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We lead with one of our proudest achievements of recent times. The team behind PaymentEye and bobsguide are proud to present Payments (R)evolution, a special edition magazine available for download now. Featuring exclusive content and in-depth conversations with Europe’s most exciting FinTech innovators, Payments (R)evolution is an astute examination of an industry in the midst of an incredible transformation.

Elsewhere, Amazon is following Google down the path of truly hands-free payments by allowing users of its digital assistant, Amazon Alexa, to make voice-activated payments with it. Alexa can already order pizza and Ubers, so more general payments was always going to be the next step. Staying on the innovation track, healthy food restaurant chain, Tossed, has opened two completely cashless branches that have special self-service kiosks that allow customers to order food and pay for it using contactless cards and Apple Pay.

We also speak to Stripe’s head of UK Growth, James Allgrove about what’s ahead in 2016 and the current state of FinTech, and Semafone’s CEO, Tim Critchley, asks why, despite the rising risk, we are still asking customers to say their card details out loud?

The team behind PaymentEye and bobsguide are proud to present Payments (R)evolution, a special edition magazine available for download now.

Following Google’s pilot scheme in San Francisco that allowed users to make payments in shops just by saying they will “pay with Google”, Amazon is following suit and exploring the possibilities of using voice-activated payments, with its virtual assistant, Alexa.

Stripe’s bullish on UK fintech. The $5bn San Francisco payments firm now powers many of London’s most prominent fintech companies from TransferWise and Nutmeg to Zopa and Seedrs and it’s only planning to grow its presence in the UK, now its second biggest market globally after the UK.

The healthy food chain, Tossed, has opened what is thought to be the UK’s first completely cash-free restaurant. Customers can order and pay at new self-service kiosks that accept debit, credit and contactless cards as well as mobile payments such as Apple Pay

In this guest post, Tim Critchley, Semafone CEO, considers the rise of phone-based transactions and what they mean for companies and customers in terms of security, and the consequences when it’s not up to scratch.

Aiming to take the headache out of managing healthcare and benefits payments, is Evolution 1. Based in Fargo and snapped up by Wex in 2014, the firm now powers 200,000 employer groups and now counts 17m consumers on its platform.