PAYMENTS NEWS
Bank lobby slams Trump's 'devastating' threat to credit card interest
Jan 12, 2026
President Donald Trump's plan to cap credit card interest rates at 10% was met by angry words from bank lobbyists and market declines for issuers.
How nonpayments became big business at Visa and Mastercard
Jan 9, 2026
Visa and Mastercard ended 2025 with a series of partnership deals with third parties to support mobile wallets around the world.
The Battle for the AI Orchestration Layer Heats Up
Jan 9, 2026
By 2025, the financial services sector stopped “testing” artificial intelligence and started living in it. The industry has moved past the novelty of generative chatbots to a more profound structural reality: the redesign of the global movement of money around autonomous decision-making.
Is There a Future for Unattended Retail?
Jan 8, 2026
Imagine you’ve wrapped up a long, fun-filled weekend in Las Vegas and are now at the airport heading home. You’re tired, cranky—maybe a little hungover—and all you want is a snack and a drink for the flight. The last thing you feel like doing is interacting with anyone.
Edge AI Is Gaining on the Cloud
Jan 8, 2026
The announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week showed artificial intelligence inference beginning to move off centralized cloud infrastructure and onto devices themselves, a shift that could change how AI is deployed, priced and scaled.
How the Principles of the Planogram Can Apply to Payments
Jan 8, 2026
Most merchants take an analytical approach to their store layouts, positioning items in both in-person and digital environments for strategic advantage. Could these same strategies—using the retailer’s ubiquitous planogram—also be applied to payment processes?
Fed report stirs debit fee debate
Jan 5, 2026
The Federal Reserve’s new biennial debit-card report shows interchange fees climbed to about $34B in 2023, highlighting that merchants are absorbing a growing share of debit-fraud costs. The Fed hasn’t changed the fee cap since 2011. WHY IT MATTERS: Merchants and their trade groups push for lowering the interchange fee cap and argue the current structure is no longer “reasonable and proportional” to issuer costs, as federal law intends.
CFPB must request funds from Fed, court rules
Jan 5, 2026
A federal judge ordered the CFPB to continue requesting its funding from the Federal Reserve, rejecting the administration’s claim that the bureau would run out of money because the Fed isn’t showing a profit. The ruling clarifies that the CFPB must seek funds through its statutory mechanism and cannot allow its funding to lapse. WHY IT MATTERS: Merchants rely on predictable and functioning consumer protection enforcement. This decision ensures the CFPB remains funded and operational amid significant legal challenges to its funding.
Visa Predicts Agentic Commerce Will Be Mainstream in 2026; BigCommerce Adds Stripe’s Agentic Commerce Suite
Dec 18, 2025
Visa Inc. announced early Thursday hundreds of artificial intelligence-based and agent-initiated transactions have been completed in collaboration with partners, a milestone the card network says is a signal that agentic commerce is poised to become mainstream in 2026.
Walmart wants out of card class
Dec 17, 2025
The retailer says a proposed settlement with Visa and Mastercard over card fees demonstrates the need for major changes to the plaintiff class.
Amex CEO slams surcharges
Dec 17, 2025
Steve Squeri said higher surcharges would be a negative experience for the card network’s customers.
FDIC Proposes Rule for Banks Seeking to Issue Stablecoin Payments
Dec 17, 2025
In its first action to implement the GENIUS Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is considering a proposed rule that would establish procedures under which the insured depository institutions the regulator supervises could seek to issue stablecoin payments.
Open banking fees fuel debate
Dec 17, 2025
Banks, fintechs, data aggregators and consumer advocates are sharply divided over fees for sharing consumer financial data under open banking, with large banks imposing per-request charges on data access could raise costs and chill innovation. WHY IT MATTERS TO MERCHANTS: Merchants rely on fintechs and payments apps that use financial data to power services like reconciliation, accounting integrations, and cash-flow tools. If banks charge for data access, it could increase costs or slow development of merchant-facing fintech services, especially as federal rules on open data sharing remain uncertain.
Shopify Brings Merchant Catalogs to ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot
Dec 15, 2025
Shopify this week introduced its Agentic Storefronts to put merchant products directly into the AI chat interfaces, where many shoppers now begin their product searches.
Credit card swipe fees are higher than ever, causing “cost creep”
Dec 11, 2025
North Carolina lawmakers are weighing changes to the state’s ban on credit-card surcharges, as businesses increasingly push for flexibility to recover the costs of accepting card payments. The attorney general’s office has signaled openness to clarifying what’s allowed, while consumer advocates warn that lifting restrictions could lead to higher costs for shoppers. WHY IT MATTERS TO MERCHANTS: Clearer state rules on surcharging would help merchants understand what they can legally implement, reduce compliance risk, and potentially expand their choice of cost-recovery tools.
Visa’s new program vexes merchants
Dec 11, 2025
The card giant’s revamped system for assessing interchange fees on credit card transactions has socked some merchants with higher costs.
Payments players cozy up to crypto
Dec 11, 2025
Crypto is edging further into mainstream payments as companies like Visa, PayPal, and Stripe expand blockchain-based settlement and stablecoin capabilities, aiming to make transactions faster and more efficient. WHY IT MATTERS TO MERCHANTS: These emerging options could streamline global payments, reduce operational complexity, and create new choices for moving money more efficiently.
Banks face new risks as account takeover fraud spikes 250%
Dec 11, 2025
Banks are reporting a sharp rise in account takeover fraud as criminals exploit weaknesses in digital authentication, reuse stolen credentials, and use social-engineering tactics to bypass controls. WHY IT MATTERS TO MERCHANTS: Rising account takeover activity can spill over into merchant environments through fraudulent purchases, chargebacks, and heightened verification needs, making it critical for merchants to strengthen their own identity and fraud-prevention strategies.