If consumers, designers and artists led the discussion about how we make payments in the future, they would likely come out with a vastly different system than the one technologists are creating today.

Janell Thompson and Katarina Maloney say choosing the "wrong" name for their company was all it took to run afoul of banks and be labeled as co-owners of a high-risk business.

Like General Motors extending credit to car dealers, Google will use Lending Club to finance resellers, service providers, and consultants in its supply chain while putting to work a portion of the tech giant's cash war chest.

WePay is looking to boost transaction activity among its small business users by offering access to Google Wallet with minimal steps.

The next year will be huge for fraud and security in retail. Most concern around risk management for the year ahead is focussed on system security and fraud management, which is crucial to today's transactions.

Even in an alternative universe that exists only in cyberspace, real money is vital to the economy. Digital payments company Skrill hopes to bridge the real and virtual worlds to benefit its digital wallet.

Forget the machines. Even forget the software. Diebold's business plan for the future — as touted in a video the company screened at 50 movie houses around the world — centers on its collaboration with banks and others on innovation.

Starbucks, which handles 16% of its in-store sales as mobile payments, is looking to push that number even higher. Its evolving strategy combines its mobile app, its gift card and its rewards program into a powerful package.

Monitise is pushing aggressively into new markets to build its profile, but mobile financial services' impact on traditional technology development is threatening the company's relevance.

Many companies are fed up with passwords, but the next step isn't so clear. Biometric authentication is winning favor, but LiveEnsure contends there is a less intrusive way to verify identity.

Starbucks Corp. named former Juniper Networks Inc. Chief Executive Officer Kevin R. Johnson as its next chief operating officer, underscoring the role technology now plays at the coffee chain and mobile-payment innovator.

As their financial lives have become more digital, consumers have embraced technology like online bill pay and mobile check deposit.

Data breaches have hit many retailers hard over the past year or so, and Stage Stores is doing everything it can to make sure customer payment data can't be exposed.

The Starbucks gift card is the foundation the coffee chain's mobile and rewards strategy, and for good reason. In 2013, one in eight Americans received a Starbucks gift card as a holiday gift. In 2014, it was one in seven.

The processor Total System Services Inc. has entered into an agreement with terminal maker Ingenico to support a wide range of payment types, including magnetic stripe, EMV, Near Field Communication and Apple Pay.

Mergers and acquisitions among payments companies rose 44% in 2014 compared to the year before.

While the payments industry is far ahead of other industries such as health care in adopting encryption, choosing the right method is still a challenge.

As he assumes the role of CEO of 'buy local' offers company Buzz Points, Dwayne Spradlin predicts that certain trends in technology and consumer habits will breathe life into a loyalty model that has stagnated in the past.

2014 ended roughly for some of the biggest payment companies, and 2015 will bring even more challenges from rapidly changing technology and nimble startups.

While banks have generally been cool to virtual currency, the technology that powers Bitcoin is of considerable interest — enough to draw millions of investment dollars from several traditional financial companies.