AI Drives Sharp Rise in Phishing Volume
The rate of phishing attacks is accelerating, with spam filters flagging one email every 19 seconds last year, up from 42 seconds the previous year. A major driver of this uptick is artificial intelligence, which has rapidly become a core component of fraud operations. In addition to speeding the deployment of phishing campaigns, AI is […]
Japan Retreats from Chinese Payment Apps Amid Money Laundering Concerns
Retailers across Japan have begun alerting customers that they will stop accepting WeChat Pay and Alipay, China’s two largest digital payment systems. While political friction is contributing to the growing economic separation between the two countries, the shift also reflects heightened concern over money laundering. Chinese media outlet Vision Times also reports that several Japanese […]
The Payment Facilitator Model as a Growth Strategy for ISVs
The rise of Software as a Service (SaaS), AI technologies, financial services APIs, and embedded finance has reshaped the payments ecosystem, creating value beyond simple transactions. These shifts mean traditional payment models now compete directly with independent software vendors (ISVs) and payment facilitators (PayFacs). In fact, 87% of U.S. merchants choose their payment provider at […]
Bed, Bath, & Beyond Turns to Tokenization in Digital Assets Push
The store most known for home décor could soon offer tokenized home equity loans, after Bed, Bath & Beyond unveiled plans to acquire Tokens.com. The big-box retailer has leaned heavily into the “beyond” portion of its name since emerging from bankruptcy two years ago. Its subsequent restructuring has included significant investments in blockchain and digital […]
When a Prepaid Issuer Goes Belly-Up, Who’s on the Hook?
After Synergy abruptly shuttered its restaurant gift card program over the weekend, consumers were left holding stacks of apparently worthless prepaid cards. The company’s pending bankruptcy—after nearly 30 years of selling gift cards for locally owned restaurants—highlighted just how little recourse most consumers have when prepaid cards suddenly lose their value. For many consumers, the […]
Multi-Acquiring Is the New Standard—Are Merchants Ready?
Amid the rapid transformation of the payments industry, merchants have leveraged multiple acquirers to navigate new payment types, regulations, and consumer expectations. For example, operating across regions like the European Union often requires merchants to work with multiple acquirers to navigate the unique regulatory, payment, and consumer nuances of all 27 countries. Increasingly, however, multi-acquiring […]
Why the UK Is Exploring Instant Payments
The Bank of England is pursuing a public consultation on consumer payments, focused on making it easier for shoppers to pay without using a debit or credit card. The process could pave the way for a UK-based instant payments system akin to Brazil’s Pix or India’s UPI. The announcement came during a speech by Sarah […]
India Considers Integrating UPI with Alipay+ for Cross-Border Payments
While some may associate Alipay with China’s tremendously popular super app, its sister platform, Alipay+, is a merchant gateway with a rapidly expanding international reach. As one of Ant International’s merchant platforms, Alipay+ played a crucial role in facilitating more than two billion cross-border payments last year, many of them originating in fast-growing markets like […]
What’s Driving the Rapid Growth in ACH Payments
The ACH Network is reliable and ubiquitous. And over the past year, it continued to realize strong growth, both in the volume of payments and overall dollar amount. In 2025, ACH Network payment volume increased by roughly 1.6 billion, reaching a total of 35.2 billion, or an average of 141 million payments per day. In […]
BRICS Puts Its Payment Rail on the Front Burner
The long-rumored BRICS payment system may finally be moving toward reality. A payment rail built on interoperable central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) has appeared on the agenda for the group’s summit to be held in India this summer, more than a decade after the idea was first floated. Attention has shifted away from a proposed […]