John Adams

As the CEO of Navy Federal Credit Union, Mary McDuffie can never lose touch with the needs of a young membership stationed across the globe.

The merchant service firm's stake in SoftPos.eu, which supports software-based smartphone payments, positions it to better serve the businesses that want to move away from traditional terminals.

Gas, or the fee associated with crypto transactions, is spiking. Canvas and other tech firms are trying to ease this expense to promote the technology's use for payments and other financial services.

The payment company, which is downsizing, plans to expand into markets where merchants are increasingly migrating to digital commerce.

By partnering with well-known payment providers like PayPal, Apple and Google, Bitstamp hopes to reach a broader audience.

The overall technology sector may be downsizing, but American Express is bulking up for a cross-department innovation initiative, and Visa, Mastercard and Discover are hiring thousands of programmers and developers.

The Dutch payment company is offering merchant loans, a product that's become a staple of firms like Block and PayPal that have been luring entrepreneurs away from traditional financial institutions.

Cashier-free checkout firms such as Nayax and Pye, which just inked a distribution deal with JPMorgan Chase, see opportunities for their technology to help retailers respond to economic and hiring trends.

As with other card companies, the impact of higher prices and a potential recession is not yet showing up in performance, though it is pushing product diversification to reduce reliance on transaction volume — a strategy that helped during the early days of COVID.

In global news this week, India fines Google over its payment policy; U.K. regulators crack down on "greenwashing," and JCB tests a digital currency.