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International Perspective
Andrea Rouse Dive into Payments MAGnified 26, Where the Future of Commerce Comes to Life!
Feb 10, 2026Payments MAGnified 26 is February 17–20, 2026, in San Diego, and the MAG has curated a lineup of sessions built for depth, relevance, and forward-looking insights for payments professionals across business and technology teams.
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Payments Technology
Jeff Lambert Merchants in Agentic Commerce
Feb 2, 2026Agentic payments are redefining eCommerce by enabling AI-powered agents to discover products, negotiate terms, and complete purchases on behalf of consumers. This shift moves commerce beyond traditional storefronts toward an agentic ecosystem where trusted digital agents interact directly with merchant systems.
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MAG Insider
Andrea Rouse Dive into Payments MAGnified 26, Where the Future of Commerce Comes to Life!
Jan 22, 2026Payments MAGnified 26 is February 17–20, 2026, in San Diego, and the MAG has curated a lineup of sessions built for depth, relevance, and forward-looking insights for payments professionals across business and technology teams. This event is a forum to unpack the technologies and trends shaping the next era of payments, from AI and agentic commerce to stablecoins and alternative payment methods. Here are some key sessions you won’t want to miss.
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Leadership Lens
Lisa Crockett The Payments Content Roadmap: What’s Next, Why It Matters, and What’s Landing Q1 2026
Jan 15, 2026If payments feels harder to keep up with lately, you’re not imagining it. The pace has accelerated. New capabilities arrive before old ones are fully operational. Fraud tactics evolve faster than fraud mitigations can respond. Global expansion introduces new layers of authentication, routing, and reporting. And the most consistent question we hear from members is simple: What’s coming next, and how do we plan for it?
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Advancing Payments
Kelly Andrus Advancing Payments Evolving Our SIGs: A New Format Designed for How Merchants Operate Today
Jan 14, 2026Our Special Interest Groups (SIGs) have long been one of the most valued parts of MAG conferences, earning consistently high satisfaction for their open, merchant-only discussions. Since their introduction at MAG’s inaugural conference in 2008, SIGs have evolved alongside commerce itself, expanding in format, frequency, and focus.
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Policy Perspective
Beth Provenzano Government Shutdown Ends: Regulatory and Legal Developments
Nov 21, 2025As 2025 comes to a close and the federal government re-opens, there are many payments policy issues to watch carefully, including credit card interchange and network rules, debit reform, challenges to state laws regulating interchange, and penny circulation complexities.
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MEET OUR NEW MEMBERS
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Optum Financial is at the crucial connection between health care, finance and technology. As health care costs and spending rise, we are here to transform how health care is financed and paid for. We are one highly connected, health care payments company joining together employers, payers, providers, retailers and consumers. A health care ecosystem where everyone benefits. And together, we can ignite a positive chain reaction to help people live healthier, richer lives. Join us, and let’s keep paying health forward.
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Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ: ULTA) is the largest specialty beauty retailer in the U.S. and a leading destination for cosmetics, fragrance, skincare, haircare, wellness and salon services. Since opening its first store in 1990, Ulta Beauty has grown to approximately 1,500 stores across the U.S. and redefined beauty retail by bringing together All Things Beauty. All in One Place®. With an expansive product assortment, professional salon services and its beloved Ulta Beauty Rewards loyalty program, the company delivers seamless, personalized experiences across stores, Ulta.com and the Ulta Beauty App – where the possibilities are truly beautiful. Ulta Beauty is also expanding its presence internationally through a joint venture in Mexico, a franchise in the Middle East, and its subsidiary, Space NK, a luxury beauty retailer operating in the U.K. and Ireland.
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As a company made up of musicians and music lovers, we're driven by our shared belief that music is the greatest unifying force in the world.
And that idea fuels our mission to fill the world with music. To give people the tools they need to create and connect. To be seen and heard.
And recently, to help and to heal.
Music can stir the soul and change the frequency of the planet. So, let's make some noise. -
FastSpring is a merchant designed to help companies that offer software-as-a-service (SaaS), games, and other digital products by handling all the complexities of selling online — especially when expanding globally.
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Denny’s Corporation is one of America’s largest full-service restaurant chains based on number of restaurants. As of June 25, 2025, the Company consisted of 1,558 restaurants, 1,474 of which were franchised and licensed restaurants and 84 of which were company operated.
Denny's Corporation consists of the Denny’s brand and the Keke’s brand. -
City of Minneapolis
Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 census, it is the state's most populous city. Located in the state's center near the eastern border, it occupies both banks of the Upper Mississippi River and adjoins Saint Paul, the state capital of Minnesota. Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and the surrounding area are collectively known as the Twin Cities, a metropolitan area with 3.69 million residents.
MEET OUR NEW SPONSORS
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Dropp is a next-generation payment platform built to help merchants accept payments as commerce moves beyond cards.Our platform offers two powerful alternatives for everyday purchases: Pay-by-Bank via U.S. real-time payment (RTP) rails and Pay-by-Stablecoin (USDC), both designed to deliver instant settlement, lower transaction costs, and a better checkout experience for consumers.Dropp gives merchants a practical, unified way to accept real-time payments across digital, in-store, and mobile environments without the high fees, delays, and chargeback risks associated with traditional card networks. With simple integrations into POS systems at convenience and fuel stores, eCommerce platforms, Dropp makes it easy to add modern payment options alongside existing methods.Beyond payments, Dropp enables merchants to engage customers directly through built-in digital offers, promotions, and incentives at checkout. Merchants can reward shoppers, drive repeat visits, and influence purchasing behavior without relying on third-party loyalty programs or expensive card-funded discounts.For consumers, Dropp offers fast, secure payments with flexible funding options. For merchants, it delivers lower costs, immediate access to funds, greater control over payment acceptance, and new tools to attract and retain customers.Dropp is purpose-built for high-volume, small-ticket transactions, fuel, convenience retail, quick-service restaurants, digital content, subscriptions, and more, where card economics no longer make sense. -
When qualified customers experience a false decline… your revenue, CAC, and customer lifetime value are at risk.
At the exact moment the payment is rejected, FlexFactor's AI-Powered platform intervenes in real-time to save what otherwise would have been those lost sales — actually preventing the consumer from ever experiencing a decline entirely for customer-initiated transactions (CIT - i.e., one-time purchases) and significantly improving recovery rates for merchant-initiated transactions (MIT - i.e, subscriptions).
The icing on the cake? It takes minutes to integrate, and requires no checkout changes or disruptions. We're invisible to your customers, but invaluable to you! -
BVNK is the stablecoin-powered financial stack for enterprises. Build financial products. Unlock new markets. Move money in seconds across 130+ countries. One platform for every use case. Trusted by Worldpay, Deel and Flywire. Processing billions annually.
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Testlio’s fully managed and AI-driven crowdsourced testing platform connects global quality experts with product and engineering teams to ensure every release works for every user, everywhere. On 600K+ real devices. In 100+ languages. With 800+ payment methods. The company is 100% remote, with team members in 150+ countries. Female-founded, approximately 46% of full-time employees are women. Testlio’s clients include some of the world’s leading brands, such as Netflix, Clari, Strava, Whatnot, Merck, and more. As an ISO 27001:2022 certified vendor and trusted Microsoft Supplier, we apply rigorous security measures aligned with global privacy expectations, such as GDPR, to every client engagement. Learn more at testlio.com.
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Fime, along with its consulting division Consult Hyperion, enables its clients to create and launch trusted and secure payments, smart mobility and digital identity solutions. We offer a global industry perspective with local insights and a unique track record in strategic and technical consulting, test platforms and testing services.With over 900 consultants and engineers around the world we provide the expertise, partnering with clients to define, design, deliver, and test their products and services. We work with our clients to turn product ideas into reality, de-risking decision making, accelerating time to market and delivering competitive advantage. -
Founded in 2020, Justt is the world's first smart chargeback solution that tailors each response and improves over time. Unlike template-based solutions, it uses AI-powered automation and domain expertise to generate dynamic arguments, customizing each response, no matter the volume or complexity. With a machine learning engine that's continuously running A/B tests in the background, Justt is the only chargeback solution that self-improves over time—helping merchants win more disputes effortlessly.
MAG INSIGHTS
View past newsletter articlesNEWS FROM OUR SPONSORS.
Feb 12, 2026
JCB International Credit Card Co., Ltd. — Asian Traveller Personas: Inspiring European Merchants to Unlock Greater Spend
Feb 10, 2026
PAX Technology, Inc. — PAX Technology and Utimaco Announce Strategic Partnership to Simplify Secure Key Management at Scale
Feb 10, 2026
J.P. Morgan — Strategic insights: Navigating the future of payments
Feb 6, 2026
Sardine — Meeting Nacha's 2026 Fraud Monitoring Requirements
Feb 6, 2026
Method Financial — Method for Commerce: One Connection for the Full Wallet
Feb 4, 2026
Freedom Pay — Payment Outages Threaten $44.4 Billion in U.S. Retail & Hospitality Sales Annually
Feb 3, 2026
TodayPay — Where Is My Refund? Understanding When, Where & How U.S. Consumers Want Their Money Back
Feb 3, 2026
Worldpay — Worldpay Continues Collaboration with Google to Advance Agentic Commerce with Universal Commerce Protocol
Feb 3, 2026
Chargeblast — Why Chasing Higher Payment Authorization Rates Is Quietly Fueling Chargebacks in 2026
Feb 3, 2026
ACI Worldwide — ACI Worldwide Report: Global Refund Volumes Surge 18% as Retailers Tighten Returns
Feb 2, 2026
Aurus Inc. — Aurus and Castles Technology Join Forces to Power Modern Point-of-Sale Experiences
Feb 2, 2026
Affirm — Expedia Group and Affirm deepen partnership, with US exclusivity and plans for further expansion
Feb 2, 2026
AtData — AtData Launches Gibberish Detection to Strengthen Fraud Intelligence and Block Bot-Generated Identities
Feb 2, 2026
Nuvei — Nuvei and FreedomPay Announce Partnership to Unify Enterprise Payments, Globally
Jan 29, 2026
Dropp — Dropp and Pinnacle Launch Digital Pay-by-Bank Alternative for U.S. Fuel and Convenience Retailers to Counter Rising Card Processing Fees
Jan 29, 2026
Juspay — Juspay Hyperswitch for Infrastructure/Platform providers, SaaS, and Fintech (ISFs)
Jan 28, 2026
VGS — VGS Announces Agent Connect: A One-Day Event Exploring the Future of Agentic Commerce
Jan 27, 2026
MagTek, Inc. — MagTek and cleverQ Join Forces to Launch Secure Identity Verification
Jan 20, 2026
Accertify, Inc. — Accertify Appoints CEO and Expands Executive Team to Fuel Next Phase of Growth
Jan 20, 2026