What shapes consumer transactions and payment technologies, and where is it going?
Any conventional wisdom about payments—how they’re made, the currencies being used, the cards presently in favor—doesn’t last long before the next wave of technology, innovation, and regulation. Javelin’s analysts conduct research at the forefront of payments, identifying the emerging trends for financial services companies and payments providers and offering insight into how they can best position themselves not just for what is current but also for what is coming.
Payments Research
Reports
2026 Commercial & Enterprise Trends
Commercial payment providers are strategically reimagining their infrastructure, pricing, sales, and risk management strategies. This strategic flexibility ensures they purpose-fit for new commercial payment technologies and end user expectation...
2026 Credit Payments Trends
The U.S. credit card market is healthy and strong, but performances among banks diverge along size lines. Large issuers have been able to better curate their customers through acquisition and segmenting, and the differences show up most acutely ...
2026 Debit Payments Trends
For decades, the checking account has served as the foundation on which all consumer and business payments have rested. But that stability is now beginning to give way to the seemingly relentless march of open banking, with new rails, new risks,...
2026 Digital Assets & Crypto Trends
A shift in regulation has helped move digital assets from the edges of the mainstream financial world to a place in the spotlight. Now, the deep work begins: not only rethinking the existing systems of value movement but also building solutions ...
2026 Emerging Payments Trends
In emerging payments, hype comes first, often well in advance of the actual broad use of the payment tools and technologies. In 2026, after a year of press releases heralding the transformation to be brought about by ]agentic AI, look for consum...
2026 Merchant Payments Trends
As payment technology advances and offers greater options and flexibility for consumers, merchants are put in the position of prioritizing how to manage payment acceptance, what platforms to engage with, and how to continue chasing higher revenu...
2026 Prepaid Payments Trends
Prepaid card programs motor along while innovation bubbles beneath the service. In the coming year and beyond, Javelin sees three major themes playing out in the space. First, the idea that digital options are going to eliminate physical cards n...
2026 Tech & Infrastructure Trends
The past few years have seen payment modernization and infrastructure improvements at financial institutions, but the next few years will require something new: a coordination of technology, processes, and policies. The banks and vendors that co...
22nd Annual U.S. Closed-Loop Prepaid Card Market Forecast, 2025-2029
Closed-loop prepaid programs continue to grow load volumes across the spectrum of use cases. In this report, Javelin Strategy & Research continues its annual assessment of closed-loop prepaid programs across a range of categories and identifies ...
Young Borrowers: Riskier Than Ever...and the Future of Credit Cards
The future of credit cards rests with younger consumers, in the 18-to-29 age range, and not with their parents and grandparents. Here’s the rub, though: These consumers are a much higher-risk bet for card issuers, more prone to serious delinquen...