Tuesday , December 16, 2025

Competitive Strategies

Visa Moves to Support Stablecoins for U.S. Settlement

Visa Inc. announced early Tuesday it is supporting stablecoins as a settlement option for issuer and acquirer banks in the United States, a major move in payment card finance and one observers see as an inevitable next step for the industry, though one that could come with complications. The use …

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Touch Dynamic’s SoftPOS Kiosk and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/16/25

Point-of-sale equipment maker Touch Dynamic Inc. released its Summit Kiosk, a SoftPOS self-checkout product that offers tap-to-pay and other payment acceptance options. Payments infrastructure company Koard launched Tap to Pay on iPhone for its customers, which include payment service providers, independent sales organizations, and independent software vendors. Paze, the online wallet from Early Warning …

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PayPal’s Next Step: Setting up an Industrial Bank to Reduce Third-Party Reliance

PayPal Holdings Inc. is embarking on another stage in its evolution with its application for a Utah-chartered industrial loan company to be called PayPal Bank. PayPal announced the move late Monday saying it submitted applications to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Utah Deptarment of Financial Institutions. A successful …

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Merchant Groups Voice Their Objections to the Latest Visa-Mastercard Swipe Fee Settlement Offer

Merchant groups late Friday filed written complaints regarding the latest settlement offer in their two-decades old lawsuit against Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. challenging card swipe fees. The settlement offer, which follows a rejected offer in 2024, was made in November. Merchant groups filing complaints were The National Association of …

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Crypto Kingpins Circle And Ripple Are Approved for National Trust Banks

Two major players in stablecoins, Circle Internet Financial Inc. and Ripple Labs Inc., received conditional approval Friday from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish national trust banks. Both companies coveted the approvals as key to establishing confidence in stablecoins among consumers and businesses as they …

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Stripe Launches Agentic Commerce Suite With Brands in Tow

Stripe Inc. continues its push to build an agentic commerce infrastructure late Thursday with the launch of its Agentic Commerce Suite. The new solution helps merchants use artificial intelligence-based agents to sell across multiple AI shopping platforms via a single integration to Stripe. In addition, Stripe’s Agentic Commerce Suite supports …

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Aurora Payments Goes for a Ride with 2S LimouSolution; Clara Capital Debuts Same-Day ISO Commissions

Differentiation is a key tactic in the payments world, and Aurora Payments and Clara Capital are the latest in merchant processing to stand out with new services. First, Tempe, Ariz.-based Aurora Payments is working with Germany-based 2S LimouSolution to integrate the Aurora Arise payment platform in 2S’s software. Launched in …

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More Back-and-Forth on Epic/Apple Lawsuit and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 12/12/25

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals required that certain elements of an order that held Apple Inc. in contempt must be modified, but upheld most of the findings as well as an earlier injunction against Apple. The case stemmed from a 2020 lawsuit filed by Epic Games against Apple to challenge …

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Global Payments Details the Promise And Perils of Agentic Commerce

The promise and potential perils of agentic commerce as a digital technology are among the trends highlighted in Global Payments Inc.’s 2026 Commerce and Payments Trends Report. Beginning as a form of customer service based on its natural-language capabilities, artificial intelligence has begun to take off through the use of …

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Digital Transactions