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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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March 31, 2026
On the web
Billtrust Report: Navigating Economic Headwinds Why Cash Generation Has Become the Ultimate Competitive Edge in 2026
Billtrust
"With 67% of customers paying slower than six months ago, rising costs and tariff pressures are making fast, efficient cash generation the defining priority. Finance leaders are pulling back hard on spending and growth, and at the same time, pouring money into AI and automation like the future depends on it. That push and pull is the story of 2026."
Small Businesses Can Soon Enjoy New Rewards With the Prime Business and Amazon Business Credit Cards [U.S. Bank & Mastercard]
Amazon
"Amazon announced a new Prime Business Card and a new Amazon Business Card, coming this spring, with a suite of new features designed for small business customers. The cards will be issued by U.S. Bank as part of the Mastercard network. Customers can choose between two options: the Prime Business Card, offering Prime members 5% back on Amazon purchases, or the Amazon Business Card, offering 3% back for customers without a Prime membership*. Both versions of the card offer more rewards when shopping off-Amazon, flexible credit terms, and no annual fees."
Alipay’s AI Pay Surpasses 100 Million Users
MSN
"Alipay’s AI Pay has surpassed 100 million users as of 23 February, according to an announcement by Ant Group. AI Pay earlier surpassed 120 million transactions between February 5-11, 2026. Launched in 2025, AI Pay transactions through AI agents. Consumers can pay via voice command, eliminating the need to switch between pages."
Stablecoins: Reimagining Money Movement for a Digital Economy
Visa
"According to the Visa Onchain Analytics Dashboard, the data suggests an increase in retail-sized stablecoin transfers and purchases (transactions below $250), occurring at a frequency similar to everyday consumer spending.¹ Retail‑sized volumes for stablecoins USDC, USDT and PYUSD* climbed from about $0.5 billion in 2019 to $69.8 billion in 2025, roughly matching the size of the Uganda economy. However, this still represents a small portion of global payments; for instance, stablecoins account for around 0.1 percent of U.S. cashless payments. Over the same period, retail‑sized transaction counts jumped from around 4.7 million to about 1.3 billion. In 2025, retail-sized volume makes up only about 0.6 percent of total adjusted stablecoin volume, but retail-sized transactions account for 57 percent of total transaction count."
SWIFT Blockchain Pivot Puts XRP Back in Cross-Border Spotlight
Yahoo Finance
"SWIFT is building blockchain-based cross-border payment infrastructure with more than 40 global banks targeting a live scheme by mid-2026, and the plumbing it is laying quietly positions XRP crypto as an optional liquidity rail inside that network. The mechanism is not a partnership announcement or a headline integration, it runs through Thunes, a payments company now embedded in SWIFT’s network, whose connections reach Ripple’s payment products and, by extension, XRP’s on-demand liquidity functions."
New York-Based Ramp Launches Stablecoin Accounts, Letting Businesses Pay in USDC
Live Bitcoin News
"Ramp has officially launched its Stablecoin Accounts feature in public beta. The New York-based fintech, which serves over 50,000 businesses globally, now lets companies hold USDC directly on its platform. Users can earn rewards on their balances, currently sitting at 3.98%. They can also pay vendors and employees worldwide using stablecoins. The move brings crypto payments into the same system businesses already use for traditional dollar transactions."
Marqeta Delivers AI-Driven Risk Decisioning to Enhance Real-Time Fraud Prevention
Marqeta, Inc.
"Marqeta, Inc. announced it enhanced its Real-Time Decisioning (RTD) offering with an AI-powered risk score that analyzes transaction risk levels at the point of the authorization decision. Part of its suite of risk services, the company’s RTD offering allows customers to create custom rules and controls to manage fraud. The risk score evaluates 300+ real-time transaction attributes against historical behavioral patterns, automatically adapting to unique cardholder behaviors and market shifts."
Wise Launches UK Current Account to Take On High Street Banks
Wise Newsroom
"Wise is launching its UK Current Account with new features, challenging traditional banking with a smarter way to manage everyday money. The move comes as everyday usage in the UK surges: Wise served 3 million active people and businesses in the UK last year, holding over £8bn in their accounts. Globally, the company serves more than 15.6 million active customers, with 100,000 new customers joining Wise each week. In total, customers hold over £27.5 billion in their Wise Accounts."
Mitsubishi Adopts JP Morgan’s 24/7 Blockchain Payments
Ledger Insights
"Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation is the country’s first firm to adopt JP Morgan’s Kinexys Digital Payments to enable instant cross border payments 24/7. The company will take advantage of the programmability of the blockchain-based deposit account to initially move US dollars when needed between its Singapore, London and New York subsidiaries. The key advantage is there is no dependence on bank opening hours."
Square Auto-Enables Bitcoin Payments for Millions of US Businesses
CoinCentral
"Square has started automatically enabling bitcoin payments for millions of eligible US sellers, marking a broader push to bring digital asset payments into everyday commerce. The rollout allows small businesses already using Square’s payment system to accept bitcoin without additional setup, with transactions converted to US dollars at checkout by default. The company said the feature includes near-instant settlement and zero processing fees through 2026."
Worldpay: Introducing the Agentic Commerce Report
Global Payments
"Now, a new generation of autonomous agents is taking its next step, actually making purchases on behalf of consumers. This shift, known as agentic commerce, marks a major change in how buying and selling happen. To see what comes next, we asked 8,000 consumers across seven countries how they feel about agents, data and trust. Their answers reveal how quickly this transformation will take hold – and what merchants can do to prepare now."
March 30, 2026
On the web
Banks Eye Crypto Specialists
Global Finance Magazine
"Traditional finance is rapidly integrating stablecoins as an “always-on” payment rail. Barclays’ January 2026 acquisition of a stake in Ubyx, a US startup specializing in stablecoin clearing, highlights this. The strategic investment allows the bank to accept any regulated stablecoin and instantly convert it into a “par value” bank deposit. This aligns with Barclays’ existing participation in a 10-bank consortium, including Goldman Sachs and UBS, exploring a regulated stablecoin pegged to G7 currencies. Ubyx functions as an interoperability and clearing layer, enabling banks to accept stablecoin transactions without managing the underlying crypto."
Zelle® Expands MDI Access Program to Jack Henry®, Broadening Access to Fast, Reliable Digital Payments
Early Warning
"The Zelle® Network announced the second year of its Minority Depository Institution (MDI) access program: Renewing its collaboration with Velera to bring Zelle to MDI credit unions. Velera is the nation’s premier payments credit union service organization and an integrated financial technology solutions provider. Expanding the program through a new partnership with Jack Henry to bring Zelle to additional MDI banks and credit unions."
Mind the Gap: AI Adoption in Europe and the U.S.
Federal Reserve
"For three decades, American workers have been pulling ahead of their European counterparts. Between 1995 and 2025, output per hour increased by 88% in the U.S. versus just 30% in the 20 countries using the euro. Now, a new wave of technology is arriving. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to reshape work across many sectors of the economy. As with the ICT revolution, the economic impact of AI will depend critically on how quickly and broadly workers and firms adopt it. Will the U.S. again pull ahead, or will Europe be able to close the gap?"
Phixius by Nacha Adds Advanced Fraud Solutions as Fourth Data Responder
Nacha
"Phixius by Nacha—a secure, peer-to-peer payment information network—announced today that Advanced Fraud Solutions is now live on the Phixius network as a data responder. This addition makes Advanced Fraud Solutions the fourth data responder on Phixius, further expanding the breadth of account validation coverage available to Phixius users."
On the wires
Nium Launches Dual-Network Stablecoin Card Issuance Platform Enabling Businesses to Spend Digital Dollars at Hundreds of Millions of Merchant Locations Worldwide
PR Newswire
"Nium launched its stablecoin card issuance platform. The solution enables companies holding stablecoins to issue spending cards on both the Visa and Mastercard networks through a single API integration, allowing stablecoins to be used at hundreds of millions of merchant locations globally."
March 27, 2026
Top Post
Mastercard Tests AI-Driven Payments in Puerto Rico
News is My Business
"Mastercard said it completed live end-to-end transactions using artificial intelligence-powered shopping agents across Latin America and the Caribbean, including in Puerto Rico, where Oriental Bank and Evertec participated. The company said that means an AI assistant can now do more than recommend a product or service, it can complete an actual purchase for a customer using existing payment infrastructure and the cardholder’s consent. Mastercard said the transactions were carried out in controlled environments using Mastercard Agent Pay, the company’s platform for what it calls agentic commerce, in which AI systems can search for products, recommend options and complete purchases on behalf of users."
On the web
Now Available: Advanced EMV 3DS Products and Emerging Use Cases
U.S. Payments Forum
"The U.S. Payments Forum has released the fourth and final brief in our EMV® 3DS Mini-Series: Advanced EMV 3DS Products and Emerging Use Cases. This final installment explores how EMV 3DS continues to evolve to support new authentication methods, emerging payment models, and shifting fraud dynamics. The brief highlights advanced capabilities such as decoupled authentication, the use of FIDO authentication data, and Secure Payment Confirmation (SPC)—all designed to improve security while reducing friction in the customer experience."
ISO 20022 Milestone for November 2026: Unstructured Addresses to Be Removed
Swift
"As the global payments community continues its transition to ISO 20022, the new global standard for cross-border payments, a new milestone is on the horizon. A key component of the transition will be the removal of unstructured postal addresses, planned for November 2026 as part of the SR 2026 standards release. The removal of unstructured addresses will improve data quality in cross-border payments. Structured address data allows for greater straight-through processing, more effective compliance screening and enhanced transparency across the payments chain."
Walmart Introduces Tailored ChatGPT Environment
Chain Store Age
"Walmart is expanding the shopping features available to its customers in the ChatGPT model. The new experience lets Walmart shoppers go directly from discovery in ChatGPT into a customized Walmart environment that supports account linking, loyalty and Walmart payments. This new experience is now available in web browsers, with app access in iOS and Android scheduled to follow shortly."
March 26, 2026
Top Post
Visa Launches Enhanced Subscription Manager, Giving Consumers Greater Control Over Recurring Payments
Visa
"Visa unveiled an Enhanced Subscription Manager solution, a new value‑added service within its Digital Issuer Solutions business. Visa is collaborating with Pinwheel , a leading provider of in‑app bill management capabilities. Enhanced Subscription Manager helps issuers respond to consumer demand by offering a consolidated, easy-to-integrate solution that elevates the user experience. Issuers can give cardholders greater subscription visibility, easy payment switching methods and cancellation capabilities, all without leaving their banking app."
On the web
Cornell Tech Partners With Mastercard to Advance AI Governance Standards
Cornell Chronicle
Cornell Tech has launched a research collaboration with Mastercard to advance methods for evaluating and auditing generative artificial intelligence systems. Supported by Mastercard’s AI Governance program, the project will examine how to improve transparency and real‑world benefits from generative AI.
The research effort includes a core team of Cornell Tech faculty members who are leaders in the fields of algorithmic fairness, AI evaluation, the ethics of technology and human-AI interaction.
Mastercard Explores Sale of Payments Unit It Bought From Nets in 2019, FT Reports
Mastercard
"Mastercard is seeking to sell the real-time payments unit that it acquired from Denmark's Nets Group in 2019 for $3.2 billion, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. The credit card giant has hired investment bankers to lead a sale of the business that could draw interest from private equity groups, the report said. Mastercard is likely to fetch a lower valuation than the price it paid, the report said."
EMVCo Publishes Electric Vehicle Open Payments Solution
EMVCo
"EMVCo has published Version 1.0 of the Electric Vehicle (EV) Open Payments Use Case document, which outlines an interoperable open payment solution for EV charging. The use case document explains how EMV Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) technology – which simplifies the digital payment process to help make it more consistent, convenient and secure – can be used to integrate card-based payments at EV charging stations supporting ISO 15118 Plug and Charge."
Stripe Brings a New Checkout Experience for Facebook
Stripe
"Stripe announced it is helping bring a new checkout experience to Facebook. It enables buyers to purchase products from businesses like Fanatics and Quince in just one click, whether from a business’ website or within the app after clicking on an ad. Businesses can opt into selling via ads in Facebook through a toggle in the Stripe Dashboard, and link their Meta ads account. Once enabled, when a buyer sees an ad on Facebook and taps the “Buy now” button, Meta surfaces a native checkout powered by Stripe."
Meta Goes Deeper Into Shopping, Tests Creator Commissions on Instagram and New Buy Button Within Ads
Retail Brew
"Meta is making product changes to make it easier for users to find and buy products across Facebook and Instagram with new tweaks and tools. Meta is giving creators more ways to recommend products across Facebook and Instagram. On Instagram, creators will have a new tag feature that they can use to flag items from a brand’s catalog or through affiliate links directly in their Reels, turning any Instagram video into a digital storefront. Meta wants to turn creator content into a sales channel for brands and retailers and a new opportunity for creators to monetize their content."
In Data We Trust? Emerging Policy and Supervisory Approaches to AI Data Use in Financial Services
BIS
"Data play a critical role in the transformation of the financial sector through artificial intelligence (AI). While challenges in data management are not new, they pose significant barriers to the wider adoption of advanced AI systems, such as generative AI (gen AI). Key concerns include data privacy, quality and security, which are further intensified by third-party dependencies and market concentration among major service providers. Effectively managing data-related risks is essential to ensure that AI adoption in financial services fosters innovation while upholding trust, resilience and financial stability."
March 25, 2026
Top Post
Visa to Bring Privacy-Preserving Payments to Canton Network
Visa
"Visa announced it will join the Canton Network as the first major global payments company to serve as a Super Validator, to help extend privacy‑preserving blockchain infrastructure to banks and financial institutions around the world. Visa will be one of 40 Super Validators on Canton. That move goes straight to a core challenge for financial institutions: the same transparency that gives blockchains their appeal can clash with privacy expectations financial institutions operate under. Canton Network, a blockchain built for regulated finance, has privacy built in from the beginning, so organizations can use shared infrastructure without exposing sensitive information."
On the web
Shopify: Millions of Merchants Can Sell in AI Chats
Shopify
"Starting this week, millions of merchants can sell to ChatGPT users via Agentic Storefronts. Agentic Storefronts give merchants out-of-the-box access to major AI channels—ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, AI Mode in Google Search, and the Gemini app—managed centrally from the Shopify Admin. And, with Agentic plan, now publicly available, brands not using Shopify for ecommerce can add products to Shopify Catalog to reach shoppers and sell across these same AI channels."
Google Just Launched a New Gemini-Powered Dark Web Monitoring Service
IT Pro
"Google has announced the launch of a new AI-powered dark web monitoring service, allowing enterprise security teams to keep tabs on emerging threats and exposed information. The new dark web intelligence capabilities, offered through Google Threat Intelligence , use Gemini to analyze threat actors activities relevant to particular organizations. The new AI capabilities aim to streamline threat intelligence operations, according to Google, removing the need for enterprises to manually input and update keywords on an as-they-go basis."
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