BNPL’s Biggest Opportunity May Be Its Least Likely User
Buy‑now‑pay‑later (BNPL) is widely available, requiring no credit score and offering interest‑free installments. A PYMNTS Intelligence survey of 2,283 U.S. adults finds that only 8% of “reactive” consumers—those who cut spending and savings—use BNPL, while 48% of “proactive” consumers—who add income and negotiate bills—do. Ownership mirrors usage: 37% of proactive users hold a BNPL account versus 14% of reactive. The data suggests mindset, not income, drives BNPL adoption, challenging the view that it primarily serves financially‑distressed shoppers.
Google Pay Adds Faster Checkout Tools for Android Apps
Google Pay has added dynamic callbacks to its Android native app SDK, enabling developers to pull stored payment and address data from Google Wallet and update shipping, tax, and total price information without closing the checkout sheet. The feature mirrors...
Agentic Commerce May Force New Focus on False Declines
Agentic AI is moving from recommendation and fraud‑prevention roles to actually initiating purchases on behalf of consumers. As these autonomous agents place orders, merchants and issuers must shift focus from merely blocking bad activity to confidently recognizing legitimate transactions. PYMNTS...
Bank of America Expects Surge of Brazilian IPOs After 5-Year Drought
Bank of America predicts at least ten Brazilian companies will go public in 2027, ending a five‑year IPO drought. The deals are expected to be split between Brazil and the United States with an average size of roughly $500 million. Recent...
Restaurants Can’t Find Workers. AI Says It Can.
The restaurant sector is grappling with chronic labor shortages, with turnover rates exceeding 75% and many operators reporting multiple open positions. In 2025, the average restaurant carried five vacancies, up from 3.8 the year before, and training a new hire...
Coinbase Automates Crypto Investing via Upgraded Direct Deposit
Coinbase has rolled out an upgraded Direct Deposit feature for U.S. customers, allowing automatic allocation of paycheck portions into cash, USDC, or any crypto asset with zero trading fees. The service, launched May 26, is part of Coinbase’s broader push...
Gambit Says Speed of AI-Powered Cyberattacks Drives Need for Cyber Resilience
Gambit warns that AI‑enhanced cyberattacks can move from initial access to data destruction in minutes, as demonstrated by the Iran‑linked persona Ababil of Minab targeting LA Metro and other critical entities. The attackers deleted virtual machines, databases and storage volumes,...
Fed Governor Says Iran War Causing More Uncertainty Than Tariffs
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller told a Frankfurt audience that the central bank will keep the policy rate steady for now, citing the need for clearer inflation improvement or a significant labor‑market slowdown before any cuts. He noted that the...
Executives See Speed, Trust and Data Reshaping Payments in 2026
Executives surveyed by PYMNTS Intelligence say speed, trust and data will dominate payments by 2026. Artificial intelligence is moving from advisory roles to executing purchases, while real‑time payments are being leveraged as cash‑flow tools for both merchants and consumers. Fraud...
Europe’s Banks Get a Real-Time Reality Check
Europe’s instant‑payments ecosystem has reached a critical tipping point, with the SEPA Instant rail now fully operational across the region. Banks are shifting from treating real‑time payments as a standalone product to a cross‑functional capability that touches treasury, risk, and...
The Agentic Commerce Checklist Every Merchant Needs Now
AI agents are reshaping e‑commerce by querying structured data instead of browsing human‑focused pages. Visa reports nearly 50% of U.S. shoppers now use AI tools for at least one shopping task and expects millions of agent‑driven purchases by the 2026...
Goldman Sachs Predicts AI Agents Will Increase Tech Cash Flow
Goldman Sachs Research forecasts that autonomous AI agents will drive a 24‑fold surge in tech cash flow by 2030, as global token consumption climbs to 120 quadrillion per month. The firm cites a forthcoming margin inflection as computing costs fall,...
Mastercard and CIB Team to Boost Digital Payments in Egypt
Mastercard has renewed its digital‑payments partnership with Egypt’s Commercial International Bank (CIB), providing the bank with core payment technology and card‑issuance capabilities. The collaboration is positioned to deliver secure, seamless transactions for consumers and businesses while expanding credit access and...
New CEO Sparks Executive Shakeup at Walmart
Walmart is undergoing a top‑level reshuffle as new CEO John Furner’s arrival triggers the retirement of Sam’s Club COO Tom Ward and the departure of EVP of U.S. store operations Cedric Clark. The changes come alongside a broader leadership refresh...
SEC Pauses Tokenized Asset-Linked Stocks Plan
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has paused its "innovation exemption" that would have allowed crypto firms to trade tokenized versions of U.S. stocks. The delay follows feedback from stock‑exchange officials and concerns over a provision permitting third‑party tokens issued...
OpenAI and MoonPay Let ChatGPT Users Buy Crypto Without Leaving Chats
MoonPay has launched the first crypto on‑ramp directly inside OpenAI’s ChatGPT App Store, allowing users to purchase Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, USDC and more than 100 other assets without leaving the chat interface. The integration supports credit‑card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and bank‑transfer...
FDIC Establishes Bank Secrecy Act Standards for Stablecoin Issuers
The FDIC Board unanimously approved a proposed rule to apply Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and sanctions compliance standards to FDIC‑supervised permitted payment stablecoin issuers (PPSIs). The rule, mandated by the GENIUS Act, requires PPSIs to meet AML/CFT obligations, report to...
Mastercard Pushes Brazilian Processors to Split Banco Master Losses
Mastercard is asking Brazil’s biggest payment processors to shoulder half of the roughly $997 million loss stemming from the collapse of Banco Master’s fintech arm, Will Financeira. The bank’s failure forced Mastercard to reimburse acquirers for about 5 billion reais in card...
Fed Account Access Raises Questions Over FinTech Readiness
The White House issued an executive order urging federal agencies to streamline fintech access to regulated financial infrastructure. In response, the Federal Reserve proposed a new “payment account” category that grants fintechs direct settlement via Fedwire and FedNow while stripping...
Mastercard and Ryd Target Fragmented European Fleet Payments Market
Mastercard and Munich‑based mobility tech firm ryd have unveiled ryd fleet, a digital‑first payment operating system for European fleet operators. The solution combines ryd’s mobile platform with Mastercard’s global acceptance network and virtual‑card technology, letting drivers pay for fuel, charging, washing...
Coupa Acquires Tonkean to Expand AI Spend Management
Coupa announced the acquisition of AI‑native platform Tonkean, bolstering its agentic spend‑management suite. The deal adds a natural‑language interface, no‑code process builder and over 250 native connectors to automate procurement, legal and internal service workflows. Coupa says Tonkean’s technology has...
OpenAI’s Codex Helps Drive Nearly $6 Billion Quarter
OpenAI reported $5.7 billion in first‑quarter revenue, nearly $6 billion total, driven primarily by its Codex coding agent, enterprise sales and early ChatGPT ad tests. The company’s adjusted operating margin was a negative 122%, meaning it lost $1.22 for every dollar earned....
House Hearing Puts AI Fraud at Center of AML Overhaul
The House Financial Services Subcommittee held a hearing on modernizing the Bank Secrecy Act, emphasizing that current AML rules generate massive reporting volumes with limited investigative value. Lawmakers and experts debated lowering SAR/CTR thresholds versus leveraging AI to produce higher‑quality...
OpenEvidence Brings Hands-Free Medical AI to 860,000 Clinicians
OpenEvidence has launched Voice Mode, a hands‑free, AI‑powered medical search feature that lets clinicians ask questions and receive spoken, evidence‑based answers. The tool is already active for 860,000 U.S. clinicians across web and mobile, handling more than 1 million queries daily....
Europe’s FTX-Era Crypto Rules Strain Under Wall Street’s Blockchain Push
The European Commission has reopened the Markets in Crypto‑Assets (MiCA) framework for public and institutional comment, marking the first major review just two years after its rollout. Regulators cite rapid market evolution, including Wall Street’s aggressive push into blockchain tokenization...
Singapore Wants Banks to Use AI to Create Jobs
Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong urged banks and financial firms to deploy AI as a tool for creating higher‑value jobs rather than merely cutting staff. The call follows Standard Chartered’s announcement that it will eliminate roughly 8,000 positions...
Ex-CFTC Head Says Digital Dollar Is Inevitable in US
Former CFTC chairman Timothy Massad told CoinDesk at the Digital Money Summit that global market forces make a US digital dollar inevitable, despite President Trump’s public pledge to block any central bank digital currency (CBDC). He highlighted that the Federal...
Klarna Launches ChatGPT Shopping App With Live Prices
Klarna unveiled the Klarna Shopping Search app inside ChatGPT, letting users ask natural‑language queries and receive visual product results with live prices and stock levels. The service pulls from over 100 million products and 400 million merchant listings across 13 markets, then...
Euro-Pegged Stablecoin Wins Support From Three Dozen Banks
Qivalis, a euro‑pegged stablecoin project, has added 25 new banks, bringing its backing to 37 European lenders and making it the continent’s largest stablecoin initiative. The expansion reflects growing concern among policymakers and executives about the dollar’s dominance in crypto...
Rewiring Wires: Modernizing CHIPS and Fedwire® for a New Era of Demand
Wire payments underpin trillions of dollars in daily high‑value transactions, but rising client expectations for speed, transparency, and data richness are straining the legacy CHIPS and Fedwire infrastructures. The industry faces added pressure from ISO 20022 migration, higher transaction limits, and...
BBVA Takes Its Banking Experience Into ChatGPT
BBVA has launched a conversational banking app inside OpenAI’s ChatGPT for customers in Italy and Germany, allowing users to ask natural‑language questions about accounts, cards and savings products without leaving the AI assistant. The app provides product information and direct...
Discovery Bank Shows How AI Could Change App Engagement
Discovery Bank has deployed Discovery AI, a generative AI system that continuously monitors client behavior and surfaces real‑time, personalized financial actions inside its app and WhatsApp. Built on Azure OpenAI, Foundry Models and Azure Databricks, the engine combines behavioral modeling...
Aumet Raises $12 Million for AI-Driven Pharmaceutical Procurement
Aumet, a Saudi‑founded B2B healthcare marketplace, raised $12 million in Series A funding to expand its AI‑driven pharmaceutical procurement platform. The company now serves more than 12,000 pharmacies and has processed over $1 billion in gross merchandise volume. Its AI layer provides real‑time...
Hormuz Disruption Opens New Test for Crypto in Global Trade
Iran’s Economy Ministry has introduced “Hormuz Safe,” a pilot system that lets shipping operators purchase maritime war‑risk insurance with bitcoin and other digital assets. The initiative targets the Strait of Hormuz, which carries about 20% of global oil, where recent...
Earnings Reveal New Race to Control the Merchant Stack
Earnings from Block, PayPal, Shopify and Fiserv show merchant services evolving from pure payment processing to full‑stack commerce platforms. Companies are bundling payments, AI‑driven workflow tools, payroll, financing and loyalty programs to become embedded in daily merchant operations. Growth metrics...
Stripe President Says Shoppers Want to Leave Mundane Tasks to AI
Stripe co‑founder and president John Collison told Bloomberg that the next wave of e‑commerce will be driven by "agentic commerce," where AI agents handle routine checkout tasks for shoppers. He argues that consumers want low‑friction experiences, preferring AI to fill...
FPC Says Clear Dispute Rules Pave Way for Trusted Instant Payments
The U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC) released a new report outlining 11 guiding principles for fraud dispute resolution in instant payments. The guidance stresses shared responsibility among ecosystem participants, structured dispute workflows, and ISO 20022‑aligned data exchange. Industry data show 16%...
After Claude Design Launched, Figma Raised Its Full-Year Outlook
Anthropic’s Claude Design debuted in April, promising a prompt‑to‑interface workflow that many feared could make Figma obsolete. However, Figma’s Q1 2026 earnings beat expectations and the company lifted its full‑year revenue outlook. The results showed that enterprise teams are not...
Revolut Adds Employee Incentives to Fuel Business Banking Push
Revolut is offering every employee a £1,000 ($1,330) bonus for referring new business customers as it accelerates its business‑banking expansion. CEO Nik Storonsky outlined plans to launch B2B credit products in 2026 and roll out business banking in new markets...
Crypto Regulation Moved From Theory to Market Force This Week
The U.S. Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the Clarity Act, marking the most consequential crypto‑regulatory move since the FTX collapse. The bill’s progress sparked a rally in Coinbase shares and lifted broader crypto‑linked equities as investors price in a...
Banks Discover AI’s Best Trick Is Boring
Banks are shifting AI focus from front‑end chatbots to back‑office core systems, as highlighted by PYMNTS Intelligence’s May Enterprise AI Benchmark Report. Financial institutions are operationalizing machine‑learning in compliance, underwriting and fraud detection, where data is structured and ROI is...
Saudi FinTech Stitch Raises $25 Million to Replace Fragmented Bank Cores
Saudi‑based fintech Stitch announced a $25 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz to scale its cloud‑native operating system for banks. The platform replaces fragmented legacy cores with a modular stack covering lending, cards, payments and ledgers, and can be adopted...
Banks Slash Patch Times as Anthropic’s Mythos Exposes Security Gaps
Large U.S. banks with access to Anthropic's Mythos AI model have uncovered hundreds to thousands of low‑ to moderate‑risk vulnerabilities, prompting a rapid shift from weeks‑long to days‑long patch cycles. The model can combine minor flaws into high‑risk exposures, forcing...
Coinbase and Morpho Unveil Solana-Backed Loans
Coinbase announced that Solana (SOL) can now be used as collateral for crypto‑backed loans, allowing U.S. customers to borrow up to $100,000 in USDC instantly. The offering, powered by Morpho’s on‑chain lending protocol, features interest rates as low as 5%...
The End of the Artisanal Hack: How AI Industrialized Cybercrime
Google Cloud researchers reported the first AI‑generated zero‑day exploit tied to a mass‑scale campaign, signalling the industrialization of cybercrime. AI is compressing the cost and skill needed for each stage of an attack, turning hacking from artisanal to mass‑manufactured. Enterprises...
Priority Payables Rockets 36% as Enterprise Giants Join
Priority Technology Holdings reported Q1 2026 revenue of $249.6 million, up 11.1% year over year. Its Payables segment led growth, surging 36% to $32.4 million as larger enterprise customers increased both buyer‑funded (up 37%) and supplier‑funded (up 31%) revenues. Treasury Solutions grew...
Uber’s AI Knows the City Before Your Driver Does
Uber has launched a driver‑facing AI assistant and a voice‑enabled rider booking feature powered by OpenAI. The assistant pulls live marketplace data to give city‑specific routing and earnings advice, cutting new‑driver ramp‑up from hundreds of trips to just dozens. A...
Hourly Workers Are Drowning in Liquidity Gaps, and FinTech Has a Lifeline
PYMNTS Intelligence’s Wage to Wallet Index reveals that hourly, Labor‑Economy workers face severe liquidity gaps, with nearly half missing or delaying bills as paychecks lag. The “liquidity tax” – overdraft and late‑fee costs – eats about 3.4% of their monthly...
OpenAI Launches $4 Billion Company to Accelerate Enterprise AI Adoption
OpenAI announced the formation of the OpenAI Deployment Company, a $4 billion venture backed by 19 global investors, to help enterprises adopt AI. The joint venture will offer consulting, workflow redesign, and integration services, and will acquire applied‑AI firm Tomoro, adding...
Google Finance Continues AI-Focused Expansion With EU Launch
Google is rolling out its AI‑enhanced Google Finance platform across Europe this week, extending the service that debuted in the U.S. last August and India in November. The new experience bundles AI‑driven research, interactive charting, real‑time market intelligence, and live...