Merchant

Many technology developers yearn to invent the future of payments through software, but Toast is also reaching to the past by trying to perfect the hardware that surrounds the new digital tools.

It's an important pivot point for the industry — consumer trust is threatened by a steady flow of data breaches, and consumers are divided on whether they want to stick with plastic or move on to mobile and wearable payments.

A multilayered approach that allows one type of fraud tool to pick up the slack when another layer fails, according to Robert Capps, a vice president at NuData Security.

The correct strategy needs to be built around the mindset that the attackers might eventually succeed, and that with the right tools, the breach can be detected early, the extent of it can be controlled, and the attack can be stopped before a lot of damage is inflicted, writes Engin Kirda, a professor of computer science at Northeastern University.

Mobile has been a boon for Cardlytics, which says more than half of the deals consumers choose now come from the mobile channel.

Welcoming automation into our industry with less friction and fear happens when we understand its overwhelming benefit to our futures and the quality of our work, writes Lauren Ruef, a research analyst for Nvoicepay.

Instead of expanding Alipay’s geographic reach across the U.S. and Canada, Alipay is doubling down on merchant acceptance in urban areas and tourist zones to drive more spending volume.

Millennials view the ATM as central to how they manage their money and go about their daily lives, writes Yonas Marcos, president and CEO of Star Financial Services.

When EMV chip cards were launched in the U.S., the initial fear in the security and payment industries was that fraud would migrate to e-commerce. But the migration has actually moved further along to the more lucrative venue of real-time Fed-mandated ACH payments.

Blockchain's decentralized model can help avoid the "insiders-only" tendencies of centralized markets while distributing risk, contends Donika Kraeva, strategic communications manager at Dentacoin.