Executives of Allegiant, Breeze and Spirit complained to the heads of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Department of Transportation that the relationships between big banks and big airlines are anticompetitive. Consumer advocates also questioned whether large airlines are delivering on promised rewards and if consumers are racking up debt to accrue miles and points.

The Federal Trade Commission recently blasted two companies for their murky business practices and confusing charges. Industry experts say many digital and recurring payments are inviting more regulatory scrutiny.

National Australia Bank is adding a Pay By Bank option for near-instant payments, Italy is bringing open-loop payments to buses in Tuscany, and more.

Katherine Weislogel's career began by being in the right place at the right time.

By training a core payment card fraud-detection platform on more than 15 billion transactions, the card network is honing the accuracy of warnings sent to issuers about suspicious purchases.

Incumbents face the challenge of updating their infrastructure for digital payments, while newcomers are pushing to compete by using artificial intelligence, cloud hosting and other technologies.

Tighter merchant connections between Square and Cash App helped Block produce stronger-than-expected results during the first quarter, while Jack Dorsey said the firm will launch its first remittance product later this year leveraging decentralized finance.

The embedded banking services Amazon offers to third-party sellers come from the hidden hand of JPMorgan Chase's corporate payments arm, which markets its services to e-commerce platforms on a white-label basis.

Bolstered by healthy first-quarter global card-spending trends, Mastercard is focusing on opportunities outside the U.S., including a unique card-processing arrangement beginning this month in China.