National class action law firm offers free, confidential case evaluations to Affordable Mortgage Advisors (HMA Mortgage) customers whose personal information may have been exposed in the reported data breach.

NEWTOWN, Pa., Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Edelson Lechtzin LLP, a national class action law firm, is investigating data privacy claims arising from a reported data breach at Affordable Mortgage Advisors LLC, which does business as HMA Mortgage. Anyone who has received a data breach notice from Affordable Mortgage Advisors or HMA Mortgage, or who believes their personal information may have been exposed, can request a free case evaluation.

Affordable Mortgage Advisors data breach — at a glance

Company: Affordable Mortgage Advisors LLC, a Pittsburgh-based, privately owned retail mortgage lender doing business as HMA Mortgage, originating home-purchase and refinancing loans across multiple U.S. states.Reported: The incident was disclosed to the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation on September 18, 2026, and reported to state regulators.How it reportedly happened: According to public accounts, an unauthorized actor gained access to Affordable Mortgage Advisors’ computer systems and may have acquired files containing personal information.When: The unauthorized access is reported to have occurred between July 7, 2025, and September 9, 2025. The company reportedly discovered the incident on or about August 25, 2025, and completed its review of the affected data on August 21, 2026.Who may be affected: Regulatory filings identify 957 Texas residents and at least one Massachusetts resident, with additional individuals potentially affected nationwide.Status: Certain details of the incident, including its full scope and total number of people affected, remain unconfirmed or have not been publicly detailed.Cost to you: Nothing. Click HERE for a free evaluation.

What Happened

According to public accounts, Affordable Mortgage Advisors LLC, doing business as HMA Mortgage, disclosed that an unauthorized actor accessed its computer systems. Reports indicate the unauthorized access occurred between July 7, 2025, and September 9, 2025, and that the company discovered the incident on or about August 25, 2025.

The company reportedly launched a forensic investigation with outside cybersecurity professionals and, after completing a comprehensive review on August 21, 2026, determined that personal information may have been affected. Affordable Mortgage Advisors disclosed the incident to the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation on September 18, 2026.

Important details — including the incident’s true scope, the specific data involved for each individual, and the total number of people affected nationwide — have not been fully confirmed publicly.

What Personal Information May Be at Risk

Based on public accounts and regulatory filings, the information potentially involved may include:

NamesAddressesSocial Security numbersFinancial account information, such as credit and debit card numbers

Mortgage lenders maintain highly sensitive personal and financial information. Exposing Social Security numbers, combined with financial account information, can increase the risk of identity theft, fraudulent account creation, tax fraud, unauthorized transactions, and other misuse. Affected individuals should treat any breach notification they receive seriously.

Who May Be Affected

The investigation focuses on current and former Affordable Mortgage Advisors and HMA Mortgage customers whose personal information the company maintained. Anyone who has received a data breach notification connected to this incident may face an increased risk of identity theft and fraud and is encouraged to come forward.

Your Legal Options

Edelson Lechtzin LLP is investigating a potential class action to pursue legal remedies on behalf of individuals whose sensitive personal data may have been compromised in the reported breach. A successful case could recover compensation for losses such as lost time, out-of-pocket costs, and loss of privacy, and could push Affordable Mortgage Advisors to strengthen how it protects personal information. The firm will evaluate your rights and potential claims at no cost.

Recommended Steps to Protect Yourself

Review your account statements and credit reports regularly and stay alert for suspicious activity.Confirm whether your information was involved in the Affordable Mortgage Advisors incident.Preserve any letters or emails you received about the breach.If credit monitoring was offered in your notice, consider enrolling, and consider placing a fraud alert or security freeze with the three major credit bureaus.

Contact Us for a Free Case Evaluation

Speak confidentially with a data privacy attorney today: Marc Edelson, Esq., Edelson Lechtzin LLP, 411 S. State Street, Suite N-300, Newtown, PA 18940; Phone: 844-696-7492; Email: medelson@edelson-law.com; Web: www.edelson-law.com.

About Edelson Lechtzin LLP

Edelson Lechtzin LLP is a national class action law firm with offices in Pennsylvania and California. In addition to data breach litigation, the firm handles class and collective actions involving securities and investment fraud, federal antitrust violations, ERISA employee benefit plans, wage theft, and consumer fraud.

Media and Partnership Inquiries: Use the contact information above to connect with our team regarding interviews, co-counsel opportunities, and referral partnerships.

Legal Notice: This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The reported data breach described above, and certain details concerning it, remain unconfirmed.

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SOURCE Edelson Lechtzin LLP

SHANGHAI, Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — PATEO (02889.HK) recently signed a strategic cooperation Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Arm to advance innovation in physical AI. As part of this collaboration, PATEO and Arm will explore innovative solutions for physical AI applications, including next-generation AI-enabled workloads for automotive that enable perception-driven and interaction-driven intelligence.

Industry Trend: AI is Moving into the Physical World, with Automobiles Emerging as a Key Platform

Physical AI is rapidly entering a new phase of industrial deployment, capable of real-time interaction between intelligent agents and the physical world and enabling machines to perform perception, understanding, decision-making, and action in a closed-loop system. This allows them to operate autonomously and continuously adapt in complex environments. As mobile intelligent terminals that integrate sensing, computing, connectivity, and control, vehicles are emerging as one of the most scalable application domains for physical AI.

As intelligent vehicles evolve from isolated feature innovations to holistic intelligent experiences, in-vehicle AI workloads are expanding beyond traditional applications such as voice assistants, navigation, and infotainment to encompass increasingly sophisticated scenarios, including multimodal perception, cockpit-driving integration, real-time interaction, and in-vehicle AI agents.

This evolution places greater demands on underlying computing platforms. In addition to delivering high computing power, these platforms also need to provide low power consumption, real-time responsiveness, reliability, and functional safety. Achieving this requires close collaboration across IP, chips, operating systems, algorithms, applications, and cloud platforms, supported by an open and thriving ecosystem. Computing innovation for physical AI is increasingly becoming an important direction for the next stage of competition in intelligent vehicle development.

Deepening Collaboration to Accelerate Innovation Across the Physical AI Stack

As a global leader in computing platforms, Arm brings extensive expertise in automotive technologies and a broad industry ecosystem. PATEO is a Tier 1 supplier with full-stack capabilities spanning intelligent cockpits and connected vehicle technologies, supported by an integrated technology platform covering software, hardware, chips, and cloud services.

The collaboration will further strengthen innovation between the two companies in intelligent vehicles and physical AI, while providing new momentum for PATEO’s integrated “Software, Hardware, Chip, and Cloud” strategy.

Liang Chen, Vice President of PATEO, commented:

“Innovation has always been the core driving force behind PATEO’s growth. Today, AI is rapidly evolving from the cloud to the edge computing and entering a new era of physical AI. We believe that open ecosystem collaboration is essential to accelerating the commercialization and adoption of physical AI technologies. The Arm compute platform is already widely deployed across the automotive industry, adopted by a broad software ecosystem, and the company shares a clear vision for the future of physical AI. We are delighted to partner with Arm to explore innovative physical AI applications and work together to foster innovation and growth across the industry.”

Building Capabilities: Accelerating Progress Towards “AI-Defined Vehicles”

As an AI-driven company, PATEO has long recognized that AI is evolving from the cloud to the edge and from standalone capabilities to holistic vehicle intelligence. The company also foresaw that AI would increasingly become a defining factor in shaping vehicle experiences and competitive differentiation.

Based on this vision, PATEO established its “AI-Defined Vehicles” development philosophy and has continued to increase investment in physical AI in recent years, building a comprehensive foundation spanning technology architecture, product platforms, and mass-production deployment. Commercially, PATEO’s AI-related business generated approximately RMB 209 million in revenue in the first half of 2026, representing year-on-year growth of 588.6%. This reflects the transition of AI commercialization from proof-of-concept to scaled deployment. At the same time, leveraging its extensive mass-production experience with products such as intelligent cockpit domain controllers, PATEO has developed end-to-end capabilities spanning technology development, platform integration, and large-scale deployment. These capabilities provide a strong foundation for bringing innovative physical AI solutions into real-world applications.

Looking ahead, PATEO will continue to embrace an open and collaborative approach, working closely with industry partners to advance physical AI innovation and accelerate its deployment in in-vehicle scenarios. Together, these efforts will help drive the evolution of intelligent vehicles toward more advanced levels of intelligence, delivering safer, smarter, and more efficient mobility experiences for users around the world.

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Boston Consulting Group’s 24th Annual Global Payments Report Finds Industry Revenue Will Reach $2.6 Trillion by 2030, with Annual Growth Slowing to 5%, Down from 7% over the Past Five YearsGrowth Is Diverging Sharply by Region, with the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America Expanding Far Faster Than North America and EuropeThe Payments Sector Now Trades Well Below Historic Valuation Levels, a Gap That BCG Estimates at $500 BillionA Wave of Government-Driven Payment Sovereignty Is Fragmenting the Global Rails That Companies Use to Move Money Across Borders

BOSTON, Sept. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Global payments revenue will grow at just 5% annually through 2030, according to Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) latest Global Payments Report, down from 7% over the past five years. On track to reach $2.6 trillion by 2030, the sector remains in expansion, but growth is slowing and shifting. North America and Europe account for approximately 85% of the revenue pool but are expected to grow at 5% through 2030. The corresponding growth numbers for the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America are 8% and 7%, respectively.

These findings come as payments companies face a historic reset in investor sentiment. Many of them now trade roughly 25% below their 10-year average valuations and nearly 50% below their prior peak. Closing this gap would add an estimated $500 billion in market capitalization across the sector. Operating leverage has turned negative as costs, driven by wages, cloud spending, and fragmented technology stacks have outpaced revenue over the past three years.

The report, BCG’s 24th annual analysis of the global payments industry, draws on proprietary revenue models and a survey of nearly 500 large merchants globally.

“For most of the past decade, payments companies could count on broad-based growth almost anywhere they operated,” said Inderpreet Batra, a BCG managing director and senior partner and global head of the firm’s payments and fintech segment, and a coauthor of the report. “That’s no longer true. Growth is real, but it’s concentrating in specific regions and specific business models, and leaders need a much sharper view of where they can actually win.”

AI Is Strengthening the Position of Leading Payments Companies

BCG’s research finds that companies that already perform well are using AI to lower costs, improve products, and deepen customer relationships. That advantage compounds, making it structurally harder for slower-moving competitors to close the distance and raising the cost of falling behind even as AI tools become more widely available across the industry.

Merchants Are Evaluating Acquirers and Preparing for Agentic Commerce

Merchants are professionalizing their payments. According to BCG’s proprietary survey of large merchants, about half of large merchants review their acquirer annually, and 44% have switched or added their provider in the past five years. As AI agents begin initiating and managing purchases on consumers’ behalf, merchants are signaling that acquirer readiness for this shift toward agentic commerce is now a competitive requirement, not a future consideration:

73% of large merchants surveyed say they would switch acquirers for better support preparing for agent-initiated transactions.Acquirers and payment service providers rank as merchants’ second most-preferred partner for this shift, behind only large technology platforms.BCG’s report observes that acquirers who build agent authentication, tokenization, and delegated-consent capabilities can differentiate themselves and capture more of the resulting volume.

AI Is Accelerating Automation in Transaction Banking

BCG’s research finds that AI is closing a long-standing gap in trade finance, where paper-heavy processes have historically limited straight-through processing to between 30% and 70% of transactions. AI-driven document intelligence is now achieving accuracy above 85% for early adopters, allowing banks to automate document review across the trade life cycle, from basic bills of lading to anti-money-laundering checks. The same technology is extending into wire payment repair and sanctions screening, functions that have long resisted automation and account for a disproportionate share of banks’ operating costs.

Sovereignty Is Reshaping the Global Payments Map

Governments worldwide are treating payment infrastructure as a matter of economic sovereignty, increasingly fragmenting what was once a small number of dominant global networks into a patchwork of domestic and regional systems:

137 countries now have 24-7 instant payment systems, and public authorities play a central role in many of these systems—including India’s UPI, which clears more than 20 billion transactions a month, and 36 African systems that move nearly $2 trillion annually.In July 2026, the European Parliament approved opening negotiations on legislation for a digital euro, which the European Central Bank has framed as protection against a payments landscape dominated by non-European card schemes and dollar-linked stablecoins.Newer efforts such as mBridge, which already settles cross-border payments in central bank digital currencies, and BRICS Pay, which targets a 2026 rollout, aim to reduce reliance on dollar-denominated rails. Neither yet rivals the reach of established global networks, however, and BRICS members have not uniformly committed to the initiative.

“System-critical payments infrastructure is becoming an instrument of national policy, not just a utility for moving money,” said Markus Ampenberger, a BCG managing director and partner, and a coauthor of the report. “Winning payment providers will be the ones that can give clients reach across a fragmented system without forcing them to manage that fragmentation themselves.”

Download the articles that make up the report here: Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, and Article 4.

Media Contact:
Bruce Wraight, wraight.bruce@bcg.com

About Boston Consulting Group
Boston Consulting Group bridges the gap between ambition and outcomes for the world’s leading companies and organizations. We are built for this era of unprecedented change—bringing strategic clarity rooted in over 60 years of deep domain knowledge, combined with applied AI shaped by our practitioners. BCG works shoulder-to-shoulder with CEOs across industries and geographies to deliver transformative impact at scale: stronger returns, transferred capabilities, and change that sticks. For more information, visit bcg.com.

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SOURCE Boston Consulting Group (BCG)