David Heun

Integrated payments platform provider WePay has added web-based Apple Pay and Android Pay acceptance to its mobile commerce offering.

Underbanked consumers will have an incentive to initiate mobile payments through PaySwag, an application that will issue rewards for using a smartphone to make a payment and allowing redemption at any time.

ICBA Bancard is partnering with the payments provider linked2pay to more easily deploy Automated Clearing House and other transaction types through a cloud-based platform.

Google Wallet may have passed the in-store and in-app payments baton to Android Pay late in 2015, but it has simplified its person-to-person payment capabilities by extending its Gmail integration to Android phones.

Samsung, terminal manufacturer Ingenico and Swiss app developer Smartlink are teaming up on an odd premise: Rather than treat wearables as vessels for a mobile wallet, treat those devices as a handful of bills and coins.

Chase Pay is the result of years of investment in ChaseNet, a closed-loop system that allows JPMorgan Chase to cut costs in a way few other banks could. So what value — if any — does Chase get from buying the discarded remains of the MCX merchants' mobile wallet?

The technology from MCX's CurrentC wallet, which never formally launched, will get new life with Chase Pay, which debuted in 2016 with Starbucks, Best Buy and commitments from MCX members such as Walmart.

The certification covers compliance, risk and strategy expertise as the payments industry becomes increasingly digitized and global.

The terminal and ATM maker, which is making a number of changes to its business, expecs the plant will be phased out by the end of the third quarter.

A new joint venture with Gas Station TV will help Verifone Systems Inc. expand its services in the coming year, providing more exposure for the terminal manufacturer's merchant clients and a stronger media service for its petroleum clients. In addition, Verifone will expand its role as a software provider.

The steady march of smartphone technology makes mobile wallet adoption seem inevitable, but consumers still need convincing.

After two years of development and fundraising, Kerv Wearables says it is launching the Kerv Ring as a contactless payment device using a Mastercard prepaid account and the card brand's EMV chip technology.

If the megabanks' Zelle person-to-person payment service takes off, it will serve as much as a blueprint for collaboration as it does for digital payments.

Curiosity may not be the best approach for a cat, but Christine Larsen finds it to be a lifesaver in her role as executive vice president and chief operations officer for First Data.

As senior vice president of global commerce for Discover, it is no surprise that Amy Parsons says "my desk is in whatever country I happen to be in."

In a financial services career that dates back to 1983, Lou Anne Alexander has experienced many upheavals of the status quo of payment technology.

Early in her career, Monica Eaton-Cardone had to deal with the tough part of being a retail entrepreneur — constantly being hit with chargebacks on card payments — to ultimately develop an idea to help retailers navigate that unpleasant part of payment acceptance.

Executives in the payments industry know the key to future technological advances rests solely in the hands of the consumer. Without consumer adoption, advances in payments quickly collect dust. Reetika Grewal understands this reality particularly well.

In high school, Kara Kazazean joined the marching band and competed to be a leader for the clarinet section. As part of the selection process, aspiring section leaders participated in a rigorous leadership training program.

The Most Influential Women in Payments are the ones taking risks with new ideas and investments, and developing the technology that will forever change the way people handle money. Not only do they set an example for their peers, they are unafraid to learn from newcomers and are diligent about encouraging a freshness and diversity of ideas.