Financial Transaction Processing NAICS 522320

Dec 11, 2025 - Payment Processing An Industry Moving Fast

• The past year has shaken up the payments world, with economic swings, new regulations, and fast-moving technology changing the rules for everyone, according to consultancy Deloitte. Inflation policies, tariffs, digital assets, and real-time payments are now intersecting with AI and machine learning, opening doors to innovation but also creating new risks. In 2026, the regulatory landscape is shifting: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is stepping back, while the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is clarifying what banks can do with digital assets, prioritizing payments risk, and connecting directly with banks and fintech companies. At the same time, global standards like ISO 20022 are making payments smarter and faster, with richer data and AI driving smoother processing and deeper integration into business workflows. But technology alone isn’t enough. Consumers want seamless, friction-free experiences. The winners will be those who turn these innovations into solutions people actually want to use.
• Stablecoins, digital currencies designed to maintain a fixed value by pegging to assets like the US dollar, are drawing attention across the banking industry, but actual adoption remains limited. According to American Banker, only 2% of financial institutions have launched one, 2% are piloting, and 4% plan to do so, while 70% are still in early discussions or haven’t considered it. Larger regional and national banks lead activity, with 6% having launched or piloted a stablecoin, while 24% of community banks have opted out entirely. Credit unions show more openness, with 43% in early talks. About 15% of institutions are offering or planning to offer digital wallets or custodial services for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether, and 12% for stablecoins. Around one in ten are enabling or preparing to enable crypto or stablecoin transactions. Overall, stablecoin and digital-asset adoption remain in early stages but are gaining traction among larger banks.

• Paper checks draw closer to extinction as the US government transitions to a fully digital payment system which will permanently alter how federal payments are made. As of June 2025, out of 69 million social security recipients, only about 418,000 of those households receive payments through paper checks. An executive order from the Trump administration mandates that all federal payments - intergovernmental payments, benefit payments, tax refunds, and government vendor payments - become digital by September 30, 2025. The order intends to eliminate the costs of processing paper checks and reduce instances of fraud. Paper checks are susceptible to fraud through mail theft and are 16 times more likely to be reported lost, stolen, or undeliverable than electronic payments. The government will make exceptions for certain beneficiaries who do not have access to electronic banking or require emergency funds.
• Financial transaction processing industry employment stayed flat in April 2025 as AI plays an increasingly larger role to play in the industry and displacing some workers. Research from International Data Processing predicts that the financial services industry will spend $632 billion by 2028, of which financial transaction processing will account for 20%. Fraud detection has emerged as the primary benefit of AI. Mastercard asserts that last year it used AI to protect about 125 billion payment transactions, a scale that wasn’t previously possible. Automation is also a key benefit of AI with industry players able to simplify tedious accounting and compliance tasks and speed up transaction processing. J.P. Morgan predicts AI’s next application will be embedded finance, which is the inclusion of payment systems into non-financial apps and services.