by Matt Rej
With the first month of 2026 nearly in the books, here’s my roundup of the biggest stories in the payment space from January:
Worldpay Officially Merged With Global Payments
We’ve been following this story closely since the deal was first announced in April of last year. And on January 12th, Global Payments officially completed its acquisition of Worldpay.
This was right on schedule, as the previous updates said that the deal was expected to close in early 2026.
The Worldpay merger now gives Global over 6+ million merchant accounts under management. And Global Payments is expected to process over $3.7 trillion on 94 billion transactions this year.
Read More: What Worldpay Merchants Need to Know About the Global Payments Merger
Elavon is Increasing Rates on February 1st
Merchants using Elavon received notice of an upcoming rate increase that goes into effect on February 1, 2026:
- 0.07% + $0.18 increase per transaction
- $0.18 per authorization
- $0.40 batch fee
- 0.60% for international cards
- 0.40% for non-qualified transactions
Elavon has been steadily raising rates every year, and this latest annual increase continues the trend.
JPMorgan Chase is Becoming Apple’s New Card Issuer
In a press release earlier this month, JPMorgan announced that Chase would be replacing Goldman Sachs as the issuer for Apple Cards.
This won’t happen overnight, and the transaction is expected to take roughly 24 months.
Based on the agreement, this purchase from JPMorgan is expected to bring $20 billion in card balances to the bank. Read more.
Clover Integrates Biometrics Identity Verification Into Payments Platform
Clover is partnering with Wink, a biometrics identity platform, to integrate identity verification into its platform.
AI-powered biometrics will allow merchants using Clover to access a more secure and personalized checkout process. The press release also says that this will speed up checkout times while simultaneously reducing fraud.
New Data Finds One-Third of Consumers Cancel Purchases With Surcharge Fees
Credit card surcharging has been one of the hottest topics in the payment space for years, and something we’ve been covering extensively here at MCC.
And the new research tells us something we’ve been saying since day one: customers do not like surcharge fees.
In fact, a study from JD Power of 4,400 small businesses in the US found that 32% of consumers have canceled a purchase when a surcharge is added to their bill.
This goes beyond what we’ve reported in the past tied to consumers not returning to businesses with surcharge fees. It takes things a step further, highlighting the idea that your customers can abandon their purchase altogether if you’re passing merchant fees to them.
Read More: 9 Surcharge Alternatives to Save Money & Keep Your Customers
Toast Rolls Out New Features
Toast just announced a slate of new features designed specifically for retailers. Highlights include:
- Toast IQ Assistant for Retail – Natural language AI tool for inventory, restocking, slow-moving items, and answers to complex operational questions.
- Margin-Based Pricing Intelligence – Suggested pricing changes to hit revenue targets or specific margins.
- AI Invoice Scanning – Automatically extract data from scanned invoices into receivables to eliminate manual data entry.
- Cloud-Enabled Scales and Labeling – Integrates with DIGI America and Upshop 360 to instantly price updates across weighted items.
- Toast Advertising Platform – Digital ad launcher for Google and Meta with AI-powered suggestions and ROI tracking tied to sales.
Checkout.com Gets Approval for Georgia Bank Charter
Checkout.com continues its plans to scale as its own acquiring bank in the US, as they just received approval for a Merchant Acquirer Limited Purpose Bank in Georgia.
This puts Checkout.com in position to have a direct relationship with card networks in the US.
And they are now on track to officially have a US charter banking operation up and running in 2026. Read more.
Fiserv Launches “Unknown Shopper”
Fiserv unveiled a new product at the 2026 National Retail Federation conference in New York earlier this month.
The “Unknown Shopper” technology will give merchants the ability to:
- Convert card-present transactions into customer segments.
- Provide visibility into in-store shopping behaviors.
- Turn payment data into demographics insights for retailers, restaurants, and fuel merchants.
- Build customer segments based on spending behaviors and delivery targeted messaging to non-loyalty customers.
Capital One to Acquire Brex
Capital One announced its plans to acquire Brex for $5.15 billion. Brex is a fintech company that provides corporate cards and expense management software.
This comes on the heels of Capital One’s acquisition of Discover last year, making them the largest card issuer in the US.
The deal between Capital One and Brex is expected to close by mid 2026.
Shift4 CEO Explains Why They Target Certain Merchants
Shift4’s CEO, Taylor Lauber, made some interesting comments at the ICR Conference in Orlando on January 12th.
He explained that they’re specifically interested in targeting merchants with potentially hundreds of different “revenue centers” all managed by different software.
Why?
Because nobody else is competing for those businesses.
Lauber went on to say that if you can download software to a tablet and run your business, there are too many processors competing for that type of customer. So Shift4 wants to differentiate themselves by enterprise-level accounts that have complex needs.
They’ve been working with organizations like the New York Yankees, Hilton, Caesars, and California Pizza Kitchen, and want to expand with similar types of accounts.
Credit Card Competition Bill is Reintroduced
Senators Roger Marshall and Dick Durbin reintroduced the Credit Card Competition Act earlier this month, in an effort to require banks with $100+ billion in assets to offer merchants at least one payment routing alternative beyond Visa and Mastercard.
The Electronics Payments Coalition (representing Visa and Mastercard) naturally opposed the legislation, citing “government takeover” that would eliminate rewards and hurt small businesses.
But the Merchant Payments Coalition supports the bill, saying that the duopoly of Visa and Mastercard is costing the average US family $1,200 per year in higher fees.
Learn more about the bill here.
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