Countries around the world have lots of incentives to build an alternative to the U.S.-centric global payments system using central bank digital currencies. The U.S. must get in the game or see its economic might begin to wane.

Improved consumer confidence helped to drive greater use of buy now/pay later as younger generations turned to short-term installment options.

From embedded finance to artificial intelligence to real-time processing, there are plenty of sources of competition and opportunity in the new year.

The emerging industry could be worth as much as $480 billion in two years, and payments are central to that growth.

The Capital One-Discover merger, the war against Visa and Mastercards' swipe fees and budding payment technologies were most popular with American Banker readers in 2024.

Morgan Stanley and ABN Amro tapped fintechs to improve cross-border transactions. That and a U.K. card fee cap highlight this week's roundup of payments news.

Cross-border person-to-person payments are vital to the survival of millions of vulnerable people. Right now, fees eat away at their money, and slow processing times create unnecessary stress. The financial services industry and partners in government can fix this problem.

Myriad payment innovations are cutting into old-school cash payments, changing how funds are accessed, spent and received for purposes ranging from in-store payments to accessing disaster recovery funds. Will these changes bring new communities into banking, or will it leave them behind?

Ripple, MoneyGram and FV Bank all bolstered their ability to distribute digital assets, with cross-border transactions emerging as a primary use case.

Execs from U.S. Bancorp and Keybank discuss how emerging technology makes it easier to replicate the near invisible checkout that car-sharing riders enjoy.