Visa, Amex vie for small businesses

The card networks are each pitching new services to mom-and-pop stores, including financing options as well as tools for expense management and fraud mitigation.

By Patrick Cooley • Feb. 5, 2026

Spire names new CEO to grow pay-by-bank

The company hired former Fiserv executive Jennifer LaClair and raised $10 million to expand services enabling consumers to make direct payments from their bank accounts to merchants.

By Justin Bachman • Feb. 5, 2026

Explore the Trendline➔

Digital wallets proliferate as features advance

As more companies aim to offer digital wallets the rise in competition is sharpening their features.  

By Payments Dive staff

Mastercard offers agentic AI tools

The payments giant plans to provide agentic AI capabilities to merchants using its services by the end of June.

By Tatiana Walk-Morris • Feb. 4, 2026

What went wrong at PayPal

Slow merchant adoption of the digital payment pioneer’s latest technology and lagging growth of its legacy checkout services stymied growth plans.

By Lynne Marek • Feb. 4, 2026

How AI commerce threatens eBay, Amazon

Agentic robots that shop and pay without human involvement could potentially render retail marketplaces obsolete – and big merchants are responding.

By Justin Bachman • Feb. 4, 2026

PayPal appoints new CEO

The digital payments company tapped former HP CEO Enrique Lores as its new chief executive Tuesday, casting aside Alex Chriss.

By Lynne Marek • Feb. 3, 2026

Amex buoyed by big spenders

The card network reported a 15% year-over-year increase in cardholder spending at luxury merchants.

By Patrick Cooley • Feb. 2, 2026

Charting 2026 payments trends

Here are 4 stories that round up our deep dive outlook for this year, including coverage of agentic payments, fraud and personalization.

By Lynne Marek • Jan. 30, 2026

Visa doles out stablecoin advice

The company began offering clients strategic counsel on the digital assets last month, but doesn’t foresee many U.S. consumer use cases.

By Lynne Marek • Jan. 30, 2026

Mastercard reworks Cap One pact

The card network's CEO said the company signed a new agreement with Capital One, reaffirming ties despite the bank’s purchase of rival Discover.

By Lynne Marek • Jan. 29, 2026

Fiserv sued over alleged lax security

A Tampa credit union alleged that the processor failed to protect customers from cyber hacks, but charged extra fees for a security upgrade.

By Patrick Cooley • Jan. 29, 2026

Bot payments lag in agentic commerce

Within the emerging world of agentic commerce, a broad gap exists between bot shopping and autonomous payments.

By Justin Bachman • Jan. 29, 2026

Amazon to halt palm payments

The online retailer said all Amazon One palm readers will be removed from physical stores by June 3.

By Patrick Cooley • Jan. 28, 2026

Secret Service foils card skimmers

The federal agency last year identified and deactivated some 400 illegal card reader inserts in major U.S. cities.

By Lynne Marek • Jan. 26, 2026

How payment personalization could change the way we pay

The emerging trend will require payment companies to jockey for position in payment suggestions offered by agentic shopping tools.

By Patrick Cooley • Jan. 26, 2026

Affirm seeks Nevada bank charter

The company said Friday that it submitted applications to state and federal regulators to start Affirm Bank.

By Patrick Cooley • Jan. 23, 2026

Verifone tackles identity challenge

The company seeks to bring the benefits of digital shopping, particularly in consumer identification, to the in-person retail world.

By Lynne Marek • Jan. 23, 2026

PayPal buys Israeli AI firm

The digital payments pioneer said it purchased Cymbio, a company that has been a partner in providing multi-channel orchestration services.

By Lynne Marek • Jan. 22, 2026

Why Shift4 targets big merchants

The processor’s CEO explained why the payment processor looks for merchant customers with multiple locations or vendors with complex software needs.

By Patrick Cooley • Jan. 22, 2026

Klarna to offer after-purchase BNPL

Shoppers will be able to convert purchases into installment loans after the transaction, the company said Tuesday.

By Patrick Cooley • Jan. 21, 2026

Consumers push back on swipe fees: survey

A third of merchants reported customers cancelling purchases when a credit card surcharge is included in their bill, analytics firm J.D. Power found.

By Patrick Cooley • Jan. 20, 2026

Afterpay tallies BNPL repayments

Most Afterpay customers have repaid their Black Friday and Cyber Monday purchases, the company said, pushing back on consumer “debt spiral” concerns.

By Tatiana Walk Morris • Jan. 20, 2026

FTC blasts payments processor Cliq

The Federal Trade Commission lashed out at the firm formerly known as CardFlex, saying this week it should pay $52.9 million to consumers.

By Lynne Marek • Jan. 16, 2026

Visa, Mastercard rebuff merchant gripes

The card networks rejected retailers’ objections to a proposed court settlement and suggested plaintiffs are too optimistic about winning at trial.

By Justin Bachman • Jan. 15, 2026

Merchants take on banks with Trump’s help

Just two weeks in, 2026 is shaping up to be the biggest year in the battle over credit card reform in years.

By Lynne Marek • Jan. 14, 2026