Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) announced a milestone in the evolution of AI-powered commerce: “hundreds of secure, agent-initiated transactions” have now been successfully completed in collab with partners across the ecosystem. This signals that 2025 will be the final year consumers shop and checkout alone, as AI agent-driven payments “transition from experimentation to mainstream adoption.”Visa research indicates that nearly half “f U.S. shoppers (47 percent)1 now use AI tools for “at least one shopping task—from pri ...

Visa and Mastercard have agreed to pay $167.5 million to settle a long-running class action lawsuit. The suit, which was first filed back in October 2011, accused the two major credit card companies of conspiring to keep ATM fees artificially high. Most Read from Fast Company If approved, the proposed settlement filed on Thursday in Washington will bring an end to “almost fourteen years of vigorously contested litigation.” The lawsuit alleged that both Visa and Mastercard “participated in an unlawful co ...

We're back on Morning Trade Live. Let's dive into financials. The sector has turned in to another strong performance in 2025 with the XLF gaining 13% this year and more than 65% over the last 3 years.JP Morgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs have all hit new all-time highs here in December. There's a look at the chart. We are on the way up.So, let's go inside out on the financials and look ahead to what's in store for next year. Joining us now is Rebecca Walsa, president Walsa Wealth Manage ...

Visa and Mastercard have agreed to pay a combined $167.5m to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to keep ATM access fees artificially high. The proposed settlement was filed on Thursday in the federal district court in Washington and requires a judge’s approval.The accord would pay potentially millions of ATM users who were charged an unreimbursed access fee to withdraw cash from independent, non-bank ATMs. Visa would contribute about $88.8m and Mastercard about $78.7m to a settlement ...

Visa and Mastercard have agreed to pay a combined $167.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to keep ATM access fees artificially high. ...

Core Insights - US core inflation unexpectedly eased to a four-year low, raising questions among economists about the reliability of the data due to a prior government shutdown [8][14] - ByteDance has signed an agreement to establish a joint venture in the US with majority ownership by American investors [8][14] Market Performance - The A-share market opened lower but closed higher, with the Shanghai Composite Index up 0.16% at 3876.37 points, while the Shenzhen Component fell 1.29% and the ChiNext Index dropped 2.17% [1] - The Hong Kong market also saw fluctuations, with the Hang Seng Index closing up 0.12% at 25498.13 points, while the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 0.73% [1][5] Economic Indicators - The US core Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 2.6% year-on-year in November, while the overall CPI increased by 2.7% [14] - The report indicated that core CPI only increased by 0.2% over the last two months, with declines in hotel, leisure, and clothing prices limiting the overall increase [14] Corporate Developments - TikTok announced the establishment of a joint venture with US investors, which will operate independently and manage US data protection and algorithm security [8][14] - China has reportedly ordered 7 million tons of US soybeans, achieving over half of the procurement target set during the Trump administration [8][14]

Visa now allows certain partner banks and fintechs to settle their obligations to Visa in USDC, rather than traditional bank transfers. Settling means “squaring the tab” at the end of the day between banks, card issuers, and Visa. Instead of waiting on slow, expensive bank wires, they can send USDC on-chain, and now they can do that on Solana, a fast, low-fee blockchain built for high transaction throughput.First, a quick definition. A stablecoin is a crypto token that tracks a real-world asset, usually the ...

Key Takeaways V partners to build a trust framework that authenticates AI shopping agents and validates transaction intent.V's Agent Protocol lets agents signal browse vs pay, pass user authorization and complete checkout securely.Akamai adds edge-based behavioral intelligence to filter malicious bots and protect merchant risk controls.Visa Inc. (V) is diving deeper into the future of digital commerce by teaming up with Akamai to enhance the security of transactions driven by AI-powered shopping agents. As ...

Skyfire's KYAPay protocol verifies to both the consumer and the merchant that the AI agent is acting on behalf of a real, authorized user, enabling merchants to confidently accept actions initiated by non-human actors. Share SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Skyfire today announced a fully functional prototype of an AI agent securely completing consumer purchases end-to-end, enabled by verified agent identity and agentic payment infrastructure in a controlled environment. The demo illustrates an AI agent auto ...

Visa said on Thursday that it successfully completed hundreds of AI transactions as part of a pilot program that kicked off after the company's product event in April.The credit card issuer and rivals across the fintech industry are racing to build tools that allow consumers to task artificial intelligence agents with completing certain transactions."This is going to be the year we see an enormous amount of material adoption, and consumers really starting to get comfortable in a bunch of different agentic e ...