in India.

Pan-European payments and transaction services provider equensWorldline has launched its domestic interoperable P2P mobile payment scheme across the continent.

It may take several more months of testing before it is deployed in a payments application, but a new money transfer specification the NFC Forum has developed carries the organization's promise of becoming an alternative to QR-code technology.