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November 17, 2025
On the web
Conversations with Hundreds of Depository Institutions
Atlanta Federal Reserve
"In August, my colleague Claire Greene blogged about the effort behind the Federal Reserve Payments Survey, a triennial study analyzing trends in US noncash payments. Nearly 3,800 commercial banks, savings institutions, and credit unions were invited to participate in the survey of depository institutions. I reached out to about 1,000 of those. In one conversation, the chief financial officer of a community bank cited his fraud losses from the past month, quarter, and year without consulting any notes."
Alibaba Taps JPMorgan To Build Stablecoin-Like Payments System for Its $35B Commerce Network
Yahoo Finance
"Alibaba plans to launch a tokenized global payment network by December. The system uses a stablecoin-like model and is being developed with JPMorgan’s tokenization technology. The network is designed to streamline cross-border B2B payments using tokenized fiat and AI-powered smart contracts."
Introducing Amazon Lens Live: Instant Scanning, Real-Time Product Matches, and Insights From Amazon’s AI Shopping Assistant
About Amazon
"Lens Live instantly scans products and shows real-time matches in a swipeable carousel to make finding the right item easier. Lens Live integrates Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, Rufus, to offer product insights, summaries, and answer questions as you browse. It is now available for customers in the Amazon Shopping app on iOS and Android."
On the wires
Digital Commerce Bank Becomes First Bank in Canada to Launch Interac e-Transfer® Cards Share
Business Wire
"Digital Commerce Bank proudly announces the launch of Interac e-Transfer® Cards as the first bank to bring this new and innovative product to market, allowing Canadians to bring creativity, personality, and meaning to the simple act of sending money. Integration of this new feature into web or mobile-based products is simple using DCBank’s APIs, online banking portal or digital wallets."
UBS and Ant International Partner on Blockchain-Based Real-Time Cross-Border Payments Settlement and Liquidity Management
Business Wire
"UBS has entered a strategic partnership with Ant International to explore innovations in blockchain-based tokenised deposits to support Ant International’s global payments settlement and liquidity management. Both parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at UBS’s flagship office in Singapore."
Ant Group Chairman Eric Jing Outlines Strategy for Inclusive AI, Collaboration on Tokenised Settlement
Business Wire
"Eric Jing, Chairman of Ant Group, said the company's focus is on putting new payment and operation tools powered by AI and tokenisation technology in the hands of SMEs, to fully embrace the next wave of global productivity revolution. On the consumer front, Jing expects the rise of personalised AI financial managers and advisors. On the business front, “Agentic payment is one of the most important forces driving agentic commerce and agentic systems,” Jing said."
November 13, 2025
Top Post
Mastercard and Thunes Bring Stablecoin Payouts to the Mainstream
Mastercard
"Mastercard and Thunes have teamed up to accelerate global money movement for banks, payment service providers and end-users by expanding stablecoin wallet payout capabilities. Through this strategic collaboration, announced at the Singapore Fintech Festival , Mastercard Move will facilitate near real-time payouts to stablecoin wallets via Thunes’ Direct Global Network, harnessing the speed, liquidity, and 24/7 availability of regulated stablecoins."
On the web
2025 American Express Shop Small Impact Study Results
American Express
"Sixteen years after creating Small Business Saturday®, American Express continues to champion the small businesses that fuel local economies across the country. Ahead of Small Business Saturday on November 29, the 2025 American Express Shop Small Impact Study1 reveals what is top of mind for U.S. consumers and small business owners this holiday shopping season."
PayPal Relaunches in the UK: Smarter Way to Pay Online and Now In-Stores With Game-Changing PayPal+ Loyalty Programme
PayPal Newsroom
"PayPal is relaunching as a unified payment experience for customers to shop online and now in-stores. PayPal customers across the UK can access the new PayPal+ loyalty programme, with PayPal Debit and Credit Cards also available. PayPal's first ever loyalty programme is available to British customers before anyone else in the world. Consumers can sign-up to PayPal+ for free in the PayPal app and start earning points on both online and in–store purchases."
Apple, Tencent Agree to 15% Fee on Wechat Mini Game Purchases: Bloomberg
Capital Brief
"Tencent Holdings has agreed to allow Apple to handle payments and take a 15% cut of purchases made in WeChat mini games and apps, according to sources cited by Bloomberg. The context: The deal has been negotiated by the two firms for over a year and opens a new source of revenue for the iPhone maker. Apple had been demanding that Tencent close loopholes used by app makers to push users to external payment systems – circumventing Apple’s usual 30% commission."
Uber Implements New Payment System
Retail Systems
"Ride sharing service Uber has overhauled its payment system in partnership with Checkout.com.Through the agreement, Checkout.com will provide acquiring and gateway services for Uber’s services on its platform across multiple markets worldwide. Uber said it implemented the technology to combine global coverage with local expertise and support its expansion in the digital economy."
Coinbase Abandons $2 Billion Acquisition of Stablecoin Firm BVNK
Yahoo FInance
"Coinbase has ended negotiations to acquire stablecoin startup BVNK, according to a Fortune report on Tuesday. Sources told the publication that the proposed deal was valued at approximately $2 billion. Both the American crypto exchange and Mastercard had been in advanced discussions to acquire BVNK, the UK-based fintech firm that builds stablecoin infrastructure. Coinbase and BVNK then entered exclusive negotiations."
On the wires
Introducing Cash App Releases: See What’s New
Business Wire
"Cash App has rolled out 11 product updates and made more than 150 improvements to meet the way that millions of people earn, manage, and share money. The brand’s first-ever bundled release includes more flexible banking* benefits, AI-powered navigation, the ability to send and receive stablecoins, and more - all underpinned by robust safety features"
November 12, 2025
Top Post
Ant International Launches World’s First Iris Authentication Feature in Smart-glasses Payment Solution
Business Wire
"In a global first, Ant International, a leading global digital payment, digitisation, and financial technology provider, has added iris authentication features to Alipay+ GlassPay, its AR glasses-embedded payment solution, through partnerships with leading smart glasses producers."
On the web
Amazon Business Unveils Next Generation AI Solutions to Help Organizations and Small Businesses Save Time and Money
US Press Center
"At Amazon Business’ Reshape conference, Amazon announced a number of new AI-powered solutions including the Amazon Business Assistant to help organizations discover savings, automate routine tasks, and make spending easier and more efficient. These innovations, all powered by Amazon Bedrock, AWS’s fully managed service for building and scaling generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications, represent the next step in Amazon Business’ smart business buying journey."
Visa Direct Stablecoin Payouts Pilot Speeds Up Access to Funds for Creators & Gig Workers
Visa
"At Web Summit, Visa Inc. announced a breakthrough pilot allowing businesses and platforms to send payouts directly to recipients’ stablecoin wallets. For businesses using Visa Direct, payouts can be funded in fiat currency, while recipients can choose to receive their funds in USD-backed stablecoins like USDC, transforming the speed and accessibility of global payouts."
Mastercard Champions Password-Free, Number-Free Checkout Across Asia Pacific by 2030
Mastercard
"At the Singapore FinTech Festival, Mastercard announced its ambition to make online shopping across Asia Pacific password-free and number-free by 2030. While more than a third of Mastercard transactions worldwide are already tokenized, achieving that vision in the world’s largest and fastest-growing e-commerce market — projected to exceed USD 7 trillion by 2030[1] — will require collective action. Mastercard is rallying banks, merchants, digital wallets, and technology partners to enable secure, tokenized payments powered by biometric authentication. This eliminates manual card entry and static passwords, making checkout faster and safer for consumers."
Visa Launches Scan to Pay for QR Payments Across APAC
Tech in Asia
"Visa has launched its Scan to Pay QR payment solution across Asia-Pacific, allowing millions of merchants to accept payments through widely used digital wallets and payment apps. The rollout is part of a broader Visa Pay initiative that connects participating digital wallets to Visa-accepting merchants worldwide."
Bank of America to Invest $4bn in Digital Transformation
Banking Exchange
"Bank of America has pledged to accelerate its investment in AI, automation, and digital banking as part of its strategy to fuel growth across all business lines. At Bank of America's first ‘Investor Day’ in 15 years, the bank outlined its commitment to “next-generation technologies”, revealing that it will spend $4 billion in technology code initiatives as part of its $13 billion total annual expenditure."
On the wires
Ant International’s Antom Launches AI‑Powered MSME App for Finance and Business Operations
Business Wire
"Antom, a leading provider of merchant payment and digitisation services under Ant International, today announced EPOS360, an app that brings point-of-sale (POS) system, payments, banking, lending, and growth support together to help micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) move from setup to scale efficiently."
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."
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."
November 10, 2025
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."
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