How Card Issuers Make Introductory Offers Work
In an unsteady economy, credit card issuers are attracting the most profitable customers by offering lucrative introductory benefits. These come at a significant cost to issuers, but in a world where high-end credit cards come with annual fees in the hundreds of dollars, users have come to expect immediate rewards in return. In a new […]
Crikey! Revolut’s New Model for Debit Card Rewards Hits Australia
Reward points for debit cards have largely fallen out of favor in the U.S. since Dodd-Frank passed in 2010, but fintech Revolut is reviving them in Australia. The company says this is the first time Australian consumers can earn rewards on debit card purchases. Revolut’s new debit card features multiple earnings tiers through its proprietary […]
Square Adds Bitcoin Payments and Upgrades AI for Small Businesses
As more small businesses feel the pressure to adopt emerging technologies, Square is expanding its offerings with bitcoin payment capabilities and enhanced artificial intelligence tools for merchants. Square Bitcoin enables merchants to accept bitcoin payments with zero processing fees and also allows them to convert card sales into bitcoin. The service includes a built-in wallet, […]
How Next-Gen Digital Wallets Are Redefining A2A Payments at Checkout
Emerging rails like real-time payments, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies have quickly created a fragmented payments ecosystem. This environment presents both an opportunity and a challenge for digital wallet companies: they could become the nexus for all payment types if they can build mechanisms to connect disparate sources into a single solution. Although digital […]
UPI Is Set to Add Biometric Authentication for Real-Time Payments
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is launching a feature that allows users to approve payments using a fingerprint or facial scan. Previously, shoppers were required to enter a PIN to authorize transactions. However, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has requested an alternative authentication method to make UPI transactions faster and more secure for users […]
BNY Mellon Explores Tokenized Deposits for Internal Transactions
BNY Mellon is exploring the use of tokenized deposits to enable its institutional clients to make payments over blockchain rails. As the world’s largest custodian by assets, BNY’s treasury services unit processes roughly $2.5 trillion in payments each day and oversees about $55.8 trillion in assets. Tokenized deposits share many characteristics with stablecoins, offering the […]
2026 and Beyond: Charting the AI Roadmap in Payments
There’s hardly a discussion about the future—of business, technology, or society—that doesn’t include artificial intelligence. With so much noise surrounding it, some may be tempted to dismiss AI as just hype. Yet, it has the potential to be the transformational innovation it’s promised to be—provided organizations have the right people, processes, and infrastructure in place. […]
Colombia’s Instant Payments System Aims for Pix-Like Success
Colombia’s new instant payment system, Bre-B, is now live—modeled closely on Brazil’s highly successful Pix and developed in part by the same Latin American payments firm, EBANX. Early results are promising: more than 30 million people have already registered, representing 76% of Colombia’s adult population. The system also has strong federal backing. Soon, Bre-B will […]
PayPal Enhances BNPL Products Ahead of the Holidays
Celebrating the holidays is important to many consumers, but it can also be a source of financial stress. To help ease that burden, PayPal is expanding the capabilities of its buy now, pay later program and introducing cash back rewards on BNPL purchases. The company launched its pay-in-four installment loans five years ago and added […]
Is Visa’s Stablecoin Gambit a Tipping Point for Cross-Border Payments?
Many financial entities have entered the stablecoin arena in recent years, but Visa’s exploration of digital assets for cross-border payments could be a game changer. It marks the first adoption of a stablecoin by a major payment rail that already processes the lion’s share of international transactions. While this is an important step forward, stablecoins […]