Payments and Lending. Fintech continues to impact consumer and commercial payments in a variety of ways. Fintech has not only changed payments but is also changing how consumers fund the payments as seen in BNPL expansion. Fintech is impacting cross-border payments with stablecoin platforms that lower overall cross-border cost. The next challenge for fintech will be driving down card payment fraud which has continued to accelerate.
Delivery
This report comes in PPT.
Key findings
BNPL accelerating commerce globally
BNPL has spread wider geographically and across merchant categories faster than many expected. Everything from medical procedures to everyday groceries are utilising BNPL to expand their customer base. It is essential for merchants to meet consumers’ expectation that they have multiple ways to fund a transaction.
Consumer credit categories are expanding with greater access but also with greater cost
To deal with rising inflation consumers are adopting credit products and are utilising a greater portion of extended credit. While this is fuelling consumption in the short term, in the long term this could increase the non-performing rates for financial institutions which will impact the profitability of some financial card portfolios.
Fintech acquisitions continue from traditional payment players
The steady rate of acquisitions from the largest card networks continued in 2025 and are poised to continue into 2026. While stablecoin platforms are the most recent target, there remains a need to increase the security of transactions which could be the next category. With fintech’s increasing the rate of innovation, acquisition may be the best option for traditional payment companies.
Value lost to fraud on financial cards increases again
From 2024 to 2025 total value lost to fraud increased in both absolute value terms and as a share of all card payment transaction value. If fraud rises too high, the consumer will ultimately be impacted in terms of loss coverage or develop a negative perception of financial cards. Additional investment in payment security, particularly card not present fraud, is needed.
Cross-border payments the next payment channel to benefit from fintech
Cross-border payments have been inefficient and expensive for many years and fintech through stablecoin platforms has the potential to lower this cost. These platforms can operate faster, with lower cost and more securely providing additional value to international merchants and lower product cost for consumers.
Why read this report?
Key findings
Fintech continues to address core payment concerns
A framework for understanding fintech disruption
Fintech expands consumer lending access
Affirm expands BNPL categories again
Klarna launches instant P2P payments
Digital disruption in lending
Digital currencies enter the mainstream financial ecosystem
SoFiUSD ( SoFiD )
Mastercard acquires BVNK to accelerate stablecoin payments
Digital currency and the rewiring of payments
Tackling rising fraud: Fintech’s security imperative
Mastercard with Recorded Future
Visa’s security strategy: Feature Space acquisition
Security becomes a competitive advantage
Strategic growth opportunities in fintech
Fintech will continue to rapidly evolve and impact payments
Evolution of fintech
Questions we are asking
Payments and Lending
This is the aggregation of Financial Cards and Payments, Mobile Payments, Transactions, and Consumer Lending.
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