The partnership highlights how AI is becoming central to modernization and efficiency.

Integrations with smaller FIs’ mobile apps could encourage more Gen Z loyalty.

Grocers can save on swipe fees if incentives flip more consumers to the payment method.

Card payments still anchor commerce despite new digital and economic disruptions. As roles blur across the ecosystem, players are racing to capture more value while defending core revenue streams.

Paze still must combat entrenched consumer checkout habits with competitors like PayPal

Stablecoins are moving from crypto rails to mainstream payments infrastructure. Regulatory support and institutional investment are accelerating adoption, but consumer trust gaps, fragmentation, and liquidity risks pose near-term hurdles for digital payments.

Toast is leaning on Toast IQ’s AI as a central strategy.

After a bruising Q3, Fiserv’s new strategies show a path forward.

As software standardizes, AI features emerge as key differentiators for survival-focused SMBs.

Lack of consumer engagement felled the palm-based payments amid privacy concerns.

These deals helps Affirm scale in-store and online volume and push back against Klarna’s fast-growing debit card play.

Sluggish fixed point-of-sale (POS) terminal sales are forcing providers to rethink their strategies. From adding softPOS capabilities to adding AI tools and vertical-specific offerings, POS software is becoming the real competitive battleground.

With AI-powered security and no retail conflict, Clover’s palm-pay push could win where Amazon stumbled.

US holiday shopping remained strong, Fiserv pursued agentic commerce, and Zoomex launched a crypto-backed credit card.

North Carolina-based Self-Help Credit Union is suing Fiserv for alleged lax security practices related to how Fiserv accessed its secure data. Self-Help seeks compensation for fees that it says it paid to enhance security. Financial institutions (FIs) are ultimately responsible to customers and regulators for their vendors’ actions, and it’s a huge compliance problem when one doesn’t follow through. Small FIs are known to struggle with technology talent and budgets, so they depend heavily on partners to meet their obligations. That makes FI oversight of their vendors even more essential.

In 2026, stablecoins, agentic commerce, and AI-driven rewards will reshape the payments industry. Providers need to bet early or risk being sidelined by faster, cheaper, and more intuitive payment experiences.

US small businesses largely missed out on the record Big Five shopping, per a Fiserv press release. Issuers and payment providers should look to boost their local merchants’ sales and consumers’ spending by making it easier to shop small. Local neighborhood networks like Square Neighborhood and Bilt’s local deals can encourage SMB spending in consumers’ stomping grounds. Integrated BNPL offers may also entice spending from young consumers who are adverse to the perceived risks of revolving credit or are locked out from traditional lines.

Payments companies are investing in sport marketing to capture volume at lucrative stadiums and live events, per multiple press releases. Standard arena deals have big value, but there’s another area of sports with even less penetration: Women’s sports leagues. Viewership and attendance for professional women’s basketball is exploding thanks in part to standout rookies like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. Ads during women’s sports events have a 40% greater impact on consumer engagement than average primetime TV ad airings—meaning the opportunity to seize on rising attendance at women’s sporting events and TV viewership is ripe for payment providers trying to snag in-arena volumes and new customers.

Fiserv ’s adjusted revenues grew 1% to $14.9 billion, per its Q3 earnings release. Fiserv took a massive hit from the Argentinian economic crisis. However, its investments in other avenues have yet to come to fruition. The payments giant has slowly collected the pieces to successfully issue tokens on the behalf of major retailers, which could become a stable pillar of its business and decrease Fiserv’s reliance on certain markets for growth.

Mastercard and Coinbase are reportedly in talks to acquire BVNK for approximately $2 billion, per an exclusive from Fortune Crypto. The scale of this deal underscores stablecoin’s acceptance into the mainstream of payments. Mastercard’s eagerness to seize BVNK’s capabilities suggests that traditional payment rails can no longer ignore stablecoins, and must integrate with the payment method to avoid being left behind.