PAYMENTS NEWS
Volvo to test embedded car payments
A North Carolina Turnpike Authority “pay-by-car” pilot will cover tolls and may one day ease transactions at gas stations and drive-thru venues.
Court's delay in Cook case hints at unique thinking for Fed
Oct 7, 2025
The Supreme Court's decision to delay ruling on Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook's case until early next year is being viewed by some legal experts as a potential positive sign for the central bank's independence.
Small Businesses Feel the Ripple as Government Goes All-Digital
Oct 7, 2025
Paper checks have long been a fixture in U.S. government disbursements, but their days are numbered. President Trump’s recent executive order mandating the phase-out of paper checks in federal payments aims to modernize fund flows from agencies and contractors.
CMSPI’s State of the Industry Report: key findings
Oct 7, 2025
Payments consultancy CMSPI has released its second edition of the State of the Industry Report (SOIR). The report is created in partnership with the Insights Advisory Council (IAC), a team of global business thought leaders from Amazon, Best Buy, Etsy, Google, iHerb, Kroger, lululemon, McDonald’s, Shell, Sony, Target, and Walmart. We sat down with Callum Godwin, CMSPI’s Chief Economist, to discuss the inspiration for the report and its key findings.
Merchants Start Prepping for Post-Holiday Chargeback Wave
Oct 3, 2025
The holiday season may drive record revenues, but it also brings with it a surge in fraud attempts. With scams, cyberattacks and chargebacks spiking during peak shopping, merchants face an increasingly complex balancing act: protecting profits and customers without slowing down sales. And this year, as criminals weaponize artificial intelligence to wage fraud on an unprecedented scale, new defenses are urgently required.
From Search to Checkout, AI Agents Rewrite Retail’s Rules
Oct 3, 2025
AI agents are fast becoming the new gatekeepers of commerce, shrinking discovery from thousands of listings to a handful of curated options and collapsing checkout into a single click. Google, PayPal and eBay are racing to control that interface, each with a distinct strategy but a common goal: to define how consumers shop in the artificial intelligence (AI) agent era.
ECB picks AI startup to prevent digital euro fraud
Oct 3, 2025
The European Central Bank said on Thursday it had picked a Portuguese startup focussed on artificial intelligence to help prevent fraud in its planned digital euro currency.
DOJ granted brief stay in Visa debit case
Oct 3, 2025
The U.S. government’s closure this week prompted the Justice Department to request a “temporary” pause in its antitrust lawsuit against Visa.
Swift Is Creating a Blockchain-Based Platform for Cross-Border Payments
Oct 2, 2025
Global messaging hub Swift has spent decades building a global system for cross-border payments, and now it plans to launch a blockchain-based solution incorporating digital assets.
Merchants and Marketplaces Must Speak the Language of Agents to Compete
Oct 2, 2025
Retailers already face an uphill battle managing inflation, tariff-driven price shifts and the looming holiday rush. Now comes another challenge: learning a new language. It’s the language of agents.
EMV at 10
Oct 2, 2025
It’s now 10 years since the era of the EMV standard dawned for the U.S. payments industry. It ushered in chip cards—and along with them an effective defense against fake cards. Herewith a report on how the industry has reacted—and how effective EMV has been.
Swift to set new rules for retail cross-border payments on its network
Sep 26, 2025
Swift has planned to set new rules for retail cross-border payments on its network in a new strategy to further ramp up speed, security, and predictability.
Technology could make payments cheaper: Waller
Sep 30, 2025
Fed Gov. Christopher Waller touted the benefits of stablecoins and distributed ledgers, saying that new technology should not be feared.
Is There Room for Stablecoins and Tokenized Deposits?
Sep 26, 2025
Stablecoins are having a moment, growing to multiple hundreds of billions in circulation, with national governments, crypto entities, and traditional financial institutions all testing the waters.
Supreme Court to hear case on regulatory independence
Sep 23, 2025
The Supreme Court Monday afternoon granted certiorari in a case challenging the president's authority to fire members of independent agencies, and the outcome of the case could have profound implications for the independence of the Federal Reserve.
Payment players offer fraud fixes
Sep 23, 2025
EWS, Nacha and the FTA told regulators enhanced collaboration, information-sharing and more consumer education are needed to tackle payments fraud.
Stablecoins vs. credit cards: The coming $100B US payments battle
Sep 23, 2025
Can stablecoins disrupt Visa and Mastercard? Explore how blockchain payments may capture billions in fees from US credit card networks.