Payments

Fast-growing innovation is sparking bullish sentiment following a boom-and-bust cycle of the past four years.

The account-to-account payment method has become prevalent in countries such as China, India and Brazil, but adoption has been slow in the U.S. and limited to small- and medium-sized businesses. That paradigm is expected to shift amid continued fintech investment.

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.

In a collaboration with Coinbase and Flexa, Regal theaters now accept on-chain U.S. digital currency payments for movie tickets and concessions; the Bank of Nova Scotia has completed its second investment in KeyCorp; Fiserv entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Canadian-based payments fintech Payfare; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

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.

BNY announced expanded employee benefits and a boost in its minimum wage for all U.S.-based employees; Synovus has added former FIS executive Greg Montana to its executive board; National Bank Holdings sold off a fifth of its securities portfolio; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

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.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued three of the largest U.S. banks for fraud perpetrated on the bank-owned payment network Zelle, alleging shoddy safeguards and millions in consumer losses.

Not all banks and fintechs are on board with numberless cards, and some payment professionals question whether they are worth the cost.

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.

As the Biden administration comes to a close, the agency called out "bait-and-switch tactics" by card issuers. It also announced a new tool allowing consumers to comparison shop for credit cards.

New bureau research digs into the fees that bettors get charged when they use credit cards to fund gambling accounts.

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.

Affirm partners with Sixth Street to sell its buy now/pay later loans to the investment firm; Associated Banc-Corp promotes Steven Zandpour to deputy head of consumer and business banking; Visa Direct speeds up its money transfers; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

The post-pandemic increase in consumers falling behind on their credit card bills seems to be tapering off. "For 2025, we're seeing a lot of stability in delinquencies," an industry researcher said.

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.