After rising 73 percent in 2017, Alibaba shares trade at a multiple of 64 times earnings. Tencent is trading at 56 times profit after a 71 percent rise in its stock.

Companies involved in content sharing or social media are seeing fraudsters try to create new accounts for their sites with fake credentials through bot attacks.

The European directive is an opportunity for U.S. institutions to update data protection, writes Seth Ruden, senior fraud consultant for ACI Worldwide.

Even as investors are lured by their price gains and volatility, the biggest institutions are reluctant to get in, raising further concerns about liquidity.

Alipay and WeChat Pay have become important drivers in the Chinese economy, putting the central bank in a position to force all third-party payment firms to connect to the new clearinghouse.

Both merchants and consumers still see the act of making a payment as a barrier and again look to technology to enhance the experience, writes Chris Koide, senior advisor and vice president of financial services for Bambora North America.

With this year's iPhone announcement getting closer, more rumors are spreading about how Apple plans to overhaul the way its phones handle payments. Some of these have already been confirmed by Apple; others are leaking in code the company has released.

Banks are being pushed into the background of popular digital experiences. But they can reappear on interfaces that customers use daily by doubling down on financial wellness efforts.

Security companies are using technology to stop more complex fraud based on a smaller amount of data, and investors are taking notice.

Usernames, passwords, device authentication and even biometrics have vulnerabilities. Behavioral identity is much harder for crooks to crack, writes Robert Capps, a vice president at NuData Security.

For issuers, higher online and mobile conversion rates should translate to increased payment volume transacted on their cards, but it opens up a new avenue for intense jockeying over top of wallet status, writes Michael Jabbara, director of digital development markets for Visa.

With close to 900 million monthly active users, WeChat is the most popular social app in China, supporting real-time messaging, social networking, e-wallet and many other functions, writes Franklin Chu, managing director for Azoya USA.

Companies and staff should not spend time doing manual work tied to T&E , writes Sunny Manivannan, general manager of Coupa Expenses.

One of the biggest hurdles that all cryptocurrencies first face is merchant acceptance. Without it, consumer adoption is constrained.

Even as mobile payments at the point of sale have been slow or even faltering, as most research indicates, use of mobile for making large money transfers is climbing.

Digital blockchain tokens can be naked instruments for profit-sharing among investors, but other types are directly linked to building network infrastructure. Their creation and sale must be unimpeded by regulation.

Asia’s much-vaunted tech stocks could be getting ahead of themselves.

The development and adoption of technology too often move at different rates in the payments industry, creating a need to manage usage that is out of sync with expectations.

Bank Asia in Bangladesh has partnered with Western Union, enabling consumers to send and receive funds via a network of 1,250 bank agents throughout Bangladesh.

Under PSD2, banks are expected to admit all vetted comers, but how they will connect to them is up to the individual parties, writes Raz Rafaeli, CEO of Secret Double Octopus.