Pamela Joseph, U.S. Bancorp

Pamela Joseph is one of the top payments leaders at U.S. Bank, which has had a busy year.

Joseph, long regarded as an influential figure in financial services, is an advocate for mobile technology as a driver of payments growth. She sees mobile technology as a major driver of payments strategy for years to come.

"More consumers are expecting a high degree of capability from their mobile devices, and intuitive, secure payment functionality is beginning to go mainstream," says Joseph, who has been previously recognized by PaymentsSource's Most Influential Women in Payments and American Banker Magazine's Most Powerful Women in Banking.

Joseph, the bank's vice chair of payment services , has been in her position for nearly ten years and oversees Elavon, U.S. Bank's processing subsidiary. Elavon is flexing its IT muscle, recently opening an innovation lab to foster the growth of new payments technology.

"Our industry demands creativity and innovative thinking," she says. "Traditional ways of doing business in the financial and payments space will continue to be challenged, and I think women—as well as younger people who are just beginning their careers—have tremendous potential to flourish in payments by offering new viewpoints and fresh perspectives on how commerce will evolve."

She advises newcomers to the industry to forget any assumptions they may have about working in payments or finance.

"Our field needs as many creative, innovative thinkers as we do professionals with strong financial skills," Joseph says. "There is a tremendous amount of opportunity and change in payments, which continues to make this an interesting field in which to pursue a career."

U.S. Bancorp's most recent innovations in mobile banking and payments include last year's debut of the Go Mobile contactless payment system, the Nuance voice recognition app and a mobile shopping partnership with Monitise.

See the full list of honorees for this year's Most Influential Women in Payments.