PaymentsJournal
by PaymentsJournal
Latest episode
Will There Be a First-Mover Advantage in Agentic Commerce?
Will There Be a First-Mover Advantage in Agentic Commerce?
About this podcast
Payments Content, Expert Insights and Timely News
Episodes
The newest 50 of 300 episodes
- Will There Be a First-Mover Advantage in Agentic Commerce? · 21 minEvery new technology brings a rush to get in early. When mobile phones, apps, and digital wallets emerged, merchants raced to determine which platforms would shape the future of…
- How Credit Unions Can Win Over Small Businesses · 18 minThe U.S. is home to 36 million small businesses—99.9% of all businesses—and roughly 11 million of their owners are already credit union members, according to Velera’s CU Growth…
- The Next Evolution in Payments: Diagonal Thinking · 17 minFor years, payments have largely fallen into two camps: horizontal platforms built to serve a broad range of businesses, and vertical solutions designed around the specific needs…
- Making Physical Cards Matter in a Digital World · 15 minThe more banking moves onto a smartphone, the harder it becomes for financial institutions to create a tangible connection with their customers. Yet as more of the banking…
- Ownership Authentication: Fighting Fraud Losses and First-Party Risk · 22 minFraudsters no longer need to reinvent their tactics from scratch. With artificial intelligence and increasingly sophisticated access to consumer data, they can test new…
- Physical Cards Reimagined—More Than a Payment Tool · 23 minThe payment card was supposed to disappear. As digital wallets, embedded payments, and mobile-first experiences reshaped commerce, the physical card seemed destined to follow the…
- Delegation with Limits: What Merchants Want from Agentic Commerce · 14 minThere 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…
- From Data to Action: How Automated Intelligence Is Changing Collections · 25 minMost 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…
- Why Fraudsters Look Trustworthy and Good Customers Look Suspicious · 25 minCriminals 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…
- 10 Years Running, Same Day ACH Continues to Break New Ground · 11 minWhen 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…
- Nacha’s Upcoming Rules Refresh Is All About Improving Clarity · 13 minACH 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…
- Why Haven’t More Financial Institutions Adopted Instant Payments? · 23 minInstant payments have quickly shifted from an emerging capability to a competitive expectation. Yet many financial institutions still struggle to justify the investment required…
- How BNPL Is Helping Credit Unions Strengthen Member Relationships · 17 minEvery 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…
- Despite Rapid Change, ACH Still Anchors the Payments Industry · 18 minEven 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…
- Embedded Finance: Banks’ New Growth Channel · 21 minIn the past, a community bank in Connecticut could attract customers through physical branches and marketing efforts, but expanding beyond its geographic footprint was…
- How Leading Brands Are Building Better Digital Gift Card Experiences · 29 minThe 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…
- When AI Changes Fraud, Trust Becomes Everything · 27 minTrust 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…
- The Use Cases Propelling the FedNow® Service’s Growth—and Shaping Its Future · 20 minCustomers 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…
- The Rise of Programmatic Payments and the New Compliance Challenge · 24 minA 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…
- When Payment Choice Becomes the Expectation · 21 minNo 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…
- Why Crypto Will Be the New Standard for Global Payouts · 19 minMany 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…
- What Happens When a Credit Union Outgrows Its Accounting System · 16 minAs 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…
- The Missing Piece in Banks’ Identity Protection Strategy · 21 minEvery 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…
- The Case for Not Building Your Own Remittance Stack · 21 minEntrepreneurs bring tremendous enthusiasm and energy to building their businesses, but they’re often less excited about the everyday—yet essential—tasks like building the…
- When Faster Isn’t Better: The New Rules of Business Payments · 16 minBusiness 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…
- For Gen Z, Banking Loyalty Begins with PaymentsBanking 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…
- Tap-to-Pay Gives Small Merchants a Big Advantage · 12 minA 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…
- Modern Cyber Risk Is Breaking Longstanding Security Assumptions · 28 minModern geopolitical tensions now extend well beyond traditional statecraft. They increasingly manifest through wiper malware attacks, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks…
- Inside the Tech Shift Redefining How Credit Unions Operate · 22 minCredit 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…
- What Embedded Payments Can Solve for Small Businesses · 16 minThe 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…
- The Growing Importance of Payments Risk Expertise · 11 minPayments 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…
- How Cautionary Spending Is Fueling Gift Card Purchases · 30 minConsumers may be spending more cautiously, but they’re not spending less strategically. As inflation, rising debt, and economic uncertainty continue to pressure household…
- How the Merchant of Record Became a Global Commerce Engine · 18 minPicture 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…
- A Career in Payments: Insights from Three Decades at Nacha · 15 minFew 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…
- Preparing for Quantum Day and the Risks to Modern Cryptography · 27 minQuantum computing may still be years away from breaking cryptography, but powerful quantum computers are rapidly advancing, and their impact on cybersecurity is already…
- Serving a Segment of One: The Race to Stay Top of Wallet · 15 minArtificial intelligence has raised consumer expectations. Today, people can create a personalized event invitation, social media post, or digital experience in seconds, so why…
- The Future of KYC Is Layered—and Data-Driven · 13 minKnow 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…
- Separating Hype from Reality in Emerging Payment Trends · 22 minDespite 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…
- Searching for Trust in Agentic Commerce · 26 minWhen an AI agent buys the wrong product—or makes a purchase no one explicitly approved—the fallout isn’t just a customer service issue. It’s a liability problem the payments…
- The Instant Payments Shift Is Testing the Limits of Legacy Banking · 12 minFor decades, banks could afford to move slowly. Now, speed is table stakes. In a world of instant payments and real-time expectations, institutions built on legacy systems are…
- Embedded Payments Are Becoming Core to Vertical SaaS · 14 minNot long ago, a concrete company and a takeout restaurant could end up running their business on the exact same software. Systems built for everyone, in practice, worked…
- Inside Banking’s $10 Billion Inflection Point · 24 minCrossing $10 billion in assets isn’t just a milestone for financial institutions—it’s a turning point. What looks like a measure of growth quickly becomes a fundamental shift in…
- The Hidden Cost of Fraud Disputes Is Hitting Banks Hard · 27 minFraud disputes are one of the fastest ways for banks to lose customers—and one of the least prioritized parts of the business. Despite the high costs, many institutions still…
- Crypto Payments Are Ready for the Mainstream · 25 minCross-border payments have long been defined by delays, fees, and a maze of intermediary banks. Stablecoins are changing that—offering a faster, simpler alternative that cuts out…
- The Passkey You Can’t Steal: Why Hardware Beats Software for High-Stakes Authentication · 18 minToday is World Passkey Day. And while the industry celebrates the shift away from passwords, the more important question is what kind of passkey replaces them. Many organizations…
- Tips on a Prepaid Card: A Practical Solution with Broad Industry Impacts · 19 minWhen events like the NCAA Final Four come to town, they bring an influx of short-term workers who keep everything running—but often for just four or five days. Despite the brief…
- As Fraud and Agentic Risks Mount, Data Provides Continuity · 31 minNot long ago, fraud teams could keep pace by reviewing incidents one by one. That era is ending. Armed with artificial intelligence and cloud-scale infrastructure, today’s…
- What Would it Take for Stablecoins to Replace Wire Transfers in B2B Payments? · 22 minInternational wires have long been the default for B2B payments—an entrenched system that works, but few would describe as optimal, given multi-day settlement timelines and high…
- Instant, Irrevocable Payments Demand a Fraud Prevention Reboot · 18 minWhen a shopper is tricked into making a fraudulent purchase, they expect recourse from their financial services provider. These guardrails are one of the reasons credit cards…
- From a Checkbox to a Differentiator: Redefining ACH Fraud Monitoring · 22 minLast year, the treasurer’s office in Warren County, New York sent $3.3 million to what it believed was the county’s roadwork and maintenance contractor. It was not—the payments…
