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U.S. Bank has completed its first trade finance collection transaction using a fully digital process, marking a step forward in the bank’s efforts to modernize trade and working capital services for clients. U.S. Bank is the first American bank to utilize the blockchain-based WaveBL, which supports encrypted document transfers between trading partners and their banks.  “Our clients are looking for smarter, more efficient ways to manage their import and export activities,” said Christine Bravo, Senior Vice President, U.S. Bank. “This fully digital process is a step toward delivering the speed, transparency and reliability businesses need in today’s trade environment.” In this transaction, U.S. Bank served as the presenting bank for the exporter, a large U.S.-based publicly traded firm. Container shipping company MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company issued the electronic bill of lading and facilitated the shipment. Previously, a transaction like this would have required a courier to physically transport documents across continents, often taking several days. By contrast, the digital process reduced that timeline to minutes–eliminating delays, enhancing security and compliance, and avoiding disruptions from weather, pandemics, or geopolitical events. The shift toward digital documentation in trade and working capital is accelerating as businesses look to cut costs, reduce delays and enhance transparency. This initiative demonstrates how digital tools can streamline import and export trade transactions by lowering courier and storage expenses and minimizing the risk of lost or delayed paperwork.

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Apple, Visa and Mastercard have persuaded a U.S. judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to suppress competition in the payments network market and causing merchants to pay inflated transaction fees. U.S. District Judge David Dugan in Illinois ruled that the merchants had not provided enough evidence to support their claim that Apple illegally declined to launch a competing payment network to rival Visa and Mastercard. Dugan found that the plaintiffs offered only “a slew of circumstantial allegations,” but allowed them to amend their lawsuit to strengthen their claims. The defendants had denied any wrongdoing and urged Dugan to dismiss the lawsuit. Apple launched its Apple Pay feature in 2014 as a mobile payment service allowing iPhone users to store payment card information and make purchases at businesses where the platform is accepted. The lawsuit, filed by beverage retailer Mirage Wine & Spirits and other businesses, was brought on behalf of a proposed class of thousands of merchants. The lawsuit alleged Visa and Mastercard paid Apple what amounted to a “very large and ongoing cash bribe” of hundreds of millions of dollars a year to keep it from competing with them. The alleged agreements drove up fees that merchants pay on transactions, the lawsuit said. Visa and Mastercard had disputed claims of making payments to Apple, and had argued that the iPhone maker in its agreements with the networks expressly preserved a right to compete with them. Apple argued that the complaint failed to show that the company had any plan to enter the payments network market and compete with Visa or Mastercard. In his ruling, Dugan said the merchants’ allegations “completely ignore the difficulties, costs and time, risks, and potential for failure associated with such an endeavor.”

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Payfinia, an independent payment services firm providing an open payments framework, announced its partnership with Early Warning Services to offer PazeS an online checkout solution developed by Early Warning Services and offered by participating banks and credit unions. Star One Credit Union, one of the nation’s largest credit unions with more than $9 billion in assets, is the first financial institution onboarding Paze through Payfinia. “We’re proud to be launching Paze for Star One Credit Union customers later this year, bringing a seamless digital wallet experience to our 132,000 members,” said Minal Gupta, president, at Star One. Paze is a fast, easy, and convenient online checkout solution that offers added security through tokenization, where actual card numbers are never shared with merchants. Participating financial institutions will now leverage Payfinia’s digital wallet services to streamline the secure exchange of eligibility information and enable seamless access to the Paze digital wallet checkout experience. Payfinia’s digital wallet service includes a confidential computing overlay that protects critical user data supplied by financial institutions. “The confidential computing overlay service enables Payfinia to process and analyze financial data in a safe environment, ensuring both speed and security for the financial institution and their digital wallet users,” said Nizar Jamal, CTO of Payfinia. “Through our partnership with Payfinia, credit unions and community financial institutions will now have a more streamlined path to offering Paze,” said Eric Hoffman, chief partnerships officer at Early Warning Services. “Payfinia’s trusted relationships and technical capabilities make them an ideal partner to help extend the reach of Paze—bringing a fast, easy and convenient online checkout experience to more consumers through the institutions they know and already use.” According to the Paze PulseSM report, 82% of Americans report trusting their bank’s security more than third-party payment options, indicating strong consumer appetite for financial institution-provided digital wallets. “More consumers are demanding a seamless eCommerce checkout experience, and they prefer to initiate the checkout process through a digital banking solution offered by their financial institution,” said Keith Riddle, general manager of Payfinia. “We are thrilled to partner with Early Warning Services to offer Paze to our open payments framework and eCommerce services as a means for community financial institutions to enhance the digital wallet experience revenue. Through this partnership, our clients will have a seamless, eCommerce service, creating more efficient checkout experiences and satisfied consumers.” Gupta added, “Star One has been a long-standing partner of Payfinia, and together we’ve already seen the impact of modern payments infrastructure on member engagement. By enabling Paze, we’re helping them take the next step—delivering a streamlined eCommerce checkout experience that aligns with how members want to shop today.”   

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Wells Fargo is ending a flashy credit-card partnership that lets people earn rewards points for charging their rent. The partnership with Bilt had been scheduled to end in 2029, but Wells decided to exit early after it became a money-losing venture, according to people familiar with the matter. Wells warned Bilt it could change the card’s terms otherwise, including tacking on an annual fee of around $250 to $300 for cardholders. Bilt said it is developing its Bilt Card 2.0 with fintech firm Cardless and that its valuation skyrocketed to $10.75 billion. The company said the new card will launch in February and that cardholders will be moved from Wells Fargo. Wells’ partnership with Bilt was launched in 2022 as part of the bank’s plans to build out its co-branded credit-card business. The Bilt card quickly became a hit because of a rare perk: It lets cardholders earn rewards points for charging their rent. Wells had originally seen the card as a way to attract young customers who would eventually turn to it for a mortgage. But the bank has since pulled back in the mortgage space and by mid-2024, Wells was losing as much as $10 million a month on the card. At that time, Bilt and Wells expressed their commitment to the partnership. Most landlords historically didn’t accept credit cards because they refuse to pay the fees for card transactions that often run between 2% and 3%. Bilt structured the card so landlords won’t incur the fees. Wells instead has been eating much of that. This has led to Wells paying Bilt a fee for each rent transaction. Interest income Wells expected from card balances didn’t materialize because many cardholders have been paying their bills in full each month. The partnership also raised concerns inside Wells about potential money-laundering risks, which the companies have worked to address. When people charge rent on their cards, a third-party company sends a check for that amount to the designated landlord. That is easy for Bilt to track for a real-estate company that participates in its rewards program, but harder when it is a mom-and-pop landlord or other company. Wells’ financial losses triggered a renegotiation of the program that began in 2023. By the second half of last year, Wells was pushing for big changes, including lowering the fee it pays Bilt and scaling back the points cardholders earn for rent payments. One scenario involved cardholders having to spend on non-rent purchases to be able to earn points on their rent charges. Early this year, Wells told Bilt the card’s terms will have to be totally redone or the bank would look to exit the program.

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Rocket’s web and mobile app brings together home search, financing, and servicing in one seamless experience.  By combining data analytics and their 11PB of data with advanced automation, Rocket speeds up everything from loan approval to servicing, while maintaining a personalized touch at scale. Rocket’s client-first approach is central to everything they do. With customizable digital tools and expert guidance from skilled mortgage bankers, Rocket aims to match every client with the right product and the right support quickly, accurately, and securely. Rocket AI Agent is a conversational AI assistant designed to transform how clients engage with Rocket’s digital properties. Built on Amazon Bedrock Agents, the Rocket AI Agent combines deep domain knowledge, personalized guidance, and the ability to perform meaningful actions on behalf of clients. Since its launch, it has become a central part of Rocket’s client experience. Clients who interact with Rocket AI Agent are three times more likely to close a loan compared to those who don’t. Because it’s embedded directly into Rocket’s web and mobile services, it delivers support exactly when and where clients need it. With built-in integrations and security, customers like Rocket use Amazon Bedrock Agents to accelerate from proof-of-concept to production securely and reliably. These agents extend foundation models (FMs) using the Reasoning and acting (ReAct) framework, allowing them to interpret user intent, plan and execute tasks, and integrate seamlessly with enterprise data and APIs much like a skilled digital assistant. Agents use the FM to analyze a user’s request, break it into actionable steps, retrieve relevant data, and trigger downstream APIs to complete tasks. This allows Rocket AI Agent to move beyond passive support into proactive assistance, helping clients navigate complex financial processes in real time.Key capabilities of Amazon Bedrock Agents used in Rocket AI Agent include:

• Agent instructions – Set the agent’s objective and role (for example, a mortgage servicing expert), enabling goal-oriented behavior
• Amazon Bedrock Knowledge Bases – Provide fast, accurate retrieval of information from Rocket’s Learning Center and other proprietary documents
• Action group – Define secure operations—such as submitting leads or scheduling payments—that the agent can execute by interacting with Rocket’s backend services
• Agent memory – Memory retention allows Rocket AI Agent to maintain contextual awareness across multiple turns, enhancing user experience with more natural, personalized interactions.
• Amazon Bedrock Guardrails – Supports Rocket’s responsible AI goals by making sure that the agent stays within appropriate topic boundaries.

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To survive and thrive, companies are adapting and evolving, using strategies to reduce risk, consolidate liquidity and optimize supply chains.  Key risks facing global companies

• Tariff uncertainty makes it challenging for importers and exporters to make longer term decisions and potentially raises expenses. One of the foremost concerns for importers and exporters is currency risk, Tarek El-Yafi, head of global transaction services U.S. Bank said. With transactions occurring across borders, fluctuations in exchange rates can significantly impact profitability. Compounding this risk is the potential of countries protecting their currency by imposing currency restrictions, trapping cash, increasing risk and driving up costs for global companies. Another significant challenge is supply chain disruption, he said. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in global supply chains, and ongoing geopolitical tensions (such as the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East) continue to generate uncertainty.
• Reducing Risk: U.S.-based companies that do business overseas are mitigating risk through a number of strategies. Paula Comings, head of U.S. Bank FX Sales, said one method to potentially get improved pricing is by paying foreign vendors in their local currency. A second approach that companies are increasingly adopting is using foreign exchange options to hedge their currency exposures. “We’ve seen an uptick in options across our client base, whether it’s a small-, mid- or large-cap companies,” said Comings. “By using options, companies can protect themselves from adverse movements in exchange rates, while maintaining the ability to participate in favorable currency movements.” El-Yafi added that another primary tactic is consolidating banking with a strong U.S.-based counterparty. “Even large banks that are very well capitalized may decide to exit certain countries, leaving global clients in a tough situation,” he said.  Firms are partnering with banks that are well capitalized, have solid credit ratings and offer the international banking solutions global companies require.
• Consolidating liquidity: A relatively new capability is opening a foreign currency account (FCA) in the United States. An FCA allows businesses to hold and manage funds in foreign currencies, and can be used for sending money abroad, paying international vendors, or managing income from overseas sources. FCAs can be opened in more than 20 currencies. “By opening foreign currency accounts in the U.S., companies can have FDIC insurance and repatriate excess cash back to the U.S., while avoiding the need for immediate currency conversion,” El-Yafi said.
• To enhance resilience, companies are diversifying their supply sources, said Mike Stitt, head of Supply Chain Finance Sales for U.S. Bank. “This strategy ensures that businesses are not overly reliant on a single supplier, reducing the risk of disruptions,” Stitt said. Additionally, nearshoring and reshoring efforts are gaining traction, as companies seek to bring production closer to their customer bases, minimizing logistical challenges, he said. As these actions take significant capital investment and a long time to accomplish, global companies are employing several solutions that can help in the near term. Some firms are deploying approved payables programs, where a bank funds suppliers upfront, after the invoices are approved, allowing buyers to pay at a later date, Stitt said. “This improves the buyer’s cash flow situation, and also helps the supplier’s cash flow as they receive payments up front,” he said. On the other side of the transaction, U.S. companies can sell receivables to a bank, thereby mitigating some risk.

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