Retailers

PCI compliance can take time and is expensive, but it's a vital part of security and there are ways to mitigate the resource challenges, according to Justin Shipe, vice president of information security for CardConnect.

MyBucks plans to give away entry-level smartphones, loaded with the company's financial technology, to encourage mobile payments, mobile banking and broader access to digital services in Africa, where financial innovation often moves quickly.

The mobile app's popularity was joined at the hip with Starbucks gift cards and loyalty points, a formula that has traditionally been known to work well at other retailers through plastic cards.

The changes are designed to remove the complex set of fees that could vary from one mercant to another.

Merchants are interested in new payments technology, but there's still an understanding gap that keeps cash a viable option.

Merchants that want to use technology to boost sales can establish in-house systems labs to test new payment technology and apps, or find an external lab to do so.

Since addresses are recorded in the blockchain, it is possible to trace each transaction where the address was used, which aids in AML, according to Ron Teicher, CEO of EverCompliant.

The deal could be harmful to their bottom line because it will provide Amazon with more visibility into an even wider percentage of their e-commerce data, writes Ralph Dangelmaier, CEO of BlueSnap.

The cashierless Amazon Go store is barely more than an experiment — it's live in only one location in Seattle, with plans for a handful of stores to follow this year — but it has already sparked a race to put similar models in place.

While the 'buy button' is designed to benefit merchants, issuers and the card networks alike, merchants may not be willing to risk any tradeoff in their access to customer data.