Online shopping is booming, but so is cart abandonment – studies show roughly 7 in 10 consumers leave items in their cart, often due to complex checkout forms. Reducing this “checkout friction” is now a top priority for e-commerce businesses.

In response, banks and fintech firms are rolling out one-click checkout solutions. One high-profile example is Paze, a new bank-created digital wallet that lets customers pay with cards already on file at their bank, without typing card numbers at checkout. By tokenizing saved cards and integrating into payment platforms, Paze promises a faster, more secure way to pay.

This blog explains how Paze works, how partners like Nuvei and Fiserv are rolling it out, and how it stacks up against existing digital wallets like Apple Pay or PayPal.

The Checkout Friction Challenge

A smooth checkout experience is critical; even one extra field or page can push shoppers to abandon their purchase. Industry data suggest that nearly 71% of online shopping carts are abandoned in the U.S. Common checkout pain points include typing long card numbers on a tiny phone screen, registering a new account, or entering billing details – all of which add time and hassle.

These delays translate directly into lost sales for merchants. PayPal’s research found that speeding up guest checkout (through its Fastlane feature) cut the process from 2.5 minutes and 14 clicks to just 1 minute and four clicks, boosting conversion.

Cryptic address verification, CVV prompts, and complex forms are the opposite of the experience customers now expect. Many shoppers appreciate mobile wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal One Touch) that offer one-tap or one-click payment. But those solutions require customers to have set up that wallet (and often to have devices that support it). Paze aims to bring the convenience of one-click payment directly to consumers through the banks they already use – with no new app or account required.

Paze: A Bank-Powered Digital Wallet

Paze is essentially a “bank wallet” for online shopping. Participating banks and credit unions offer it, allowing customers to pay without revealing their actual card numbers to the merchant. Instead of entering card details or logging into a separate wallet account, a consumer can look for a “Pay with Paze” button at checkout and confirm the payment through their bank’s app or email link.

Paze collects all the consumer’s eligible debit and credit cards into a secure wallet within their bank’s app or website. At supported merchants, the buyer clicks the Paze button and authenticates (for example, by SMS code or mobile app login). The checkout then completes immediately using the customer’s card on file, without requiring any typing.

Paze’s bank wallet interface (example). Many major banks – including Capital One, Bank of America, PNC, Chase, U.S. Bank, Truist, and Wells Fargo – already support Paze. Their cardholders can tap the Paze icon at checkout to pay instantly with a saved card.

Because banks and credit unions provide Paze, customers do not need a new account or app. The payment option appears in the existing bank app, and all eligible cards from that bank are pre-loaded into the wallet. Paze’s official site lists seven central U.S. banks that support it, meaning millions of cards are already enrolled.

This seamless setup removes a significant hurdle where users don’t need to enter card numbers or create a new password for Paze.

Tokenization and Security in One Click

Paze uses tokenization, the same technology behind Apple Pay and Android Pay, to keep payments secure while speeding up checkout. When a customer pays with Paze, the bank generates a network token for the transaction instead of sending the actual 16-digit card number. Essentially, the merchant never sees or stores the real card number – they only get a single-use token.

The bank maps the token back to the customer’s actual card number after the sale. This both protects sensitive data and streamlines the flow. Because the card number is never typed in, there’s no chance of typos that could cause a failed payment or lost sale. Paze creates a short circuit in the payment flow: one tap authenticates the payment with the bank, which instantly authorizes the tokenized transaction.

Paze replaces each actual card number with a secure network token at checkout. The consumer’s card data is hidden and replaced with a masked token, preventing merchants from seeing the actual card details.

By design, Paze’s tokenization significantly reduces PCI scope for merchants and adds a layer of protection. Nuvei’s announcement explains that Paze “replaces sensitive card account numbers with single-use tokens and dynamic identifiers”, shielding the consumer’s real data. Industry analysts note that tokenization not only boosts security but also speeds up transactions by enabling fast routing through modern payment networks.

Paze’s wallet is “gateway-agnostic” and works with any processor that supports network tokens. This means merchants don’t pay any extra fee for Paze itself and may even benefit from lower interchange rates (since network-tokenized transactions can qualify for debit rates).

The overall user experience is essentially one-click checkout. As soon as you click “Pay with Paze” and confirm, the sale is authorized. There are no additional fields, no confirmation e-mail steps, and no new passwords – the whole process can take just a couple of seconds on a modern web browser.

Because everything is linked to the bank, customers see only a quick authentication (often via their mobile banking app) and then are back to the merchant’s order confirmation. This mirrors the speed of “account-on-file” checkouts used by major retailers, but Paze scales it across the open web.

Integration into Payments Platforms

Paze’s value is realized when merchants make it available on their checkout pages. To achieve broad merchant coverage, Early Warning (Paze’s operator) has partnered with major payment platforms and processors.

In September 2025, Canadian payments company Nuvei announced it would integrate Paze into its U.S. e-commerce gateway. Nuvei processes transactions for tens of thousands of merchants, and adding Paze means any Nuvei merchant can offer Paze checkout with a single integration. According to Nuvei’s press release, merchants using Nuvei can now “access a fast, tokenized checkout” in which customers pay with cards already on file with their banks.

Phil Fayer, Nuvei’s CEO, explained that Paze’s familiar bank-based flow combined with Nuvei’s fraud tools will help “boost conversion” and “reduce abandonment.” The idea is that a merchant needs only one code update (through Nuvei) to turn on Paze, giving them a quick way to recover otherwise lost sales. Nuvei’s announcement emphasizes several advantages for merchants. By integrating Paze, merchants can lower cart abandonment rates by reducing checkout friction, while giving customers a seamless payment method linked directly to their bank. These benefits are powered by secure tokenization technology.

Around the same time, Fiserv (a large U.S. payments services firm) announced a collaboration to bring Paze to both banks and merchants. Fiserv will offer Paze to its bank clients and enable Fiserv merchants to accept Paze in checkout. The Fiserv press release emphasizes that Paze’s tokenized checkout provides “added security,” since card numbers are never shared with merchants.

Fiserv’s Deputy Head of Digital Payments, Matt Wilcox, said this gives clients “a future-forward approach to commerce” and a “convenient online checkout solution.” In effect, Fiserv is leveraging its network (which includes thousands of community banks and credit unions) to onboard Paze widely.

Smaller payment providers are also joining. For example, the fintech Payfinia announced in mid-2025 that it would help community banks and credit unions offer Paze. Star One Credit Union was named as the first Payfinia partner to launch Paze. Early Warning’s chief of partnerships noted that Payfinia’s framework gives smaller institutions “a more streamlined path” to offering Paze to their customers.

These distribution deals (Nuvei, Fiserv, Payfinia, and others) build a two-sided network: more banks add Paze, and more merchants accept it. Having big platforms on board is critical – industry experts say broad acceptance by both sides is needed to make any new wallet viable.

Competing with Other Wallets and Checkouts

How does Paze fit into the crowded “wallet” landscape? For consumers, the alternatives are familiar: PayPal (and Venmo), Apple Pay, Google Pay, Shop Pay, Amazon Pay, and other one-click solutions. Many consumers already use these options, and most large online stores already accept one or more of them.

In fact, Apple Pay dominates smartphone wallets – It controls about 92% of the U.S. mobile wallet market and processes roughly 14% of all online payments in 2024. Google Pay and Samsung Pay fill much of the remainder, and newer players like Shop Pay (by Shopify) have gained traction.

In that context, Paze is a late entrant. Early Warning is betting that a bank-backed wallet can gain trust and adoption by filling gaps. Paze’s significant advantage is that actual card numbers are never shared with merchants, addressing customer privacy concerns.

Many consumers worry about third-party apps and resale of their payment data, so the pitch is that a bank-branded wallet feels more secure. Indeed, a Paze survey found that 82% of Americans trust their bank’s security more than that of outside payment apps.

Banks created Paze to compete with PayPal, Apple Pay, and other payment services. The motivation is that when shoppers use PayPal or wallet apps, banks lose visibility and fee revenue. Paze keeps the payment flow within the bank’s ecosystem – the bank issues the token and still earns any interchange. It also means banks can capture data on the merchant and purchase category that they would otherwise forego.

However, skeptics warn that gaining real adoption will be an uphill battle. There are already many wallet options, and a consumer will only use Paze if they trust it will work everywhere they shop. One payments consultant points out that even if Paze catches on at specific merchants, those same merchants likely accept Apple Pay, Google Pay or Shop Pay already.

In other words, from the user’s perspective, most sites are not missing payment options – adding Paze may feel redundant unless it offers a compelling advantage. Apple Pay alone is supported by over 90% of U.S. retailers.

Paze can “overcome the lag” of late entry, though they acknowledge Zelle (Early Warning’s P2P app) did similarly come from behind to dominate bank-to-bank transfers.

Paze is playing in a “wallet war.” Its unique selling point is the bank relationship – customers are already logged in to their bank and authenticated with Face ID or a PIN so that payments can be instant. That trust could persuade some customers to pick Paze when it’s available. On the other hand, one-click convenience already exists in many forms. Whether Paze will win a meaningful share of wallet depends on how many major merchants adopt it and how quickly the banks market it.

Benefits for Merchants and Consumers

If Paze does gain traction, who stands to gain the most? Merchants benefit from higher conversion rates. Every extra step in a checkout is a drop-off point; eliminating fields and password prompts can win back sales. Because Paze reduces friction and errors (for instance, pre-filled address and card info), merchants should see fewer abandoned carts.

Merchants also save on fraud liability and compliance burden when tokens are used instead of raw card data. Smaller merchants (who often don’t have their own one-click system) get access to a bank-backed checkout with relatively little development effort.

For consumers, the main benefit is speed and convenience. For someone already banking with a participating bank, checkout is as simple as clicking a button and maybe approving it in the bank’s app. There is no need to fish out a wallet, dig up a card, or remember which provider to use. It also reduces typing mistakes as studies show a single address typo can scuttle a purchase, so pre-filled information means fewer errors.

And because the actual card number is never exposed, consumers get extra peace of mind – some surveys find many people worry about card skimmers or data breaches during checkout. With Paze, the bank itself handles the sensitive data.

Consumers also benefit from continuity. If they have multiple cards at one bank, they can load all of them into Paze and choose at checkout. If a card expires or is replaced, the bank can automatically update tokens (like existing account updater services), keeping the wallet current. Finally, Paze can work on any device via the web; it isn’t tied to mobile devices alone.

Challenges and Outlook

Despite the promise, Paze faces challenges. Getting merchant acceptance is critical as consumers won’t adopt Paze if it’s only accepted at a handful of niche stores. Early Warning’s strategy has been to rely on big processor partnerships (Nuvei, Fiserv, Worldpay, etc.) to reach merchants of all sizes.

The recent alliance with Worldpay (now part of FIS) is meant to open doors to Worldpay’s massive merchant base. Meanwhile, convincing all banks to join takes time. So far, all the founding bank owners of Early Warning support Paze, plus the new agreements via Fiserv and Payfinia are rapidly adding credit unions and community banks.

Some skeptics also point out that network effects are hard to reverse. Most consumers already have a default payment method – often a mobile wallet or a store’s one-click feature. Asking them to switch or add Paze requires marketing and incentives. To help, Early Warning is running merchant promotions (cashback deals and discounts) to encourage people to try Paze. Over time, they hope the convenience will speak for itself.

Another challenge is awareness. Consumers need to recognize the Paze logo at checkout and understand what it does.

Conclusion

Paze is a bank-centric answer to the one-click checkout puzzle. It’s a natural extension of banks’ existing digital offerings (like Zelle) into e-commerce. For companies looking to streamline payments, Paze offers an innovative option that leverages the card-on-file infrastructure already in place at banks.

If all parties – banks, processors, merchants, and shoppers – play along, it could indeed make online payments more frictionless. Time will tell whether Paze can capture users’ attention in a world already full of wallets.

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