Credit Card Delinquencies Are Mounting: A Warning for 2027 Losses

June 30 is a pivotal day in the credit card industry. Delinquency risk is locked for the current year, and issuers must scramble to reduce credit losses by working out payment arrangements. If the account is in delinquent status as of that day, it is subject to charge-off before year-end.

Anything that rolls into delinquency from July 1, 2026, until June 30 next year affects 2027 credit losses. This is based on a six-month aging process, in which billing defaults are charged off at 180 days delinquent. Credit card collection managers must address each delinquency bucket and attempt to roll the account back to its current status. Collection managers must block and tackle accounts in delinquency buckets, and what is in the pipeline up until June 30 is what is at risk for the current year.

Beware of Perma-Debt

Perma-debt, coined during the 2008 financial crisis, refers to people who get stuck with credit card payments that never seem to go away. Some claim it is a credit card issuer problem. Practical lenders often acknowledge the concern but point out that budgets are getting out of hand. And budgets are getting out of whack as inflation festers. Look at gas pricing: AAA reports that the average price of a gallon of regular gas is $4.16 in Florida, up from $3.09 a year ago. And in California, we see $6.06 versus $4.81.

Read more at PaymentsJournal.com

Separating Hype from Reality in Emerging Payment Trends

Despite near-constant industry buzz, the days when artificial intelligence agents dominate e-commerce—and consumers widely complete in-store purchases with a palm swipe—have not yet arrived.

This is not to say they will never arrive, but if the rollout of prior tech trends like biometric authentication and embedded finance is any indication, there is still substantial runway before this financial future becomes reality.

In a recent PaymentsJournal podcast, Javelin Strategy & Research’s Don Apgar, Director of Merchant Payments, and Christopher Miller, Lead Emerging Payments Analyst, cut through the noise surrounding recent payment innovations to assess the true progress of financial trends this year.

Read more at PaymentsJournal.com

Validate consumer and business bank accounts, confirm ownership, detect fraud, and assess risk 

What is fintech? What you need to know about financial technology companies.

Financial technology is revolutionizing how we bank, borrow money, invest, and more.

As the world's connectivity has improved and technology has become cheaper and more advanced, the emergence of "fintech" was bound to happen. This technology has made financial management cheaper and less time-consuming, improving the lives of millions.

But what exactly is fintech, and how does it work? We'll explore that question and break down fintech's benefits and drawbacks. Fintech is likely here to stay, which means we should understand exactly what it is and how it will change the financial landscape going forward.

Read more at Yahoo Finance

Pay-by-Bank Is Quietly Gaining Ground. Should Card Network Visa Investors Worry?

This option may be able to accomplish what mobile wallets couldn't. Or maybe not.

Key Points

• While it's been available for some time now, the COVID-19 pandemic generated more interest in making electronic payments directly from a bank account.
• Awareness of this alternative to credit cards remains modest, as does trust in the option.
• Most consumers are hesitant to embrace pay-by-bank for the obvious reasons, but will this be the case forever?

Read more at The Motley Fool

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Why Synthetic Identities Demand Layered Verification

A consumer reviews their credit card statement, notices a fraudulent charge, and initiates a dispute. Ideally, the issuer or merchant would have flagged the transaction before it reached this stage—but in reality, consumers have long played a critical role in identifying and addressing fraud.

That safeguard—and many other traditional fraud defenses—breaks down when synthetic identities are involved. Since cybercriminals combine fragments of legitimate data to create entirely new identities, there is often no real victim to detect and report the fraud.

Read more at PaymentsJournal.com

Private Loans, Preferred Lender Arrangements, and Prohibited Inducements are Back! by Thompson Coburn LLP

In the spring of 2007, New York’s Attorney General initiated a high-profile investigation into what he characterized as unethical conduct across the student loan industry. Regulators in other states quickly followed suit. Within months, a full-blown “student loan scandal” had emerged, drawing scrutiny from Congress, the U.S. Department of Education (the “Department”), multiple state Attorneys General, and the national media. The focus was squarely on the relationships between schools and lenders, and calls for reform came from every direction.

Facing sustained pressure from Congress and other stakeholders, the Department significantly expanded its regulatory oversight of school-lender relationships, issuing new rules effective July 1, 2008. Congress followed by reauthorizing the Higher Education Act of 1965 (“HEA”), as amended, effective August 14, 2008, introducing comprehensive requirements around private education loans and preferred lender arrangements, including specific mandates for the form and content of preferred lender lists.

Read more at JD Supra, LLC

Cambridge Wilkinson Investment Bank Closes $240MM Forward

Flow Loan Agreement for Consumer Installment Lender

Cambridge Wilkinson (“CW”) is pleased to announce the closing of a forward flow agreement for consumer home improvement loans. The seller of the loans is an originator of consumer installment loans that finance home improvements, including windows and doors, pools and spas, and HVAC projects. The buyer of the assets is a multi-national bank with the expectation to purchase up to $240 million in loans per year from the seller.

The non-bank lending sector is strategically evolving its capital and liquidity management by increasingly using forward flow arrangements with traditional banks and other private credit providers. This sophisticated model, where banks commit to purchasing loans on a pre-agreed, ongoing basis, is becoming more common in today’s specialty finance environment. It enables non-bank lenders to programmatically originate loans without the constraint of long-term balance sheet retention, thereby often optimizing capital efficiency and accelerating growth.

“This trend to forward flow agreements underscores a mature, symbiotic partnership with the banking sector as well as other private credit providers, moving beyond simple warehousing to a more predictable and scalable pipeline that often can de-risk operations and enhance market stability. Our institutional partners see strong value in specialty finance platforms that can originate, underwrite, and scale efficiently. The demand for private credit continues to rise, and we are committed to structuring tailored solutions that support our clients' long-term growth,” said Rob Bolandian, Co-Founder and Global Head of Investment Banking at Cambridge Wilkinson.

Cambridge Wilkinson

The Next Phase for Prepaid Cards Could Be Stablecoins

Prepaid cards have come a long way from handwritten gift certificates sold at McDonald’s. But their next evolution may be even more radical—turning stored value into stablecoins.

Javelin Strategy & Research’s Prepaid and Stablecoins: Turning Liabilities Into Assets suggests that stablecoins and other tokenized digital assets could transform prepaid cards from balance-sheet liabilities into asset-backed tools that offer greater flexibility, efficiency, and security.

Making a Gift Card a Bottom-Line Asset

Read more at PaymentsJournal.com

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Mexico Moves Away from Cash and into Digital Payments

At gas stations and convenience stores across Mexico, cash is starting to lose its default status as digital payment infrastructure expands nationwide. A new rollout from FEMSA signals how quickly that shift is moving from policy ambition into retail reality.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said FEMSA’s payments unit NetPay will deploy a digital payment system across nearly 600 gas stations and convenience stores. The system integrates card, QR code, and CoDi payments directly into store management platforms, effectively linking payment data with operations rather than treating it as a separate layer.

Read more at PaymentsJournal.com

Researching Payments System Changes: Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve has supported the smooth operation of the nation's payments system since its founding in 1913. It has done this by providing services directly — from distributing currency to processing checks and ACH, wire, and instant payments. It has also implemented regulations intended to maintain the system's safety and stability for all users. At the same time, the Fed has convened industry stakeholders and has worked with them to help the payments system meet the evolving needs of businesses and consumers.

Aside from these roles, the Fed has studied the payments system to better understand user needs, detect emerging risks, and identify inefficiencies and service gaps. "Understanding the system we support and regulate isn't just beneficial, it's essential to fulfilling our mandate and serving the public interest," notes Zhu Wang, vice president for research in financial and payments systems at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. "Many employees across the Fed work on payments, spanning research, operations, supervision, legal, community outreach, and other departments."

Read more at Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

E-Complish, LLC Launches: IntellAgent™, a 24/7

AI Companion for Customer Account Management & Payment Processing

6 Ways Credit Unions Can Make Social Media Drive Growth

Social media is a hungry beast, and financial services marketers can be forgiven for focusing on feeding it. In many ways, the old Web 2.0 mantra that “every company is a media company” still holds true. But the focus on social media’s reach can too often neglect what is arguably its greatest strength: the interactivity that enables institutions to build familiarity, trust, and connection.

The lack of intentional focus when it comes to social media can lead to some strange role reversals. Large national banks might try to sound like community financial institutions, piling on local references and emphasizing values like financial wellness. And community institutions might (inadvertently) present themselves as soulless hyper-marketers as they pack their feeds with promo cards and try to emulate fintechs.

Read more at The Financial Brand

What Creates Success in the Fintech Customer Journey?

Industry experts from Revolut, Nuvei and PayPal discuss what business models perform the best in the race to retain fintech talent and customer journey

Customer journeys have evolved. With the introduction of efficient technology for workload processes, customer interaction and cross-border payments, customers have come to expect an immediate response from businesses.

With this expectation weighing at the forefront of customer journeys, how are businesses taking steps to ensure workflow practices can keep up with increasing demand?

In this discussion, Alex Codina, General Manager, Merchant Payments Acquiring at Revolut Business, explains alongside Guy Douek, General Manager EMEA at Nuvei and Yolande Piazze, SVP and GM of Americas at PayPal, how three fintech giants are adapting with AI, talent retention and expansion hurdles.

Read more at Fintech Magazine

Payliance enables organizations to streamline

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Private Loans, Preferred Lender Arrangements, and Prohibited Inducements are Back!

In the spring of 2007, New York’s Attorney General initiated a high-profile investigation into what he characterized as unethical conduct across the student loan industry. Regulators in other states quickly followed suit. Within months, a full-blown “student loan scandal” had emerged, drawing scrutiny from Congress, the U.S. Department of Education (the “Department”), multiple state Attorneys General, and the national media. The focus was squarely on the relationships between schools and lenders, and calls for reform came from every direction.

Facing sustained pressure from Congress and other stakeholders, the Department significantly expanded its regulatory oversight of school-lender relationships, issuing new rules effective July 1, 2008. Congress followed by reauthorizing the Higher Education Act of 1965 (“HEA”), as amended, effective August 14, 2008, introducing comprehensive requirements around private education loans and preferred lender arrangements, including specific mandates for the form and content of preferred lender lists.

Read more at JD Supra, LLC

Texas lawmakers put limits on cities’ abilities to enact progressive policies. Some want to go further.

Confusion surrounds a sweeping law aimed at stopping Texas cities from adopting progressive policies three years after state lawmakers passed it, supporters and critics said Thursday.

The 2023 law, known as the “Death Star” bill, made it illegal for cities and counties to enact local ordinances that go further than certain broad areas of state law. Texas Republicans including Gov. Greg Abbott and business groups long argued the law was needed to undo a “patchwork” of local rules they said made it hard to do business in Texas and to rein in progressive policies in urban cities. Critics including local officials argued the law was overly broad and vague while wiping out key protections like water breaks for construction workers, payday lending ordinances and noise regulations.

Today, it remains unclear just what local rules and regulations are out-of-bounds under the law, supporters and detractors told members of the Texas House Joint Committee on Government Oversight Thursday.

Read more at San Antonio Report

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Robinhood is about to let AI agents trade stocks and spend money on your behalf

The ongoing rise of artificial intelligence agents is already altering sectors like software development, law, and sales by handling tasks that humans usually manage. Now, the technology is moving straight into consumer finance. Robinhood officially announced a bold new expansion, launching “agentic trading” and an “agentic credit card” to allow AI-powered bots to manage financial transactions for its users.

Robinhood opens its trading platform to AI agents

• During the launch, CEO Vlad Tenev explained that the platform’s long-standing mission to democratize finance for everyone now officially extends to AI agents. According to company statements, the framework relies on the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Users can take an AI agent from practically any external platform and plug it directly into Robinhood’s AI-native MCP servers to start automating their money.

Read more at MSN

The Next Layer of Innovation: When Technology Stops Being a Tool

Quick Summary

• For most of modern history, technology has been viewed as an instrument.
• For most of modern history, technology has been viewed as an instrument.
• Businesses acquired machines to improve production. Offices adopted computers to improve efficiency. Banks invested in software to process transactions. Retailers implemented systems to manage inventory. Technology existed to support human activity. It was a tool—important, often transformative, but ultimately separate from the work itself.

That distinction is beginning to blur.

Read more at Global Banking and Finance

Loved by collection agencies, debt buyers, and lenders handling diverse portfolios. cf

Homebuyers use underrated strategy to outsmart housing market

As the housing market becomes more expensive, more buyers are embracing a clever alternative.

My husband and I bought our first home in 2022. We had chosen to combine our finances when we got married, so we split the price of the down payment and closing costs. As homeowners, we also share the responsibility for monthly mortgage payments and home repairs.

Honestly, I couldn’t imagine being able to afford a home without both of our incomes. Especially where we live, which is a relatively high-cost-of-living area.

Read more at TheStreet.com

Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Financial Services Group Earns National Recognition Again from Chambers USA in 2026

We are pleased to announce that Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Financial Services Group has once again been recognized by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in all three nationwide consumer finance categories: Compliance, Enforcement & Investigations, and Litigation.

Since Chambers first established these nationwide consumer finance rankings, our Consumer Financial Services Group has been ranked in each category every year. No other law firm in the country has achieved this distinction.

What Chambers Says About Our Group

Read more at Ballard Spahr L.L.P.

Why every fintech firm is starting to look like an infrastructure provider

Many fintech companies that once sold disruption are now building operational layers.

Stripe, Plaid, and Modern Treasury are all expanding their influence deeper into the infrastructure layer of financial services.

Fintech is moving beyond the interface wars.

Competition has been traditionally defined by visibility; building the app consumers opened more often, the experience that felt smoother, the financial product that looked less like a bank and more like software.

That model created some of the most important companies of the last generation. But it also trained the industry to think the interface was the business.

Read more at tearsheet.co

CFPB Issues Guidance on Consideration of Immigration Status Based on Ability to Repay Requirements Without Providing Sufficient Detail to Assist Creditors: By Richard J. Andreano, Jr. & John L. Culhane, Jr.

When the CFPB and Department of Justice withdrew a joint statement on the consideration of immigration status under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act in January 2026, we pointed out that “the agencies could have, but did not, [seek] to reduce compliance burdens by providing helpful guidance on how creditors may appropriately consider an applicant’s immigration status under ECOA. For example, it would be helpful to receive guidance on the consideration of an applicant’s immigration status in assessing the likelihood of continuation of income in the context of specific ability to repay determination requirements, particularly the requirements of the Regulation Z ability to repay rules for credit cards and for mortgage loans.”

The CFPB has now issued guidance on the consideration of immigration status in connection with the Regulation Z ability to repay requirements for credit cards and mortgage loans. Unfortunately, the guidance falls short of providing guideposts and will likely prove to be more problematic than helpful.

Read more at Consumer Finance Monitor

Nearly Half Of Mortgage Borrowers Never Negotiate Their Loan

A new LendingTree study found many consumers never ask for better rates or lower fees despite strong odds of success

Mortgage borrowers who shop around for financing could save an average of $62,572 over the life of a 30-year fixed-rate loan, yet nearly half never attempt to negotiate their mortgage terms, according to a new study from LendingTree.

The analysis found that borrowers who secured the lowest available rate rather than the highest offered rate saved an average of $174 per month, or $2,086 annually. Over the life of a loan, those savings add up to $62,572.

Read more at National Mortgage Professional

Twenty-One States File Amicus Brief Supporting Challenge to Colorado’s Effort to Regulate Interest Rates Charged by Out-of-State State Banks By Alan S. Kaplinsky, Burt M. Rublin & Ronald K. Vaske 

The en banc proceedings in National Association of Industrial Bankers v. Weiser continue to attract significant attention. On June 4, 2026, the attorneys general of Utah and 20 other states filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit to affirm the district court’s decision enjoining Colorado’s attempt to utilize its opt out pursuant to Section 525 of the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (DIDMCA) as a basis to regulate the interest rates charged to Colorado borrowers by out -of-state state banks.

The amici states are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Utah, which took the lead in preparing the brief.

Read more at Ballard Spahr L.L.P

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Social Security to Fully Transition to Electronic Payments: Social Security Administration

As of September 30, 2025, federal law and Executive Order 14247 require federal benefits to be paid electronically. To improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance security in federal payments, the Department of the Treasury is phasing out paper checks. Social Security plans to complete the full transition to electronic payments for all beneficiaries this year.

Making the Switch to Electronic Payments: What Beneficiaries Need to Know

If you’re still receiving payments by paper check, we encourage you to switch to electronic payments as soon as possible. Paper checks are 16 times more likely to be lost, stolen, altered, or returned undeliverable than electronic payments. Switching now ensures you receive your Social Security or Supplemental Security Income quickly and securely.

Read more at SSA.GOV

Remember Which 10 Purchases You Should Always Make With a Credit Card

Some financial advisors suggest that consumers should never buy anything with a credit card and should only use cash for purchases. The philosophy behind this advice does have some merit, but for those that use credit responsibly, there's a whole host of benefits. In fact, for some types of purchases, failure to use a credit card can actually be a mistake, as you'd be forsaking various forms of protection and benefits.

Although the caveat is always there that you must use your credit responsibly, here's a list of purchases that you should always consider making with a credit card.

Electronics and Appliances

Read more at AOL.COM