Mobile payments

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 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.

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

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

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