John Adams

A decline in Middle East travel and higher fuel prices should not put a major dent in the company's performance, execs said Thursday.

Tether launches a wallet, Rain issues a crypto card and MoneyGram extends stablecoin services in El Salvador. That and more in American Banker's global payments and fintech roundup.

The card network and the video platform are issuing a credit card in the U.K. to address irregular compensation patterns for creators.

The London-based Wise has scheduled its U.S. debut for May 11, while Revolut is reportedly considering a U.S. or a dual listing in New York and London. Payment experts say the moves are a chance to draw investors and raise their profile in a relatively new but huge market.

The RTP rail joins FedNow and digital asset firms in the quest to add speed for cross-border settlement.

The government's real-time rail, which had a banner year in 2025, has proposed a way for its members to access settlements for payments that include a party that's outside of the U.S. Payment experts say it removes some of the mud from cross-border real-time payments, but lingering hurdles remain.

The credit card lender, which is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings April 23, followed its release of an agentic commerce kit by agreeing to acquire Hypercard, a Sam Altman-backed company that uses AI to support expense management.

Brazil's real-time payment rail is adding PayPal as an option for small- to medium-size business payments; HSBC is launching a Hong Kong dollar-denominated stablecoin; Sezzle expands BNPL; and more in this week's global payment roundup.

The card network expanded work with blockchain firms OwlTing and Tempo, increasing its reach into agentic commerce and stablecoins.

Bank of America and Oracle are among those tweaking their treasury management and supply chain technology, partly to address clients that face cash management challenges from geopolitical risk.

The credit card company has issued a developers' kit to perform AI agent verification and aid merchants and shoppers, and is working with agentic AI protocols from other technology companies.

Banks are more active in the digital asset option than stablecoins. Those involved say the appeal is the similarity to traditional banking, only faster and more digital.

Most banks are likely not large enough to not support stablecoins and tokenized deposits on their own, creating a new way for legacy IT firms to compete with fintechs.

The card brand introduced tech for businesses to tap agentic AI, while Revolut counters Italy's accusations of inaccurate marketing. That and more in the American Banker global payments and fintech roundup.

Closing its Brex acquisition adds a corporate-focused fintech and new agentic commerce tools to an already considerable consumer payments division.

Emerging forms of artificial intelligence are moving so fast, traditional IT training isn't an easy fit. New research from American Banker shows how banks are handling training.

Visa has deployed advanced artificial intelligence to help solve payment disputes and expedite corporate bill pay; while Mastercard adds Hong Kong to its global agentic commerce network.

Australia's national Payments Systems Board has decided to remove surcharges on prepaid, debit and credit cards for electronic funds transfers, while lowering the cap on interchange fees. Also, Wells Fargo is seeking banks for its international payment network, and more in American Banker's global payments and fintech roundup.

Recurring payments for stuff like streaming content can get lost in the shuffle, creating an opportunity for the big card brands.

Can banks win at agentic commerce? What's next for real-time payments? And where are mobile wallets headed? The industry's top experts will dive into these issues at American Banker's Payments Forum from May 4-6 in San Francisco.