In a few short years, Starbucks became one of the most noteworthy companies in mobile payments. These 11 decisions are the key ingredients in its strategy.

WAUKEGAN, Ill. – Consumers CU has implemented Andera’s oFlows paperless platform for account opening and loan applications.

American Express and Dwolla suffered website outages, which the companies attributed to distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks. Such attacks are designed to knock out a website by flooding it with more traffic than it is designed to handle.

Cashcloud SA, a start-up venture in Luxembourg, is testing a mobile wallet and rewards currency throughout much of Europe.

EBay and its payments subsidiary PayPal are aggressively mining consumers' spending data, which they say is vital as shopping expands across mobile, online and physical shopping channels.

Nine Italian banks will begin a nationwide rollout of MyBank, an electronic payment system that allows bank customers in the Single Euro Payment Zone to make e-commerce purchases through online banking.

Qiwi Plc, a Russian instant-payment operator backed by billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s Mail.ru Group Ltd. and Mitsui & Co., applied for a $100 million initial public offering in the U.S.

PLEASANTON, Calif. – Patelco CU, which suffered website downages after two hacker attacks, said this morning it hired a new chief information officer who will be responsible for information technology and information services at the $4 billion credit union.

An appeals court in New York overturned a Brooklyn judge's 2011 decision to dismiss a foreclosure and order $15,000 in sanctions against HSBC.

The women honored in this inaugural feature were selected by the editors of PaymentsSource as standouts for their significant achievements, exceptional leadership, and promotion of innovation in the payments industry.

Watson has worked in the payments industry for more than 20 years as a management consultant and service provider. For the past decade, she's been at Wells Fargo & Co. where in January she was named head of wholesale Internet banking.

Schulz is responsible for the strategic direction and management of Visa's global electronic commerce business as well as driving the card giant's product innovation strategy.

Schmeltzer, who joined Fiserv in August 2012, leads the development and execution of enterprise-wide initiatives in the delivery of new payment services for the Brookfield, Wis., technology provider.

Reyes runs HSBC's global cash management business. She joined HSBC two years ago after 11 years at New York's Citigroup Inc. where she was most recently head of payments for global transaction services.

The 30-year payments industry veteran left Visa Inc. in 2009 after 17 years with the card network where she was senior vice president and head of acquirer and processor sales for the United States. Now an independent consultant, Perry runs an eponymous consulting firm where she advises merchants, processors, ISOs, and acquiring companies.

Barbara Pacheco has spent more than 30 years working for one employer – the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City – but her very stable career path has managed to keep her on the cutting edge of new payments technology.

Offereins says her primary focus at Discover is developing initiatives for growth while navigating the rigorous financial, legislative, and regulatory landscape of the banking and payments industries.

Murray drives the strategy for Bank of America's e-commerce product suite. She is responsible for the bank's global payment, deposit and reporting platforms.

As the chief operating officer of Citi Enterprise Payments, McWhinney is responsible for developing and implementing new mobile and online services around the globe for some of the world’s biggest corporations and governments.

In her role at American Express, Kelly's work transformed the company's approach to payments in the Americas.