PaymentsJournal

There is a growing disparity between hype and reality when it comes to agentic commerce. This is not so much a critique of AI agents’ capabilities, or the infrastructure that has rapidly emerged to support them, as it...

Most businesses have no shortage of customer data. They know who their customers are, how they pay, when they tend to pay and, in many cases, exactly when a payment goes wrong. The harder question is what to do with all...

Criminals are increasingly aware of the signals banks use to identify “good customers”—and they are using that knowledge to evade detection. At the same time, legitimate customers are adopting behaviors that were once...

When Same Day ACH launched a decade ago, the primary use case was for exceptions—such as in emergency payroll transactions, time-sensitive bill payments, and other situations where traditional ACH settlement timelines...

ACH may be one of the payments industry’s most established networks, but it’s far from standing still. With new Rules taking effect this September—and another significant change already slated for 2028—financial...

Instant payments have quickly shifted from an emerging capability to a competitive expectation. Yet many financial institutions still struggle to justify the investment required to support them. With implementation...

Every payment tells a story about a member’s financial life. The challenge for credit unions is that more of those stories are now being told somewhere else. Buy now, pay later (BNPL) has transformed from a checkout...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Many companies expect gig workers to deliver fast, reliable work—but they 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...