PayPal

An agreement with PayPal for cross-border payments has allowed Bank of America Merrill Lynch to add the word "global" to its three-year Digital Disbursements product.

PayPal Holdings Inc. issued a forecast that didn’t meet Wall Street’s expectations, signaling struggles ahead as it looks to compete with banks and startups in the online payments market.

PayPal has been working to expand Venmo's audience beyond millennials for more than a year, a strategy that it hopes to further with instant transfers.

Fast growth in use of the bank's instance of the person-to-person payments product indicates it could one day rival Venmo.

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.