Opinions

People are warming up to mobile payment apps like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, but concerns over fraud and ID theft could still pose headwinds.

The EMV migration includes support for chip cards and NFC contactless payments, giving banks room to compete in the contactless payments market just in time for wearables to take off.

In time, more large institutions will realize that closed, centralized blockchains aren’t any better than the databases now in use.

The chip card migration took up a lot of merchants' energy over the past couple of years. As chip cards mature, merchants can and should turn to the variety of new payment options in the year ahead.

Connected cars are going to create new revenue streams, not just for automakers, but also for financial services providers.

Big banks increasingly are developing application programming interfaces to make their customers’ data available to third parties. But discrete deals between banks and third parties would be a bad outcome for consumers and the industry as a whole.

The third party wallets and mobile point of sale systems are advancing, making the next year the right time for merchants to work on strategies to improve user experience at checkout.

The method is still based on paper money, but the model includes steps that get consumers ready to adopt e-commerce. Given the region's smartphone penetration, that's an inevitability.

Regardless of what happens with the politically uncertain consumer bureau, consumer data access is an example of a CFPB issue that is apolitical.

The breaches at large retailers and other companies are continuing, making it time to fully embrace a new authentication method.