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
European MiCA Regulation: The Industry’s Benchmark
The Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation in the European Union sprang from existing rules governing securities but was tailored specifically for the fast-moving, ever-evolving cryptocurrency industry. It brings important clarity to the EU,...
2024 General-Purpose Reloadable Card Program Scorecard
The first General-Purpose Reloadable Card Program Scorecard by Javelin Strategy & Research evaluates 10 major card programs across a variety of features, looking at the programs through the lens of consumer use. In a competitive marketplace, the...
In Search of a Profit: Tighter Margins and Higher Risk Will Impact Credit Card Revenue Through 2025
Credit card income will continue its downward trend in 2024 and 2025 as issuers face revenue and expense pressures. The shortfall between 2022 and 2023, when the ROA fell from 4.70% to 3.33%, will likely result in the measure falling into the lo...
Imagining a Cardless Future
Join Javelin Analysts Craig Lancaster and Christopher Miller as they explore the possibilities and implications of a world without cards and what it might mean for incumbent participants in the payments ecosystem.
Crypto Gets Political
The cryptocurrency and digital assets industry is having its political moment this year as one presidential candidate signals solidarity and another seems open to resetting what has been a fraught relationship. Regardless of the electoral outcom...
U.S. Real-time Payments: Full Speed Ahead After Year 1 of FedNow
One year after the introduction of the FedNow instant payment service, participation by financial institutions is soaring and transaction volumes and values are up across the faster payment services offered in the United States. Against this bac...
Commercial Instant Payments: Global Update Part 2
Javelin Strategy & Research’s periodic check-in on the state of global instant payments finds rapid adoption across the globe, with volumes in places like the United States, Asia, India, and Brazil growing month after month. Instant payments, wi...
Imagining a Cardless U.S. Payments Landscape, Part 1
Any contemplation of a cardless future in U.S. payments starts with a definition of terms: The question is whether the form—physical credit and debit cards wielded at the point of sale—will survive. The function—payments that take place on card ...
Banking as a Service and Self-Inflicted Wounds
The “unbundling” of financial services through banking-as-a-service arrangements cast risk and compliance into a gray area. This was underscored by the failure of BaaS provider Synapse, which landed in bankruptcy, thus throwing consumer accounts...
PCI 4.0: What Merchants Need to Know
PCI compliance has traditionally taken a vertical approach to data security, with subsequent iterations of requirements going deeper into protecting payment data. For the first time, PCI is expanding horizontally by looking at all aspects of an ...