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March 5, 2026
On the web
Splitit Backs Google's Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), Advancing Agentic Commerce with Card-Linked Installments
Yahoo Finance-Cision
"Splitit, the global leader in card-linked installment payments, announced its backing of Google's Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard that provides the building blocks for agentic commerce, enabling AI agents to complete purchases on behalf of consumers. Built with Shopify, Target, Walmart, Etsy, and Wayfair, and endorsed by dozens of major players, UCP is designed to support the entire shopping journey, from discovery to checkout and post-purchase experiences."
Finastra Launches AI-Based OperatorAssist to Transform How Banks Address Payments Handling
Finastra
"Finastra announced the launch of OperatorAssist, an AI-powered solution that is available to add to its payment hub user interface, designed to reduce errors, speed exception handling, and lower operational costs across the payments lifecycle."
Nacha’s Top 50 ACH Originators and Receivers of 2025 Now Available; Total ACH Payment Volume in 2025 Exceeded 42 Billion
Nacha
"The Nacha Top 50 rankings of financial institution originators and receivers of ACH payments for 2025 are now available. Among originating financial institutions, the Top 50 handled ACH volume of 30.7 billion payments last year, up 4.7% from 2024. They accounted for 91.4% of the ACH Network’s total commercial payments volume. The Top 50 receiving institutions had ACH payment volume of 23 billion, an increase of 6.4% over 2024. These institutions accounted for 65.1% of total volume on the ACH Network, inclusive of payments received from the federal government."
Revolut Files for US Bank Charter, Names Duransoy as US CEO
Yahoo Finance
"Britain's Revolut applied for a U.S. bank charter and appointed former Visa executive Cetin Duransoy as its new CEO for the United States, the fintech company announced. Revolut, which has about 70 million clients in 40 markets, is setting its sights on the lucrative U.S. market. If its applications are approved by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Revolut plans to broaden its U.S. business to gather deposits, make loans, issue credit cards and facilitate payments."
BNY and SWIFT Launch Blockchain Ledger
Banking Exchange
"BNY has partnered with global financial messaging network SWIFT to develop a blockchain-based ledger designed to enhance cross-border payments and support the settlement of tokenized assets. Rather than replacing existing systems, the initiative will focus on building an interoperable layer designed to complement SWIFT’s established global messaging network."
Santander and Mastercard Complete Europe’s First Live End-To-End Payment Executed by an AI Agent
Santander
"Banco Santander and Mastercard announced the successful completion of Europe’s first live end-to-end payment executed by an artificial intelligence (AI) agent, representing the first agentic payment carried out within a regulated banking framework and marking a significant milestone in the application of AI systems capable of initiating and completing transactions on behalf of customers. Santander carried out the transaction in a controlled environment using Mastercard Agent Pay."
ACI Worldwide Launches Card Payments on Cloud-Native ACI Connetic, Advancing Unified Payments Platform
ACI Worldwide
ACI Worldwide announced the launch of ACI Connetic for Cards, a next generation, fully integrated, modernized card payments suite within ACI Connetic, the industry’s first unified cloud-native payments hub, bringing together account-to-account (A2A), card payments and AI-driven fraud prevention on one platform.
March 4, 2026
Top Post
Drew Edmond Named Partner at Glenbrook
PR Newswire
"Glenbrook Partners, a leading strategy consulting firm focused exclusively on the payments industry, is pleased to announce the promotion of Drew Edmond to Partner. Drew joined Glenbrook in 2018 and has been instrumental in advising leading merchants, payment providers, and financial institutions on optimizing payments performance and navigating ongoing change across the payments ecosystem."
On the web
Google Requires Structured Product Data for UCP Checkout
The Keyword
"Google has published an official help document explaining the Universal Commerce Protocol and how it supports commerce interactions on Google surfaces. Google’s documentation makes it clear that the Universal Commerce Protocol is an open standard that defines how agents can interact with merchants programmatically. This includes product discovery, comparisons, capability negotiation, checkout initiation, and post-purchase flows."
Capital One Begins Originating Select Credit Cards on Discover Network
The Street
"In a statement made to TheStreet, a Capital One company spokesperson confirmed that the company had “started” originating select credit cards on the Discover Network. The word “originating” is the key word here; it implies that new customers will receive a Venture, Savor, Quicksilver, VentureOne, SavorOne, or Quicksilver Discover card. However, existing cardholders likely won’t be affected until their card expires, at which point the expiring cards might replace their old Visa or Mastercard-issued one."
Affirm And Stripe Link AI Agents To Buy Now Pay Later Growth
Yahoo Finance
"Affirm Holdings has expanded its work with Stripe to support Shared Payment Tokens for buy now, pay later transactions. The update allows AI agents to initiate secure pay over time purchases without sharing full card or account credentials. Affirm is also connecting its services to emerging agent driven commerce platforms that can shop and check out on behalf of users."
Stripe Wants to Turn Your AI Costs Into a Profit Center
TechCrunch
"Stripe released a preview of a new feature that could help AI startups (and other companies) solve the problem of passing through the underlying costs of AI model usage to their customers. Stripe’s feature, however, goes even further than just passing through the costs of the tokens. It allows startups to charge a markup percentage on token usage. So a company can, for instance, charge an automatic 30% above the cost of the tokens that the startup will pay the model maker."
On the wires
Spreedly Makes Agentic Commerce a Live Channel for Merchants
PR Newswire
"AI agents have advanced from recommending products to completing purchases at checkout. Spreedly announced that agentic commerce is now live as a channel within its open payments platform, enabling merchants to process agent-initiated transactions over their existing payment infrastructure. Spreedly enables agent-initiated transactions to flow through existing payment service provider (PSP) relationships while merchants remain the merchant of record and routing logic stays intact."
Pagos Transforms Payments Data From Harmonized to AI-Ready
PR Newswire
"Pagos, an AI-powered payments intelligence leader, unveils a powerful payments data platform, offering enterprise merchants a single, enriched data foundation to power analytics, optimization, and agentic workflows."
March 3, 2026
On the web
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Slams Stablecoin Yield Demands: 'The Public Will Pay'
Decrypt
"JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said if crypto firms want to offer stablecoin rewards, then they should become banks. White House-led talks between banking and crypto leaders have so far failed to produce a compromise on the issue. The impasse has stalled crypto's coveted market structure bill. That bill, hotly desired by most of the crypto industry, was poised to be voted on by the powerful Senate Banking Committee in January. But on the eve of the vote, Coinbase abruptly pulled support for the legislation, citing the likelihood that senators would approve amendments to the bill restricting stablecoin rewards programs."
Supporting Additional Payment Methods for Agentic Commerce
Stripe
"Last year, we launched Shared Payment Tokens (SPTs), a payment primitive for agentic commerce that lets agents initiate payments with a customer’s permission and preferred payment method, without exposing the underlying credentials. We’re expanding SPT support to enable broader access to network-led agentic payment capabilities, including Mastercard Agent Pay and Visa Intelligent Commerce, as well as buy now, pay later (BNPL) methods such as Affirm and Klarna. This makes Stripe the first and only provider that supports both agentic network tokens and BNPL tokens in agentic commerce through a single primitive."
Modulr Partners With Hibob to Enhance Pay Day Experience for Customers
Modulr Finance
"Modulr announced a new partnership with AI powered HR, Finance and Payroll platform, HiBob. The partnership will see HiBob deploy Modulr’s payments automation directly into its payroll workflow, reducing the administrative burden and improving the pay day experience for customers. By deploying Modulr’s payments automation directly into HiBob’s payroll workflow, HiBob customers will now gain access to a single, reliable process that improves operational efficiency, accuracy, and control from approval through to pay day."
Klarna Expands Further Into Agentic Commerce, Offering Flexible Payments to Merchants via Stripe's Shared Payment Tokens
Business Wire
"Klarna announced that its flexible payment options will soon be supported in AI agent-driven shopping experiences through Stripe’s Shared Payment Tokens (SPTs), making Klarna available in AI-powered checkout flows for US merchants already live with Klarna through Stripe, provided AI shopping agents allow the ability to offer flexible payments at checkout. The integration addresses a growing gap in agentic commerce: AI shopping agents have been defaulting to card-on-file payments by design, effectively freezing out alternative payment methods, including BNPL, from automated checkout flows."
Ripple Redefines Payments with End-to-End Stablecoin Platform and Global Customer Momentum
Ripple
"Ripple is redefining the payment journey for global money movement – removing the need to stitch together multiple, disjointed solutions across vendors, regions and timezones. Leveraging recent acquisitions of Palisade (custody and treasury automation) and Rail (virtual accounts and collections), Ripple’s solution now allows customers to collect, hold, exchange and payout in both fiat and stablecoins — including the ability to provision named virtual accounts and wallets, automate collection flows, exchange and settle funds into operational accounts within a single unified platform."
AvidXchange Announces Embedded Supplier Payment Automation Solution for the AppFolio
AvidXchange
"AvidXchange Inc. announced the launch of its Accounts Payable as a Service solution for AppFolio customers, further expanding the partnership between the two companies and making AvidXchange’s payment automation solution available in the AppFolio StackTM Marketplace. AvidXchange’s Accounts Payable as a Service is a fully managed, embedded solution that enables accounting systems and ERP providers to offer the ability for their customers to execute payments directly within their platforms."
Worldline Completes Its First Wero Online Payment With the Red Cross in Belgium
Worldline
"Worldline has enabled its first Wero online payment transaction in Belgium, the second European nation to enable eCommerce payments after Germany. This historic moment was done for the Belgian Red Cross-Flanders (Rode Kruis-Vlaanderen) following the announcement of Wero’s eCommerce launch in the country."
From Cash to Crypto: Towards a Consistent Regulatory Approach to Illicit Payments
BIS
"The rapid evolution of cryptoassets, including stablecoins, and retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) has led to changes in regulatory frameworks to incorporate them. The options beyond bank deposits and cash calls for an analysis of the effectiveness of anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism regimes across different payment instruments. This paper introduces a framework to assess the effects of AML/CFT frameworks, with a focus on differences in design between instruments, and the role of intermediaries."
UK Fintech Firm Revolut Opens India Waitlist for Digital Payments
Tech In Asia
"Revolut will launch an INR-only prepaid wallet with UPI integration and Visa cards for domestic and international use. The wallet will support peer-to-peer transfers, merchant payments, budgeting tools, and UPI transfers via QR codes, phone numbers, and contacts, subject to NPCI limits, plus recurring payments and biometric authentication."
Visa and Bridge Expand Collaboration, with Plans to Bring Stablecoin-Linked Cards to Over 100 Countries
Visa
Visa and Bridge, a leading stablecoin infrastructure platform and a Stripe company, announced an expansion of their global card issuance product that they first unveiled in 2025. Bridge enables businesses and fintech developers to offer stablecoin-backed Visa cards. Now, through Bridge’s partnership with Lead Bank, these card transactions can be settled onchain with Visa.
SoFi and Mastercard Partner to Enable SoFiUSD Settlement Across Mastercard’s Global Payments Network
Mastercard
"SoFi’s fully reserved U.S. dollar stablecoin will support settlement across the Mastercard network, including for SoFi Bank, N.A. Galileo, SoFi’s technology platform, will be among the first to offer its clients and their issuing banks the choice to settle transactions using SoFiUSD. The Mastercard Multi-Token Network will look to support SoFiUSD, help expand interoperability between digital assets and traditional forms of money"
March 2, 2026
On the web
How Payments Fraud Is Growing in Scale and Sophistication. What Companies Can Do to Fight Back
Mastercard
"Fraud that targets payments is growing more complex and sophisticated. The criminal use of AI and the increasing standardization and reproduction of malware and other technologies: They act like a digital equivalent of old-fashioned burglary tool. For example, the number of stolen credit card records accessible for sale dropped by almost 20% in 2025 from the year before. However, the increasing sophistication and scale of attacks mean that nefarious players can make ever better use of what they can access."
Brink’s to Acquire NCR Atleos for $6.6 Billion, Creating Leading Financial Technology Infrastructure Company
NCR Atleos
"The Brink’s Company and NCR Atleos Corporation announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Brink’s will acquire NCR Atleos. The transaction combines two leading financial technology infrastructure providers, joining Brink's global cash management expertise and route-based infrastructure with NCR Atleos’ end-to-end ATM management and services expertise as well as its owned-and-operated ATM network and fast-growing ATM as a Service (ATMaaS) outsourcing solutions."
Launching the FIDO Americas Adoption Forum
FIDO Alliance
"Digital economies across the Americas are expanding rapidly, presenting both new opportunities and risks. There is widespread innovation, especially in payments. Bad actors are exploiting technologies and processes, putting this progress at risk. That is why we are excited to announce the launch of the FIDO Americas Adoption Forum (FAAF). This is a initiative designed to advance open standards and accelerate market adoption across the region. Initially, the Forum will be focused in Latin America."
MoonPay, M0 and PayPal Announce PYUSDx
MoonPay
"Announcing PYUSDx, an offering that enables the creation of application-specific stablecoins backed by PayPal USD (PYUSD). PYUSDx is designed to help builders launch and scale application-specific stablecoins while lowering the technical and operational overhead. PYUSDx addresses a market gap: enabling developers to launch application-specific stablecoins quickly while leveraging the core foundation of an established stablecoin. PYUSDx is a tokenization and issuance framework offered by MoonPay Digital Assets Limited that enables developers to create application-specific stablecoins backed by PYUSD."
February 27, 2026
On the web
Visa Completes Acquisition of Prisma and Newpay
Visa
"Visa announced it has completed its acquisition of Prisma Medios de Pago S.A.U. and Newpay S.A.U. in Argentina. This transaction strengthens Visa's commitment to advancing payment innovation and modernizing financial infrastructure across the country. Prisma provides credit, debit and prepaid card issuer processing. Newpay is a multi-network infrastructure provider that operates real-time payments services, the Banelco ATM network and the bill payment platform PagoMisCuentas."
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