Opinions

Cash is expensive, overseas cards may be illegal and cryptocurrency is unreliable, argues David Ehrlich, COO and co-founder of Zodaka, who says e-wallets are an answer.

Cryptocurrencies will come and go but blockchain will flourish, because it has game-changing use cases that will fundamentally improve the way financial transactions get done, according to Vinay Pai, senior vice president of engineering at Bill.com.

Regulation is effectively priming the virtual currencies ecosystem for banks to engage by increasing transparency, reducing some of the associated risk, and lowering the barriers to entry. All of this will make it easier for banks to establish a role and to design new payment products, writes Elina Mattila, executive director at Mobey Forum.

Crooks are going after automated tax communications, text and streaming video. Here's what payment companies should do to educate their consumers, according to Robert Fodor, chief data scientist and vice president of fraud for Interac.

Today’s global citizens face risks that extend far beyond crumbling highways. Although reliable physical infrastructure is necessary for economic growth, immature and anemic payment infrastructures may present another serious threat to the global economy, writes Tomas Likar, head of business development and strategy at Hyperwallet.

With many consumers now using online and mobile banking, there is a huge opportunity to incorporate blockchain solutions into the everyday payments experience, writes Andre Stoorvogel, director of product marketing for Rambus Payments.

The FIS-Worldpay and Fiserv-First Data combos do provide notable scale, but the even-larger companies still won't produce the same pace of growth that younger nimble fintechs enjoy, says Eric Grover, a principal at Intrepid Ventures.

Community and regional banks may not be able to outspend their larger rivals, but they can be more nimble in implementing the necessary culture change.

Once Apple looked at the state of its existing ecosystem, it identified a space it could uniquely deliver on, and activated the partners needed to make it come to fruition — a perfect example of the concept of ecosystem enablement, argues Frank Kenney, director of market strategy for Cleo.

The internet giant's planned gaming service may create an omnichannel model for banks to emulate.