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NewsBriefs

This article contains summaries of news stories recently posted under The study highlighted that industries relying on discre-
Breaking Industry News on our homepage. For links to these and other tionary spending, such as hotels, entertainment, retail and
full news stories, please visit www.greensheet.com/breakingnews.php. travel, would suffer significant losses, with effects persist-
ing well beyond the study's four-year scope. Additionally,
the legislation could introduce new regulatory costs, such
as issuing new cards and enabling network interoperabil-
ity, further straining financial institutions.

Critics, including Richard Hunt of the Electronic Pay-
ments Coalition, argued that the bill will hurt local econo-
mies while benefiting large retailers. Travel-heavy regions
like Miami, Las Vegas, Orlando and Hawaii are expected
to be hit the hardest, as consumer rewards-driven travel
spending would shrink by an estimated $80 billion.

Tourism-dependent regions are pushing back. Liam Lo-
X partners with Visa for instant funding pez, CEO of the South Florida Chamber of Commerce,
said the bill threatens South Florida's economic stability,
X, formerly Twitter, formed a major partnership with Visa while Chris Romer of the Vail Valley Partnership warned
to power instant funding for its upcoming X Money Ac- of $200 million in lost revenue for Colorado's resort areas.
count. This integration, confirmed by X CEO Linda Yac-
carino on Jan. 28, 2025, allows U.S. users to fund their X While the bill has bipartisan support, the Electronic Pay-
wallets in real time using Visa Direct, with instant trans- ments Coalition has launched an aggressive ad campaign
fers to bank accounts via debit cards. While details remain opposing it. Meanwhile, seven in 10 Americans rely on
sparse, this move is a significant step toward X's goal of credit card rewards, with travel perks alone supporting
integrating social media with financial services. $23 billion in annual economic activity. If passed, the
Credit Card Competition Act could reshape the financial
Elon Musk, who has long envisioned X as an "Everything landscape, but at a steep cost to consumers and businesses.
App," aims to position X Money as a competitor to PayPal
and Venmo, with potential cryptocurrency integrations NRF 2025 highlights AI, experiential retail
such as Dogecoin. X has already secured money transmit- The National Retail Federation's 2025 conference, held Jan.
ter licenses in 40 states, a crucial step toward operating as 12 to 14, 2025, in New York City, focused heavily on ar-
a full-fledged payments platform. tificial intelligence (AI) and experiential retail, drawing
40,000 attendees, 1,000 exhibitors and 5,000 brands. Indus-
Industry experts believe X's approach could revolutionize try leaders showcased cutting-edge AI applications in re-
online commerce, embedding payments directly into so- tail, emphasizing personalization, frictionless payments,
cial interactions and reducing cart abandonment. Richard security and customer engagement.
Crone of Crone Consulting LLC noted that this model ties
user engagement to purchases through a seamless attribu- Key AI-driven innovations included:
tion audit trail.
• Personalized shopping experiences: AI helps retail-
X users have expressed excitement about the platform's ers tailor recommendations without direct customer
potential to blend social networking with finance. Despite data, boosting engagement.
optimism, regulatory hurdles remain, as money transmit-
ter businesses must comply with strict federal regulations • One-click guest checkout: PayPal's Fastlane offers
like the Bank Secrecy Act. X's Visa partnership signals a password-free authentication, minimizing fraud and
new era for the platform, but it remains to be seen how the enhancing speed.
service will expand beyond the United States.
• Visual search dominance: Pinterest and other plat-
Americans will lose big if Durbin-Marshall bill passes forms are transforming ecommerce by curating im-
age-based product discovery.
A new Oxford Economics study warned that the Credit
Card Competition Act, championed by Senators Richard • AI-powered content creation: Startups use AI to gen-
Durbin and Roger Marshall, could cost the U.S. economy erate marketing content, reducing reliance on costly
$227 billion in lost activity and over 150,000 jobs. The leg- professional shoots.
islation, which aims to increase competition in the credit
card market, could lead to reduced interchange fees, im- • Dynamic pricing and real-time offers: AI-driven
pacting rewards programs, consumer spending and tour- price optimization helps retailers compete across mul-
ism. tiple sales channels.

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