Mounting liabilities are raising the stakes for an economy that has come to rely more and more on high-end consumer spending to power expansion.

Bread Financial continues to keep its eye on the potential inflationary impacts of the Trump administration's trade policies, despite the fact that its delinquencies and losses declined in the second quarter.

The credit card issuer renewed and extended its 15-year partnership with Amazon and touted fresh partnerships with Walmart and PayPal as wins, but lowered its full-year guidance due to lower purchase volumes and higher payment rates.

Bank earnings have been largely positive in the second quarter despite concerns that tariffs would increase inflation and stifle economic activity. Payment divisions at banks reaped the rewards, too.

How banks can cater to this desire to prioritize experience spending and support customers to do more of what they love

New research from American Banker finds that card and check fraud has gotten more problematic for bankers over time.

Historically high interest rates and falling late-payment rates suggest that credit card issuers are tightening their underwriting standards amid economic uncertainty.

U.K. regulators said Monzo didn't properly vet new customers, while Vocalink was dinged for risk management lapses. Also, Paxos launched a dollar-backed coin in the European Union; and more news in the weekly global payments and fintech roundup.

Research from Cornell University suggests that people assign different levels of social status to others depending on how they choose to pay for goods and services.

Efforts to shoehorn the Credit Card Competition Act into pieces of popular legislation need to be defeated. The proposed law would harm the small businesses and consumers it purports to help.

While banks will likely increase near-term dividend plans, analysts and investors are more focused on the long-term outlook for capital requirements from regulators.

New self-regulatory guidelines for credit cards and checking accounts are arriving at a time of deregulation in Washington, D.C.

Citigroup is on a quest to modernize its global payments stack and be the go-to financial institution for cross-border payments and international corporations. Debopama Sen, head of payments at Citi's Services business, spoke with American Banker about the divisions' progress since its Services Investor Day in June 2024.

The company also launched a similarly priced version for businesses as part of an overhaul marking JPMorgan's latest volley in the ultra-competitive world of premium credit cards.

American Express teased updates coming later this year to its travel-focused Platinum credit cards.

The card, powered by fintech Cardless' embedded credit card platform, provides up to 4% cash back in bitcoin, and allows customers to service their account directly in the cryptocurrency exchange's app, similar to the way Apple Card works in Apple Wallet.

Synchrony issued the Walmart credit card for nearly two decades until 2018, when it lost the partnership to Capital One Financial. The latest deal does not include the balances tied to Walmart's existing credit card program.

The Swedish buy now/pay later provider and the San Jose, California-based payments system separately launched payment cards in an effort to bring their digital finance offerings to brick-and-mortar stores and compete with established credit card issuers.

The card issuing fintech has worked for years to expand its business outside of Block. Mike Milotich, who in February became the third person to hold the fintech's top job in as many years, has been tasked to do just that.

Capital One's acquisition of Discover brings it to the top of the ranking.