A year ago, a few trends were already clear to us, but many were just taking shape. Here's what we told you to expect from 2015, and how each of these predictions played out.

Cash remains the payment method of choice for nearly four out of five consumers needing to pay someone back, including the notoriously tech-savvy millennials.

Sometimes a big crash throttles the peloton and gives a few riders a chance to breakaway. In 2016, that is what we will see in the world of mobile payments. As EMV and Loyalty 1.0 eat the pavement, they will enable mobile payments, Loyalty 2.0 and new Uber-style apps to separate from the pack.

Apple Pay made a big splash when it arrived in late 2014, but has made few ripples since then, as consumers stuck to their old payment habits and banks in international markets proved reluctant to provide their support.

Through a partnership with Intel, terminal maker Ingenico Group has developed a contactless payment technology that is being used in a Panasonic tablet.

The majority of consumers, or about 70%, still rely exclusively on banks for their financial services, but that figure will likely slip below 60% within the next five years as technology companies chip away at banks' grip on financial services, a new survey from TransferWise, a London-based money-transfer company, predicts.

PayPal Holdings has named the head of a cryptocurrency firm to its board.

The project is likely to be mirrored at banks around the country as the automated clearing house evolves from settling payments in three to five days currently to same-day settlement in September and faster payments beyond that.

A startup geared toward the prepaid market thinks it has found a way to effectively bridge the gap between high-touch onboarding and all digital experience: operating like a food truck.

The banking and fintech industry is experiencing fundamental change driven by not only new and evolving regulatory guidelines, but also by the changing needs and expectations of consumers – largely attributed to organizations like Netflix and Amazon.

Walmart plans to support Visa Checkout despite a rocky relationship between the two giant companies whose recent disputes have often involved legal action.

Thanks to Spiral Toys, now even your children's piggy bank has gone mobile.

Payment cards aren't dead, but they are buried under a growing pile of new and high-tech payment devices.

The explosion of mobile over the last few years has been staggering. By next year, the twenty billionth mobile phone will be sold. And not only are there many more mobile devices, we’re all becoming more reliant on them. In fact, 9 out of 10 consumers in the U.S. keep their phones within reach 24/7.

Though Apple Pay is advertised primarily as a high-tech way to make payments in stores, the Apple wallet's in-app purchase volume is a significant key to its growth.

Apple Pay is seeing a surge in U.S. bank support, with the number of participating banks rising past 900 with the recent addition of 60 regional and community banks, bringing it closer to full coverage in its home market. But Apple isn't having the same luck everywhere else.

Millions of consumers without traditional banking relationships can use Apple Pay, now that ADP, a major provider of payroll cards, has joined the mobile payments bandwagon.

NXT-ID and vacation and entertainment club memberships retailer WorldVentures have formed a strategic alliance.

To facilitate its push into the U.S. market, Splitit (formerly PayItSimple) recently added its cloud-based interest-free installment payment technology as a free plugin for e-commerce merchants using the WooCommerce platform.

Person-to-person payments are a sudden hotbed of innovation. Many banks and technology companies are rethinking their approach to P2P and finding ways to offer the service in a way that is genuinely appealing to the mobile generation.