Insights on payments, banking, and financial technology from Michele Laurin.
Explore how embedded payments are transforming the way businesses integrate financial services directly into their platforms, creating seamless customer experiences and new revenue streams.
February 16, 2026
Launching a card program has become more accessible, but running one effectively is where many organizations struggle. Learn what separates successful programs from those that accumulate risk.
February 16, 2026
Securing a sponsor bank is often seen as the hardest part, but maintaining that relationship is where many fintechs struggle. Explore what it takes to build lasting sponsor bank partnerships.
February 16, 2026
Virtual cards offer clear benefits in AP and expense management, but adoption often stalls after initial use cases. Discover how to position virtual cards as part of a broader payment strategy.
February 16, 2026
The BNPL narrative has shifted from rapid growth to credit risk and regulatory scrutiny. Understand what this evolution means for providers, partners, and organizations considering entry.
February 16, 2026
Real-time payments infrastructure is here, but adoption remains uneven. Explore why the real challenge is not technology but operational alignment, and what separates successful implementations from those that stall.
February 16, 2026
Embedded payments have moved from novelty to competitive imperative. Learn why banks, fintechs, and platforms must define their role in this rapidly evolving ecosystem before it's too late.
March 18, 2026
Virtual card technology has matured far beyond basic AP automation. Learn why your ePayables strategy needs a refresh and where the biggest opportunities lie for forward-thinking organizations.
March 18, 2026
BIN sponsorship is one of the most discussed and least understood topics in card issuing. Learn what banks and fintechs consistently get wrong — and what it takes to build partnerships that last.
March 18, 2026
FedNow is live, but adoption requires more than connectivity. A practical guide for financial institutions navigating real-time payments strategy, use cases, and fraud risk.
March 18, 2026
Most organizations describe their card products, not their card strategy. Learn why the distinction matters and what questions you should be asking about segmentation, technology, and competitive positioning.
March 18, 2026
Cross-border payment costs have fallen dramatically, but the strategic cost of choosing the wrong mix of rails is rising. How banks and fintechs should think about the modern cross-border stack.
May 15, 2026
The ISO 20022 cutover is mostly behind us, but the strategic upside is still ahead. Why most banks are leaving the value of richer payment data on the table — and how to capture it.
May 15, 2026
Account-to-account payments are quietly moving from European story to U.S. reality. How issuers, acquirers, and networks should position before pay-by-bank takes a meaningful slice of card volume.
May 15, 2026
Regulated stablecoins are quietly maturing into a real settlement, B2B, and cross-border rail. Why banks need a deliberate position now, before market structure forces a reactive one.
May 15, 2026
Friendly fraud and dispute abuse have quietly become a top loss driver for issuers and merchants. Why traditional fraud stacks fall short — and what mature programs are doing differently.
May 15, 2026
Larger institutions have had sophisticated AI-driven fraud tooling for years. Community banks and credit unions are now within reach of the same capabilities — if they approach it the right way.
June 2, 2026
Most organizations think of expense management as an accounting problem. The ones getting it right treat it as a payments infrastructure problem — and the difference shows up directly in operating margins.
June 9, 2026
Regulation II's debit routing requirements were designed to give merchants choice. A decade later, the battleground has shifted to card-not-present — and many issuers are still operating as if nothing changed.
June 16, 2026
After years of litigation, the proposed settlement caps interchange and expands merchant routing rights. Understanding what actually changes — and what doesn't — is essential before restructuring your acceptance strategy.
June 23, 2026
Digital account applications have a dropout rate that most banks don't fully measure. The culprit is usually KYC — and fixing it doesn't require lowering compliance standards. It requires rethinking the workflow.
June 30, 2026
Contactless payments have crossed the threshold from novelty to expectation. Issuers and merchants who haven't aligned their strategy to this shift are already falling behind — often without realizing it.
July 1, 2026
The CFPB's Section 1033 rule has set open banking on an irreversible path in the U.S. For community banks and credit unions, preparation isn't optional — the question is whether you'll participate on your terms or someone else's.
July 6, 2026
The enthusiasm for fintech-bank partnerships has been followed by a wave of costly failures. The root cause is almost never the technology — it's misaligned economics, governance gaps, and deals that weren't structured for the long term.
July 8, 2026
Government agencies still distribute billions of dollars through paper checks and legacy ACH cycles. Real-time payment rails exist. The gap between what's possible and what's deployed is a policy and implementation problem — and it's solvable.
July 10, 2026
Consolidation, technology disruption, and shifting regulatory expectations have reshaped merchant acquiring. Sponsoring banks, ISOs, and payment facilitators navigating the current environment need a different playbook than the one from five years ago.
July 13, 2026
Embedded finance isn't a fintech trend anymore — it's a structural shift in how financial services reach consumers and businesses. Every company with a software product and a customer relationship is now a potential financial services distributor.
August 4, 2026
The sticker price of a cross-border payment is rarely the real cost. FX spreads, correspondent banking fees, and compliance overhead add up — and the businesses absorbing those costs often don't know what they're actually paying.
August 6, 2026
First-party fraud — where the person committing fraud is also the account holder — has become one of the fastest-growing loss categories for banks and lenders. Unlike third-party fraud, it's nearly invisible until the losses arrive.
August 8, 2026
The BNPL hype cycle has passed. What's left is a durable consumer lending product that's being absorbed into mainstream credit — with new regulatory expectations, underwriting pressure, and a very different competitive landscape than 2021.
August 11, 2026
Dollar-denominated stablecoins are moving billions of dollars a day in real commerce. The technology is mature, the regulatory framework is taking shape, and banks that haven't formed a view on stablecoins as payment infrastructure are behind.
August 13, 2026
FedNow and RTP make instant settlement possible, but connecting to a rail is only the beginning. The real work is redesigning fraud controls, liquidity, exception handling, and customer support for a 24/7 payment environment.
September 3, 2026
ISO 20022 gives payment messages richer, structured data. Institutions that treat it as a format conversion will meet the deadline but miss the value in fraud detection, reconciliation, compliance, and customer insight.
September 7, 2026
More payment volume looks like success, but faster rails, prefunding, chargebacks, and settlement timing can put unexpected pressure on liquidity. Growth plans need a treasury model—not just a sales forecast.
September 10, 2026
A payments acquisition can look attractive on revenue and still hide concentration, compliance, technology, and sponsor-bank risks. Good diligence follows the transaction flow—not just the financial statements.
September 15, 2026
Credit unions have trust, member data, and close community relationships—advantages fintechs spend heavily to create. A focused payments strategy can turn those strengths into better products without chasing every trend.
September 18, 2026