Capital One’s Brex Bargain: Now Comes the Hard Part
Late yesterday Capital One announced that it had acquired the commercial payments and expense management fintech Brex for $5.15 billion, half in cash and half in stock. Analysts have been noting that the price is a sharp discount from Brex’s peak valuation of roughly $12 billion, suggesting this may be reflect the broader reset in […]
With More Institutions on Board, FedNow Notches Volume and Value Gains
In just over two years since its launch, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s FedNow real-time payments system has attracted participation from 1,600 financial institutions. The service added 500 institutions over the course of last year alone, with more than 100 joining in Q4 2025. Currently, nearly all of the nation’s leading financial services companies now participate […]
Where Do Consumers Fall Across Credit Score Ranges?
Credit scores play a quiet but powerful role in financial life, influencing everything from loan approvals to interest rates and insurance costs. While most people know whether their credit is “good” or “bad,” fewer understand how credit scores are spread across the population. Looking at these score ranges helps put individual credit profiles into context […]
Banks Without Invoicing Services Are Missing a Small Business Opportunity
Small businesses increasingly rely on fintechs not just to accept payments, but to manage how and when they get paid. Invoicing—once a back-office afterthought—has become a core part of the payments experience. Because invoicing tools can be complex to build and maintain, it’s tempting for business owners to turn to a PayPal or Square for […]
Apple Pay Plans India Launch, but Without UPI Integration
After nearly a decade of effort, Apple Pay finally plans to enter India’s digital payments market by the end of the year—one of the few major developed markets it has yet to penetrate. But the company faces an uphill battle, as its service will initially not connect with India’s massively popular UPI payments interface. The […]
Tencent and Alibaba’s Super Apps Evolve with Agentic Commerce
The over two billion consumers within Tencent and Alibaba’s ecosystems use these platforms to send messages, shop, and pay in a unified super app. Now, many of these users will be able to leverage the platforms’ AI agents for full-fledged agentic commerce. For example, Alibaba has just unlocked full access to its e-commerce ecosystem for […]
Should Banks Compete in the Credit Builder Card Market?
The secured credit card has long been the industry’s solution for consumers without credit histories. A new generation of credit builder cards is testing whether that solution still holds. Offered by several fintechs, the cards require users to fund an associated demand deposit account—often held at a separate bank—to cover card payments. A new report, […]
Interest Rate Caps Shift Credit Access, the Fed Finds
What would happen if President Trump’s proposed 10% cap on credit card interest rates were enacted nationwide? The New York Fed recently examined the effects of interest rate caps imposed by several states—albeit at much higher levels—and found that credit wasn’t so much reduced as it was reallocated. That said, the comparison isn’t entirely apples […]
Klarna and OnePay Test Post-Purchase BNPL Conversion Model
Consumers increasingly value flexibility, a dynamic that has helped buy now, pay later products become a fixture in retail payments. A new feature from Klarna and Walmart-backed fintech OnePay adds a new wrinkle to the model. The companies are teaming up to let OnePay customers convert debit card purchases into installment loans after a transaction […]
Getting Out in Front of Instant Payments—Before It’s Too Late
In today’s world, nearly anything a business or individual desires is available instantly. Yet, for most, receiving a payment still takes two to three days to clear, despite the availability of instant payments networks such as FedNow. What will it take for instant payments to reach a tipping point and become a standard expectation? In […]