After spending over 25 years on the retail side of the cards business, when an opportunity arose to work on product and strategy development for U.S. Bank's corporate payments systems earlier this year, Heitman jumped at the chance.

To Hart, one of the most interesting developments in the payments industry is the relatively recent prevalence of low-cost disruptors that use cell phones and tablets instead of traditional point-of-sale terminals to handle card and check payments.

Kim Fitzsimmons has had a remarkable run — first woman CEO of a major acquiring company, current president of the Electronic Transactions Association, immediate past president of Women Networking in Electronic Transactions and recipient of the Midwest Acquirers Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

In Estep's role at the head of Nacha, she witnesses the payments industry push to adapt its technology to serve a variety of new purposes.

Embry is senior vice president of strategic development at Payment Alliance International, a Louisville, Ky.-based ISO and independent ATM supplier. She is also president of the MidWest Acquirers Association, a nonprofit group that provides training, education and networking for acquiring-industry professionals. She has worked in the payments industry for almost half a century.

Cook started her career in the payments industry as a sales agent nearly three decades ago. “I quickly realized how much I loved this industry,” says Cook, now chief executive officer of International CyberTrans Inc., an electronic transaction-servicing company with a broad range of merchant clients across the nation.

Ranjana Clark’s career has taken her from mainstream companies like Wachovia Corp. and Western Union ­to the top ranks of PayPal Inc., a company bankers often view as disruptive.

Ann Cairns is responsible for the management of all MasterCard markets and customer-related activities outside of North America. She is also a member of the company's executive committee.

Barclaycard US, a unit of Barclays PLC, has multiple projects developing in mobile payments. In addition to its Barclays-branded bPay mobile wallet, Barclaycard is involved in some capacity in the Google Wallet and Isis initiatives. Each of these programs takes a different approach to mobile payments.

Defendants in a collection operation agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges after allegedly misleading consumers into paying unnecessary fees and falsely threatening consumers with lawsuits.

Acculynk's PaySecure will soon allow China UnionPay debit cardholders to make online PIN purchases at U.S. merchant websites.

Virtual Piggy, which provides alternative payments for minors, plans to repeat its promotional partnership with the online community Gaia Online.

Microsoft Corp. has made several efforts to build new technology for payments, and its mixed successes provide insight into what consumers are willing to tolerate at the point of sale.

If biometrics is ever going to be a part of how consumers make payments, PayTango Inc. figures the best place to find out is on college campuses.

Global Payments and edo have started a pilot program to integrate edo's card-linked offer product with Global Payments’ marketing services.

The United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) has accredited Payleven, a mobile payments acceptance company, as a payments institution. Payleven is also now part of MasterCard’s mPOS program.

Chris Larsen has spent several decades in the financial services industry, playing a key leadership role at disruptive companies E-Loan and Prosper, where he had to navigate a tricky and fast-evolving regulatory obstacle course. He will likely draw upon these skills again in his latest role as CEO of OpenCoin.

UK-based JarStar Inc. is taking a feature of some debit cards and applying it to cash.

ORLANDO, Fla. – MidFlorida CU has introduced Shastic’s social loan calculator for Facebook, known as Calcubot.

SAN DIEGO – San Diego County CU has implemented LivePerson’s mobile chat solution to engage with its growing volume of mobile members in real time, wherever they are.