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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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August 28, 2026
Top Post
Advent, Stripe Are Said to Abandon $50 Billion Pursuit of PayPal
Yahoo Finance
"A consortium of buyout firm Advent and payment processor Stripe has decided to abandon its pursuit of fintech pioneer PayPal Holdings Inc. (PYPL), according to people familiar with the matter."
On the web
How Teens and Young Adults are Victimized: Understanding Scam Risk Across Customer Segments
The Federal Reserve
"Teens and young adults increasingly are becoming targets of sophisticated payment scams — often with serious financial consequences. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), individuals ages 29 and under lost nearly $500 million to scams in 2025 (Off-site), a 20% increase since 2021. As scam losses among this group have risen, financial institutions have an opportunity to strengthen education, implement targeted controls and build trust with younger account holders who face unique vulnerabilities."
BankChain Alliance Gives 3,283 Community Banks Ownership Stake in Digital Payment Rail
"39 US state banking associations announced the BankChain Alliance, a nationwide bank-owned and governed blockchain network for tokenized deposits, bank-issued stablecoins, smart payment tools, and automated settlement. The alliance represents 3,283 banks holding $21.8 trillion in assets. The network, is designed to be owned, designed, and governed by member banks. Participating institutions will be able to acquire ownership stakes."
Charles Schwab to Add Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink to Crypto Offerings
Crypto News
"$13 trillion Charles Schwab said it plans to offer Solana ($SOL), Avalanche ($AVAX) and Chainlink ($LINK) trading for clients in the coming months. The move expands Schwab Crypto offerings beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum."
Visa Signs Shinhan Financial as First Korean Bank on Its Stablecoin Platform
Startup Fortune
"Shinhan Financial Group announced that it had signed a strategic business agreement with Visa to work on stablecoins, AI-based payments and business payment services. Visa is not just talking about crypto from a stage. It has persuaded one of South Korea's biggest financial groups to test real bank payment functions on its enterprise stablecoin platform: issuance, remittance, redemption, card settlement, B2B and B2C payments, and AI-linked payment models"
Education: ACH vs SWIFT: Which Rail Fits Your Business Payments
OneSafe
"ACH remains the dominant U.S. batch payment rail by scale. The Federal Reserve reported 20.109 billion commercial ACH transactions in 2024, worth $42.497 trillion, with an average transaction value of $2,113. Federal Reserve ACH statistics show why ACH remains central to payroll, recurring collections, and domestic vendor payments. SWIFT solves a different problem. It provides standardized financial messaging between institutions across borders, usually through correspondent banking relationships."
On the wires
Experian Launches Credit Cards App on ChatGPT, Offering a New Way to Discover Card Offers
Business Wire
"Experian announced the launch of the Experian Credit Cards app on ChatGPT, expanding its growing portfolio of AI-powered financial experiences and giving consumers a new way to discover and compare credit card options through a simple conversation."
August 27, 2026
Top Post
Swift Accepts Community Request to Extend Structured Address Migration for ISO 20022 Payment Messages
Swift
"Swift will apply a controlled extension of Standards Release 2026: Swift will defer all payments changes. For the structured address requirement, Swift over the coming weeks will consult with banks, central banks, and payment market infrastructures as well as with market practice groups and corporates to define the optimal timing and approach. It will provide an update by December, at the latest, as part of its governance cycle. Other payments changes planned for November will be phased separately."
Why Payee Verification Is Becoming Critical Payments Infrastructure
Global Banking & Finance Review
"Name-checking controls are moving from optional fraud-prevention tools to a core layer of real-time payment infrastructure as faster transfers reduce the time available to detect and reverse mistakes or scams. The European Central Bank explains that payment service providers in the euro area must offer Verification of Payee for both standard and instant credit transfers, free of charge to the payer, with the obligation applying from 9 October 2025. The service is designed to warn customers of discrepancies before a transfer is initiated."
On the web
U.S. Faster Payments Council Report Evaluates Emerging Approaches to Cross-Border Payment Interoperability
EIN Presswire
"The U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC) announced the publication of a report, Interoperability: Bridging the Cross-Border Gap in a Faster Payments World, developed by the FPC Cross-Border Payments Work Group, sponsored by Mastercard. The report examines the end-to-end cross-border payment journey through the lens of interoperability, exploring why advances in faster payments, ISO 20022 adoption, and emerging digital settlement models have yet to fully overcome complexity associated with moving money across borders."
Visa Expands Support for its Clients and the Industry as Organisations Navigate New AI Era of Cybersecurity
Visa
"Visa announced enhancements to its cybersecurity portfolio to help organisations identify and fix vulnerabilities more effectively. Unveiling the next evolution of the Visa Vulnerability Agentic Harness (VVAH), its open-source, model-agnostic framework, Visa is helping organisations significantly reduce the Mean Time to Adapt, the time between discovery and resolution of attack paths, with some resolutions shrinking from weeks to hours."
Retailers Rank Richer Payments Data as the Top Benefit of Payments Orchestration, New ACI Worldwide Research Finds
ACI Worldwide
"Access to richer payments performance data across all channels was the payments orchestration benefit retail payments professionals selected most often, at 47%, according to new research from ACI Worldwide. The research was commissioned and funded by ACI and designed and fielded by Retail Systems. The findings are published in the report, The Revenue Hidden in Plain Sight: Closing the Retail Payments Optimization Gap."
Visa Tests First Live International Payment Transaction in Syria
TechAfrica News
"Visa announced they have tested the first live international transaction in Syria, marking an important milestone in supporting the country’s financial services sector. Working with Fransabank Lebanon as the acquiring financial institution and Paymera, the test is the start of a historic step toward expanding digital payment capabilities in the market and providing international visitors with a familiar, secure, and convenient way to make payments."
Collctiv Partners with love2shop for Group Savings Platform
Business Cloud
"Love2shop, the UK’s market-leading multi-brand gift card retailer, announced a new partnership with group payments pioneer Collctiv to launch its latest venture, Love2save. Love2save is a new savings platform designed to simplify how UK consumers individually save money or pool money for shared collections. Once savings goals are achieved, funds can be instantly loaded onto a Love2shop Digital gift card or Love2shop Holidays gift card, and then redeemed across an extensive network."
Why Instant Payments Require Instant Security
Treasury and Risk
"Corporate money movement has undergone a seismic shift in the mid-2020s. The Clearing House's Real Time Payments (RTP) network and the Federal Reserve's FedNow system have become mainstream channels within the U.S. financial system. Treasurers reconsidering their payment options need to keep in mind that new and unknown risks come along with this newfound speed and efficiency. Instant-payment rails operate with a potentially dangerous combination of both immediacy and finality."
Regulating Stablecoin Issuance: Permissible Entities and Activities
BIS
"Regulatory approaches for stablecoin issuance differ significantly, particularly in terms of the types of entities allowed to issue them and the scope of activities permitted beyond core issuance. These differences are important since additional activities such as lending, staking or providing custody services can alter an entity's risk profile and influence the safeguards needed for its core issuance operations."
Russian Telecom Giants Prepare to Accept Digital Ruble Payments from Sept. 1
Cryptonews
"Russia’s MTS, Rostelecom and MegaFon have prepared to accept digital ruble payments from Sept. 1 as Russia begins the first stage of its central bank digital currency rollout. For customers, the process will work much like Russia’s Faster Payments System. A user with a digital ruble account can select the digital ruble at checkout, choose a participating bank and approve the transaction through the bank’s interface. The central bank issues the CBDC and operates the underlying platform."
Digital Euro: The ECB Ensures Maximum Privacy
Bit2Me News
"The European Central Bank (ECB) has reaffirmed its commitment to financial confidentiality in the development of its new digital currency. According to recent statements from its executive board, the future digital euro will offer the highest possible level of privacy, ensuring that the Eurosystem cannot link individual users to their everyday transactions. This approach aims to allay concerns about financial surveillance, striking a balance between technological innovation and the fundamental rights of European citizens."
Bank of England to Receive New Secondary Objective to Support Payments Innovation
Lewis Silkin
"The UK government has announced that it intends to give the Bank of England a new secondary objective to support innovation in payment systems and emerging forms of digital money, while continuing to prioritise financial stability. The proposed objective is intended to help make sure that the regulatory framework keeps pace with technological change and creates the conditions for payments innovation to develop safely. The Bank will be required to report annually on its progress against the objective."
August 26, 2026
On the web
New Blackhawk Network Research Finds Banking Access Shapes the Consumer Payout Experience
Blackhawk Network
"Blackhawk Network released new research* showing that while survey respondents expect fast access to business payouts, banking access significantly influences how they prefer to receive and use those funds. Business payouts are funds organizations distribute directly to individuals, including insurance and warranty claims, rebates, refunds, legal settlements, returned security deposits, incentives and other business disbursements. Across all respondents, speed and immediate access emerged as shared priorities."
JPMorgan Stablecoin Launch Plan Signals Wall Street’s Crypto Pivot
The Cryptonomist
"JPMorgan Chase & Co. is reportedly exploring whether to launch its own stablecoin, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. If confirmed, JPMorgan’s exploration of a stablecoin would mark one of the most notable moves yet by a global banking giant into the digital-currency space, and it lands at a moment when regulators and rival institutions are moving fast on the same front. So far, there’s no confirmed timeline, no detail on how the token would be backed, and no word on whether regulators have signed off on anything."
Stablecoins Were Supposed to Bypass the Card Schemes. Instead, the Schemes are Positioning Themselves as the Operating System
CFI
"Stablecoins emerged with a disruptive promise: move money instantly, globally and cheaply without relying on banks, card schemes and correspondent networks that dominate conventional payments. Visa’s new Stablecoin Platform, revealed in July, gives banks, fintechs and crypto businesses a Visa-managed environment in which they can mint, redeem, hold and transfer stablecoins. Mastercard is pursuing the same opportunity from a different angle. It is expanding on-chain settlement across its own network using regulated stablecoins."
dLocal Launches dMoRe to Remove Operational Barriers Between Global Businesses and Emerging Markets
dLocal
"dLocal announced the launch of dMoRe, its Merchant of Record (MoR) solution designed to redefine how global enterprises scale across emerging economies. The new Merchant of Record solution combines dLocal’s established payment infrastructure with comprehensive legal, tax, and compliance capabilities, enabling merchants to launch in high-growth consumer markets within weeks instead of months."
Dallas Fed Warns Tokenized Deposits Could Strip $700 Billion from U.S. Banks’ Lending Capacity
CoinDesk
"Tokenized deposits could reduce U.S. banks’ capacity to hold long-term interest-rate risk by about $700 billion if they make depositors 10% more sensitive to rates. That’s according to estimates from two Dallas Fed economists. A separate scenario found that if tokenization causes deposits to leave banks 10% sooner, banks could lose about $580 billion of capacity to absorb the interest-rate risk of long-term loans and securities, the economists estimated."
Revolut Is Launching a Euro Stablecoin Into a Market Mica Handed to an American Company
TNW
"Revolut is launching a euro-backed stablecoin. The neobank is also one of the 36 firms the ECB picked for its digital euro pilot, which means it is now building the private euro token and helping test the public alternative to it at the same time. The regulatory backdrop is what makes this interesting. MiCA requires major stablecoin issuers to hold at least 60% of reserves in EU bank deposits, a rule designed to keep euro stablecoins anchored in Europe."
August 25, 2026
Top Post
Large US Banks Move to Shield Consumers’ Passwords from Looming Quantum Threats
Financial IT
"It is expected that quantum computers will be able to crack many consumers' banking passwords, as they perform exponentially faster than today’s computers. Quantum computers will be able perform tasks in hours that would take today’s most powerful computers thousands of years. Some experts believe quantum computers could be commercially available within the coming years, potentially enabling hackers to break into consumers’ bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets."
On the web
New X9 Payment Fraud Forum Kicks Off September 10
Business Wire
"The Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc. (X9), the organization accredited by ANSI to develop financial industry standards for the United States, announced the first meeting of a new industry forum focused on U.S. payment fraud, with the goal of identifying ways to reduce and mitigate fraud across payment types. The group is member driven and will meet every month virtually; individual project teams will set their own schedules. Participation is open to anyone in the financial services industry."
Offline Card Payments Soon to Be Possible in Switzerland
SWI
"The Swiss public will soon be able to pay for essential goods by card, even in the event of a technical fault. The Swiss government, banks, payment service providers and retailers are set to introduce offline card payments by the end of 2027."
Who Can Power Visa’s $7B Stablecoin Machine After BVNK?
CoinGape
"Mastercard’s $1.8 billion acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK has done more than expand its digital-asset capabilities. It has also changed the competitive landscape for stablecoin payments. That is by putting pressure on Visa to secure new infrastructure partners. As per analysts, several companies could fit parts of that profile..."
On the wires
Visa Joins MAS-Led BLOOM Initiative to Connect Traditional Payments and Stablecoin Networks
PR Newswire
"Visa announced its participation in BLOOM (Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency), a new initiative led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) designed to extend settlement capabilities offered by financial institutions, including enabling interoperability between traditional payment systems and stablecoin-based payment rails. Nium is Visa's first partner to pilot the use of stablecoins for settlement under BLOOM."
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