Payments News from American Banker

FNB Corp marked the grand opening of its new downtown Pittsburgh headquarters this week. The bank owns and occupies the majority of the 26-story tower in the city's Hill District, a new addition to the city's skyline and one of the few new towers built in the city's business district in recent years. And long-time bank executive Robert Goldstein has died at 84.

The payments company, which is unifying parts of its operation to deepen its reach with consumers and businesses, saw its stock fall more than 10% after reporting mixed earnings, though analysts are more bullish on the company's future.

By enabling consumers to link multiple payment options together, the card network can counter similar moves by rival Visa and fintechs such as Curve.

Regulators are investigating the technology giants over concerns their financial apps are violating competition rules. That and expanding tech in emerging markets highlight this week's American Banker global payments roundup.

The industry's top leaders, including The Most Influential Women in Payments, will be on hand to discuss innovation, compliance, risk, crypto and more.

The Trump administration's orders to stop supervisory exams at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are seen as a potential conflict of interest for Elon Musk, whose company X would have been overseen by the bureau when it launches its payments wallet.

The amended language in the bank's terms and conditions will halt payments to social media sellers. It comes as banks on the P2P app face increased political pressure to step in and stop payments to scammers on the platform. 

The company sells capital markets technology to small banks that have growing international processing needs, betting the lack of client overlap prevents a big bank/small bank competition.

The fees are controversial for card networks and consumers, but the impact on banks has been muted. Here's why that could change.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said reserve banks will no longer factor "reputational risk" into master account decisions. The crypto industry is encouraged by the commitment, but says more changes are needed.

The rollout of new technologies in point-of-sale retail payments in the U.S. has historically been slow, and consumer adoption of those new payment flows can be even slower. Can consumers' propensity for self checkout help push adoption?

CEO Cameron Bready told analysts that the company's changes in management structure, product reorganization and strategic retrenchments will show up in earnings later in 2025.

Serious delinquencies on auto loans rose to almost 3% in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to the New York Fed. Researchers blame the affordability problem on soaring car prices.

The payment card industry must upgrade encryption before quantum computers render current security methods obsolete, FS-ISAC warned.

The money-transfer company's move came after the U.S. State Department last week renewed sanctions against the island nation. That, plus Klarna and Standard Chartered get bullish on crypto; Trump's not the first politician to rail at pennies; and other international payments and fintech news.

FIS' debit-processing bank clients will soon be able to integrate Affirm's pay-over-time products into existing digital banking infrastructure. For Affirm, it means even more potential BNPL transactions.

The bank-owned payments app saw the number of total transactions jump 24% compared with 2023. Small business transactions increased 32%.

CEO-designate Gunjan Kedia said payments growth is critical to the Minneapolis-based regional's overall success. Dealmaking will take a back seat to organic growth for the time being, she added.

In comments to reporters, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., underscored what she said was a conflict of interest between Elon Musk's DOGE's actions at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and his business interests with X Money.

As it closes in on a New York listing, the Swedish fintech partners with the largest merchant acquirer in the U.S. by payment volume.