WEX has debuted a tool designed to help people get faster reimbursements from their flexible spending accounts (FSAs). The AI-powered tool is designed to reduce busywork by automating steps like checking receipts, pre-filling claim forms and approving eligible claims for reimbursement. By building smarter tools that automate the most frustrating parts of the process, we’re helping our partners offer a faster, more modern experience without adding extra burden to their teams. The tool includes document verification that informs consumers in real time when information is missing, as well as smart form completion that pre-fills key fields to cut down on manual errors. This new claims tool tackles the most common reasons for denials, like missing documentation or ineligible expenses and gives users a more predictable, seamless experience from start to finish
Affirm’s differentiated underwriting model, robust funding strategy, and transparent pricing to drive continued BNPL share gains; GMV to grow at a mid-20% CAGR over the next two years
Oppenheimer has initiated coverage on Affirm Holdings with an Outperform rating and a $80 price target, highlighting the company’s strong position in the fast-growing Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) market. The broker’s price target implies roughly 15% upside potential from current levels, with Oppenheimer analysts highlighting Affirm’s differentiated underwriting model, robust funding strategy, and transparent pricing as key drivers of continued BNPL share gains. Over the next two years, they expect Affirm to deliver at least a mid-20% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in gross merchandise volume (GMV) and high-20% CAGR in adjusted operating income. According to Global Market Insights data cited by Oppenheimer, global BNPL volume rose at a 21% CAGR from 2022 to 2024. While Klarna, the top provider by market share, grew GMV at 13%, Affirm expanded at a 42% pace during the same period, driving nearly 400 basis points of global share gains. Recent discussions with companies indicate that card volume growth in May was consistent with April’s performance and slightly better than the first quarter of 2025, Oppenheimer said. This reinforces the idea that consumers are still spending robustly. Despite the recent loss of the Walmart partnership, Oppenheimer expects the company to outperform conservative initial full-year 2026 (FY26) guidance. The firm projects GMV growth of 27% in FY26 and adjusted operating income of roughly $1 billion. While the broker’s model anticipates a modest increase in net charge-off rates and provisioning expenses, analysts believe Affirm is well-positioned to handle potential economic downturns.
Stripe’s acquisition of payment orchestration startup Orum to enable it to intelligently route payments across all major US payment rails in real time through a unified API, offer instant payouts and 3-tier bank account verification and extend reach to debit card-linked accounts
Payment acceptance and financial services platform Stripe has agreed to acquire payment orchestration startup Orum for an undisclosed amount. The company’s payment API orchestrates instant payouts, using AI to predict the availability of funds within an account and pre-authorize transactions. In addition to its payment orchestration tools, Orum also verifies bank accounts and delivers payments 24/7 with its Direct to Fed solution that’s built on a connection to the US Federal Reserve’s payment rails as a service provider. CEO Stephany Kirkpatrick said that combining with Stripe offers a “rare” opportunity to help Orum accelerate its mission to power a better financial system where everyone has the opportunity to build their potential. For Stripe, which processed more than $1.4 trillion in total payment volume in 2024, the Orum purchase is just the latest in a string of acquisitions.
The GENIUS Act’s requirement for all approved stablecoin issuers to have robust AML, KYC and risk monitoring programs coupled with national trust bank charter that allows companies to offer crypto custodial services to open the stablecoin market to a wider range of users
With the GENIUS Act now law, stablecoin issuers—including banks and fintechs—finally have regulatory clarity under federal oversight, allowing for broader adoption. Federally insured banks can issue stablecoins, while fintechs require Federal Reserve approval. The law aims to legitimize stablecoins with rules on consumer protections, reserves, AML, and KYC, drawing more users and revenue. Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla said the law will help stablecoins go mainstream, while Mastercard’s Jorn Lambert emphasized regulation as key to adoption. Paxos, PayPal, Fiserv, and Mastercard are part of the Global Dollar Network pushing for scale. Though stablecoins won’t likely replace everyday payments in developed economies, they’re seen as transformative for cross-border transactions, gig economy pay, and digital wallets. Tether and Circle welcomed the law, with Circle seeking a national trust bank charter to expand its services. Critics, including the ABA and Consumer Reports, warn that stablecoins could disrupt traditional banking and lack adequate consumer safeguards. Still, large banks like Citi, JPMorgan, and BofA are exploring stablecoin strategies, with Citi appearing the most bullish, according to KeyBanc.
FedNow enters year three with increasing users, volumes, and competition, reporting a whopping 1,200% year-over-year increase in transaction volume, growing from 97,424 settled payments in the first quarter of 2024 to 1,310,017 in the quarter ending March 31, 2025
FedNow, which turned two years old on July 20, reported a whopping 1,200% year-over-year increase in transaction volume, growing from 97,424 settled payments in the first quarter of 2024 to 1,310,017 in the quarter ending March 31, 2025. At its one year anniversary last July, the Fed had enrolled more than 850 financial institutions into FedNow and had at least 1,000 more in the pipeline. But as of July 7, more than 1,400 financial institutions—including large and small banks and credit unions—were participating in the FedNow Service. Community banks and credit unions make up more than 95% of the platform’s total participants. That all sounds impressive until you look at data recently reported by competitors RTP and Zelle. The RTP network, which is operated by The Clearing House and owned by multiple large banks, makes FedNow’s transaction volume look tiny by comparison. RTP handles more than 1 million daily transactions and, in fact, set a new single-day record for payments volume at nearly 1.6 million transactions on Jan. 31. The RTP network currently reaches 70% of demand deposit accounts in the United States, meaning that millions of consumers and businesses are benefiting from instant payments through the 850 financial institutions connected to the network. Tim Scholten, founder and president of the credit union and community bank consultancy Visible Progress, told Tyfone that FedNow adoption is growing but slowly.
WEX and BP partnership to enable fleet drivers to pay for parts and service, tolls, car washes, parking, and roadside assistance using earnify fleet card and earn rebates for fuel an vehicle-related purchases at over 8,000 stations
WEX and bp announced a new partnership to provide fleet drivers access to fuel savings through the earnify™fleet fuel card program in the U.S. Moving forward, earnify™fleet cards can be used for fuel and vehicle-related purchases at merchants that accept WEX and Mastercard® with on-going fuel rebates available at over 8,000 stations across the bp family of brands. Designed for small businesses and large fleets, this partnership will expand the program’s valuable fuel rebates to bp, Amoco, TravelCenters of America, TA Express, and Petro stations across the country. “With the earnify™fleet card, we’re combining WEX’s payments technology with bp’s fueling network to give fleets a smarter, more efficient way to manage operations,” said Brian Fournier, Americas SVP & GM, Mobility at WEX. Drivers can use their earnify™fleet card to pay for parts and service, tolls, car washes, parking, and roadside assistance. With all of these options available on one card, this simplified solution can also be utilized for integrated reporting and invoicing. Business owners and fleet operators can set purchase controls on employee spending based on product type, dollar amount, time of day, and more. The cards come with EMV chip technology, giving businesses extra protection from fraud. earnify™fleet drivers can sign up for the earnify™ rewards program and earn personal loyalty points when they fuel for work at participating locations. This added benefit is designed to enhance earnify™fleet driver satisfaction and encourage in-network fueling, benefiting both drivers and fleet managers.
Nuvei adds PINless debit and least cost routing to its authorization optimization suite tools to boost merchant authorization rates
Nuvei announced the addition of PINless debit and Least Cost Routing to its Authorization Optimization suite, improving its authorization rate for merchants in North America by up to 3.5 percentage points for applicable transactions. PINless debit and least cost routing are available now in the U.S., enabling eligible transactions to bypass traditional card rails in favor of lower-cost local debit networks. Nuvei’s smart routing engine uses real-time AI and machine learning to analyze every transaction and determine the most effective path to approval based on issuer behavior, network logic, card metadata, and regional preferences. Key routing capabilities include: Intelligent Routing – Routes transactions through the best-performing bank or card network; PINless Debit Routing (U.S.) – Routes eligible debit cards through lower-cost networks, with fallback to Visa/Mastercard. Nuvei’s enhanced smart routing helps merchants optimize margin, performance, and speed without adding operational complexity.Nuvei’s intelligent authorization stack ensures that once a transaction reaches the right place, it has the highest possible chance of being approved. These features work together to reduce friction, resolve soft declines, and adapt in real time to issuer requirements: Smart Auth Messaging – Dynamically configures payloads and message formats based on issuer-specific logic; Network Tokens – Increases issuer trust and compatibility through Visa and Mastercard network tokens; One-Click Payments – Accelerates repeat transactions with frictionless token-based experiences. If a transaction fails, Nuvei’s Smart Retry capabilities step in to recover revenue in real time, with no disruption to the customer experience. Built into the Authorization Optimization Suite, Smart Retry uses advanced decisioning logic to analyze failure reasons and automatically reattempt transactions through the most promising alternate paths. Nuvei’s Smart Retry engine includes: Account Updater – Automatically refreshes expired or replaced card credentials; Bank Failover Routing – Routes the transaction to a backup bank or APM if the primary path declines; Auth Reconfiguration – Modifies message format dynamically based on issuer response codes
Deliverect’s integration of FreedomPay’s gateway technology to enable restaurants to streamline their payment systems through a single, unified platform and simplify reconciliation, reporting, and managing refunds across multiple processors
Deliverect, announces a strategic worldwide partnership with FreedomPay, an innovative leader in Next Level Commerce™. The new partnership will provide white-labeled payment orchestration capabilities to the Deliverect ecosystem, enabling multiple payment providers across various channels and locations with ease, a problem which many restaurant operators face today. By integrating FreedomPay’s gateway technology, Deliverect will offer restaurants a white-labeled solution that enhances both e-commerce and in-store payments, helping multi-location Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) and enterprise restaurant chains worldwide streamline their payment systems through a single, unified platform. The partnership simplifies reconciliation, reporting, and managing refunds across multiple processors. Restaurant operators can now access valuable insights into guest purchasing history, shaping loyalty programs and cross-channel marketing promotions through better data consistency and visibility. Additional benefits for restaurant operators include: Provider Flexibility: Maintains the ability for restaurants to choose and work with their preferred payment processors (Fiserv, WorldPay, Chase, Elavon, Global Payments, Heartland, Amex, Tsys, Stripe, and more) Cost Optimization: Enables access to competitively negotiated payment rates while reducing operational overhead. “The integration with FreedomPay gives Deliverect the ability to unify siloed systems across their entire estate,” added Chris Kronenthal, President of FreedomPay.
Payoneer is positioning itself as critical platform for SMBs to transfer and manage funds through support for PayPal payments, real-time data syncing with NetSuite’s ERP system and smarter FX tools including real-time alerts and target rate conversions
Payoneer is increasingly integrating itself into the core operations of its users, particularly the fast-growing global SMBs and digital-first enterprises it serves. The company’s recent product updates demonstrate its ambitions, positioning itself as a critical platform for how global businesses transfer and manage funds. A key part of this update is Payoneer’s new integration with NetSuite. It allows for real-time data syncing between Payoneer and NetSuite’s ERP system, helping businesses cut down on manual uploads and reduce the typical end-of-month reconciliation workload. In addition, Payoneer now supports PayPal payments globally, giving businesses another option for how they get paid. Combined with features like unified payment requests and automated invoicing, these tools are meant to ease the operational burden, particularly for smaller teams managing payments with limited resources. The third product update enables local spending in Japanese Yen via Payoneer Card and smarter FX tools (including real-time alerts and target rate conversions). This hints at a broader strategy: helping businesses manage global money flows with the same ease they expect from domestic tools.
Audiense’s MCP connectors to offer users a no-code and customizable interface to interact with audience data directly within the generative AI tools and generate outputs like persona summaries, segment comparisons, content calendars
Audiense, the audience intelligence platform, unveiled its MCP (Model Context Protocol) connectors – seamless integrations that bring audience insights directly into AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT. The new MCP connectors act as real-time bridges between all Audiense consumer intelligence products (including Insights, SOPRISM, Demand, and Tweet Binder) and leading generative AI platforms. Instead of pulling data manually or scanning through insights, users can interact with audience data directly within the AI tools they’re already using and generate outputs like: Persona summaries, Segment comparisons, Full-funnel campaign strategies, Content calendars, White space opportunities , Creative concepts and briefs . Audiense’s MCP connectors are designed to support the way modern teams operate, helping them move faster, think deeper, and create better. For Marketers: Build campaign strategies, messaging frameworks, and creative briefs on the fly. For Analysts: Compare audience segments, spot trends, and test hypotheses without touching code. For Strategists: Uncover white space, surface opportunities, and turn audience insight into competitive advantage. For Content & Creative Teams: Generate content calendars, brainstorm ideas, and adapt tone of voice to each persona. What sets MCP apart: Fully customizable: Ask any question, your way Platform-neutral: Pull insights from across Audiense products No-code: Built for everyone, not just technical teams Outcome-driven: Get briefs, slides, summaries and strategies, not just data Secure by design: Authenticate through your existing credentials and navigate data just as you would, safely and seamlessly Interoperable: Connect with other MCP connectors to build smart workflows –like instantly turning a report summary into a Canva presentation