David Heun

Any future machine-to-machine environment calling for communication and transactions will surely include a consumer's option to make payments through such a network. That turns any home or business into its own complex network of devices, routers, sensors, passwords, communication coding and private credentials.

Blockchain may have received its most exposure as the distributed ledger technology at the foundation of cryptocurrency exchanges, but its use cases are advancing into other data-driven or supply-chain industries pursuing the Internet of Things.

Atlanta-based Global Payments is working with startup InVision, a design company that works with companies like Google and Netflix, to design a portal that will allow merchants to quickly work with banks or customers to reconcile and troubleshoot transactions, including addressing disputes and chargebacks.

PayPal is using Venmo's fast growth to power several initiatives, but the app suffered a damaging fraud surge early this year, showing it's not immune from enrollment fraud that challenges the entire P2P sector.

Payments processor Elavon has agreed to provide Belgium's leading postal operator with payment acceptance services at more than 650 locations.

There's never a good time to expose customer data, but the incident Amazon disclosed Wednesday could upend two major events: Black Friday/Cyber Monday and a reported effort to get merchants to accept Amazon at the point of sale.

Chase is planning to enable users of the Chase Pay app to receive and redeem custom offers from merchants, in addition to the ability to find offers from more than 150 merchants through the Chase Mobile app.

Capital One is banking on a tool to help online shoppers find better prices to bring more holiday shopping transactions their way.

Seeking a stronger foothold in the growing India payments landscape, Visa has made a minority investment in digital payments platform BillDesk.

Starbucks has established itself as a model for mobile payments among coffee drinkers, but Barclays is partnering with a U.K. coffee chain to take it a step further by bringing the coffee cup itself into play.