The North Year That Was

The definitive 2025 recap of everything payments.

As December fades to January, it’s time to look back at the past year’s big events.

A lot happened. Kendrick kicked it at the Superbowl, Katy Perry got shot into space, skinny jeans brought back a Y2K fit, and a scrappy little bot named “AI” became everyone’s BFF (or mortal enemy).

But we’re here to talk Northern things, retrospecting the payments-plethora of events that moved our needles over the last 12 months.

Cue the calendar …

January

North Developer is ready for the world. Our new developer platform debuts. It is a destination for ISVs to create solutions that go beyond payments, making everything, even merchant onboarding, fast, efficient, and easy. APIs, SDKs, acronyms that power business KPIs.

February

North and PYMNTS team up. North begins a content-rich adventure with the news powerhouse, starting with the developer insights of our Senior Director of Product Management, Bryan Long.

ETA shows us some love. The 2025 TRANSACT conference honored a lot of North names: Business Development Directors Chris Williams and Marshall McCulloch were named Top Payment Sales Professionals; Greg Gorman, Vice President of Product Management, and Michelle Travers, Director of Relationship Management for Humboldt Merchant Services, were both named to ETA’s “40 under 40” list; and Senior Learning and Development Trainer Katie Hackney was named CPP of the Year.

March

Weilynn Tan dazzles PYMNTS. North’s favorite Head of Software Ecosystem Partnerships takes to the podcast to explain her unique approach to stronger business relationships.

North spotlighted on This Week in Fintech. The popular, payments-focused podcast highlights the North perspective on product development.

April

North flips the sustainability Switch. For the sixth time, just in time for Earth Day, our company received the Switch Sustainability Certificate. We used 100% renewable energy within the Switch ecosystem, making our consumption 100% green at their solar-powered data centers.

Payanywhere and Payments Hub hook up real invoicing power. In a year of feature-packed events, our team delivered Payments Links to provide merchants with a fast, trackable, secure means of invoicing their customers — and it gave them the ability to use their branding in the links.

May

We think fast for PYMNTS. The Quick Takes series serves up hot topics on short order, asking our North thought leaders to expound on newsworthy notes such as click to cancel,HSBC’s Token.io investment, and AI’s seat at the Applebee’s and iHOP tables.

June

Point & Pay acts local. We brought electronic payment services to a city government, helping Riverside County, California, give residents the convenience of online tax and assessment payments.

North Product wiz Lori Jones talks merchant magic. Our VP of Product and Project Management explains to PYMNTS how North is redefining merchant services for a new era.

July

Partner-empowering programs heat up the summer. North introduces our Wholesale ISO, FSP, and Payment Facilitator initiatives. These customized programs let partners choose the perfect balance of control, risk, and reward for their business. Flexible ȧ la carte solutions that can be fully implemented in as little as 90 days.

Greg Castro stirs up B2B disruptions. In an exclusive PYMNTS eBook, the PayTrace President speaks to the innovation behind payment simplicity and modern convenience in the B2B space.

Shane Estes VAMPs for Payments Dive. Our global-payments guru and Inovio’s VP of Sales authors this thought-leadership piece about Visa’s new requirements for merchants: the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program.

September

The Financial Technology Report recognizes North. The preeminent news outlet called North a Top Company, and they named our CFO, Kirk Haggarty, a Top Executive in its annual awards.

October

North does the hustle with Half Baked. We put our heads together with the start-up wunderkids to create a guide that delves into the world of side hustles, spreading the word to Half Baked’s over 100,000 daily readers.

December

North Developer codes some gold. Our award-winning developer platform won even more awards at the 2025 DevPortal Awards (and our editorial team retired the word “award”). The team took home honors for Best Overall Developer Portal, Best Onboarding Experience in a Developer Portal, and Best Solution Portal.

See you next year

And that’s all the North news that’s fit to print for 2025. We had a great time making it, and we can’t wait to see what happens in 2026.