Episodes
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Even as agentic commerce, open banking, and stablecoins have captured much of the payments industry’s attention, one of the ecosystem’s most established networks continues to prove its relevance. The ACH Network processed 5.5% more volume year-over-year through Q2 2026, reinforcing its position as a foundational rail for the next generation of digital payments. Equally notable […] The post Despite Rapid Change, ACH Still Anchors the Payments Industry appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
In the past, a community bank in Connecticut could attract customers through physical branches and marketing efforts, but expanding beyond its geographic footprint was cumbersome. Today, that same bank can partner with a single independent software vendor (ISV) and unlock a channel to thousands of customers across the U.S. who were previously unreachable. In a […] The post Embedded Finance: Banks’ New Growth Channel appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
The gap between good and great gift card programs is widening. While most brands offer some form of gift card, the leaders are distinguishing themselves through more sophisticated direct digital experiences. Sometimes referred to as first-party or owned gift cards, direct digital gift cards are purchased through a merchant’s own website or app. As NAPCO […] The post How Leading Brands Are Building Better Digital Gift Card Experiences appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Trust has always been the foundation of the credit union movement. Today, that trust is facing one of its greatest tests. Artificial intelligence is making fraud more convincing, more scalable and more difficult to detect. As AI becomes more embedded in commerce, credit unions face a difficult balancing act—embracing innovation while protecting members from evolving […] The post When AI Changes Fraud, Trust Becomes Everything appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Customers no longer measure service in days or even hours—they measure it in seconds. Whether they’re paying employees, closing on a home, moving money between accounts, or covering an unexpected expense, they expect funds to be available immediately. That demand for speed is fueling the rapid growth of real-time payments, particularly those enabled by the […] The post The Use Cases Propelling the FedNow® Service’s Growth—and Shaping Its Future appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
A payment used to begin with a person making a decision: swiping a card, approving a transfer, or authorizing a purchase. Increasingly, that decision is being embedded into software. As programmatic payments become more common—and as agentic AI expands their reach—financial institutions must adapt to a landscape where transactions may be initiated by systems acting […] The post The Rise of Programmatic Payments and the New Compliance Challenge appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
No one likes waiting for a check to arrive in the mail. Today’s consumers are accustomed to instant, digital experiences, and those expectations extend to payments. Whether they’re receiving a refund, reimbursement, or settlement, recipients expect fast, secure and flexible options. That shift is prompting organizations to rethink how they disburse funds, with prepaid cards […] The post When Payment Choice Becomes the Expectation appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Many companies expect gig workers to deliver fast, reliable work—but the way they’re paid often tells a very different story. Behind the scenes, payouts can lag days or even weeks, get chipped away by fees, and disappear into layers of currency conversion and compliance hurdles that most contractors never see coming. This gap between real-time […] The post Why Crypto Will Be the New Standard for Global Payouts appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
As financial institutions merge and evolve, the pressure on back-office operations grows just as quickly as it does on member-facing services. Accounting teams that once relied on manual processes and patchwork systems are now expected to deliver greater accuracy, faster reporting, and the flexibility to support future growth. As a result, many banks and credit […] The post What Happens When a Credit Union Outgrows Its Accounting System appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Every bank wants to earn its customers’ trust. Today, protecting customers’ identities is just as important to earning that trust as safeguarding their money. Too many financial institutions, however, still treat identity protection as an afterthought. They fail to recognize that identity protection is not only a cybersecurity imperative but also a powerful driver of […] The post The Missing Piece in Banks’ Identity Protection Strategy appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Entrepreneurs bring tremendous enthusiasm and energy to building their businesses, but they’re often less excited about the everyday—yet essential—tasks like building the infrastructure needed to accept and send payments. When they do tackle those tasks, they usually discover they’re far more complicated than expected. That’s why more startups are turning to outside partners to help […] The post The Case for Not Building Your Own Remittance Stack appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Business customers today have more ways to move money than at any point in recent memory. The arrival of near-instant payment networks like FedNow and RTP has expanded the menu of options, giving companies new ways to balance speed, cost, and security when making payments. In a PaymentsJournal Podcast, Darren Beyer, Chief Product Officer and […] The post When Faster Isn’t Better: The New Rules of Business Payments appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Banking relationships often start earlier than most people realize—and they tend to last longer than expected. Roughly half of young consumers will stick with their bank into adulthood, and many never switch. This puts banks’ focus squarely on Gen Z, where the youngest members of the cohort are in their early teenage years and the […] The post For Gen Z, Banking Loyalty Begins with Payments appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
A decade ago, accepting card payments at a farmers market, food truck, or pop-up shop often meant investing in bulky hardware, worrying about battery life, and paying for ongoing technical support. Today, a small business owner can accept secure, contactless payments with nothing more than a smartphone. Tap-to-pay is doing more than speeding up checkout […] The post Tap-to-Pay Gives Small Merchants a Big Advantage appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Modern geopolitical tensions now extend well beyond traditional statecraft. They increasingly manifest through wiper malware attacks, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against critical organizations, and coordinated disinformation and influence operations designed to shape public perception in real time. Even as active flashpoints evolve and direct confrontation fluctuates, organizations are left operating in a sustained environment of […] The post Modern Cyber Risk Is Breaking Longstanding Security Assumptions appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Credit unions don’t want to be disadvantaged by their technology. They aim to offer members the same capabilities available at competing financial institutions. A critical part of that is having an ecosystem they can plug into—one that allows them to run their operations efficiently while staying competitive. To help credit unions achieve that, Velera recently […] The post Inside the Tech Shift Redefining How Credit Unions Operate appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
The most expensive resource in any small business isn’t capital—it’s time. And increasingly, that time is being swallowed up by something owners never set out to manage: payments. The last thing business owners want to do is devote more energy to managing payment processes. Many small businesses have discovered business management software with embedded payment […] The post What Embedded Payments Can Solve for Small Businesses appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Payments risk is no longer confined to a single payment rail or transaction type. Financial institutions and businesses today must manage risk across the ACH Network, checks, wire transfers, real-time payments, and a growing number of emerging payment methods. As the payments ecosystem becomes more interconnected, professionals need a broader understanding of how risks differ […] The post The Growing Importance of Payments Risk Expertise appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Consumers may be spending more cautiously, but they’re not spending less strategically. As inflation, rising debt, and economic uncertainty continue to pressure household budgets, shoppers are becoming intentional about every purchase they make. To stretch their budgets further, many consumers now map out discounts and sales well in advance of major shopping events and holidays. […] The post How Cautionary Spending Is Fueling Gift Card Purchases appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Picture the scene; a U.S. developer discovers that one of their fastest-growing markets is overseas. For many digital businesses, the first signs of international opportunity develop quickly. However, new local markets also mean new local complexities. Brazilian customers expect support for Pix. In India, UPI dominates the payments landscape. In Poland, BLIK accounts for as […] The post How the Merchant of Record Became a Global Commerce Engine appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Few payments professionals have been able to observe and influence the industry as much as Jane Larimer, President and CEO of Nacha, who has helmed the organization that governs the ACH Network through challenging industry transitions and considerable organizational success. In her nearly 31 years at Nacha, Larimer has seen firsthand the shift away from […] The post A Career in Payments: Insights from Three Decades at Nacha appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Quantum computing may still be years away from breaking cryptography, but powerful quantum computers are rapidly advancing, and their impact on cybersecurity is already unfolding. Unlike previous technological shifts, it has the potential to render some of today’s most trusted cryptographic protections obsolete—forcing organizations to rethink how they secure data long before the threat materializes. […] The post Preparing for Quantum Day and the Risks to Modern Cryptography appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Artificial intelligence has raised consumer expectations. Today, people can create a personalized event invitation, social media post, or digital experience in seconds, so why does the payment card they use every day still feel generic? That question is driving renewed interest in payment card innovation, including personalization, premium materials, digital integration, and stronger security features […] The post Serving a Segment of One: The Race to Stay Top of Wallet appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Know Your Customer rules were designed to stop financial crime, but in practice, they are increasingly being bypassed by both human error and machine-generated deception. Last year, Barclays was fined £42 million (roughly $56.9 million) for failing to properly vet clients for money laundering risks. In this case, the UK lender had access to all […] The post The Future of KYC Is Layered—and Data-Driven appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
Despite near-constant industry buzz, the days when artificial intelligence agents dominate e-commerce—and consumers widely complete in-store purchases with a palm swipe—have not yet arrived. This is not to say they will never arrive, but if the rollout of prior tech trends like biometric authentication and embedded finance is any indication, there is still substantial runway […] The post Separating Hype from Reality in Emerging Payment Trends appeared first on PaymentsJournal.
