Reuters
"Digital payments platform PhonePe said it plans to hire 20,000 additional on-roll sales employees over the next year as part of a push to expand its merchant network into India's smaller towns and villages. The Walmart-backed company plans to deploy more than 5 million devices, including smart speakers and point-of-sale terminals, over the next 12 months to expand digital payments acceptance across rural areas."
Investing
"PhonePe said it received in-principle approval from the UAE central bank for two licenses covering retail payment services, card schemes, and stored value facilities. The Walmart-backed digital payments platform said the approval follows initial regulatory due diligence. The company still needs final central bank approval before it can start commercial operations in the Gulf state. PhonePe said it plans to work with regional banks, licensed payment service providers, and local technology vendors once it receives final regulatory approval."
Walmart
"Customers and members will soon have another convenient way to pay at checkout Walmart wants customers and members to have choice in how they pay, so they can check out in the way that works best for them. Now, beginning Aug. 24, we will be adding Tap to Pay to our payment options at select Walmart stores and Sam’s Club locations, with plans to roll it out to all U.S. stores and clubs by the end of 2026 and to fuel stations by mid-2027."
TechCrunch
"Walmart said it will finally accept payments via both Apple Pay and Google Pay at its stores, including Walmart and Sam’s Club. The retail giant says that beginning August 24, it will begin adding Tap to Pay to its payment options at select Walmart stores and Sam’s Club locations. It expects the feature to reach all stores and clubs by the end of the year, and will then roll it out to all its fuel stations by the middle of 2027."
Chain Store Age
"Walmart is expanding the shopping features available to its customers in the ChatGPT model. The new experience lets Walmart shoppers go directly from discovery in ChatGPT into a customized Walmart environment that supports account linking, loyalty and Walmart payments. This new experience is now available in web browsers, with app access in iOS and Android scheduled to follow shortly."
Modern Retail
"Walmart customers who use the company’s Sparky AI-powered shopping assistant have an order value that’s about 35% higher than those who don’t, newly appointed Walmart CEO John Furner said in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. In addition to its AI shopping features on its website and mobile app, Walmart is also partnering with OpenAI and Google to simultaneously invest in AI shopping through a partnerships approach. This is in contrast to Amazon, which has focused on investing in its own AI capabilities rather than working with other tech companies."
Talk Business & Politics
"Walmart recently announced a partnership with OpenAI to allow ChatGPT users to directly shop and buy products using the chatbot app with no human interaction. This is known as agentic commerce. While agentic commerce is a leap ahead in retail, it is not without risks. The customer must add their payment form to the ChatGPT app instant checkout format. From there, a unique token that is specific to the customer’s AI agent will be created for that specific customer. The AI agent will then be able to make purchases on the customer’s behalf without being prompted. While there are safeguards in place with Visa and Mastercard models, there are still concerns about who might be responsible for an unwanted order the chatbot makes for the customer."
Walmart
"Walmart is ushering in the next generation of retail by combining its huge assortment, everyday low prices and delivery speed with the power of AI. The company announced a new partnership with OpenAI that will start with allowing customers and members to soon shop Walmart through ChatGPT using Instant Checkout. This is agentic commerce in action: where AI shifts from reactive to proactive, from static to dynamic. It learns, plans and predicts, helping customers anticipate their needs before they do."
CNBC
"OnePay, the fintech firm majority-owned by Walmart will soon offer cryptocurrency trading and custody on its mobile app, CNBC has learned. OnePay will offer customers access to bitcoin and ether later this year with help from the startup Zerohash, according to people with knowledge of the matter who declined to be identified before an official announcement. The move shows that OnePay, founded by Walmart and venture firm Ribbit Capital in 2021, sees crypto as a core offering as it builds out its “everything app” for digital finance."
Inc42 Media
"Walmart-owned fintech PhonePe has received the final authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as an online payment aggregator (PA). The development comes over two years after PhonePe received in-principle approval from the RBI in August 2023 to operate as an online payment aggregator. The authorisation will enable PhonePe to expand its reach among online merchants, with a particular focus on small and medium businesses (SMEs) across the country."
Chain Store Age
"Walmart Canada is extending a digital "buy now, pay later" partnership to its stores. Walmart Canada is rolling out in-store payment solutions from Klarna across its network of more than 400 stores. The retailer launched the Klarna buy now, pay later solution on its e-commerce site and app in 2023. Walmart Canada shoppers can use Klarna to pay in-store via QR code at assisted checkout lanes, choosing between the pay in full option for a seamless one-time payment or pay in 4 to split purchases into four interest-free installments for purchases more than $50."
Crypto Briefing
"Top American retailers and travel companies, including Amazon, Walmart, and Expedia, are weighing the launch of their own stablecoins to reduce payment processing costs, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people with knowledge of the effort. The potential shift could help merchants save billions of dollars in fees tied to card payments, including interchange fees."
Mastercard
"OnePay, a leading consumer fintech, and Synchrony announced a strategic partnership to exclusively power a new industry-leading credit card program with Walmart (NYSE: WMT). The credit card program is expected to launch this fall, with the experience embedded inside the OnePay app and powered by Mastercard’s global payments network, and will be made available to millions of Walmart customers and to consumers across the U.S."
Digital Transactions
"A test this past September of a real-time pay by bank payments option inside the Walmart app indicates the service is on track for a broader debut in 2025, Digital Transactions News has learned. Speaking at the Nacha Smarter Faster Payments 2025 conference in New Orleans, Sarah Arnio, Walmart Inc. director of digital payments, tells Digital Transactions News the project is current."
Reuters
"JPMorgan Chase and Walmart are partnering to speed up payments for merchants that sell items through the retail giant's website. The pairing will allow merchants on Walmart's marketplace platform to accept and make payments, while managing cash flow using JPMorgan's systems, said Lia Cao, head of embedded finance and solutions at the largest U.S. bank."
MSN
"In 2023, Walmart notched a whopping $611 billion in revenue — a 6.7% increase from an already impressive 2022. So when Walmart recently indicated its desire to cut out payment companies, the news garnered headlines."
Business Wire
"Walmart Business announced the ability for customers to access solutions from Clover, a leading business management platform for small and medium-sized businesses from Fiserv, a global provider of payments and financial services technology solutions."
MSN
"Walmart says it will soon allow customers shopping online to pay directly from their bank accounts for an instant transaction...“We’re proud to offer our customers greater choice in how to pay – and pleased to bring the option of real-time payments forward in retail,” the spokesperson said."
bloomberg
"Walmart Inc. customers will soon have the option to pay directly from their bank accounts with instant transfers for online purchases. The enhanced feature is a flash point in the escalating tensions between merchants and the card networks setting the fees for payment processing."
The Street
"Walmart has quietly rolled out a new feature at its stores that is beneficial for paying customers, but bad news for thieves. In a recent TikTok video, a Walmart customer showed herself scanning Great Value items through a self-checkout machine at Walmart without using a barcode."
PR Newswire
"Capital One Financial Corporation and Walmart Inc. announced that they have ended the agreement that made Capital One the exclusive issuer of Walmart Consumer Credit Cards. In 2019, Capital One and Walmart introduced the Capital One Walmart Rewards Credit Card Program."
NBC Connecticut
"Walmart's majority-owned fintech startup One has begun offering buy now, pay later loans for big-ticket items at some of the retailer's more than 4,600 U.S. stores, CNBC has learned. The move puts One in direct competition with Affirm, the BNPL leader and exclusive provider of installment loans for Walmart customers since 2019."
MSN
"Walmart is partnering with Affirm to allow self-checkout customers to “buy now, pay later” in more than 4,500 stores across the U.S. To qualify for the loan, buyers must spend at least $144 on Walmart products, excluding groceries, and with a financing limit of $4,000."
Business Wire
Affirm, announced it has expanded its services with Walmart to bring Affirm’s transparent and flexible pay-over-time options to self-checkout kiosks at over 4,500 Walmart stores in the United States.
Chain Store Age
"The Canadian subsidiary of Walmart is partnering with a well-known global payments provider to offer interest-free buy now, pay later (BNPL) purchases."
MarketWatch
"Big-box retailer Walmart Inc. this week sued credit-card giant Capital One Financial Corp. in an effort to scrap a credit-card partnership between the two, according to The Wall Street Journal. Walmart’s lawsuit alleged that Capital One came up short on its service obligations, failing to replace lost cards or post some transactions to customers’ accounts in a timely manner — claims the credit-card provider said were “immaterial,” the Journal said. A Capital One representative told the Journal it would “vigorously protect our contractual rights in court.”"
Citigroup
"Walmart and Citi are collaborating to introduce the Bridge built by Citi platform (“Bridge”) to Walmart’s 10,000 small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in their US-based supplier network. Bridge is a digital platform that connects SMBs with a diverse group of more than 70 lenders that provide qualifying businesses with loans of up to $10 million."
Reuters
Walmart-backed PhonePe said on Thursday it raised $350 million from private equity firm General Atlantic at a $12 billion valuation, making it India's most valuable payments firm and giving it funds to expand into the lucrative lending space. A second tranche of investments from marquee global and Indian investors is expected to close next month, a PhonePe spokesperson said, declining to give further details.
Newsmax
“A fintech startup whose investors include Walmart will reportedly begin offering a buy now, pay later (BNPL) solution as soon as 2023. According to CNBC, One, a fintech company jointly backed by Walmart and investment firm Ribbit Capital, one of the venture capital firms behind Robinhood, plans to launch a BNPL service that customers could use online and in-store at Walmart as well as other retailers. A source told CNBC that continued economic challenges and inflation are motivating the decision to roll out a new BNPL service. According to a recent study from Juniper Research, the number of BNPL users will surpass 900 million globally by 2027. This will mark an increase of more than 540 million users from 360 million users in 2022. Juniper Research data indicates this 157% growth rate will be driven by an anticipated economic downturn, which will increase the demand for low-cost credit solutions. Interestingly, Walmart has been offering a flexible buy now, pay later ((BNPL) payment option with Affirm since February 2019, when it began allowing customers to use Affirm to make installment payments on purchases at more than 4,000 Walmart Supercenter stores nationwide. Walmart also integrated Affirm as a payment option on the Walmart.com e-commerce site, and makes the service available in Walmart Vision Centers.”
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
“Walmart and Apple have announced plans to offer traditional financial accounts. Walmart’s consumer checking account may advance financial inclusion by increasing account access to unbanked and underbanked consumers. Apple’s consumer savings account may change how credit card issuers offer rewards to their customers. Both offerings are likely to increase competition in the financial services industry, though whether they ultimately benefit consumers remains to be seen. This Payments System Research Briefing examines the two companies’ new offerings, their motivations and target markets, the likely outcomes for their respective customers, and potential implications for the financial services industry.”
