Merchant holdouts are finally warming to the likes of Apple Pay, years after the mobile wallet's launch. Competitive offerings have also flourished from mobile operating systems and phone providers.

Banks are rightly focused on PSD2 as an international gateway for fintechs to disrupt banking, though potential deregulation in Singapore can give digital payment companies another route to take share directly away from banks.

Facebook's plans to launch its Libra cryptocurrency dominated much of the discussion at American Banker's Digital Banking conference last week, but attendees also debated what big tech company might strike next and what future digital innovations are in store.

Libra has only been public for a few days, but it has been enough time for regulators around the world to savage the project and schedule hearings. Jorn Lambert, executive vice president of digital solutions for Mastercard, said the project's objectives are aligned with the regulators' concerns.

The Facebook digital-currency unit has a logo nearly identical to that of the challenger bank Current, which has been around since 2015.

Bill Ready, the former CEO of Braintree who helped PayPal build its digital strategy over the past six years, announced plans to leave the company.

Community bank executives, payments officials and others said Libra faces an uphill battle amid heavy competition and regulatory scrutiny.

Large U.S. banks and merchants are finally working together to support contactless payments. But two of retail's biggest chains, Walmart and Kroger, aren't on board, and for good reason.

Many might think that the technological disruption of the industry is already underway, but it’s likely that the most significant restructuring is still yet to come.

Facebook's Libra project didn't come from nowhere. The social network has a long history of experimenting with digital payments, and launched a separate (and ill-fated) digital currency a decade ago.