Payments

A good way to gauge the future is to watch where technology money goes, and that makes Janet Bannister one of fintech’s best barometers.

When longtime TSYS finance executive Theresa Gongora was promoted to CFO and senior vice president of TSYS' Merchant Solutions unit last year, she was struck by the dramatic changes in the payments industry since joining TSYS 15 years ago.

Understanding how the payments ecosystem works is a basic tenet for anyone aspiring to work in the industry. Visa's Taira Hall has that understanding, plus she is ingrained with a trait many others may not have — she has experienced what happens when there is no accessible payments system in place.

When Claire Gates joined the Paysafe Group two years ago, she was determined to demonstrate to payments industry leaders that bringing fresh ideas into fintech is gender agnostic.

Women are being driven from high-technology jobs by lingering male-dominated culture, and Christine Lee is calling on colleagues with high-profile positions to take responsibility for changing that.

One thing that excites Kim Bynan most about her job is seeing firsthand how new payments technology changes our everyday lives.

Walmart has a good grasp of where it sits among global retail giants, but its position among the financial services industry is still evolving under the guidance of Karla Allen, its senior director of payments innovation.

When it comes to finding the right talent for a position, Debra Tenenbaum knows a few things about how to set someone up for success — even when the needs of the business change.

In her 27 years working at Discover, Amy Parsons has always found herself in the right place at the right time. Or, more likely, decision makers at Discover have made a habit of putting Parsons right where they need her to tackle the hottest trends in payments.

Shubhi Rao is not the kind of person who looks to back down from a challenge. In deciding where she wanted to spend her career she did something no woman in her family had done before.

Driving rapid consumer adoption of faster payments and the bank-run person-to-person payment network, Zelle, has been a core role for Early Warning’s Lou Anne Alexander over the past decade.

To successfully create new payment forms and uses, it’s critical to have a highly functioning team developing and promoting their ideas — something Colleen Taylor has fully embraced at Mastercard.

While a career in payments can allow a person to touch on many different aspects of payments services, PayPal's Prashanthi Ravanavarapu can say her focus has remained quite clear.

Over five years as CEO of WEX, Melissa Smith has led the international corporate payments company through several quarters of growth through organic expansion and acquisitions. One of her signature moves is the artful use of partnerships to extend WEX’s payments technology in the fuel card, health care and travel sectors.

Jenifer Swallow has been here before, feeling the excitement of being in in an industry that was about to change commerce forever.

Whenever Facebook adds something that more closely ties its network to shopping, service or payments, it has an immediate ripple effect. And Marketplace is becoming a major part of Facebook’s influence.

The payments industry is a complex ecosystem, one that Carolyn Homberger is happy to navigate. As president of global sales for ACI the past seven years, Homberger views the payments industry as akin to "a supersonic airline driven by some of the most skilled pilots in the business."

Apps that let people access their pay on demand have become wildly popular. Do they solve a problem, or are they Band-Aids?

Barclays is partnering with digital rewards companies as part of its focus on investing in fintech and developing new business models. Its recent investment in Bink, a U.K.-based loyalty platform provider, marks the fourth company in this field that Barclays has partnered with.

For crypto adoption and investment to go mainstream, people have to be sure it has staying power and utility, writes Bruce Elliott, president of ICOx Innovations.