Kate Fitzgerald

The Federal Trade Commission recently blasted two companies for their murky business practices and confusing charges. Industry experts say many digital and recurring payments are inviting more regulatory scrutiny.

National Australia Bank is adding a Pay By Bank option for near-instant payments, Italy is bringing open-loop payments to buses in Tuscany, and more.

By training a core payment card fraud-detection platform on more than 15 billion transactions, the card network is honing the accuracy of warnings sent to issuers about suspicious purchases.

Tighter merchant connections between Square and Cash App helped Block produce stronger-than-expected results during the first quarter, while Jack Dorsey said the firm will launch its first remittance product later this year leveraging decentralized finance.

The embedded banking services Amazon offers to third-party sellers come from the hidden hand of JPMorgan Chase's corporate payments arm, which markets its services to e-commerce platforms on a white-label basis.

Bolstered by healthy first-quarter global card-spending trends, Mastercard is focusing on opportunities outside the U.S., including a unique card-processing arrangement beginning this month in China.

The Bank of England set a date of March 2025 for local banks to establish operational resilience plans, Ant Group is using artificial intelligence to aid shopping, and more.

Touting strong first-quarter sales and revenue growth, CEO Alex Chriss committed to rebuilding the firm's languishing Xoom cross-border unit and driving more Pay with Venmo options.

Consumer spending slowed and charge-offs rose during the first quarter, but Bread Financial said a pending late-fee rule may not be as devastating to its revenue as the Columbus, Ohio-based firm initially feared.

Strong consumer spending and cross-border activity drove an 8% increase in Visa's total payments volume during the first quarter of the year, although Asia's economic recovery is taking longer than expected.

Mastercard launches service to fight instant-payment fraud, EU may green-light Apple's NFC-access plan, and more.

A new Citizens Bank survey suggests rising check-fraud incidents are driving middle-market companies to accelerate plans to fully adopt digital payments. But 70% of all businesses will continue to rely on checks for years to come, according to recent data from the Association for Financial Professionals.

Powered by younger, affluent cardholders, American Express saw a 6% increase in billed business during the first quarter, while weak growth still plagues its small-business segment.

Amid healthy first-quarter loan growth and improving credit quality, Discover Financial Services slashed its profits by $800 million to offset remediation costs from a 16-year period when it overcharged certain merchants.

U.S. customers who have previously used Sweden-based Klarna's buy now/pay later financing — and paid off their loans in full — will be prequalified for interest-bearing loans through a new version of the Klarna Visa card rolling out later this year.

Ant Group's Alipay is linking to Pakistan's NayaPay as part of a push to support tourism to China, Revolut has obtained a license from Mexico's National Banking and Securities Commission, and more.

When its broad-spectrum payment card fraud-detection filters generated too many false alarms, FIS implemented AI to help banks prioritize which types of fraud to investigate first, in part by muting lower-risk notifications.

With the cruise industry gaining steam after the pandemic, it no longer made sense to force passengers to sign up for a credit card with paper forms. The new process allows applicants to obtain credit they can use in any port — including Carnival's upcoming private island in the Bahamas.

Mastercard established a new structure for businesses focused on card acceptance and transaction processing, new payment flows and value-added services. Separately, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is joining several countries' central banks in a test of tech to support cross-border transactions.

To help historic restaurants facing dramatic losses when COVID struck, American Express rolled out grants to 25 needy restaurateurs. Four years later, the program is reaching twice as many establishments and the card network's investment has more than doubled.