Competitive Strategies

The proposed Credit Card Competition Act staged a comeback Tuesday with a huge boost from President Trump, who endorsed the bill on the Truth Social platform the previous day. The President’s backing breathes new life into the bill, which has been bandied about Capitol Hill for years. The last major …

With more than 100 million U.S. consumers expected to choose a buy now, pay later payment option by 2027, according to eMarketer Inc., BNPL providers are preparing better underwriting and new services as the payment option is further cemented in the U.S. payments economy. Affirm Holdings Inc. says its underwriting …

Payments and rewards platform Blackhawk Network said it will issue two Mastercard-branded products: the Drive Prepaid Card, aimed at EV adoption programs, test drive incentives, and other programs related to automobiles; and the Grocery Prepaid Card, meant for cost relief. Polygon Labs, a blockchain-based payments company, announced agreements to acquire Coinme, a …

Merchant surcharges are proving problematic for card-accepting merchants, as nearly one-third of small businesses say customers walk away from a potential transaction when faced with the extra charge, according to a study released early Tuesday by J.D. Power. Some 35% of merchants are now surcharging when customers use credit cards, …

PAR Technology Corp. will provide its PAR POS and PAR OPS technologies for ordering and restaurant management under an agreement announced by Papa John’s International Inc., operator of more than 6,000 locations globally. PAR OPS is a back-of-house management platform. Ingenico Group announced it will work with Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions to …

Artificial intelligence is playing a significantly bigger role in online shopping, according to Adobe Analytics. During the 2025 holiday shopping season, AI referrals generated a nearly seven-fold increase in online retail shopping traffic,  compared to a year earlier, Adobe says. At the same time, conversion rates from AI referrals were …

MagTek Inc., a point-of-sale equipment and security provider, starts 2026 with four partnerships. First, it is pairing with cleverQ, an independent software vendor specializing in queuing and appointment software that will use MagTek’s Qwantum Multifactor Authentication product for its secure identity verification process. With this integration, cleverQ can verify visitors …

The private-equity firm GTCR said the previously announced $24.25-billion sale of processor Worldpay to Global Payments Inc. has closed. As a result of the transaction, GTCR will own roughly 15% of Global Payments’ equity, the investment firm said. GTCR acquired a majority stake in Worldpay in July 2023 from the processor FIS Inc. Global …

Lightspeed Commerce Inc. has launched Lightspeed AI, becoming the latest point-of-sale system and e-commerce platform provider to add an artificial intelligence layer to its platform. Lightspeed is integrating the app into its retail, restaurant, and NuOrder business-to-business platforms in an effort to provide merchants and business-to-business sellers with automated insights …

Payments platforms like Block Inc.’s Square point-of-sale service have long sought to find ways to build customer loyalty for the merchants that use their point-of-sale technology, and now other major POS device makers are also looking to build business by building business for sellers that use their technology. In the …