New technology decoupling payment cards from the funding source of the transaction would stimulate competition between card issuers and networks — and raise prospects for Capital One's proposed $35 billion acquisition of Discover Financial Services.

Santander joins Iberpay as the first supporters of the European Payment Council's instant account-to-account network, Australian lawmakers approved bills to create a federated digital identity system, and more.

The number of borrowers who are at their credit limits is approaching its pre-pandemic level, and the percentage of balances that are sliding into delinquency has hit its highest rate in more than a decade, according to new research. Still, card companies are generally expressing optimism about their credit outlooks.

Regulation, credit quality and AI-fueled fraud are among the big concerns for banks and payment companies.

Part of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's mandate is to educate consumers by providing reliable information. With its credit card late fee "report" and the associated rulemaking, it has failed to live up to that responsibility.

Executives of Allegiant, Breeze and Spirit complained to the heads of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Department of Transportation that the relationships between big banks and big airlines are anticompetitive. Consumer advocates also questioned whether large airlines are delivering on promised rewards and if consumers are racking up debt to accrue miles and points.

Incumbents face the challenge of updating their infrastructure for digital payments, while newcomers are pushing to compete by using artificial intelligence, cloud hosting and other technologies.

Big national retailers will capture all the financial benefits from proposed reductions in swipe fees, while consumers will be left with fewer benefits programs and less secure transactions.

New details have emerged about the negotiations that culminated in Capital One's blockbuster $35 billion agreement to acquire Discover. At one point last December, the two parties broke off discussions, according to a securities filing.

Net charge-offs at the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank increased by more than 80% in the first quarter compared with a year earlier. BofA executives say that the rising losses were in line with the bank's risk appetite.

Business trade groups are expected to prevail in getting an emergency stay to stop the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 late fee rule from going into effect on May 14. However, the lawsuit would still have many steps to go after such a decision.

As American Express has evolved with new products, its largest digital design team is rethinking how to finesse online and mobile design with the customer at the forefront.

It's a substance that literally grows on trees, and is just as compostable. But like any other proposed alternative to first-use plastic, wood comes at a premium to any issuers that want to adopt it.

Any approval of the proposed Capital One-Discover merger must come with a pro-competitive 1% interchange fee condition to benefit consumers and small businesses and challenge the dominating duopolist Visa, and a pro-community 5% deposit reinvestment condition.

Banking regulators and the Department of Justice must decide whether the blockbuster deal raises antitrust concerns. Looming over their analyses are questions about how broadly or narrowly to define the relevant markets.

A federal appeals court is putting the transfer of a lawsuit challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on hold pending the outcome of a hearing on the suit's appropriate venue.

Judge Mark T. Pittman sided with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in ordering the case be moved from Texas to the District of Columbia due to "forum shopping."

The potential deal between the major card networks and merchants would see swipe fees reduced and capped for at least three years, pending approval by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.