How the World Cup boosted BofA's payments

• Key insight: Bank of America reports a boost in payments in World Cup host cities as well as retail and restaurant categories. 
• What's at stake: Sporting events such as the World Cup and the Olympics have long been a testing ground for payment technology. 
• Forward look: While BofA notes new forms of artificial intelligence are being used for searches and shopping, it's not yet being used to make payments. 

With the World Cup drawing to a close, some early numbers on how the event increased spending and transactions are coming in.

"While travelers are here, we're seeing an uptick in transactions," Sara Walsh, managing director and head of third party and network management for global payment solutions at Bank of America , told American Banker.

To gauge the event's impact on payments, Bank of America tracked spending growth year over year between May 20 to June 9, before the World Cup, and June 11 to June 30, the first half of the World Cup. Growth in overall card spending was 5% in the first period and nearly 6% in the second. General retail and restaurants showed a similar spike, according to the bank.

For host cities, the jump was larger. Total card spending year over year growth spiked from just over one percent to just over 2%. For restaurants in host cities, payment growth jumped from 3% to 6%.

Overall, the World Cup generated about $40 billion in global economic impact, according to BofA, roughly in line with Morgan Stanley's $41 billion projection, which was based on FIFA estimates.

Consumer preferences

Forty four percent of U.S. consumers planned to engage with matches or related events, with 30% of consumers following the matches through television or streaming, according to research from Morgan Stanley. About 70% of consumers planning to follow the tournament said they would increase spending in categories including food delivery, streaming and food and non-alcoholic beverages.

BofA and other event sponsors such as Visa used the event to showcase their payment technology, including contactless payments and newer options such as agentic commerce. Visa, for example, pushed a "Tap In" campaign that tied digital payments to other content about the event, teams and players through the same app. The card network is showcasing contactless technology, such as tap-to-pay in stadiums or engaging with Visa's Tap to Score marketing promotion.

Visa did not return a request for comment. "The FIFA World Cup likely provided an incremental boost to spending and travel activity in the quarter, partially offset by heightened marketing spend for Visa," BofA analysts said in a research note on Visa and Mastercard.

What about AI?

Bank of America sponsored fan festivals and showcased digital wallets and digital cards, as well as AI-supported shopping, part of a major push toward AI at BofA.

To measure success, BofA looks at overall payment usage, transaction approval rates and uptake for its cards, including physical and virtual cards, Paze and Zelle.

"The World Cup is a major part of our contactless journey. We want to get the payment accepted, keep it quick, to help our partner merchants keep the line short," BofA's Walsh said.

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While the bank reported an uptick in digital payments, it did not have specific numbers for AI, which is not yet enabling checkout.

"We do know that people are leveraging AI at the World Cup to plan travel, maximize the stadium experience and find best deals on tickets," Walsh said. "Agents are being used to research and find products, but not to make the payment. Making the payment with an agent will be coming soon," Walsh said.Sports festivals have long been a proving ground for payment products due to localized boosts in payments and a centralized venue or group of venues that can be closely monitored for usage.

"When you have any large sporting event, it's a snapshot of the entire payments market," Mark Majeske, senior vice president of faster payments at fintech Alacriti, told American Banker. "There's a multitude of layers. There are tickets, hotel payments, merchant transactions, payments to sponsors, salaries for temporary workers, remittances, and a lot of others."

The difference between now and prior events, such as the most recent World Cup four years ago, is the plethora of options, such as mobile wallets, contactless payments, checkout-free payments and digital assets. Banks have to support these options, Majeske said, adding that's necessary even for options that are not widely used such as digital assets and agentic payments.The reason is to set a baseline of easily processing any payment to gain trust for transactions that come after the event when or if temporary checkout habits become permanent among consumers or merchants, Majeske said.

"While there may not be a direct FIFA tie-in for stablecoins, what we don't know is if vendors are using stablecoins on the back end for international payments," Majeske said. "Banks and payment companies have to be prepared for that."