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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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October 15, 2025
On the web
Watch How Scam Victims Lose Millions to a Con With a Modern Twist [Video]
CNN
"Scammers are convincing Americans to feed millions into ATMs that turn cash into cryptocurrency. CNN’s Kyung Lah confronts one crook who tried to steal thousands from her."
AI-Generated Fraud Adds New Pressure to UK Expense Processes
IBS Intelligence
"Expense management in UK businesses is proving to be a source of stress for employees while raising new challenges for finance leaders, according to research from spend management provider Soldo. Adding to the complexity is the rise of AI-generated expense fraud. Tools such as ChatGPT and Midjourney make it possible to create realistic fake receipts, and finance leaders are increasingly worried about this growing threat."
On the wires
Circle K Launches Pro Digital+: A Next-Generation Fleet Payment Solution Powered by Car IQ
Business Wire
"Circle K is making fleet payments faster and easier through a strategic partnership with Car IQ, a pioneer in vehicle-based payment technology. Together, they have launched Circle K Pro Digital+, an innovative payment solution that eliminates traditional fuel cards and expands payment capabilities beyond fuel to include tolls and other vehicle-related expenses across the U.S."
October 14, 2025
On the web
Coming Soon: Bilt Points for UWM Mortgage Payments
NerdWallet
"If you have a mortgage with United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), the largest mortgage lender in the U.S., you may soon have a new way to earn Bilt Points. Starting in early 2026, the mortgage lender’s customers will be able to earn Bilt points with each on-time payment. Services will be added in a phased rollout, according to the issuer's announcement on Oct. 14, 2025."
October 13, 2025
Top Post
Goldman, BofA, Citi, Other Global Banks Team Up to Explore Issuing Stablecoin
Seeking Alpha
"A number of major global banks have formed a consortium to explore issuing "a 1:1 reserve-backed form of digital money that provides a stable payment asset available on public blockchains," according to a press release on Friday. The group includes Banco Santander, Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, MUFG Bank Ltd, TD Bank Group and UBS Group. The lenders are said to be in contact with regulators and supervisors in relevant markets."
October 10, 2025
On the web
Education: Understanding CHIPS: Key US Clearing House for Large Transactions
Investopedia
"CHIPS is a primary clearing house for large U.S. banking transactions, settling over $1.8 trillion daily. Unlike Fedwire, CHIPS uses a netting process for transactions, which is slower but more cost-effective. CHIPS supports various transaction types, such as interbank transfers, corporate payments, and foreign exchange."
October 9, 2025
On the wires
G20’s Cross-Border Payments Push Set to Miss 2027 Target
Reuters
"Global financial authorities are set to miss a 2027 target set by the G20 group of nations to make international cross-border payments faster, cheaper and more transparent, the G20's Financial Stability Board said on Thursday. Goals set in 2021 included cutting the global average cost of a retail payment to no more than 1% and for 75% of wholesale and retail payments to be credited within an hour of being made."
October 8, 2025
Top Post
From E-Commerce to A-Commerce: The Dawn of Agentic AI Payments
The National Law Review
"Google’s recent announcement of the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) raises a range of fascinating legal questions. Yes, A2P is certainly likely to revolutionize how we shop and make payments. But the missing piece is the inevitable starting point. How does one confidently and accurately verify the true identity of the purchaser’s/seller’s agents? AP2 transactions are purported to be “non-repudiable”—but that depends on whether the identities of the purchaser’s/seller’s agents have actually been verified. While having an immutable blockchain audit trail will help, as many deep fake crypto scams have shown, it is not a fool-proof safeguard. In the meantime, we lawyers have our own concerns...."
On the web
Sabre Direct Pay Introduces Integrated Chargeback Management Service for the Travel Industry
WebWire
"Sabre Direct Pay, the travel payments division of Sabre Corporation, is introducing a new service designed to help travel companies simplify and scale chargebacks, enabling dispute resolution more efficiently across both issuing and acquiring channels. Developed in partnership with Chargebacks911, the solution enables users to initiate and represent charge disputes without navigating multiple issuer or acquirer systems, removing the need for separate logins, manual data entry, or technical integration—bringing together what is typically a disjointed set of workflows into a single interface tailored for the travel industry."
From PhonePe To Navi: Here’re The New Launches By Fintech Startups At Global Fintech Festival 2025
Inc42 Media
"Amazon’s digital payment arm Amazon Pay has launched UPI Circle, allowing primary users to manage payments on behalf of family members and trusted contacts; BharatPe launched BharatPeX, its new payment aggregators and payment gateways (PAPG) online brand to help businesses accept and send money more conveniently across medium; Global fintech firm Revolut officially announced its India entry, with plans to onboard 2 Cr customers in India by 2030."
Stablecoins: The New Currency of Online Criminals
Bank Info Security
"Criminals are swapping volatility for predictability: stablecoins tied to the U.S. dollar offer certainty and cross-chain speed needed to scale theft, forcing investigators to shift from post-fact subpoenas to real-time chain tracking. Stablecoins often run across multiple blockchains and move with greater speed, which "create[s] new challenges for tracing and attribution," Redbord said, adding that public ledgers keep the data accessible but force a new emphasis on tools that "follow value across chains in real time."
October 6, 2025
Top Post
Buy It in ChatGPT: Instant Checkout and the Agentic Commerce Protocol
OpenAI
"U.S. ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Free users can now buy directly from U.S. Etsy sellers right in chat, with over a million Shopify merchants, like Glossier, SKIMS, Spanx and Vuori, coming soon. Instant Checkout supports single-item purchases. Next, we’ll add multi-item carts and expand merchants and regions. When someone asks a shopping question—“best running shoes under $100” or “gifts for a ceramics lover” — ChatGPT shows the most relevant products from across the web. Product results are organic and unsponsored, ranked purely on relevance to the user."
On the web
InComm Payments 2025 Holiday Report Examines How Consumers Plan to Address Economic Concerns Impacting Their Gift Giving Choices
Incomm
"InComm Payments has released its 2025 Annual Holiday Study. Gift cards are the most popular gift choice, with 68% of consumers planning to purchase them, ahead of clothing (61%), toys (44%), and electronics (36%)—a trend driven by convenience, flexibility, and the desire to avoid returns. Consumers are thoughtful not just about how much they give on a gift card, but also how the recipient can use it. While open-loop cards are the most commonly purchased (61%), single brand cards (45%) and multi-brand cards (29%) also play important roles depending on the recipient and occasion."
Venmo and PayPal Users Will Finally Be Able to Send Money to Each Other
Techcrunch
"Venmo and PayPal — two of the most popular apps for digitally sending money to friends, family, or businesses — have never been natively compatible. But according to Venmo, this is changing in November. “Venmo users and PayPal users will be able to pay each other in the U.S. and worldwide,” Venmo wrote in an email to customers. “That means that PayPal users will be able to find and pay you using your phone number, and later using your email address.”"
Coupa’s Newest Release Expands Agentic AI Collaboration and Orchestration Capabilities
Coupa
"Coupa, the leading AI platform for Total Spend Management, announced a significant platform release delivering powerful new capabilities that help finance, procurement, and supply chain leaders address today’s most pressing market challenges with AI. New innovations highlight the shift from traditional spend management to a more intelligent, autonomous future powered by AI."
On the wires
U.S. Faster Payments Council and Accredited Standards Committee X9 Form Strategic Alliance to Advance Faster Payments Standards
Business Wire
"The U.S. Faster Payments Council and the Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc. (X9) announced a strategic alliance designed to accelerate the development and adoption of standards for faster payments in the United States. By aligning their complementary strengths, the two organizations will work to ensure secure, interoperable, and widely adopted faster payments standards that benefit all stakeholders, especially business end-users seeking more efficient, reliable payments solutions."
October 3, 2025
On the web
Underwriting Is Shifting to AI-Driven, Real-Time Decisions by 2030
Help Net Security
"Underwriting is undergoing a major transformation as financial institutions push for faster decisions, better fraud detection, and greater personalization, according to a new global Experian report. As underwriting becomes faster and more seamless, fraud detection becomes more difficult. Fraudsters are adapting to low-friction processes that remove traditional checkpoints like manual reviews and two-factor authentication."
Sibos/Swift: How Will Digital Assets Reshape the Future of Digital Finance (Video Session)
Swift
Sibos/Swift: How Will Digital Assets Reshape the Future of Digital Finance (Video Session).
A Historical Perspective on Stablecoins
Liberty Street Economics
"Stablecoins are digital currencies designed to maintain a stable nominal value by being pegged to a benchmark such as the U.S. dollar. Stablecoins aim to combine decentralized payment systems’ technological advantages—such as digital methods of recording transactions (i.e., digital ledgers/blockchains) and of representing traditional assets (e.g., tokenization)—with the convenience of traditional forms of money. The GENIUS Act gives fiat-backed stablecoins a clear legal foundation in the United States."
The Future of Payroll: How Stablecoins Are Reshaping Startup Fintech
OneSafe
"Stablecoins are making waves in the digital financial world, and it looks like they’re here to stay. Especially for fintech startups in Asia, these currencies are becoming crucial as they navigate a maze of regulations. These rules can be a double-edged sword. They can inflate compliance costs and create barriers for startups. And then there's the GENIUS Act in the U.S., which has led to stricter regulations that limit startup independence in issuing stablecoins."
October 2, 2025
Top Post
Treasury Department Begins GENIUS Act Implementation Process
Brownstein
"The regulatory landscape for stablecoins continues to evolve rapidly, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s recent advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) on GENIUS Act implementation marks another significant development. Issued on Sept. 18, the ANPRM seeks public input on a wide range of issues, from anti-money laundering compliance and foreign oversight to taxation and insurance, underscoring the federal government’s growing focus on digital assets. This is a critical opportunity for stakeholders, particularly smaller financial institutions, to weigh in on the potential impact of these rules."
On the web
Feedzai Selected to Safeguard the Digital Euro
Feedzai
"The European Central Bank (ECB) has concluded a framework agreement in ranking with Feedzai to provide the central fraud detection and prevention mechanism for the digital euro. Its role is to contribute to safeguarding transactions from fraud by enriching payment service providers’ own risk management with insights derived from a central infrastructure-level view."
Sibos/Swift: Experience and Data Modernizations Cases for ISO 20022 (Video Session)
Swift
"Sibos/Swift: Experience and Data Modernizations Cases for ISO 20022 (Video Session)"
On the wires
Payabl. Joins EPI as a Licensed Member to Enable Wero Payments in Europe
Business Wire
"Leading financial technology provider payabl announced that it has become one of the first licensed members of the European Payments Initiative (EPI) and a direct participant in Wero, EPI’s newly launched pan-European, fast and secure digital wallet, already used by more than 43.5 million Europeans."
Mesh Announces Mesh AI Wallet At TOKEN2049
PR Newswire
"Mesh, the leading crypto payments network, unveiled the future of agentic commerce during a live demo at TOKEN2049, demonstrating an AI agent completing a crypto transaction. The demonstration highlighted how an AI agent can seamlessly complete a real world ecommerce purchase using stablecoins, in this case finishing a purchase of dog food from a retailer."
October 1, 2025
On the web
Top Banks Say They Are ‘Drowning’ In Payment Changes
Global Finance Magazine
"Technological innovation is transforming commercial payments across North America, greatly affecting major financial institutions in the US and Canada. Celent shared a report on this topic at Sibos, with some unexpected conclusions. The survey, conducted over the summer with a majority of the top 20 banks in the US and Canada, revealed that no single bank excels in all areas of payments."
September 30, 2025
On the web
United We Stand: A National Strategy to Prevent Scams
Aspen FSP
"Scams and fraud have become a national security threat, costing Americans more than $150 billion annually, fueling organized crime and undermining trust in communications and finance. The National Task Force on Fraud and Scam Prevention, convened by the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program (Aspen FSP), has developed a report that proposes a coordinated national strategy to suppress fraud."
PayOS Performs Live Agentic Token Transaction in Partnership with Mastercard
PayOS
"PayOS, an agentic payments and value added services platform company, today announced the successful completion of a landmark agentic payment transaction using a Mastercard Agentic Token. This historic transaction was executed leveraging Mastercard Agent Pay, which builds upon proven tokenization capabilities that today power global commerce solutions like mobile contactless payments, Secure Card on File, and Mastercard Payment Passkeys."
Sibos/Swift: Interoperating Digital Currencies: Solving for the Diversity of Money [Video Session]
Swift
"Interoperating Digital Currencies: Solving for the Diversity of Money. [Video] ."
September 29, 2025
On the web
Sibos/Swift: How is AI Making Transaction Anomaly Detection Smarter? (Session Video)
Sibos
Hear about smart transaction monitoring using AI for payment anomalies.
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