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Banks still have advantages in the battle against big tech firms like Amazon and Facebook, but they will need to capitalize on those to survive.

For payments to keep up, merchants need to focus on the shift to subscriptions and the true personalization of processing, writes Suneera Madhani, CEO and founder of Fattmerchant.

Some were sold at discounted prices, while others were shut down by their acquirers or quietly ceased doing business.

In a year of political upheaval and weak commercial credit growth, lenders sought to capitalize on an economic bright spot — consumer spending — by reviving the personal loan, allying with fintechs and exiting traditional business lines that no longer made sense.

Financial services organizations increasingly need an unwavering commitment to customer experience in order to compete, or the competitor down the street will do it first, writes Chris Millner, a principal of financial technology and a payments consultant at North Highland.

Some are in new roles or replacing legends, others are embracing new strategies or eyeing big deals and at least one is currently out of banking — but could soon resurface. Here are the industry executives to keep an eye on in 2018.

Payment Rails is putting a tight focus on the emerging area of “influencer marketing,” where global brands are spreading money among individuals who use social media to promote products.

PayPal wants to integrate TIO's bill payment customers into PayPal's network, but a data breach has that goal on hold.

Venmo achieved its status by designing its interface like that of a social network. PayPal's version of that comes from Facebook.

PayPal is following up on its P-to-P Facebook Messenger service by adding a chat extension that supports invoicing as part of a broader conversation about a sale.