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Leadership Lens
John Drechny The Power of Networking
Jul 21, 2025With AI becoming increasingly integrated into all our lives, I’ve started to contemplate how the world may change. One key thing I don’t believe it will ever replace is the value of a strong network of business relationships and trusted mentors. When I look back at some of the major decisions I have made in life, they have been influenced by the network of people I interact with and have built trust in.
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Advancing Payments
Kelly Andrus EBT Chip Card Migration – The Light at the End of the Tunnel May be an Oncoming Train
Jul 14, 2025As the efforts to modernize EBT continue, several key milestones have been met, but new issues may throw a wrench in merchant acceptance models. This article breaks down these factors and provides updates on state implementations, discusses the state-specific product waivers, reviews the status on the whitepaper(s) being finalized by the X9 EBT Card Industry Forum, and looks at the future on what changes in the EBT space may require additional updates to the specification.
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Policy Perspective
Josh Pynn Interchange Legislation Throughout the States
Jul 1, 2025After Illinois signed interchange legislation into law, how is the rest of the country reacting? Take a look at where interchange is being addressed throughout the states, and potential impacts to merchant operations to think about._
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MAG Insider
Abby Arseneau Momentum and Milestones: Highlights from MAG Payments Summit- London 25 and What’s Ahead
Jun 30, 2025Our recent MAG Payments Summit – London 25 was a tremendous success, bringing together over 200 payments professionals , a 25% increase in attendance from last year’s event. This premier gathering highlighted the power of collaboration across the payments ecosystem, offering attendees key insights into the latest technologies and trends shaping the industry.
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International Perspective
Kevin Baker Navigating the European Payments Landscape with MAG and Bank of America
Jun 3, 2025Europe’s payments landscape is evolving fast, shaped by innovation, regulation, and shifting consumer expectations. To explore how global collaboration can support merchants through these changes, Paul Tunstall, VP of International at the Merchant Advisory Group (MAG), spoke with Kevin Baker, Managing Director, Head of Merchant Services & Commercial Card Sales, EMEA at Bank of America. They discuss the MAG’s role in supporting international growth, advocating for merchants, and sharing cross-border insights that drive the future of payments.
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Payments Technology
Steve Cole Network Tokens, What Are They Good For?
Mar 20, 2025Last year, Visa announced that it had issued its 10 billionth token and that tokenized payments had prevented $650 million of fraud in 2023. Visa and Mastercard have also stated that approximately 30% of all their payment transactions are processed utilizing network tokens. Given that network tokens have only been around for about a decade, those are impressive numbers. But what is it about network tokens that give them their superpower to stop fraud? After all, in the case of network tokens, the token is just another number representing a customer’s credit or debit account. What makes these numbers so much more secure than the numbers that make up the primary account number (PAN) of the payment card? In the typical context, tokens are often referred to as a non-sensitive representation of something of value, such as the PAN in the case of network tokens. But wait, you may be thinking, “if I can make a payment transaction with a network token, that sounds pretty sensitive to me.” Before drawing any conclusions about network tokens, maybe we should first consider what a network token is not. It is not a security token.
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MEET OUR NEW MEMBERS
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Rollins, Inc. is a leading, global company that provides pest control services through its subsidiaries and franchises. Through our leading brands, such as Orkin and Critter Control, we offer top-notch services to 2.8 million commercial and residential customers in the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe, Asia, Central and South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Africa.
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PetSmart LLC
PetSmart is the leading pet retailer offering products, services and solutions for the lifetime needs of pets. At PetSmart, we love pets and we believe pets make us better people. Every day with every connection, PetSmart’s passionate associates help bring pet parents closer to their pets so together they can live more fulfilled lives. This vision impacts everything we do for our customers, the way we support our associates and how we give back to our communities.
PetSmart operates nearly 1,700 pet stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, as well as more than 200 in-store PetSmart PetsHotel® dog and cat boarding facilities. We provide a broad range of competitively priced pet food and products as well as services such as dog training, pet grooming, pet boarding, PetSmart Doggie Day Camp™ and pet adoption.
PetSmart, PetSmart Charities® and PetSmart Charities® of Canada work with nearly 4,000 animal welfare organizations to bring adoptable pets into stores so they have the best chance possible of finding a forever home. Through this in-store adoption program and other signature events, PetSmart has facilitated over 10 million adoptions, more than any other brick-and-mortar organization. -
Patreon is a media and community platform where creators give their biggest fans access to exclusive works and experiences.
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Clark Brands, LLC licenses the Clark and Crown gasoline and convenience store brands to independent petroleum marketers and their dealers.
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Catalyst Brands brings together Aéropostale, Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer, Lucky Brand, Nautica and JCPenney, creating an unmatched portfolio of iconic retail banners that celebrate the essence of American style.
- Marriott Vacations Worldwide
MEET OUR NEW SPONSORS
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ModoPayments is transforming payments for Fortune 500 companies using orchestration and AI.
Our platform, ModoPOP serves as strategic payments infrastructure delivering AI-driven routing and provider flexibility without disrupting existing systems. With deep payments expertise and intelligent orchestration, we help leading enterprises reduce payments risk, lower fees, and dramatically boost success rates.
ModoPOP integrates seamlessly into your current flows without introducing new integrations or ripping and replacing your current stack, allowing finance, treasury, and customer teams to keep doing what works while gaining visibility and control over every transaction. With ModoPOP, you retain existing payment processing relationships while extending your current setup to support more payment options and dynamic routing, avoiding brittle logic and unnecessary handoffs. From reducing failed payments to optimizing costs and preserving revenue, our platform alleviates operational friction by turning payments into a source of strategic advantage.
As a sponsor, ModoPayments is committed to collaborating with MAG’s merchant members to shape the next wave of resilient payments ecosystems. -
Sardine is the leading AI-powered fraud prevention platform, helping eCommerce and marketplace businesses stay ahead of evolving threats. Our real-time risk engine leverages device intelligence, behavioral biometrics, and machine learning to stop fraud before it happens. Businesses use Sardine to reduce fraud losses and chargebacks, improve conversion rates, and keep bad actors out while ensuring a seamless experience for legitimate customers. By automating manual reviews, we also help teams improve operational efficiency. Trusted by enterprises in over 70 countries, Sardine has raised over $150 million from top investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Activant Capital, Visa, Experian, Moody’s, and FIS. We are redefining fraud prevention for the modern digital economy. Learn more at sardine.ai.
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ClarityPay is an innovative provider of consumer and B2B modern point-of-sale credit solutions — including financing, BNPL, and branded cards — for merchants across sectors such as Retail, Travel, Health & Wellness, Home Improvement, Auto, and more. Our approach is merchant centric and collaborate to design tailored credit programs that accelerate growth, increase customer loyalty, and enhance the overall shopping experience. To meet the evolving needs of today’s shoppers, we offer a wide range of options, including pay-in-4, promotional financing, and fixed installment plans. With high approval rates across the credit spectrum — from super-prime to subprime — paired with robust acquisition and loyalty marketing, optimized offers, and sleek omnichannel digital experiences, ClarityPay empowers merchants to attract more customers, drive sales, and build lasting relationships.
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Soda Health is a healthcare technology company founded on the promise of reducing health inequity. We provide Smart Benefits that connect people to products and services they need, when they need them, so they can live healthier lives. We close health equity gaps and lower the cost of healthcare by bridging the gap between the cost of living and living healthier. We partner with health plans and retailers to deliver expansive benefits for things like healthy foods, OTC medications, or transportation. Beyond facilitating transactions, Soda Health understands each individual’s needs and connects people to the resources they need to live healthier lives.
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For years, the financial industry has operated on an outdated system of credit scores that currently denies 50% of applicants, leaving them grasping for solutions. Something had to change.
In 2013, it did. American First Finance was born.
Since then, 20,000 businesses have experienced the magic of I Can—empowering them to help customers get what they need, today.
Why not be one of them? -
MAG INSIGHTS
View past newsletter articlesNEWS FROM OUR SPONSORS.
Jul 18, 2025
Sift — Sift Once Again Secures #1 Spot in all Fraud Prevention Categories in G2’s 2025 Summer Reports
Jul 16, 2025
Affirm — Costco and Affirm partner to bring new, flexible payment option to Costco.com
Jul 14, 2025
W. Capra Consulting Group — How to Prepare for Payments Industry Acquisitions
Jul 14, 2025
Optimized Payments, Inc. — Unlocking Optimization: Visa’s CEDP & the Evolution of Level 2/3 Data
Jul 9, 2025
PaytestLab — PaytestLab Launches Testing-as-a-Service for Distributed Payment Teams
Jul 9, 2025
Chargeblast — Chargeblast Turns Two with Nothing but Grit, Code, and Customer Wins
Jul 8, 2025
Boost Payment Solutions — Why Paper Checks are Hurting Your Accounts Receivable (AR) Team
Jul 8, 2025
HSBC — HSBC launches Tokenised Deposit Service for corporate cash management in Hong Kong
Jul 8, 2025
Juspay — Recurring Payments 101: A Comprehensive Guide for Merchants
Jul 7, 2025
AtData — Evolving Digital Fraud and the Insights Preventing It
Jul 7, 2025
VGS — VGS, The World’s Leader in Payment Tokenization, Celebrates A Decade of Payments Innovation and 5 Billion Tokens Stored
Jun 26, 2025
Sift — AI-Generated Scams Claim 62% More Victims Year-Over-Year Despite Declining Consumer Concern, New Sift Report Reveals
Jun 26, 2025
Spreedly — Spreedly Announces Just-In-Time Card Updates for Visa Cards to Reduce Failed Payments
Jun 25, 2025