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When expanding internationally, payments start-ups need to make sure they are dealing with the biggest barrier to commercial success – the often surprising differences in local attitudes towards financial services, said Tom Rundle, global head of payments at the OzForex Group. Elsewhere, Jerome Traisnel, CEO and co-founder of SlimPay, discusses how a company can profit by making payments disappear, whilst we look at how cards have changed our payments behaviour over the last decade, the surprising rise of ATMs, and consider the future of Blockchain.

When expanding internationally, payments start-ups may start their planning with the challenge of getting licences overseas. This is important, of course, but it misses the biggest barrier to commercial success – the often surprising differences in local attitudes towards financial services.

When was the last time you enjoyed getting your wallet out? It is a truth universally acknowledged that we consumers do not like paying.

Over the last ten years payment cards have changed significantly our payment behaviour and ergo how we live. For example, card spending in pubs has increased five-fold from £1 billion in 2004 to £5 billion in 2014, according to a new UK Cards Association report.

The global ATM market is expected to reach $24.92 billion by 2022 with the Asia Pacific regions seeing substantial growth, according to a new study by Grand View Research, Inc.

It has been a good year for Blockchain technology companies, they have seen more investment and more interest from financial institutions, and according to investment bank Magister Advisors, that positive run is set to continue as it predicts investment in the technology to exceed $1 billion by 2017.