Payments and networks

Card networks, swipe fees, debit, wallets and new payment rails.

21 items in 9 issues, Oct 28, 2026 to Nov 8, 2026, newest first. Each item links to the issue it ran in, where its sources are listed.

November 2026

Sun, Nov 8 · Company spotlight: Affirm, part 2
Winter. In January, Affirm applied for its own bank and signed an exclusive deal with Fiserv to put Affirm installments on debit cards issued by Fiserv's bank and credit union clients. The December quarter brought GMV of $13.8 billion, up 36%, and 3.7 million cardholders.
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Sun, Nov 8 · Worth a read
Payments are the new ads. Simon Taylor argues that AI shopping agents break today's virtual-card workarounds, setting up a race between bank-issued network tokens and agent-held stablecoin balances. His case is that payment economics could replace ad revenue as agents pull spending away from ad-supported platforms.
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Sun, Nov 8 · Worth a read
Agents aren't ready. Fortune's Jeff John Roberts reports that Visa ran 22 AI agents through test purchases and found they succeeded only about 57% of the time. It is a sober counterweight to the agentic-commerce pitch that ran through this quarter's fintech earnings calls.
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Sun, Nov 8 · Worth a read
Debit fees in court. American Banker's Kyle Campbell argues that the Eighth Circuit's Corner Post ruling makes a lower debit fee cap close to certain, but not soon. The court found that the Fed's 2011 cap counted costs the Durbin Amendment doesn't allow. He maps the next steps, from a pending Sixth Circuit appeal of a ruling that went the Fed's way to a possible Supreme Court review.
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Sat, Nov 7 · Opening balance
Carried over. Sen. Elizabeth Warren had asked the Justice Department to open a criminal probe of Bank of America over its $1.21 billion anti-money laundering penalty, with a reply requested by Nov. 12. The Fed could seek a rehearing within 45 days after the Eighth Circuit vacated its 21-cent debit interchange cap on Oct. 26, and the FTC and eight states had sued Toast over hidden fees.
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Sat, Nov 7 · Credits
Swipe-fee bill stalls. The Credit Card Competition Act loses both of its lead Senate sponsors next year, with Sen. Roger Marshall defeated and Sen. Dick Durbin retiring. Backers may try to attach it to lame-duck spending bills, but the odds look long.
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Fri, Nov 6 · Policy & enforcement
Swipe-fee bill. The Credit Card Competition Act loses both lead Senate sponsors next year, with Sen. Roger Marshall defeated and Sen. Dick Durbin retiring, and Durbin has handed the effort to Sen. Peter Welch. Backers may try to attach it to lame-duck spending bills, but a convenience-store lobbyist gave it only "as good a shot as many other things to move."
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Wed, Nov 4 · The big story: Democrats take Congress
The Fed. A Democratic Senate makes it harder for President Trump to place allies at the Fed, and Warren plans to press Chair Kevin Warsh, whose policymakers have been raising rates to fight inflation. Reuters adds that Democratic control could complicate Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman's plan to consolidate bank supervision and the GENIUS Act stablecoin rules.
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Wed, Nov 4 · Earnings
Mastercard. Mastercard's U.S. gross dollar volume rose 6% to $867 billion in the third quarter, trailing 8% growth to $2.08 trillion outside the U.S. It also expanded its HDFC Bank partnership in India with a small-business deal that could add up to 3 million cards.
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Wed, Nov 4 · Cards & payments
Truist. Truist expanded its merchant tools, adding faster merchant onboarding, new business insights, more Clover point-of-sale tools and the Paze wallet at online checkout, and payments head Chris Ward said merchant services can lead clients to deposit, treasury and lending products.
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Wed, Nov 4 · Worth a read
Wise and AML. Jason Mikula's Fintech Business Weekly argues growth-first fintechs push compliance costs onto customers, drawing on Wise restricting his and other EU businesses' accounts without notice, which he ties to anti-money laundering remediation. It also covers the Eighth Circuit ruling against the Fed's debit fee cap.
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Mon, Nov 2 · Policy & enforcement
Debit cap. The Eighth Circuit vacated the Fed's 21-cent debit interchange cap on Oct 26; the Fed has 45 days to seek a rehearing by the full court or can petition the Supreme Court. A parallel case is pending in the Sixth Circuit, and the ruling conflicts with a 2014 D.C. Circuit decision.
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Mon, Nov 2 · Worth a read
Honor all cards. Lynne Marek (Payments Dive, Oct 29) argues that letting merchants refuse some Visa and Mastercard cards may change little: turning cards away adds checkout friction, and premium cards often bring bigger, more profitable sales despite higher fees.
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October 2026

Sat, Oct 31 · Cards & payments
Honor-all-cards. Visa and Mastercard's proposed settlement of roughly 20 years of merchant litigation would drop the rule that merchants accepting one of their cards must accept all, including higher-fee premium cards, and give more room to surcharge them. It still needs a judge's final approval. Some merchants and advisers call it an "empty benefit" because premium cardholders tend to spend more; Amex, not a party, responded "Good luck."
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Sat, Oct 31 · Cards & payments
Paze at Elavon. U.S. Bank's Elavon says the bank-owned Paze wallet is "ready to do pilots" with merchants, as Early Warning pushes Paze to the largest US merchants first.
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Sat, Oct 31 · Fintech & funding
Overwatch Data. Raised a $15M Series A led by Mouro Capital, with Visa Ventures and Capital One Ventures investing strategically, for AI-driven fraud and risk intelligence.
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Fri, Oct 30 · Earnings
Mastercard. "Overall, underlying spend remains strong and consumers and businesses are spending." (Ling Hai, CFO). "...consumers continue to spend, businesses continue to invest, and commerce continues to expand." (Michael Miebach, CEO). "To date, consumers and businesses have demonstrated resilience." (Ling Hai). On the call, Mastercard put US gross dollar volume growth at 6%, with credit up 10% and debit up 1%.
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Fri, Oct 30 · Policy & enforcement
Debit fee cap struck down. On Oct 26 the Eighth Circuit unanimously upheld a lower-court ruling that invalidated Regulation II, the Fed's debit interchange cap (Corner Post v. Fed). It found the Fed counted fixed costs that the Durbin Amendment excludes. The 21-cent cap stays until the court issues its mandate, and the Fed must write a new formula. A Sixth Circuit case heard Oct 22 could split the circuits.
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Thu, Oct 29 · Earnings
Mastercard Q3. Reported this morning. Net revenue $9.8B, up 14%; GAAP EPS $5.28 (+22%) and adjusted EPS $5.31 (+21%). Gross dollar volume rose 7% in local currency to $3.0T, cross-border volume 11%, and switched transactions 9%. Value-added services revenue grew 19%. Mastercard bought back $3.0B of stock and paid $763M in dividends in the quarter, with $4.9B left on its authorization.
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Wed, Oct 28 · Earnings
Visa fiscal Q4. Reported Oct 27 after the close. Net revenue $12.1B, up 13%; non-GAAP EPS $3.48 (+17%). Payments volume rose 9%, cross-border volume 14% in constant dollars, and processed transactions 10% to 74.2B. Visa returned $5.2B to holders in the quarter and raised its dividend 16% to $0.78.
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Wed, Oct 28 · Banks & charters
Ripple trust bank. The OCC granted final approval on Oct 26 for Ripple National Trust Bank, a national trust bank in New York. It will manage the reserves backing Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin and offer digital-asset custody. Ripple got preliminary approval in Dec 2025 alongside Circle, BitGo, Paxos and Fidelity Digital Assets, so more final decisions may follow.
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