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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 3, 2026
Top Post
Introducing Ask Google Pay, and Expanding Everyday Credit
"Google launched Ask Google Pay, a new conversational experience built right into the app. Powered by our Gemini models, Ask Google Pay is an opt-in experience that helps you analyze your spending patterns and helps you with information related to managing your money. You can chat with it to understand your spending patterns, get savings tips, explore tailored offers (such as finding the right credit card for your travel expenses), and learn about financial concepts like SIPs or credit scores."
On the web
Mastercard Closes Acquisition of BVNK
FX News Group
"Mastercard Inc. completed its acquisition of BVNK, expanding the company’s strategy to support greater choice in how people and businesses exchange value by enabling interoperability across fiat and digital currencies. BVNK provides the infrastructure that supports fiat and on-chain payments behind the scenes — enabling people, businesses and machines to hold, move, manage and convert value across fiat and digital currencies within a framework of security, compliance and interoperability."
Introducing OnePay for Agents
OnePay
"OnePay for Agents is live as an MCP server, allowing customers to connect their OnePay accounts to AI tools and agents. MCP, or Model Context Protocol, is an open standard that enables AI tools to securely connect to the services, including financial information from OnePay. When you connect your OnePay accounts to an AI tool, it can access financial information through OnePay and incorporate that context into the assistance it provides. The result is output that is more personalized, relevant, and informed by your financial situation."
Visa to Acquire BioCatch
Business Wire
"Visa announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire BioCatch, a leading provider of behavioral-first, multi-signal fraud intelligence, from funds advised by Permira and other shareholders for $2.4 billion in cash. The acquisition of BioCatch complements Visa’s existing cyber, fraud, risk and security solutions and is expected to help clients better protect themselves and their customers from the growing threat of account takeovers, scams, money mules and application fraud."
Remitly Launches the Global Card, Built for People Whose Lives Extend Across Borders
Remitly Newsroom
"The launch of the Remitly Global Card is helping customers manage more of financial moments all from one card. The Remitly Global Card combines several one-of-its-kind features including: Better remittance prices and faster, lower-fee sends; No-fee everyday spending; The ability to hold and move money in fiat currency or USDC; No foreign transaction fees"
Worldline Wraps up the Sale of Its Indian Payments Operations
MarketScreener
Worldline announced the completion of the sale of its payments operations in India to BillDesk, a leading Indian payments player, for an enterprise value of about €37m and an equity value of about €60m. In parallel, Worldline will enter into a long-term technology and software agreement, under which BillDesk will continue to use its advanced payments software.
July 31, 2026
Top Post
Visa to Integrate Stablecoin Platform with Pismo, Flags Acquisition Appetite
Ledger Insights
"Visa will integrate the Visa Stablecoin Platform (VSP) with its Pismo subsidiary and is willing to pursue acquisitions across the stablecoin stack, CEO Ryan McInerney disclosed during the company’s Q3 earnings call. McInerney framed the company’s stablecoin involvement around four modes of participation, stating Visa will engage “whether through building Visa products and services, integrating with partners, investing, or acquiring.”"
On the web
Circle Granted Trust Charter by the New York Department of Financial Services
Circle
"Circle Internet Group, Inc. announced that it has received a limited purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for Circle Internet Trust Company LLC, d/b/a Circle New York Trust. Circle’s New York trust charter underscores Circle’s commitment to the highest standards of safety, transparency, and compliance. In 2015, Circle became the first company to receive a BitLicense from NYDFS, marking the beginning of an enduring regulatory relationship with the agency."
BIS Project Agorá Settles $1 Million in Tokenized Cross-Border Payment Trials
Cointelegraph
"The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said Project Agorá completed real-value testing of tokenized wholesale cross-border payments, with 28 financial institutions and central banks settling 800,000 Swiss francs ($1 million) across 17 transaction scenarios. The BIS said that the tests used tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits to settle payments in Swiss francs, euros, pounds sterling, Japanese yen, South Korean won and US dollars, with an average settlement time of about 80 seconds."
Alkami Expands Partnership with Plaid to Deliver Connected Digital Banking Experiences
Alkami Technology
"Alkami Technology, Inc., a digital sales and service platform provider for financial institutions in the U.S., announced the expansion of its partnership with Plaid, the data network powering the digital financial ecosystem. Through a pre-built integration within the Alkami Digital Banking Platform, financial institutions can allow account holders to link external accounts instantly, see all their transactions in one place, and get clean, accurate data about where their money is going."
Consumers Are Ready for AI to Shop. They Are Not Ready for It to Pay.
Nuvei
"Consumers have accepted AI as a way to think about a purchase. They have not accepted it as a way to complete one. The reasons they give are specific enough to read as a product requirement, and almost all of them sit in the payment layer rather than the model. The Nuvei data shows that consumers want limits, approvals, reversibility, and clear accountability before they will trust AI to move money on their behalf."
FedNow Turns Three: The Next Growth Opportunity for Regional Banks
Finzly, Inc.
"While regional banks represent only a small fraction of FedNow participants today, there is still significant runway to use real-time payments as a foundation for commercial banking growth. FedNow just reached its third anniversary, and the adoption story reveals an important opportunity. More than 1,800 financial institutions are now live on the network—but participation remains concentrated among smaller institutions. More than 96% of participants are community banks and credit unions with less than $10 billion in assets."
Education: Anyone Can be a Victim: Understanding Scam Risk Across Customer Segments
FedPayments Improvement
"Criminals don’t always choose victims at random. While many scams are broad and opportunistic, criminals also segment, personalize, test and refine their tactics. To understand how various groups are targeted and what financial institutions can do about it, we will begin with the psychology that drives modern scams operations. This introductory article sets the foundation for a deeper exploration of victim demographic and event specific vulnerabilities covered throughout this series — Understanding Scam Risk Across Customer Segments."
July 30, 2026
Top Post
Stripe Reportedly Nears $10B Acquisition of AI Startup OpenRouter
Citybiz
"Stripe is in talks to acquire AI startup OpenRouter in a deal valued at approximately $10 billion, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the discussions. The report said an agreement could be announced soon. OpenRouter develops software that enables businesses and developers to access a wide range of artificial intelligence models through a single platform. Its service supports models from OpenAI and Anthropic, along with open-source alternatives, allowing customers to switch between providers without rebuilding applications."
On the web
Large Gains in Same Day ACH Help Drive ACH Network in Second Quarter of 2026
Nacha
"A nearly 30% jump in the number of Same Day ACH payments and a nearly 10% increase in business-to-business payments helped drive the ACH Network’s second quarter 2026 growth. For the quarter, volume on the ACH Network totaled 9.3 billion payments valued at $25.9 trillion, respective increases of 6.2% and 11.1% over the same period in 2025. Same Day ACH handled 435.7 million payments in the second quarter, up 29.5%, while the value of those payments climbed 28.1% to $1.3 trillion."
Agentic Commerce: A New Chapter for Instant Payments
Citi
"Agentic commerce is the new frontier where AI agents execute e-commerce transactions on behalf of consumers demanding payment rails optimized for speed security and cost. Instant payments are uniquely positioned to power agentic commerce by providing the speed, finality, and rich data reconciliation that machine-native API-driven transactions require. Markets like India, Brazil, and Thailand have shown the scale instant payments can achieve with the right regulatory clarity and incentive design, and agentic commerce gives other markets a fresh reason to close the gap."
Visa’s $4T Bet: The Largest Payment Network Declares Agentic Commerce a Growth Driver
Forkast
"During Visa’s Q3 FY2026 earnings call on July 28, CEO Ryan McInerney positioned agentic commerce as the next major adoption curve, explicitly linking it to the historical trajectories of e-commerce, mobile payments, and tokenization. For an organization that just saw its payments volume surpass $4 trillion for the first time, this is a clear signal: Visa is betting that the next $3 to $5 trillion in addressable market volume will be initiated by non-human actors."
Lloyds Deploys Agentic AI to Fight Cyber Fraud in Real Time [Video]
Cyber Magazine
"Lloyds Banking Group is expanding its deployment of AI to address one of the most persistent and costly challenges – fraud. Over £1bn (US$1.3bn) of fraud was prevented in 2025 by Lloyds. Since 2023, the banking giant invested £100m (US$133.8m) in new fraud technology, positioning the organisation at the leading edge of AI-driven crime prevention. The core of Lloyds' defence strategy is a newly deployed agentic AI system designed to enhance real-time threat assessment across its fraud operations."
Visa Expands Visa Pay SDK Across Africa and Central Asia to Accelerate Digital Payments
TechAfrica News
"Visa is expanding access to Visa Pay for additional issuers across Africa and Central Asia through a software development kit (SDK) that helps banks, mobile money operators and fintechs embed Visa Pay capabilities into their existing mobile applications and launch virtual cards and payment experiences quickly and securely. Visa Pay is an interoperable and secure way for banked and unbanked consumers to pay, get paid, and move money across participating banks, fintechs and mobile networks."
Plaid Builds AI Model to Decode Consumer Financial Behavior
Bank Info Security
"Banks and lenders often can't tell the difference between a customer having a bad month and a bad customer having a good month. Financial data company Plaid built a foundation model that it says makes that distinction. Plaid spent about a year building the foundation model, which analyzes how and where money moves and the sequence in which it moves."
Mastercard Launches Scam Program And Expands Stablecoin Payment Infrastructure
Yahoo Finance
"Mastercard launched a new Scam Merchant Monitoring Program that pushes acquiring banks to investigate suspected fraud within strict timelines. In addition, the company is expanding stablecoin settlement support, including through its acquisition of BVNK and a focus on deeper banking as a service offerings. These moves aim to tighten consumer protection and build out Mastercard's infrastructure for stablecoin linked payments."
Wise Denied US Banking License After Shifting Main Stock Market Listing
Yahoo Finance
"Wise said it has been denied a US banking license in a setback to the payments firm after moving its main stock market listing across the pond. The London-based business had applied for a national bank charter in the hope of being able to operate under the regulation of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The license would give it direct access to payment systems through the Federal Reserve. But Wise said the application was denied due to historical issues with its original application including relating to financial crime."
Swift: A Better Cross-Border Payment Experience Is Here
Swift
"The industry has worked towards a simple ambition: making cross-border payments feel as seamless as domestic ones. That ambition is becoming a reality. In some of the world’s busiest remittance corridors, consumers can now send money across borders with greater speed, transparency and predictability. Payments from Australia to Spain have been completed in as little as 23 seconds, while transfers from Australia to India have arrived in 37 seconds. This progress is being delivered by Swift’s new scheme—a shared framework for retail payments."
AI and the Global Economy: Implications for Central Banks
BIS
"The AI boom is driving a large, increasingly debt-financed investment surge and boosting trade and equity markets, generating sizeable terms-of-trade and wealth effects that differ across countries. The productivity payoff from AI, though potentially large, remains uncertain and uneven, across both sectors and countries. By simultaneously affecting demand and supply, AI blurs cyclical signals, complicating central banks' assessment of underlying economic conditions and monetary policy calibration."
Revolut to Offer ChatGPT Subscriptions in OpenAI Deal [UK]
UKTN
"Fintech Revolut will give its retail customers access to ChatGPT Go as part of a new partnership with OpenAI. ChatGPT Go is a medium tier subscription for the AI chatbot that typically costs users a monthly fee of £7. Revolut will offer retail customers on its Metal and Ultra subscriptions free access to the premium tier of ChatGPT 12 months, while the cheaper two Revolut subscriptions will offer ChatGPT Go for three and six months respectively."
Visa: Agentic Payments from the Ground Up: What the Onchain Data Tells Us
Visa
"Until recently, software could read a webpage and suggest what to do next, but it couldn’t actually pay for anything. AI agents now book travel, reorder inventory, query data providers, and buy compute for the businesses and people they work for. Visa worked with Artemis to look at the protocols, standards, and live onchain data behind agentic payments, and to get a clearer read on where this is heading."
On the wires
BNY Launches Global Digital Transfer Agency Capabilities, Extending Leadership in Fund Servicing to Digital Market
PR Newswire
"BNY announced the launch of its new Digital Transfer Agency (TA) capabilities, meeting an expanded set of client needs by extending the firm's leading TA services to support digitally native funds. BNY Digital TA modernizes BNY's fund servicing capabilities to support both digital and traditional asset funds in an end-to-end lifecycle across multiple jurisdictions and blockchains, enabling a unified client servicing experience."
July 29, 2026
On the web
Financial Services Intelligence Report July 2026
J.D. Power
"The great unbundling of the banking and financial services industry may have reached a turning point. After several quarters of losing share of new account openings to FinTech challenger brands, the big banks have come roaring back in the second quarter of 2026. According to JD Power Signals Intelligence for Financial Services, major national brands have assumed the top spots in new checking, savings, investment, retirement, credit card and personal loan account opening rates."
How Do We Regulate Payments When It’s AI Agents Spending the Money?
World Economic Forum
"AI agents are moving from giving advice to taking action – for payments, the consequences are immediate and can be difficult to reverse. Financial institutions have long built trust around knowing who is behind a transaction; agentic AI adds a layer between the human and the payment that existing controls were not designed to handle. The future of trusted transactions will depend on understanding intent, authority and context alongside established rigorous identity checks."
TCH: Use Case Evolution Is One Factor in RTP’s Instant Payments Growth
Digital Transactions
"Business-to-business payments were one of the first use cases for instant payments when the RTP network from The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC debuted in 2017. The use cases are evolving, with digital wallets—like PayPal and Venmo—now being the largest use cases on the RTP network. Another use with potential is request for payment [RfP]. This option enables billers and merchants to receive nearly immediate payment. RTP has RfP activity on the network, with 300,000 to 400,000 RfPs processed monthly."
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