Payments Research | Javelin

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

CBDCs Are Dead—for Now. What Comes Next?

In halting the development of a central bank digital currency, the current presidential administration has signaled a major shift toward private-sector innovation in digital currencies. This Javelin Strategy & Research report looks at what that ...

From Hype to Impact: How AI is Transforming Credit

  • Javelin Report
  • Date: June 24, 2025
  • Author(s): Ben Danner
  • Research Topic(s): Credit
Advances in artificial intelligence have generated a high level of excitement and marketing spending as financial organizations seek to rebrand their technologies with “AI” and develop new credit decisioning and issuance solutions that leverage ...

Global Biometric Pilots Help Smooth the Way for U.S. Adoption

The use of biometrics in merchant payments—such as facial scans and palm scans—has been slow to take root in the United States. But several pilot programs in other global markets, featuring the participation of companies active in the United Sta...

In-House Payment Options for Merchants: Time for a New Look

  • Javelin Report
  • Date: June 24, 2025
  • Author(s): Don Apgar
  • Research Topic(s): Merchant
The big household names in retail, in-store and online, have always offered customers the most choices of ways to pay, along with deferred terms like layaway or installment credit. The category leaders have been early adopters of new payment met...

Amex and Chase Face Off on Premium Credit Cards, but the Backstory Is More Interesting

Moves by American Express and Chase to revamp their signature card reward products will bring the issuers into greater competition for the most affluent cardholders and carry reverberations for the rest of the industry. This Javelin Strategy & R...

Javelin Prepaid Consumer Sentiment: 3-Year Trend Highlights

As Javelin’s research into consumer sentiment toward prepaid products completes its third year, the findings highlight relative stability in most products, and that’s significant in today’s wildly fluctuating economic market. However, the data s...

The Virtual Economy: Measuring Buyer Industry Receptiveness to Using Virtual Cards

Virtual cards are a fast-growing force in business-to-business payments, but adoption remains uneven across buyer industries. This report analyzes 147 U.S. industries using a composite scoring system that incorporates supplier acceptance, workin...

Consumer Debit Payment Choice: Understanding Debit Card User Preferences

  • Javelin Report
  • Date: May 29, 2025
  • Author(s): Elisa Tavilla
  • Research Topic(s): Debit
Amid a dynamically changing landscape for payments, debit remains a steadfast performer, serving as a workhorse payment method for everyday transactions. As consumer behavior shifts, driven by economic uncertainty and technological innovation, i...

AI in the Payments Ecosystem

Merchants and payment service providers are working diligently to turn the promises of artificial intelligence into tangible business advantages. AI promises to deliver new levels of automation and efficiency to merchants and payment service pro...

AI in Commercial Payments: Do Payables Bots Dream of Dynamic Discounts?

AI’s transformative effects are becoming evident in how businesses source and buy things. The growing use of AI—predictive, generative, and agentic—across the source-to-settle value chain is poised to make a considerable impact on commercial pay...

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