U.S. Market Close 02/18/2026

DOW 30  +0.26%  +129.47  49,662.66

S&P 500  +0.56%  +38.09  6,881.31

NASDAQ 100  +0.80% +197.27  24,898.87

Beyond Paper: Why More Businesses Are Turning to eChecks

Not long ago, payments meant paper, ink, and a trip to the mailbox. Today, consumers expect the opposite—transactions that are contactless, mobile-friendly, and processed in real time. With countless digital payment methods now operating smoothly and instantly, it’s no surprise that checks are being phased out in both commercial and consumer settings. Even the federal government—once one of the largest issuers of paper checks—plans to end their use for tax refunds and other payments.  

Still, a reliable and easily tracked payment system continues to have an important role in the modern economy. Today, electronic checks offer a contemporary twist on this trusted, secure method of payment. And for businesses of all sizes, cutting-edge solutions like Authorize.net can make the transition from paper to electronics seamless by offering secure, fast, and cost-effective eCheck processing.

What Is an eCheck?

An electronic check, or eCheck, functions much like a traditional paper check—customers provide their bank account, routing number, and payment authorization to complete a transaction. The difference is that everything happens digitally, typically through an online form that enables secure electronic processing.

Read more at PAYMENTS JOURNAL

Debt Collection Lawsuits Surge Past Pandemic Levels

Key Takeaways

• Lawsuits where debt collectors sue consumers over their unpaid debts rose in 2024 and 2025.
• Debt collection complaints are the second most common complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
• About 46% of all debt collection complaints involve attempts to collect debt not owed

The debt collection moratorium during the pandemic is over. Business lawsuits over unpaid consumer debts increased in both 2024 and 2025, according to January Advisors.

These lawsuits are increasing all over the country, and in some areas lawsuit filings are higher than they were before the pandemic. Why the uptick in debt collection lawsuits?

Read more at BadCredit.org

How Payment Gateways for Businesses Can Help You Offer Your Customers More Options

Running a business shouldn’t mean navigating a maze of payment options. But the sheer variety of ways there are to pay today puts pressure on businesses to accommodate every option—or risk losing a sale.

To meet this challenge, many businesses with simple payment needs are turning to payment gateways for businesses, which help them seamlessly accept a wide range of payment types. These systems manage the entire transaction process, from the moment a payment is initiated at the point of sale to when it’s submitted to the processor. Payment gateways can accept credit and debit cards, eChecks, digital wallets, contactless payments, and transactions made online or via mobile.

You can simplify things even further by choosing a payment gateway that also provides a merchant account. Authorize.net has an all‑in‑one solution that means you don’t need to separately contract with a bank or third-party processor to get set up. This can speed up onboarding, reduce administrative overhead, and give you a single point of contact for both payment processing and gateway support. For small and mid‑sized businesses, this often translates to faster access to funds, fewer integration headaches, and a more streamlined payment experience overall.

Read more at PaymentsJournal.com

45% of Americans Would Consider a 50-Year Mortgage

Key Takeaways

• Millennials are the most open to a 50-year mortgage, with more than half (54%) saying they’d consider it, compared to just 29% of Boomers, who overwhelmingly reject the idea.
• Republicans (54%) are far more supportive of 50-year loans than Democrats or Independents (both 41%), highlighting a partisan divide over how to make housing payments more affordable.
• Men (52%) are more inclined than women (39%) to take on ultra-long mortgages, revealing a gender divide in financial optimism and risk-taking.

In an attempt to make housing payments more affordable for Americans, the Trump administration has introduced a 50-year mortgage plan. Yet, the proposal has received mixed reviews in the media.

As talk of a 50-year mortgage proposal gains traction in Washington, BadCredit.org asked 1,000 Americans if they’d ever consider one themselves. The results? Nearly half (45%) said yes.

Read more at BadCredit.org

Have a tax law question?

Our #IRS Interactive Tax Assistant has answers.

Watch this short video to learn more:

https://youtu.be/y6HkaBkdKdU

Jose L. Santiago

Public Affairs Specialist

Tax Outreach, Partnership and Education

Email: jose.l.santiago@irs.gov

Consumers are Using AI to Find Their Next Bank, But Still Don’t Trust Its Advice

When it comes to customers who are looking for new banking products or to change banks, artificial intelligence has arrived. Consumers are asking ChatGPT which credit card offers the best rewards, querying Perplexity about mortgage rates and letting AI summarize complex financial products.

Reality check: Yes, many consumers are treating AI as a personal assistant — ask a question, look for advice, try to better understand a new term or offer. But even as usage increases, consumers and small businesses still do not fundamentally trust what AI tells them.

Need to Know:

According to exclusive research from Rivel Banking Research, only 29% of banking consumers completely or highly trust AI output when making banking decisions. Nearly three-quarters of your potential customers are using a tool they don’t fully believe in to make critical financial choices.

Read more at The Financial Brand

Lower down payment barriers make homeownership attainable

Several credit unions have launched or enhanced programs that reduce down payment requirements for members struggling with housing affordability. SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union, Superior Credit Union, and Redwood Credit Union are among those helping prospective buyers overcome a primary obstacle to homeownership.

With only 17% of California households able to afford a median-priced home and first-time buyers nationally facing their steepest down payment requirements since 1989 , SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union has reduced its down payment requirement from 5% to 3% of the purchase price. The change can save members $17,000 on a typical California home.

The nation’s largest credit union serving school employees announced the enhancement in January, building on an existing benefit that waives private mortgage insurance. In a state where the average home sells for $875,000, a 3% down payment totals roughly $26,000, compared to $43,000 at the previous 5% threshold. The credit union serves 1.5 million members across California through more than 70 branches.

Read more at Americas Credit Unions

Policy, Partnerships, and Payments Rails Will Define Fintech’s Next Act

Fintech isn’t slowing down; it’s industrializing. The sector is moving beyond experimentation and towards an infrastructure phase in which digital assets, payments rails, and compliance functions are becoming embedded in financial plumbing.

What’s next? In the year ahead, the central question isn’t “How long will fintech’s momentum last?” but rather “Under what guardrails, partnerships, and policy conditions?” This next wave of fintech advancements hinges on which innovations are promoted, and which are impeded, by gatekeepers in the ecosystem.

From Ideology to Infrastructure

The current administration has signaled its intention to make digital assets a strategic component of the financial ecosystem. After years of uncertainty, policymakers have become more explicit in framing digital assets not as speculative crypto instruments but as payments and settlement infrastructure.

Read more at The Financial Brand

ONLINE LENDERS ALLIANCE Press Release

American Lending Fairness Act Stops Weaponization of DIDMCA Opt-Out Provisions

ARLINGTON, Va. (February 17, 2026)—After Senator Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) introduced the bicameral American Lending Fairness Act of 2026, which restricts states from opting out of the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (DIDMCA) to impose interest rate caps on loans from out-of-state chartered banks and credit unions, Online Lenders Alliance Chief Executive Officer Andrew Duke issued the following statement:

“The American Lending Fairness Act is an important step toward ending the weaponization of DIDMCA’s opt-out provision by interest groups and policymakers pursuing a narrow agenda of stopping banks from working with technology firms to expand access to credit. 

“Proponents of this agenda never acknowledge the full implications for a state and its banks if it pursues this course of action. If left unaddressed, this trend will create a patchwork of state-by-state rules that reduces credit access, increases costs for consumers, and stifles the innovation that has expanded financial options for millions of Americans. We applaud Senator Moreno and Congressman Davidson for their leadership on this issue.”

Read the Press Release HERE

The Affordability Crisis Is a Credit Problem. Banks Can Fix Both

I’m not an economist, but I’m watching proposals and policies stack up that don’t address the real problems in our credit ecosystem. A 50-year mortgage option. Credit card interest caps at 10%. These make headlines, but they miss the point about what’s actually broken in how Americans access and use credit.

Here’s what I’m seeing around me:

• The math on a 50-year mortgage barely reduces monthly payments while nearly doubling total interest paid.
• A 10% cap on credit card rates makes minimal difference when you’re carrying interest-only payments with little principal reduction.

Meanwhile, payday lenders charge 300% interest to underbanked Americans who can’t access traditional credit. We address this problem unevenly and with little success because those borrowers operate on the periphery of the financial system.

Read more at The Financial Brand

Tax refunds are up this year to an average of $2,290, early IRS numbers show. How does yours compare?

Americans are scoring larger income-tax refunds than last year, according to the earliest batch of returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service during the first filing season under President Trump’s new tax law.

It’s a very preliminary sign the new law’s bevy of tax breaks could be filtering into Americans’ wallets, as Trump vowed they would.

The average refund so far this year was $2,290, a nearly 11% increase from a comparable point last year, the IRS said Friday night. So far, the tax collector has given out 8% fewer refunds than at the comparable point last year.

The tax-return data run through Feb. 6.

“Average refund amounts are strong,” the IRS said in an explanation of the data. The refund amounts should continue to increase once the totals include returns that claim the earned-income tax credit and the child tax credit, the IRS said.

Read more at MARKETWATCH

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How Digital Shopping Tools Turn Credit Card Apps into Transaction Amplifiers

Mobile banking apps serve multiple functions, covering the waterfront of consumers’ financial needs. But a new breed of credit card tools like Capital One Shopping exists to facilitate just one thing: buying more stuff.

In fact, a new study by Keynova Group finds that issuers have been adding features to build out capabilities on both ends: boosting consumer purchasing via digital shopping tools on the front end to stimulate usage, and streamlining billing disputes on the backend.

“Issuers are strengthening the mobile credit card experience on all fronts — expanding digital shopping tools that enrich rewards and serve as powerful marketing and retention agents, while adding deepened transaction details that reduce resource-intensive disputes,” says Beth Robertson, managing director. Keynova’s study examines the offerings of ten major credit card issuers.

Read more at The Financial Brand

Would you marry for money? Many singles say financial stability comes first

From ‘sugar’ relationships to breakups, a survey reveals just how much money matters in love — and why financial security tops romance for many.

What do you look for in a significant other?

More than one in four single adults say they would consider marrying someone primarily for financial stability, according to a new LendingTree survey.

Nearly nine in 10 adults say financial security is at least somewhat important in a romantic relationship, including 60% who say it is “very important.”

The survey also found that 71% of Americans have ended a relationship because of finances.

Read more at SCRIPPS NEWS

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Merchant Service Provider for Your Business EC

How Neobanks Are Changing the Way We Use Credit and Debit Cards

Neobanks are digital-first, tech-driven financial institutions built around apps, APIs and automated decisioning, rather than branches and batch processing. They are reshaping everyday credit and debit card habits, from how quickly a card can be issued to how granularly spending can be controlled. As artificial intelligence (AI) matures inside modern banking stacks, cards are becoming programmable tools for security, budgeting and cash-flow management. 

The Tech Foundation With AI and Automation

Neobanks run on cloud-native infrastructure built for continuous data ingestion and fast iteration. That architecture enables scoring transactions as they occur and automates back-office workflows. Legacy banks can add these capabilities, but many still struggle with fragmented cores, slower release cycles and risk models designed for delayed reconciliation. 

AI investment signals where the industry is heading. Market forecasts expect AI in banking to grow from its 2020 baseline to more than $64 billion by 2030, reflecting how quickly automation is becoming central to product design. 

Read more at FINTECH WEEKLY

How Proposed ‘Skinny’ Fed Accounts for Fintechs Could Alter U.S. Payments

Fintechs, including cryptocurrency companies, increasingly want membership cards in the Federal Reserve’s payments network. In Washington, where rules are being rethought, rewritten, set aside or reinterpreted, there’s a good chance they will have a shot at that credential, and becoming a stronger source of competition for legacy players.

Fintechs are eager for the change because of their dependence on traditional banks when they process their payments through a sponsor institution. Traditional players already have keys to the system through “master accounts” with Federal Reserve district banks.

The Fed did issue guidance several years ago governing how various tiers of financial providers could obtain master accounts. But in practice the fintechs found it a difficult path.

Why this matters: Master accounts are powerful instruments, zealously staked out by traditional players and guarded by a risk-conscious Federal Reserve. Moving ahead would create another crack in traditional institutions’ structural advantages in payments.

Read more at The Financial Brand

How Amscot Supports Our Communities

There are many ways to improve the lives of those who matter to us. It can be as simple as a free everyday service that saves a customer money. Or, in the face of unprecedented times, it can mean taking extra measures to meet the critical needs of many. Yet, it also means supporting the many organizations that drive positive change in a community. At Amscot, we strive to make a difference and help our customers and communities.

Solving for Fraud in Cross-Border Payments Requires Better Counterparty Verification

As information highways have opened new avenues to the global marketplace, many business owners have been attracted to these new frontiers. However, there are unique challenges associated with cross-border operations that go far beyond currency conversions and product delivery. When businesses start moving money across borders, it introduces more gaps for cybercriminals who are increasingly adept.

At the heart of these issues is counterparty risk. In the current cross-border payments model, the recipient of the transfer is often verified through a process built on manual callbacks and spreadsheets. Given the technologies that bad actors now possess, it has become a significant challenge to effectively verify counterparties in this fragmented process.

This has created a vulnerability that criminals can exploit. Because these attacks expose organizations to financial and reputational risks, it is critical for businesses to implement solutions that can optimize the verification process.

Read more at PAYMENTS JOURNAL

Raising Financially Smart Kids in a Digital Currency Era

Financial education is no longer a luxury skill reserved for adulthood. In a world shaped by digital payments, online commerce, and emerging technologies, teaching children about money from an early age builds foundations that extend far beyond managing cash.

Money lessons cultivate numeracy, discipline, responsibility, and long-term thinking. Today, they also open the door to understanding how digital currencies may influence the future economy.

Why Early Financial Education Matters

When children learn how money works, they develop essential life skills:

Mathematical Confidence

Budgeting, saving, and comparing prices strengthen numerical reasoning in practical ways.

Read more at BINANCE.COM

Contact Chuck.Sockol@mcrc.biz to discuss your recovery needs

The Growth Engine Behind Modern Financial Institutions

Most growth strategies don’t fail in the boardroom. They fail in the gap between decision and deployment.

Leadership teams approve new products, refine positioning, adjust rate strategies, and greenlight campaigns, only to discover that execution moves slower than the market itself. By the time digital experiences are updated, competitor offers have shifted, customer expectations have evolved, and the opportunity has narrowed.

This is not a strategy problem. And it is rarely a talent problem.

Increasingly, it is an architectural constraint. One that remains largely invisible until speed becomes a competitive necessity.

Across regional and national banks and credit unions, a quiet realization is taking shape: the ability to grow is becoming directly tied to the flexibility of the digital ecosystem supporting marketing, product, and customer engagement. 

Read more at The Financial Brand

Don’t miss the 19 FinTech deals of the week – Nearly $500m raised by the sector

No deals exceeded $100m this week. The largest deals were raised by pet-focused InsurTech platform Lassie and AI compliance company Bretton AI, which both secured $75m.

Lassie, a Sweden-based company, insurers around 250,000 thousand pets and reports over $100m in annual recurring revenue. It claims the deal was one of the largest funding rounds in the European InsurTech space over the past year. The round was backed by Balderton Capital, Felix Capital, Inventure, Passion Capital and Stena Sessan.

Bretton AI develops AI agents designed to handle high-volume, mission-critical financial crime workflows. The round led by Sapphire Ventures, with continued backing from Greylock, Thomson Reuters Ventures, Canvas Ventures and Y Combinator. Capital from the round will be used to expand the platform into additional financial crime domains, increase investment in product development and scale its engineering and go-to-market teams.

Read more at FINTECH GLOBAL

Your AI Strategy Will Fail Without Fixing Your Data Quality First

In a new report, Cornerstone Advisors’ Ron Shevlin urges executives to resist AI hype and stay focused on their core challenges.

AI is a tool, not a goal.

“Stop asking ‘What do we do with AI?,’ and/or ‘What about the risks of AI?’,” Shevlin writes. “Focus on ‘What business issues and challenges need to be addressed, and which technology can help?’ If the technologies that can help are AI-related technologies, so be it.”

Need to Know:

The percentage of banks that have deployed GenAI going into 2026 trebled over 2025, to 49%, per the study.

Read more at The Financial Brand

Credit unions back legislation to update Durbin Amendment threshold

Legislation to modernize the Durbin Amendment’s asset threshold was introduced Wednesday night in the Senate by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Katie Britt, R-Ala., and in the House by Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky. America’s Credit Unions wrote in support of the bill, which would index the Durbin Amendment’s threshold to inflation (compared to the current $10 billion asset threshold).

“As credit unions grow by serving more members and keeping pace with the economy, many are swept into limits that were intended for much larger institutions. Indexing the threshold to inflation provides needed relief and restores fairness for community-based credit unions,” said America’s Credit Unions President/CEO Scott Simpson. “Debit interchange revenue at credit unions is reinvested into lower fees, better rates, fraud prevention, and improved services for members. When outdated thresholds reduce those resources, it is working families and small businesses who feel the impact.

Read more at America's Credit Unions

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Renting is cheaper than owning a home in Salt Lake City

Data: LendingTree analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data; Note: Monthly costs include utilities, fees, and/or taxes; Median housing costs above $4,000 are recorded as "$4,000+" by the Census Bureau; Chart: Jacque Schrag/Axios

Renting is cheaper than owning a home in Salt Lake City, according to a LendingTree analysis.

Why it matters: The same holds true for all 100 of the largest U.S. metro areas as housing costs have soared nationwide, with stubbornly high home prices and mortgage rates weighing on would-be buyers.

Nationally, homeowners with a mortgage now pay around 37% more per month than renters, researchers found.

By the numbers: The median monthly gross rent in the Salt Lake area was nearly $1,700 in 2024, based on the latest available census data, compared to over $2,200 a month for mortgaged homes, a 33.4% difference.

Read more at AXIOS

Why Financial Literacy Education in US Schools Is Failing Students: Seton Hall University

Financial literacy remains low in the US, as a 2025 national assessment found that US adults averaged only 49% of personal finance questions answered correctly. Young Americans were the most illiterate, as Gen Z respondents only averaged 38% correct, the lowest out of any generation surveyed. This poses a serious problem to financial health, as a lack of financial awareness correlates to higher economic fragility, greater debt constraints, and lower amounts of emergency savings.

Widespread financial illiteracy can be attributed to a lack of consistent access to financial education. All 50 states now include personal finance in their educational standards, but a 2024 report by the Council for Economic Education found only 35 states explicitly mandate it for high school graduation. Out of these 35 states, 20 require students to take a stand-alone finance course, while the rest infuse them with related courses, like economics or civics. Studies suggest that only students who take mandatory, stand-alone courses in personal finance will score higher on financial literacy tests.

Read more at Seton Hall University

For Banks and Credit Unions, AI Can Be Risky. But What’s Riskier? Falling Behind.

Executive Summary

• Banks don’t need to wait for flawless data infrastructure. Low-risk contact center applications like voice biometrics and automated agents offer immediate wins without enterprise-wide overhaul.
• Testing AI in controlled environments that mirror real conditions allows institutions to experiment safely, prove ROI, and identify data gaps before full deployment.
• Early adopters are seeing measurable improvements: one credit union reduced member escalations by 20% and cut average call times by 21 seconds, proving smaller institutions can compete with larger rivals.

For many bank and credit union leaders, Generative AI is mostly generating… anxiety. On one side is the fear of getting it wrong: exposing sensitive data, triggering a compliance breakdown, or wasting money on experiments that never scale. On the other looms something even more stress-inducing: watching competitors that have mastered AI serve their customers faster, cheaper, and with more personalization, while gaining market share in the process.

Read more at The Financial Brand

Why the Consumer Credit Market Is Shaping Modern Financial Accessibility?

The Growing Role of Flexible Borrowing Solutions in Personal Finance Management

Access to credit is now a key feature of contemporary financial systems, with consumers taking out credit cards, mortgages, personal loans and other forms of borrowing to fund expenditures, invest in opportunities and develop financial flexibility. In the process, the consumer credit market has become a key sector of structured consumer finance.

Consumer credit permits individuals to make purchases, pay unexpected expenses, and achieve financial goals over time, instead of immediately paying for all of their purchases. As more financial services are made available digitally, the consumer credit market continues to grow. Its increasing importance reflects changing attitudes toward financial planning, convenience, and economic participation.

Understanding What the Consumer Credit Market Really Is

Read more at FUTURISM