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Global Payments and Heartland Payment Systems have a chance to create an international powerhouse focused on small to medium sized business, restaurant and education payments, if they can meld their technology post-acquisition and retain Heartland's management.

The $467 million-asset mutual thrift appointed Patricia Stetler to the role this week.

The $5.6 billion-asset multibank holding company hired Fontaine to replace Ed Hooks, who has been its counsel since 1992 and who will retire at the end of the year.

Despite the incessant fanfare around mobile wallets, biometrics and the Internet of Things, the slow-and-steady move to EMV security is in the spotlight of Verifone's revenue prospects in the coming year.

Wirecard Group and Alipay are collaborating to provide European retailers with barcode technology enabling Chinese tourists to make point of sale payments using the Alipay mobile wallet app.

American Express has joined LendingTree’s credit card marketplace.

Versatile, high-tech digital gift card sales are going strong for this year’s holiday season, but in the latest sign that plastic cards many never die, eBay has partnered with gift card giant InComm to sell traditional gift cards online that will take up to 10 days to arrive by mail.

Dealing with late and missed payments from creditors is a chronic complaint of small businesses, who are often stretched too thin to chase down money owed to them. But a U.K.-based startup aims to attack that problem with YayPay, an automated invoicing platform with a bill-collections feature that launched this week in the U.S.

U.S. transactions processor Global Payments Inc. is in talks to buy smaller rival Heartland Payment Systems Inc., according to people with knowledge of the matter.

JPMorgan Chase's Eileen Serra is giving up her CEO title (for a very interesting reason); CIT Group's Ellen Alemany is getting to work sooner than expected with a big housecleaning; and Meredith Whitney resurfaces with an insurance company. Plus, inclusion confusion, the "Person of the Year" (it's a woman for the first time in 29 years), and Saudi Arabia.

Even though Walmart has been a key member and driving force behind the Merchant Customer Exchange joint venture to establish a new mobile wallet, the retailer's addition of Walmart Pay to its mobile app is consistent with strategy, and will lead to a wave of individual bank and retailer initiatives.

Boku had to stay mum last week about its involvement in powering Apple Inc.'s carrier billing option in Russia, but there is no such gag order this week regarding the company's partnership with Microsoft.

One of the leaders of the retailer-driven Merchant Customer Exchange mobile payment system, Walmart is stepping out with its own alternative to Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay.

JPMorgan Chase has shuffled three top executives in credit cards, mortgages and mortgage servicing.

Eileen Serra, 61, the chief executive of the Chase Card Services unit, will step down in January and become an adviser to the company on growth initiatives, according to a memo Wednesday from Gordon Smith, JPMorgan's CEO of consumer and community banking.

Eileen Serra is stepping down as chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase's credit-card business and will be replaced by Kevin Watters, who is currently head of mortgage banking.

Visa Inc. has started marketing what’s poised to be one of the biggest bond offerings of the year to finance its 21.2 billion euro ($23.3 billion) takeover of Visa Europe Ltd.

CIT Group will pay about $60 million in severance to 14 executives who have been dismissed or left the company, as it continues to shuffle its executive lineup following its August acquisition of OneWest Bank.

Bank of Lancaster in Kilmarnock, Va. has promoted Susan Pittman to the newly created position of chief lending officer.

ACI Worldwide will provide the payments framework to allow international money transfer provider TransferWise to add more services to its network.