In recent years, there's been a lot of activity in payments M&A, but a few deals stand out — some for their size, and others for their ability to transform both parties in a fundamental way.

The answer is to change the authentication framework altogether with new technologies that employ passive biometrics and behavioral analytics, writes Ryan Wilk, vice president of customer success at NuData Security.

The Wyomissing, Pa.-based firm is forgoing cash offers in favor of a more complicated plan that involves spinning the unit off to shareholders, who will then trade their stakes for shares in a Clearwater, Fla., community bank in a tax-free exchange.

Cryptocurrencies will not gain widespread traction with corporations and governments as long as there remain crucial questions about their volatility, risk, volume and shadowy affiliations.

While the advent of the Internet offered the possibility of increased global connectivity, blockchain has the potential to take this advancement to the next level, writes Sergey Ponomarev, the CEO of SONM.

To become a major payments option, the technology has to improve its voice accuracy and handling of voice in different environments.

On selected billing dates, Qualpay will automatically charge customers on an assigned plan and provide reports of the transaction activity.

Appliances, wearables, vehicles and other machines may deliver information directly to a blockchain that would validate personal and device identity.

The problem could be even worse this year, thanks to a new round of consumer data breaches, including the huge Equifax breach that exposed protected data on more than 145 million Americans, writes Rafael, executive vice president at ClearSale.

While many consumers are indeed adding smartphone-driven digital pay and mobile order and pay options into their payments toolbox, cash continues to resonate with American consumers, who show little interest in being "all in" with cashless, or having their choices limited in any way, writes Brian Bailey, managing director of North America for Cardtronics.

American Express' incoming CEO may have to fundamentally change how the company makes money, if regulators and the Supreme Court side against it.

There's never an easy time to change leaders, but for American Express it's a particularly challenging time as it faces legal challenges to a core part of its fee structure and is still revamping its business model after a stinging client loss.

Person-to-person payments are a core area of interest beyond just the banking industry. The news that PayPal is bringing Venmo into e-commerce should be serious concern for many companies that wanted a piece of the P-to-P pie. But Venmo's success does not necessitate others' failure.

Companies and households should therefore be on the lookout for security patches of their wireless access points and endpoint devices like laptops, desktops and mobile devices, write Steven Murdoch and Frederik Mennes from Vasco Data Security

By acquiring WePay, JPMorgan Chase — the bank that comes to mind when words like "incumbent" and "legacy" are uttered — proves that size does matter in the fintech game.

Global uncertainty is resulting in more and more people beginning to look at the possible impact such issues have on their wealth and how they can mitigate this risk, writes Nigel Green, founder and CEO of deVere Group.

JPMorgan Chase has made several investments in financial technology startups, but its plan to buy WePay will give its 4 million small-business clients a much more direct way to adopt digital payments.

PayPal's latest move to promote Venmo for retail payments may be the company's clearest admission of the limitations of the PayPal brand.

You can’t just turn the computers off and shut your door, nor can you rely on outdated, traditional training methods to prepare your team for a landscape of threats and continuously evolve, writes Laura Lee, executive vice president of cyber training and assessments at the Circadence Corporation.