Hub brand requirements are modest compared with retail systems. They communicate reputation and trust to a relatively small set of sophisticated firms they hope to serve.

Physical cash is likely to have utility for years to come. If it passes away, better the death blow comes from superior commercial payment systems than government edict.

Regulatory moves to reduce paper money often have confusing, and even dangerous results, writes Eric Grover, a principal at Intrepid Ventures.

There's been a lot of regulation against interchange fees, but there are some signs of easing in both the U.S. and U.K.

The payments processing and technology giant should add more merchant services and marketing to its Star network to overcome competitive and regulatory pressure, writes Eric Grover, a principal at Intrepid Ventures.

Negative interest rate policies have not been shown to speed up spending or borrowing. In some cases, countries with such policies have seen their savings rates continuing to climb.

The effort to end regulatory absolutism will most likely succeed if it is framed as a pro-economy reform, with members of both political parties driving the train.

China isn't living up to promises to open its card market, a shortcoming the incoming Trump administration should remember when forging trade policies.

President-elect Donald Trump has threatened retaliatory tariffs on China if they cheat on their trading obligations. A good place to start would be China’s payment card market.

Despite the hurdles facing technology giants in offering payments services, they remain keenly interested in the sector and more traditional service providers should stay on alert.