While not as large as the U.S. both in number of people and number of credit card owners, the U.K. remains a very lucrative market for issuing banks and card networks, as well as a host of alternative financial service providers catering to younger, underserved consumers.

Terrorism financing schemes using cryptocurrencies are growing in sophistication, according to researcher Chainalysis Inc., which helps law enforcement track digital-coin transactions.

Small and midsize businesses often struggle to manage their cash, requiring new means to move funds, said Finsync's Eddie Davis.

The move to dump passwords in favor of more flexible authentication will likely happen in clusters, with schools providing many of the factors necessary.

French mobile payments app Lydia has raised €40 million (about $45 million) in a Series B fundraising round led by Tencent Holdings, owner of WeChat Pay.

Having grown up with smartphones in hand, these digital natives crave high speed and instant results, says Wirecard's Susanne Steidl.

Fearful of being the last one standing, banks and credit unions of all sizes will become more aggressive about real-time payments — or risk getting left in the past.

Mastercard is partnering with issuer processor EML and technology startup CleverCards to allow any business to send digital Mastercard payment cards directly to an employee’s or customer’s mobile wallet by SMS/text, email or any messaging app such as WhatsApp.

Before Visa agreed to acquire data company Plaid for $5.3 billion, Mastercard had been pulling ahead in the race among the card brands to break beyond reliance on basic processing fees.

Shopify has provided merchant cash advance services for the last three years for established online retailers, but newcomers with no transaction history typically were turned away.