Is UPI’s Rapid Growth Squeezing India’s Payments Market?
India’s United Payments Interface (UPI) continues not only to dominate the payments landscape but to grow at a relentless pace. As new players attempt to enter the market, however, concerns are emerging that UPI may be crowding out other payment modes—such as credit cards—potentially stifling innovation and limiting consumer choice. Still less than a decade […]
UK Scraps Transaction Caps on Contactless Card Payments
UK regulators floated the idea of removing the current £100 transaction limit for contactless payments with physical cards earlier this year. Now, the UK is moving forward with these plans, allowing financial services providers to set their own payment thresholds—or remove them entirely. These limits were established by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and currently […]
In a Pivotal Year for Prepaid Products, Digital Assets Emerge
The holiday season has increasingly revolved around gift cards, as more consumers prefer spending power over physical gifts. Although gift cards are an enduring offering, the prepaid industry has evolved to include an array of products that are as much about self-use as they are about handing out gifts. As Jordan Hirschfield, Director of Prepaid […]
Digital Watermarks Are the Latest Protection for Physical Gift Cards
As the holiday shopping season heads into its final phase, last-minute gift cards are expected to fly off the store shelves. This year, shoppers may benefit from a new technology designed to make those cards far more tamper-proof. Schnuck Markets, a grocery chain in the St. Louis area, recently completed a 10-week pilot program with […]
Amazon Pay Is One of the First Wallets to Support Biometrics on UPI
Not long after India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) launched a feature enabling users to approve payments with a fingerprint or facial scan, Amazon Pay rolled out its own support for biometric authentication. Previously, consumers were required to enter a PIN to authorize transactions. Under the new feature, UPI now allows transactions of up to ₹5,000 […]
Will Agentic Commerce Break Through Next Year?
After the initial buzz around agentic commerce, skeptics questioned whether artificial intelligence agents would ever gain real traction in retail. Yet developments suggest that hesitation may be premature. Most recently, Visa completed hundreds of AI-driven transactions in pilots of its Intelligent Commerce program and expects rapid consumer adoption of the technology. The goal of agentic […]
SoFi Unveils White-Label Stablecoin
SoFi is launching its own stablecoin, SoFiUSD, providing open access to its digital asset infrastructure. The offering will allow banks, fintechs, and enterprise partners to leverage SoFi’s operational framework to issue their own white-label stablecoins. The stablecoin is already in use for internal settlement activities, with a rollout to SoFi members expected in the coming […]
Why Walmart Is Taking the Lead Against the Visa and Mastercard Settlement
When the latest iteration of the settlement involving Visa, Mastercard, and various merchants was proposed in November, there was speculation that the deal could reshape the credit card rewards model. However, a group of retailers led by Walmart argued that the settlement doesn’t go far enough to create a meaningful impact for merchants. Under the […]
Google Pay Launches Its First Credit Card in India
Google Pay is launching a credit card in India, linked to the highly popular Unified Payments Interface (UPI) network. This co-branded card, Flex by Google Pay, could serve as a pilot for further global expansion. The digital card is issued through the Google Pay app and can be used both online and in physical […]
The Biggest Bottleneck in Commercial Banking? Onboarding
Digital banking has trained consumers to expect speed, simplicity, and instant results. Yet, when those same expectations reach the commercial side of the house, many financial institutions fall short—leaving business clients stuck in slow, manual onboarding journeys that drive up costs and frustration. In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Penny Townsend, Co-Founder and Chief Payments Officer […]