Bilt 2.0: All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go
The original Bilt card, sponsored by Wells Fargo, was a good effort, but the revenue dynamics didn’t work. It is not the first failed co-brand to step outside the realm of successful airline and travel partnerships. The opportunity looked promising—about a third of American households rent—but the known obstacle remained: landlords willing to part with a portion […]
Crypto Gateways Offer Access at an Inflection Point for Digital Assets
Consumers expect to pay seamlessly across any experience—from social media platforms to small business e-commerce checkouts. They also want choices, including buy now, pay later services, real-time payments, and digital assets. Supporting these options requires payment gateways capable of bridging the gaps between payments processors and merchants. But a crypto gateway can do far more […]
Cashless Payments Gain Ground at Self-Serve Laundries
The great American coin-op laundromat may be nearing the end of its lifespan. A new poll finds that more than half of self-serve laundries in the U.S. now generate the majority of their revenue from cashless payments. The survey underscores the shift: slightly more than half of respondents say that much of their self-service machine […]
Government Backing and Cross-Border Payments Fuel Digital Yuan
Just a few years ago, more than one hundred countries were exploring central bank digital currency (CBDC) projects. Many of those initiatives were later shelved as privately issued stablecoins rose to prominence. However, there are signs that CBDCs are gaining momentum again. One of the most notable examples is China’s digital yuan (e-CNY), which has […]
Tokenization: From Security Tool to Future-Ready Payments
High-profile data breaches at major retailers exposed thousands of consumers’ personal account numbers (PANs), spurring the adoption of tokenization—a solution that replaces sensitive account data with surrogate values, protecting both consumers and merchants. As tokenization scaled, its benefits proved to extend well beyond fraud prevention. Merchants often saw meaningful lifts in authorization rates. But the […]
Visa Enhances Payments Orchestration Tools for Merchant Acquirers
Consumers can now pay with everything from digital wallets to crypto and real-time payment rails—and merchants increasingly expect to support them all. That shift is putting new pressure on merchant acquirers, the financial institutions responsible for processing payments on merchants’ behalf. Acquirers now face fresh challenges as payment methods grow more complex. To help address […]
Irish Banks Launch Zippay, a Zelle-Like P2P Payment Service
Three Irish banks are launching a new peer-to-peer (P2P) payment service Zippay, which is going live this week. The platform is designed to compete with Revolut, which already has around 3 million P2P users in Ireland. Zippay will initially be available to more than 5 million customers served collectively by AIB, Bank of Ireland, and […]
Despite Fintech Encroachment, Banks Can Remain the Go-To for SMBs
For many small business owners, the workday doesn’t end when customers leave. It continues late into the evening—logging into multiple dashboards, exporting spreadsheets, reconciling transactions, and trying to make sense of scattered financial data. In the absence of a centralized solution, many have been forced to stitch together a patchwork of banks, fintech apps, payment […]
Swift Moves Ahead with Retail Cross-Border Payments Network
Group of 20 (G20) nations have committed to making cross-border payments more efficient, but regional complexities and outdated infrastructure have made progress slow. The correspondent banking model adds another layer of complexity, requiring multiple banks to shuttle payments across borders. While the Swift messaging network has long served as the global hub connecting these banks, […]
Digital Euro Enters Pilot Phase, with Questions Around Its Viability
The European Central Bank has invited licensed payment service providers (PSPs) to help shape the long-awaited digital euro as it enters its pilot phase—a chance to prove the currency still has a role in the global payments landscape. Participating PSPs will test the technical and operational readiness, evaluate the user experience, and experiment with communication, […]