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A leading payments industry news source for more than 17 years. Glenbrook curates the news and keeps you abreast of the important daily headlines in payments.
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November 11, 2025
Top Post
Visa Unveils 2025 Creator Report; Introduces Creator Agent Pilot with Karat
Visa
"Visa is using the scale of its network to help creators easily and securely pay and get paid, access capital and grow their enterprises with the same tools and resources available to small businesses worldwide. Visa’s new creator-research, Monetized: Visa 2025 Creator Report is a comprehensive study of the creator economy spanning five regions. In tandem with the report, Visa introduced plans to explore a potential agentic pilot program with Karat Financial. Karat is a fintech leader in the creator space, providing credit cards and business banking tailored to creators."
On the web
How Visa is Preparing for the Agentic Commerce Era
Retail TouchPoints
"In this episode of Retail Remix, host Nicole Silberstein sits down with Rob Cameron, Global Head of Acceptance Solutions at Visa, to explore how the rise of agentic AI, is shaping the future of commerce, and with it payments. Rob shares how Visa is preparing for this shift with its Trusted Agent Protocol. This conversation dives deep into the payment infrastructure that will be required to enable this next era of ecommerce."
Bank of England Launches Consultation on Regulating Systemic Stablecoins
Bank of England
"The Bank of England published a consultation paper setting out its proposed regulatory regime for sterling-denominated systemic stablecoins. Such stablecoins are a new type of digital money designed to maintain a stable value and could be used for retail payments and wholesale settlement in the future. This marks a significant step in preparing for a future where new forms of digital money may be widely used for payments alongside existing ones."
Anchorage Digital Selects Modern Treasury to Power Money Movement Infrastructure
Business Wire
Modern Treasury announced that Anchorage Digital — a leading global crypto platform for innovators and investors — will use Modern Treasury’s infrastructure to power its money movement and ledgering. Anchorage Digital provides institutional-grade trading, staking, governance, custody, stablecoin issuance, and settlement for digital assets. With Modern Treasury, Anchorage Digital can automate money movement via multiple financial providers through a single platform and automate payment flows across wires, ACH, and real-time rails.
Extend and PNC Bank Collaborate to Modernize Commercial Card Payments for Businesses
Business Wire
"Extend, a leading artificial intelligence-powered spend and expense management platform, and PNC Bank announced new modern payment capabilities for PNC’s commercial clients. By enrolling their existing PNC Bank commercial cards, businesses can access Extend’s mobile and web platform—unlocking a full suite of digital tools to control, manage, and optimize business spend within minutes."
Venmo Introduces 'Venmo Stash' to Reinvent Rewards
PayPal Newsroom
"Venmo announced the launch of Venmo Stash1, a rewards program designed to give customers more value that grows with every interaction. Venmo Stash is always on and flexible, evolving alongside customers as they engage across Venmo's expanding suite of products and services. Venmo Stash builds on the app's evolution from a peer-to-peer payment app into an everyday commerce platform, designed to drive greater engagement with Venmo products."
Jack Dorsey's Block Enables Bitcoin Payments for Millions of Square Sellers
Decrypt
"Block, the payments infrastructure firm led by Jack Dorsey, has enabled Bitcoin payments for 4 million merchants globally using the Square Bitcoin feature of its point-of-sale platform. The integration allows merchants to accept Bitcoin at checkout with instant settlement via Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, with no fees until 2027. Sellers can automatically convert a portion of their daily card sales into Bitcoin as well."
Brazil Puts Stablecoins Under FX Rules
Disrupt Africa
"Brazil’s central bank will treat stablecoin payments as foreign-exchange operations while extending consumer-protection standards and licensing to crypto providers. Stricter rules typically reduce scams and increase mainstream comfort, laying groundwork for broader crypto adoption as regulated on-ramps mature."
On the wires
Paystand Acquires Bitwage to Make Stablecoins Enterprise-Grade for Global B2B Finance
Business Wire
"Paystand, the leading blockchain‑powered B2B payments network, announced it has acquired Bitwage, the leading platform for stablecoin‑enabled cross‑border payouts. The deal positions Paystand to deliver enterprise‑grade stablecoin settlement and FX across its network, which has processed more than $20 billion in payment volume for 1,000+ enterprises and more than one million businesses worldwide."
Episode Six and Fireblocks Join Forces to Deliver Unified Payments Solution Bridging Traditional and Digital Finance
Business Wire
"Episode Six and Fireblocks announced the co-development of a unified payments solution at Singapore Fintech Festival. The payments solution seamlessly integrates traditional and digital finance, bringing fiat, stablecoins, loyalty points, and other digital assets onto a single, programmable platform, empowering financial institutions to operate across asset classes with speed, security, and flexibility."
Basys Launches iQ Pro+: A Proprietary Payments Platform Built for Business Owners, by Payment Experts
PR Newswire
"Basys announced the launch of iQ Pro+, a proprietary, all-in-one payments platform engineered entirely in-house. Purpose-built to meet the real-world demands of modern business owners, iQ Pro+ marks Basys' bold shift from reselling third-party tools to delivering full-stack innovation at scale."
November 10, 2025
On the web
Italy’s Banks Support Ecb’s Digital Euro Plan, but Want to Spread Out Costs Over Time: Reuters
The Block
"Italy’s banks support the European Central Bank’s plan to introduce a digital euro but want its required investments to be spread out over time, a top official of Italy’s banking association said, per Reuters. The ECB in recent weeks has advanced its plan to introduce a digital euro, finalizing a roadmap with EU finance ministers to develop the central bank digital currency (CBDC), projected to launch in 2029 given EU approval next year."
Paytm Unveils All-New App With AI Features to Enhance Payment Experience
Business Standard
"Paytm, India's full-stack merchant payments leader, has launched a redesigned version of its flagship app, integrating artificial intelligence-driven features to personalise everyday transactions for its users. The update introduces a cleaner user interface alongside over 15 new features. One of the standout innovations is the launch of "Gold Coins," a first-of-its-kind initiative that rewards users with digital gold on every payment, adding a valuable savings dimension to regular transactions."
Stablecoins Surpass Bitcoin as Go‑To Cryptocurrency for Illicit Transactions
Bitget
"While stablecoins aim to keep their value steady by being tied to fiat currencies, their expanding presence in digital finance has made them central to the movement of funds within blockchain networks. They play a vital role in decentralized finance (DeFi), aid cross-border payments, and help sustain liquidity. Yet, as their circulation widens, these same advantages have also drawn the attention of criminal networks, with stablecoins now beginning to replace Bitcoin as the favored option for money laundering and related illegal transfers."
On the wires
Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement With Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports
Reuters-WSJ
"U.S. payment firms Visa and Mastercard nearing a settlement with merchants by lowering fees stores pay and giving them more power to reject certain credit cards, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with matter. Visa and Mastercard would trim interchange fees, typically 2% to 2.5% per transaction, by an average of about a tenth of a percentage point over several years, the Journal reported citing sources. The companies would also ease rules that currently require merchants accepting one network credit card type to accept all of them."
November 7, 2025
Top Post
The Supply Side: Walmart’s Launch of Agentic Commerce Comes With Risks
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."
On the web
Alacriti Unifies Account Validation and Verification in a Single Platform To Cut Payment Risk
Alacriti
"Alacriti, announced the launch of its Orbipay Bank Account Validation & Verification Service (BVV), offering businesses and financial institutions a modern, unified approach to securing bank account-based payments. Clients who accept bank accounts for payments and payouts face mounting challenges, including ongoing Nacha compliance for Web Debits and fraud risk from compromised bank accounts. Traditional alternatives, such as manual processes, challenge deposits, and ACH Prenotes, are often slow, costly, and disrupt the customer experience. Orbipay BVV addresses these issues by offering two core, real-time options..."
The Next Chapter of Transaction Banking: Integrating Stablecoins & Tokenized Deposits
Fireblocks
"By the time of Sibos 2025, banks and policymakers seemed to agree: digital money will be part of the operating models of traditional finance. The question now is how to make it happen. The urgency comes from a structural shift already under way. For the first time in regulated finance, value can meaningfully cross borders without banks. Virtual asset service providers are already moving stablecoins from Singapore to São Paulo without correspondent banks."
Mastercard on Agentic Payments: How AI Agents, Tokenization, and Authentication Will Redefine Digital Commerce
Bank Info Security
"As commerce enters the era of AI-driven transactions, Mastercard is helping define what secure, trusted digital payments look like when machines act on behalf of people. In this discussion, Pablo Fourez, Chief Digital Officer at Mastercard, joins Rory O’Neill, Chief Marketing Officer at Checkout.com, to explore how agentic payments, powered by tokenization, biometric authentication, and intent-based consent, will reshape the architecture of digital commerce."
MoneyGram Partners with Oscilar to Build the Future of AI-Powered Risk Intelligence for Global Payments
PR Newswire
"MoneyGram, a leading global payments network for consumers, businesses and communities, today announced a strategic partnership with Oscilar, the AI Risk Decisioning™ Platform, to power its next-generation risk infrastructure. The collaboration advances MoneyGram's AI-first strategy, delivering real-time risk intelligence across its global network to drive greater efficiency, agility and performance."
Bitcoin.com and Concordium to Launch Age-Verified Stablecoin Payments
Daily Coin
"As governments around the world tighten online age checks and digital identity requirements, Bitcoin.com is partnering with Layer-1 blockchain Concordium to test a new privacy-focused verification system for stablecoin payments. The integration, expected to launch soon, will enable age-verified transactions for more than 75 million wallets worldwide, potentially opening the door for crypto to enter mainstream e-commerce."
Paytm Partners with Groq to Power Real-Time AI for Payments and Platform Intelligence
Konexio Network
"Paytm, India’s full-stack merchant payments leader and the pioneer of mobile payments, QR codes, and Soundbox, announced a partnership with Groq, the U.S.-based leader in real-time AI inference, to bring fast, intelligent, and cost-efficient AI to its platform. Under this collaboration, Paytm and its associate entities will deploy GroqCloud, to achieve faster, more cost-efficient and scalable AI inference compared to conventional GPU-based systems."
Canada’s Federal Budget Includes Open Banking, Payments, Stablecoins as Key Focus Areas
Crowdfund Insider
"The Canadian Government has released its budget for the year 2025. The budget primarily centers on several major themes, such as: shifting from reliance to resilience, adequately protecting Canada’s sovereignty as well as security, and building a stronger Canadian economy. The budget confirms the importance of payments in enabling these core objectives via: Safer payments; more choice for Canadians; faster payments; consumer-driven banking; stablecoins; transparent international remittances; fixing misdirected payments."
RuPay Emerges as India’s Preferred Credit Card Network - All Thanks to UPI Integration
MSN
"Analysts said, RuPay has recently gained momentum in the credit-card ecosystem due to the availability of credit cards on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform. They said that currently, RuPay's share in the credit-card market is around 16 per cent as against about 3 percent two years ago, they added. In late 2022, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had given the approval to link RuPay credit-cards only to UPI."
Education: FedACH® Service: The Rise of the Automated Payment System
FRB Services
"In the 1970s, the Federal Reserve and banking industry began to look for solutions to improve the paper check system. Compared to the speed of wire transfers, paper checks took a long time to process. Plus, their volume was increasing, which was straining the system."
November 6, 2025
On the web
Profile Discover’s Data Manager Helps Foil Credit Card Fraudsters
IEEE Spectrum
"Credit card companies use a variety of methods to detect fraud, which is the most common type of identity theft and is on the rise, according to Experian, one of the major consumer credit information services. To help prevent unauthorized transactions, IEEE Senior Member Pankaj Gupta is developing tools using data integration, artificial intelligence , machine learning, and real-time account monitoring. Gupta is a manager of data and analytics engineering for Discover. “The innovations my fraud department has developed have helped my organization respond to threats faster and adapt more easily to future needs,” he says."
American Express and Emburse Announce Expanded Partnership and New Ways to Automate Expense Management for Emburse Enterprise Customers
American Express
"American Express and Emburse are expanding their strategic partnership with the launch of two new features — American Express Virtual Card issuance and Real-Time Transaction Data — in Emburse Enterprise Expense, an AI-powered platform that helps large organizations simplify travel, expense, invoice, and payment workflows while improving visibility and control."
Beyond QR Codes: The Indonesian Unicorn Driving Southeast Asia’s Digital Payments Evolution
NBC
"Indonesian fintech unicorn Xendit is helping reshape Southeast Asia’s payment landscape by offering Stripe-like infrastructure tailored to the region’s unique challenges. In this episode of CNBC’s “Beyond the Valley,” Xendit co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Tessa Wijaya joins Arjun Kharpal at the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) to discuss unifying a fragmented payments system landscape, learning from her first startup in the food business and the challenge of moving the Asian payment market away from QR codes."
Banks Submit Recommendations on Treasury’s Implementation of the GENIUS Act
Bank Policy Institute
"BPI, the American Bankers Association, Consumer Bankers Association, Financial Services Forum and The Clearing House Association responded to a U.S. Department of the Treasury Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on its implementation of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS) Act. The submission asks Treasury to develop regulations that preserve the benefits of payment stablecoins for their intended use in payments and settlements, without causing undue risks for consumers, other stablecoin holders or users, competition, credit availability, illicit finance, or financial stability."
On the wires
Adyen Expands In Person Payments Offering With Launch of Two New Terminals
PR Newswire
"Adyen announced the release of two new terminals; the S1E4 Pro and S1F4 Pro. Designed to thrive in challenging environments across various sectors including retail, food & beverage (F&B), hospitality and beauty & wellness, the introduction of these latest terminals marks the latest step forward for Adyen's in-person payments solutions."
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