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Consumer confidence declined in December, with a growing number of consumers expressing concerns about politics and tariffs.
The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index decreased by 8.1 points to 104.7, a move that reversed a November rebound in consumer confidence and returned the index to the middle of the range it has been in for the past two years, according to a Monday (Dec. 23) press...
Payments and financial services technology company Fiserv is acquiring earned wage access (EWA) provider Payfare.
“This acquisition complements the embedded finance solutions of Fiserv with card program management, a white-label consumer app, and a microservices orchestration layer,” Fiserv said in a news release Monday (Dec. 23).
Those offerings from Payfare, combined with Fiserv’s expertise in...
For many Apple device users, Google is the default choice for browsing the web.
That could change, however, under a plan proposed by Google to address a U.S. antitrust ruling, Reuters reported Monday (Dec. 23). The tech giant proposed relaxing its agreement with Apple and other tech companies that makes Google the go-to search engine on new devices.
The proposal is narrower than the Department of...
Artificial intelligence (AI), throughout 2024, became an increasingly permanent component of many business processes.
Particularly across the back office and finance and treasury departments, where critical operating functions like accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) have long been plagued by manually driven inefficiencies, errors and delays, the question for firms of all sizes is...
Four financial authorities in the United Kingdom said they are working to improve their cooperation and will revise their agreement as the government pursues its National Payments Vision.
The Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) said this in a Friday (Dec. 20) press release announcing their annual...
The outgoing head of the Justice Department’s antitrust unit is hopeful about the new administration.
More to the point, Jonathan Kanter is hoping that the Trump White House will continue the regulatory efforts begun by President Joe Biden.
“If we revert to a regime of lax antitrust enforcement, that is . . . the prerogative of whoever’s in charge,” Jonathan Kanter, who last week stepped down as...
Could TikTok have a future in the U.S. under a new administration?
President-elect Donald Trump seemed to signal as much in a speech to conservative supporters Sunday (Dec. 22).
“I think we’re going to have to start thinking because, you know, we did go on TikTok, and we had a great response with billions of views, billions and billions of views,” said Trump, whose comments at the conservative...
Tech executives and investors told PYMNTS that artificial intelligence will reshape retail shopping in 2025, with AI assistants offering unprecedented personalization and handling up to 20% of eCommerce tasks, from product recommendations to customer service. Industry leaders from Citi, Google Cloud and global tech investment firms envision a future where shopping becomes more intuitive and...
Amazon and Universal Music Group (UMG) have expanded their partnership with an eye toward AI.
The tech giant and the record label announced Monday (Dec. 23) they were working to combat the use of “unlawful” artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content, while also guarding artists against fraud and misattribution.
“UMG will also collaborate with Amazon Music as it continues to expand in audio,...
This year’s payment options are wider than last year’s.
The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Maximizing Holiday Value: The Strategic Value of Early Pay Later Visibility,” created in collaboration with Splitit, found that consumers prefer merchants that offer the option to pay over time. They also favor the ability to break payments into predictable timeframes in a bid to budget responsibly while still...