As the number of U.S. consumers who have heard nothing at all about artificial intelligence continues to drop, organizations are preparing for the expected infusion of AI into everyday life. Payments companies are no exception. American Express Co. is releasing a software-development kit called Agentic Commerce Experiences to help consumers …
Read More »Grocer Ahold Delhaize Links With Fiserv to Offer Pay-By-Bank
Pay-by-bank received a substantial endorsement early Tuesday with the news that the grocery giant Ahold Delhaize USA has gone deeper into a partnership with the payments processor Fiserv Inc. to offer the payment alternative on Ahold’s proprietary platform. The company is a unit of the Netherlands-based grocer of the same …
Read More »It’s Still Card-First in the U.S.
U.S. consumers are nothing if not habit-driven. New research from Global Payments Inc. suggests that credit and debit cards accounted for 49% of all online shopping and 71% of in-store shopping in 2025, as reported in the 2026 edition of the Global Payments Report. That is virtually unchanged from 49% …
Read More »How Top U.S. Acquirers Ranking Changed Following Acquisitions
There’s a new top U.S. merchant acquirer. Global Payments Inc., with an estimated $2.8 trillion in 2025 U.S. processing volume, has moved into the top spot in the 2026 TSG Directory of U.S. Merchant Acquirers, unseating JPMorgan Chase & Co., which had held the top rank since at least the …
Read More »Combatants in the Fight to Overturn Illinois’s Interchange Law Gear Up for an Appeals Battle
Three organizations representing the banking community, as well as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency along with former acting members of the OCC, filed amicus briefs late Friday urging the court to overturn the decision to exempt Illinois merchants from paying interchange on the sales tax and gratuities …
Read More »Stripe Will Support Visa And Mastercard Agentic Tokens And Back BNPL for Klarna And Affirm
Stripe Inc. has expanded its reach into agentic commerce to include support for buy now, pay later options through deals with Klarna AB and Affirm Holdings Inc. At the same time, Stripe is partnering with Visa Inc. and Mastercard to support the two networks’ agentic network tokens. Affirm and Klarna …
Read More »Block Slashes Its Workforce as It Goes All in on AI
Block is cutting its headcount by more than 40%, the company announced late Thursday during its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call. The move—which will leave Block with less than 6,000 employees, down from more than 10,000—comes as the fintech posted one of its best financial performances for 2025, according to company …
Read More »