U.S. Bank

The fleet card industry is deep in the throes of change, with many truck drivers still switching from clunky paper-based payments to mobile technology with streamlined, data-laden payment apps. The next big challenge is the rise of electric vehicles, followed eventually by self-driving cars and trucks.

U.S. Bancorp reported record net income of $1.7 billion for the second quarter on record net revenue of $5.6 billion, and corporate payments growth stood out as a key driver.

U.S. Bank is firmly committed to voice assistant technology, but remains cautious about enabling all forms of money movement via verbal commands.

The main problem is that Amazon's Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant can’t yet verify a person’s identity. But there are already workarounds for that issue — and the tech giants may solve it soon.

Business payments are among the last major transaction types to cling to paper checks, an automation gap that's both an annoyance and an opportunity for Nicole Tackett.

The P-to-P payments service promises to clear transactions in near-real time, but many consumers have complained that they have been unable access their money or even open accounts. Zelle has acknowledged the delays and says they are a result of its rigorous enrollment process.

Commercial customers, including small businesses, seem ready to pay up to shift to faster, more sophisticated electronic invoicing and payments, and enterprising banks that provide them the technology to do so could find it lucrative.

Since Zelle's earliest days as the clearXchange network, the banks behind the P-to-P platform have promised that it could have a role in the business world. U.S. Bank has begun the next chapter by offering Disbursements via Zelle.

The EMV liability shift for gas pumps was postponed to 2020 last year, but cobranded fleet cards carrying the Visa or Mastercard logos still face the same counterfeit card fraud risks as any other payment card when paying for fuel away from the pump, such as at a truck stop convenience store's cash register.