Card giant Mastercard plans to provide its AgentPay gen AI solution to all its card issuers as demand and use cases for agentic pay continue to grow. “Agentic pay can improve customer experience and business sales a lot,” Pablo Fourez, chief digital officer at Mastercard, told FinAi News. AgentPay was launched this year and has […]
Vaidik Trivedi
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Premium credit card users and small merchants could soon feel the effect of a decades-long battle over swipe fees.
A newly proposed settlement between Visa and Mastercard could reshape how much merchants—and ultimately, consumers—pay to use their payment networks, while giving stores more flexibility to treat high-end and mid-tier cards differently.
If approved by the court, the payment giants would reduce interchange fees by 0.1% over the next five years and cap standard consumer credit rates at 1.25% for eight years. It would also scrap a rule requiring merchants to accept all cards from a given network. That change could open the door for stores to reject credit card tiers—such as higher-fee, high-reward cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Capital One Venture X—or further pass fees directly to consumers.
The current system has long frustrated merchants, especially small businesses, who must decide whether to absorb rising swipe fees or pass costs to customers. Visa and Mastercard collected $111.2 billion in credit card swipe fees in 2024—up 10% from the year prior and quadruple the level from 2009, according to the National Retail Federation.
With the new move, merchants could more easily add surcharges selectively who are less price-sensitive, John Cabell, managing director of payments intelligence at J.D. Power, told Fortune. Premium cardholders, with annual fees above $500, spend an average of $2,736 a month, nearly three times as much as those with cheaper cards. Only 22% of those cardholders report they select alternate payment methods when faced with a surcharge, according to J.D. Power data. That’s compared to 33% of holders of no-fee cards.
But while some merchants might be tempted to trim costs by limiting which cards they accept, doing so could alienate big spenders and disrupt the lucrative rewards ecosystem that fuels consumer spending.
“Over time, if premium cards become even more expensive to use at the point of sale, this type of change might reign in the upward spiral of rewards and benefits that consumers have grown to appreciate,” Cabell added. “Even relatively modest cards might see a reduction in offerings as well if surcharges become generally more prevalent with mid-tier and premium card groupings.”
But others argue merchants will think twice before turning away big spenders. Brian Kelly, founder of The Points Guy, told Fortune he didn’t expect the deal’s potential results to be dramatic because if businesses refuse top-tier rewards cards, they’d likely lose more revenue than they save on interchange fees.
“If this settlement proceeds, merchants may continue adding small fees for credit card transactions, which they’re already allowed to do today,” Kelly added.
In a statement, Mastercard said they believe the settlement is the best solution for all parties.
“Smaller merchants will gain in this settlement – more acceptance choices, reduced costs and simplified rules,” the company said in a statement. Even more, it allows us to focus our energies on continuing to give consumers, small businesses and larger merchants what they expect from Mastercard – a better payments experience, strong value and peace of mind.”
Visa told Fortune the deal would “provide meaningful relief, more flexibility and options to control how they accept payments from their customers.”
Many trade groups criticized the settlement, arguing it doesn’t go far enough to protect merchants.
“Once again, this proposal is all window dressing and no substance,” National Retail Federation Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel Stephanie Martz said in a statement. “The reduction in swipe fees doesn’t begin to go far enough, and the change in the honor-all-cards rule would accomplish nothing. If the courts can’t fix this, it’s time for Congress to take action.”
The National Grocers Association added that the proposed settlement does not address the “anticompetitive price-setting in the credit card industry.”
“Independent grocers, operating on net margins of less than 2%, have been hit hardest by rising swipe fees, which grow faster than inflation and cost consumers and businesses over $100 billion annually,” wrote Chris Jones, NGA chief government relations officer and counsel.
A previous Visa-Mastercard agreement was denied earlier this year, so it remains to be seen if this new proposal will ultimately be approved.
Lawmakers have also floated reform through the bipartisan Credit Card Competition Act, which would reduce swipe fees and target the “Visa-Mastercard duopoly” by requiring secondary networks on credit cards. The measure, which was first introduced in 2023 and backed by then-U.S. Senator J.D. Vance, could put additional pressure on payment giants if the settlement doesn’t satisfy regulators—or merchants.
Preston Fore
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The partnership aims to enable settlements using the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin for Mastercard and WebBank payments.
Ripple has announced that it is collaborating with Mastercard, WebBank, and Gemini to explore the use of its RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).
The initiative is designed to enable RLUSD to make blockchain-based payments between Mastercard and WebBank.
Sherri Haymond, Mastercard’s Global Head of Digital Commercialization, said in a November 5 press release that the goal is to use its global network to help bring regulated stablecoin payments into the financial mainstream.
“Guided by our commitment to consumer choice and a principled approach to stablecoins, one that emphasizes strong consumer protections, a level playing field, and full regulatory compliance, we’re enabling settlement today while exploring how stablecoins can support future use cases,” she noted.
Once implemented, it will mark one of the first collaborations where a regulated U.S. bank clears traditional card transactions using a regulated stablecoin on a public blockchain. This effort also expands on Ripple’s existing work with Gemini and WebBank on the Gemini Credit Card, which launched an XRP edition earlier this year.
WebBank President and CEO Jason Lloyd stated that banks are well-positioned to integrate blockchain technology with the traditional financial system. He explained that the collaboration enables their firm to explore how stablecoins can facilitate faster and more efficient institutional payments while maintaining the security that customers expect.
In the coming months, the group will begin initial RLUSD onboarding on XRPL after receiving the necessary regulatory green light and will start integration planning within the existing Mastercard and WebBank remittance systems.
Ripple highlighted how XRPL’s low costs, rapid processing, and a decade of reliable performance provide a trusted foundation for digital transactions. On the other hand, XRP also helps secure the network and supports efficient transactions as new assets, such as RLUSD, expand their use.
The announcement comes as the XRP Ledger continues to show growth in network activity. During the third quarter of 2025, average daily transactions increased by 8.9% from 1.6 million in Q2 to 1.8 million in Q3. The total number of addresses on the network also grew by 6.1% to reach 6.9 million. RLUSD has also surpassed a market capitalization of $1 billion per CoinGecko data, more than doubling in just three months after rising from $400 million in August.
Wayne Jones
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After what started as a disappointing week, the Coinbase stock (Ticker: COIN) seems to be back on a recovery path. COIN briefly touched the $350 level on Friday, October 31st, rallying on the positive earnings report and new developments from this week.
According to a new report, Coinbase has also entered into late-stage talks to purchase stablecoin infrastructure BVNK in an estimated $2 billion deal. This move represents a play in a much larger stablecoin industry push by the largest US-based cryptocurrency exchange.
On Friday, Bloomberg reported that Coinbase is looking to complete a $2-billion acquisition of the London-based BVNK, pending due diligence. The San Francisco-based cryptocurrency company expects to close this deal before the year’s end or early next year, according to one of the sources close to the matter.
According to the report, the company’s venture capital arm, Coinbase Ventures, is an investor in BVNK. One of the cited sources also revealed that while the deal is already in late-stage talks, terms may change, and the deal is still at risk of collapsing.
A Coinbase spokesperson told Bloomberg in a statement:
We don’t comment on rumors or speculation. Driven by our mission to expand economic freedom globally, we actively explore various opportunities—whether through building, acquiring, partnering, or investing – to advance our mission.
This latest Bloomberg report somewhat adds credence to the Fortune report—from earlier this week—that disclosed that Coinbase holds exclusivity with BVNK for takeover talks after winning the bidding war. Mastercard was reportedly also engaged in talks with the stablecoin infrastructure before setting its sights on Zerohash, another crypto startup, for over $1.5 billion.
Hence, this BVNK purchase by Coinbase, if completed, would represent the latest one in a growing list of stablecoin-related deals in recent months. These developments come on the back of the introduction of the first crypto regulation (the GENIUS Stablecoin Act) in the United States.
While Coinbase’s Q3 earnings call trended for an unusual reason, after CEO Brian Armstrong dropped a list of crypto buzzwords relevant to the Mentions Market, the crypto company delivered strong profits in the last quarter.
The US-based crypto company reported about $1.9 billion in revenue and a bottom line of approximately $432.6 million in 2025’s third quarter, representing a 55% year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, the firm’s Bitcoin holdings have also jumped by 2,772 BTC to 14,458.
As of this writing, the Coinbase stock (COIN) is valued at about $343.78, reflecting a 4.6% jump in the past 24 hours.
Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView
Opeyemi Sule
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Mastercard and PayPal are deepening their collaboration to accelerate secure global “agentic” commerce, allowigng AI or other digital agents to complete transactions on behalf of consumers and businesses. Under the expanded partnership, Mastercard Agent Pay will be embedded into the PayPal wallet. That means hundreds of millions of consumers and tens of millions of merchants […]
FinAi News, AI-assisted
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Update 9/30/25: Deal is back, this time requires buying $200 giftcard with promo code BONUS10
Total comes to $104.95 for $110 in gift cards. Can be done multiple times according to this comment. Don’t see any datapoints on the payments workshop on what does/doesn’t earn a category bonus.
William Charles
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Instacart and Mastercard have teamed up to offer eligible US Mastercard credit or debit card holders 3 free months of Instacart+ and $10 off their 2nd qualifying order each month. This offer begins September 1, 2025, and runs through January 31, 2027.
It looks like you can NOT add an extra 3 months of Instacart+ to an existing Instacart+ subscription.
To qualify for 3 free months of Instacart+, you must:
To qualify for the monthly $10 offer, you must—
Qualifying orders must be paid for with the same card type that was enrolled. For example, if you enrolled an eligible Mastercard credit card, both qualifying orders must be paid for with any eligible Mastercard credit card (the eligible Mastercard doesn’t necessarily have to be the one you enrolled).
The $10 off automatically applies at checkout, regardless of other active promotions. The $10 off doesn’t apply to any alcohol or Rx items in your order and does not apply to restaurant orders.
The discount expires at the end of each calendar month in which it was earned if unused.
To redeem the 3 free months of Instacart+—
To receive the $10 off monthly offer, you must place your first order with an eligible US Mastercard® credit or debit card. You’ll receive $10 off automatically to your Instacart account after the order is delivered.
Once you place a second order with an eligible Mastercard, the $10 off automatically applies at checkout. Note, this coupon doesn’t apply to any alcohol or Rx items in your order.
HT: DoC
DDG
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Payments giant Mastercard is eyeing the stablecoin market — but its plans don’t include issuing cryptocurrency. Instead, Mastercard aims to develop the rails on which stablecoins will function, Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president for blockchain and digital assets, told Bank Automation News. “We see our role in [stablecoins] as we look at what we do […]
Vaidik Trivedi
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Two acquisitions and several new products are supporting Mastercard’s ongoing innovation efforts. “All that we’re doing on strengthening our product solutions and our acquisitions … is going to be the way for us to win,” Chief Executive Michael Miebach said during Mastercard’s Q3 earnings call today. Mastercard has announced these recent deals: On Oct. 1: […]
Whitney McDonald
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Now through the end of next year, Mastercard is offering cardholders $2.50 in savings every month for public transit rides in select cities.
From October 1, 2024, to December 31, 2025, tap to pay your transit fare using your eligible Consumer or Small Business credit or debit Mastercard and get a $2.50 statement credit when you spend $10 or more each month at (one or more) participating transit locations in:
The bonus will only work at point-of-entry. There is a limit of one (1) credit per eligible participant per calendar month during the Offer Period.
This benefit is open only to individuals with a U.S.-issued Mastercard credit or debit card. Prepaid cards, International and Mastercard® Corporate transactions, as well as any PIN-based transactions are not eligible. Common examples of prepaid cards include, but are not limited to, General Purpose Reloadable, Payroll, Gift, Incentives, HAS/FSA and government-issued disbursement cards. This is the list of issuers that are not participating in the program. You can see the full details here.
DDG
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This is a roundup of news and other interesting pieces that I’ve come across over the last few days. I thought they are worth sharing so I hope you enjoy reading them.
Thanks to Hilton’s new partnership with SLH (Small Luxury Hotels of the World), there are several more properties in the Maldives bookable with points and/or free night certificates, several of which allow you to book into overwater villas. One of those new – to Hilton – properties that lets you book straight in to an overwater villa is Milaidhoo Maldives. That’d be a big enough selling point for many people, but it becomes insanely good value when you take into account the fact that seaplane transfers are included within the award price.
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Let’s say you’ve just closed on your first home and want to order a bottle of champagne to celebrate. You’d place your item in your online basket as normal, and then be asked to confirm you’re old enough to make the purchase. In the background, Mastercard enables merchants to easily validate your age with your card issuer securely and without adding any unnecessary friction to your experience. Your card is enough.
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Amazon announced a refresh across the line. That includes updates to the base Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, and the stylus-enabled Kindle Scribe. Amazon had to bring AI to the line sooner or later, so the Kindle Scribe is the first to get the honors. Leveraging the biggest Kindle’s note-taking capabilities, Amazon is adding text summaries, courtesy of a new notebook tab. The device will also clean up messy text scribbled with the Premium Pen stylus, so it’s legible while still looking like script.
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Marriott appears to have added a new benefit for ‘overachieving’ Ambassadors who spend at least $40,000 in a year – at least it is a benefit for 2024 spend. Ambassadors who spend $40,000 are being invited to extend the same status to a spouse, significant other, or other member of their household.
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Regent Santa Monica Beach reintroduces the legendary Regent name to Los Angeles and becomes the brand’s first flagship property within the Americas.” Originally located in Beverly Hills, and famously known as the setting for the film “Pretty Woman,” Regent returns along one of the nation’s most celebrated beaches and just steps from the famed Santa Monica Pier. The destination resort will deliver inspired stays through a blend of timeless elegance and modern luxury and is poised to usher in a new era of extraordinary experiences.
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Let me know if you enjoyed these articles and comment with any opinions you might have. You can also share any other interesting articles about deals, travel, credit cards and more.
DDG
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American Express and Boost Payment Solutions will provide commercial card processing to U.S.-based American Express merchants, the pair announced Sept. 30. Amex merchants will have access to Boost’s straight-through processing solution, Boost Intercept, allowing them to accept virtual cards while avoiding manual processes, Boost founder and Chief Executive Dean Leavitt told Bank Automation News. “Participating […]
Vaidik Trivedi
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Full terms here. Useful offer if you live in one of those cities. Keep in mind this runs through the end of 2025, not 2024 as well so more than a year of use.
Hat tip to Ben C
William Charles
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EverBank has announced plans to acquire Sterling Bank for $261 million, through a stock purchase agreement. Jacksonville, Fla.-based EverBank is set to acquire Sterling’s 25 branches, $900 million in loans and $2 billion in annual deposits, and aims to expand its operations in San Francisco and other localities in California, an EverBank spokesperson told Bank […]
Vaidik Trivedi
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Financial institution leaders have prioritized innovation and efficiency efforts in 2024 while navigating continually evolving technologies.
This year, bank executives have been tasked with keeping up with generative AI and boosting their cybersecurity efforts in a fraud-ridden environment. And they have done so while maintaining compliance as they await impending regulations.
The year has required a balancing act — and banks have stepped up to the challenge.
Bank Automation News presents 11 bank technology executives who we expect to lead innovation in 2025.
Rohit Dhawan is the first to take on the director of AI role at Lloyds Banking Group. He is responsible for scaling Lloyds’s AI capabilities throughout operations while leading its new AI Centre of Excellence.
Dhawan’s appointment is part of the bank’s efforts to accelerate use of digital technologies and data to improve the overall customer experience, according to an Aug. 5 Lloyds release. This year, the bank also added 1,500 technology and data specialists to support these tech-driven efforts.
London-based Lloyds Bank has been using AI to streamline operations and aims to save $901 million in 2024 through tech and AI deployment, according to the bank’s second-quarter earnings report. The $1.1 trillion bank reported that it has nearly 800 AI use cases it plans to deploy in the coming quarters.
Before joining Lloyds, Dhawan served as head of data and AI strategy across the Asia-Pacific region at Amazon Web Services.
Ian Eslick returned to his tech roots in August when he began work at $27 billion digital lender SoFi, leaving his role at U.S. Bank.
SoFi, one of the largest online lenders for student and unsecured lending, is investing in its product pipeline, especially in a lower rate environment, Chief Executive Anthony Noto said earlier this month at Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference 2024, noting that SoFi wants to launch more core products in financial services.
Eslick joins the SoFi team with an innovative and entrepreneurial background. Before his U.S. Bank stint, he founded multiple startups including health care company Vital Labs and data and analytics company Compass Labs, which has raised more than $12 million since its inception, according to Crunchbase.
Steve Hagerman will join Truist Financial as its CIO in October from Wells Fargo, where he served as CIO for consumer technology since April 2023.
Hagerman was the “right person at the right time for our enterprise technology team,” a Truist spokesperson previously told BAN, noting that selecting a new CIO was a “thorough process.”
His move to the $511 billion Truist follows turbulence on the bank’s leadership team as the bank lost multiple executives in the past year, including former CIO Scott Case, who Hagerman will replace.
“Steve brings 25 years of broad technology experience in the financial services industry to Truist and will be a key driver in our efforts going forward,” CEO Bill Rogers said during Barclays Financial Services Conference earlier this month, noting that the bank is investing in its digital products with efficiency at the forefront.
At Wells Fargo, Hagerman has his hand in the bank’s multi-cloud strategy, approach to generative AI, and AI and machine learning efforts.
Based on his experience, Hagerman is expected to “accelerate how we think about our go-to-market strategy,” Sherry Graziano, head of digital, client experience, and marketing at Truist, told BAN.
Tracy Kerrins is leading generative AI efforts as Wells Fargo prioritizes bankwide efficiency efforts.
At the $1.7 trillion bank, Kerrins will identify how AI can be deployed in each area of business, CEO Charlie Scharf said in a July 30 Wells Fargo release.
“Generative AI can help us transform our businesses, improve our customer and client experiences, and enhance the way we work,” he said, noting that Kerrins has experience deploying technology and modernizing operations.
As Kerrins takes on generative AI, the bank has established its own generative AI council to ensure it approaches the technology responsibly.
Prior to her July appointment, Kerrins was the bank’s CIO for consumer technology and enterprise functions, according to the release.
The $40 billion, Jacksonville, Fla.-based EverBank is undergoing a digital overhaul during a two-year window led by COO Lindsay Lawrence.
Lawrence is looking to third-party vendors to update manual processes, improve the consumer banking platform and implement an API-first strategy at the regional bank.
Over the next year, the bank plans to continue its modernization strategy with fintech partners including fraud prevention software from Actimize, FIS’ consumer platform Digital One and payment processing system Finzly, Lawrence previously told BAN.
Don Muir, of fintech Arc, plans to expand operations in the United Kingdom and the European Union. The fintech currently provides banking and financial services to small- and medium-sized businesses in the United States.
The fintech recorded 12 times growth in loan origination after the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in March 2023. The banking crisis “was really the catalyst and the inflection point for our business and things haven’t slowed down since that,” Muir told BAN.
Founded in 2021, Arc has raised a total of $181 million in funding from Left Lane Capital, Atalaya Capital and others, according to Crunchbase.
Sathish Muthukrishnan joined Ally in 2020 as CIO after more than a decade at American Express. At Ally, he has been tasked with developing and deploying AI products and strategies for the $181 billion bank.
Under Muthukrishnan’s leadership, Ally has deployed AI within customer relations and marketing, with the aim of launching one new gen AI feature each month until the end of 2024.
To ensure an ethical approach to gen AI, the bank recently joined the Responsible AI Institute as its first U.S. bank member, according to the institute’s Sept. 18 release.
“Joining the Responsible AI Institute shows our commitment to continue advocating for high standards in the use of AI while also thoughtfully leveraging its potential services,” Muthukrishnan said in the release.
As CPO of business banking, Shruti Patel is responsible for delivering an integrated product strategy that connects banking, payments and software for business clients with up to $25 million in revenue.
Under Patel’s leadership, the $657 billion U.S. Bank is developing new technologies, such as AI-driven financial insights for SMBs along with faster and automated payment channels to manage finances.
Before joining U.S. Bank, Patel served as head of global product partnerships and monetization at Shopify and as head of embedded payments and partnerships at JPMorgan Chase.
Carl Slabicki, of BNY Treasury Services, is tasked with keeping up with global payments trends.
Slabicki’s team is responsible for innovating to bridge instant payment capabilities across networks through BNY’s smart routing solution , he told BAN.
The automated smart routing solution determines which payments rail is used for a given transaction. The $428 billion BNY is working to add capabilities to the router to keep up with the global demand for payments rails, he said.
Small businesses are looking to their financial institutions to provide digital solutions that will help them keep up with evolving market needs and Jameson Troutman, of $3.9 trillion JPMorgan Chase, is closely monitoring small business trends to innovate based on specific needs within his business unit, he told BAN.
To remain current on digital demands from small business clients, Chase for Business, under Troutman, has recently launched the following products:
Troutman joined JPMorgan in 2002 as an analyst in the private bank and held roles within Chase Card Services and the Agile Product Office before moving into his current role, according to LinkedIn.
Jess Turner, of Mastercard, is focused on driving the global adoption of open banking.
Open banking applications are on the rise globally. In fact, by 2028 the market value of open banking is expected to reach $75.4 billion, up from $24.7 billion in 2023, according to the Business Research Company.
To boost adoption, especially in the U.S. where the market awaits a decision on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s 1033 ruling, Mastercard is tapping AI and open banking for transaction monitoring, data standardization, and fraud and security efforts, Turner told BAN.
While Turner aims to drive adoption, she recognizes there is hesitation around open banking and is working to educate financial institutions about its benefits including improved access to data and capital through secure APIs.
Whitney McDonald
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Open banking regulation set to finalize this fall will boost small- and medium-sized-enterprise access to financial services, experts said this week in the Bank Automation News webinar, “The future of open banking – Payments meet data.” “I see SMEs as one of the biggest winners from an open banking, open finance perspective,” Michelle Beyo, chief […]
Whitney McDonald
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Citizens Bank has teamed up with Navan to provide its commercial customers with travel expense solutions. “Dynamic travel policies are in demand given the changing landscape in travel and the unique needs of companies and employees,” Rodrigo Sanchez, head of commercial card solutions at Citizens, told Bank Automation News. “Clients are also looking for ways […]
Vaidik Trivedi
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AI coupled with an open banking framework provides better access to credit for consumers. The technology presents an opportunity for consumers with limited credit to obtain loans and make payments, Ben Soccorsy, head of data access and business development at Mastercard, said this week during the Finovate Fall event in New York City. By combining […]
Vaidik Trivedi
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Michelle Beyo, chief executive of consultancy firm Finavator, will be featured in the upcoming Bank Automation News webinar “The future of open banking: Payments meet data,” taking place on Tuesday, Sept. 17, at 11 a.m. ET.
The free, 45-minute webinar moderated by BAN Editor Whitney McDonald will see industry leaders discuss the state of open banking adoption, the role data plays in the payments landscape and how to ensure that institutions provide modern, compliant and seamless payment processing. Other featured speakers include:
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to finalize its Section 1033 regulation on open banking this fall, and financial institutions are looking to global leaders, regulators and experts in the space to ensure they are ready for the standardization.
Finavator founder and CEO Beyo also serves as the president and a board member at the Open Banking Network Canada, was named to the list of the Top 50 Women Leaders of Toronto in 2023, Money 2020 mentor and Rise Up alumni, and has served as board advisor for Tillo and VoPay.
Whitney McDonald
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to finalize its Section 1033 regulation on open banking this fall, and financial institutions are weighing in on the standardization. As FIs give their thoughts on the regulation, it’s worth noting that they won’t know the official deadlines and requirements of Section 1033 until the final rule is […]
Whitney McDonald
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