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April 9, 2026
Top Post
Federal Reserve Board Invites Public Comment on Proposal That Would Allow U.S. Banks and Credit Unions to Use Intermediaries to Transfer Funds Through the FedNow Service
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
"The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday invited public comment on a proposal that would allow U.S. banks and credit unions to use intermediaries to transfer funds through the FedNow Service. This additional flexibility would support new private sector use cases for the FedNow Service. For example, it would allow U.S. banks to use FedNow to transact with correspondent banks to facilitate the international portion of a cross-border payment. Currently, a transfer of funds sent through the FedNow Service can include only two U.S. banks."
On the web
Block Introduces Managerbot, a Proactive Square AI Agent
Venture Beat
Block unveiled Managerbot, a new AI agent embedded in the Square platform that proactively monitors a seller's business, identifies emerging problems, and proposes actionable solutions — without the seller ever having to ask a question. The product marks the most tangible manifestation of CEO Jack Dorsey's controversial bet that artificial intelligence can fundamentally reshape how his company operates, builds products, and serves the millions of small businesses that depend on Square to run day-to-day commerce.
Circle Launches CPN Managed Payments, a Full-Stack Platform for Seamless Stablecoin Settlement
Circle
"Circle Internet Group, Inc. announced the launch of Circle Payments Network (CPN) Managed Payments1. This fully managed, unified stablecoin settlement solution allows payment service providers (PSPs), fintechs, banks, and global enterprises to access the speed and efficiency of regulated digital dollars without managing digital assets directly."
Visa: Earning Consumer Trust in the Age of Agentic Commerce
Visa
"Visa conducted research to understand how consumers are adapting to the rise of agentic commerce: the emerging world where AI acts on their behalf when shopping and buying. This report summarizes the results of that research covering the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Across all three markets, consumers show striking consistency: most are already familiar with AI-powered shopping assistants, and approximately one in three expect to use them regularly."
Mastercard Makes Getting Around Korea Easier for International Travelers with iPhone
Mastercard
"Getting around South Korea just got easier for international travelers. Visitors can now use their iPhone or Apple Watch and Mastercard cards to pay for public transport, following the launch of the MobileTmoney transit app on the Apple App Store. Travelers can top up their MobileTmoney balance directly in Apple Wallet using their Mastercard debit or credit card—eliminating the need to buy physical transit cards or carry cash. The service is the result of a collaboration between MobileTmoney and Apple, powered by Mastercard’s global payments network."
US Treasury Tightens Grip: New AML Rules for Stablecoin Issuers
The Global Treasurer
"The US Treasury has proposed sweeping new AML rules that reclassify stablecoin issuers as "financial institutions". From mandatory suspicious activity reporting to "freeze and seize" capabilities on the secondary market, corporate treasurers must now navigate a new era of regulatory oversight. We examine the practical implications for treasury departments and the steps needed to audit your digital asset partners."
Adyen Launches Intelligent Money Movement To Unify Enterprise Payments, Liquidity Management And Payouts
Adyen
"Adyen announced Intelligent Money Movement, a new product offering that connects payments, liquidity management, and payouts together on a single platform. Designed for large global enterprises, the solution enables businesses like Etsy, Expedia Group, and Vinted to move funds faster, gain real-time visibility into their cash positions, and reduce operational complexity."
CHIPS® Delivers Record Value and Resilience for Participants in 2025
The Clearing House
"The CHIPS® network, the largest private-sector high-value payment system in the world, reported increased network usage, economic value, and resilient liquidity performance in 2025, demonstrating the growing importance of its patented liquidity algorithm to participant banks and their customers. In 2025, the CHIPS network activity increased materially with average daily value rising nine percent year-over-year to $2.014 trillion and average daily volume increasing 12 percent year-over-year, underscoring the network’s expanding role in supporting large-value domestic and cross-border U.S. dollar payments."
On the wires
Synthetic Identities and Agentic Bots Posing as Human Contribute to 8% Global Rise in Fraud Attacks - LexisNexis Risk Solutions
PR Newswire
"LexisNexis® Risk Solutions' latest Cybercrime Report reveals key global fraud trends emerging over the past year. Derived from analysis of more than 116 billion online transactions detected through our LexisNexis® Digital Identity Network® in 2025, the report shows a significant 8% rise in global fraud rates driven by attacks targeting the gaming and gambling and ecommerce sectors, cost of living pressures and new emerging fraud tactics."
April 8, 2026
Top Post
Visa Opens the Door to AI-Driven Shopping for Businesses Worldwide
Visa
"Visa Inc. unveiled Intelligent Commerce Connect, a new solution that makes it easier for businesses to connect to and participate in AI-powered commerce. Intelligent Commerce Connect acts as a network, protocol, and token vault-agnostic ‘on ramp’ to agentic commerce for agent builders, merchants, and enablers. Through a single integration via the Visa Acceptance Platform, Intelligent Commerce Connect enables secure payment initiation, tokenization, spend controls, and authentication."
On the web
Bank of America: CashPro App Usage Rises 20% as Clients Approve $38,000 in Payments Every Second
PR Newswire
"Bank of America announced that its CashPro App has become an indispensable platform for corporate and commercial clients, attracting a record number of sign-ins and growing 20% year over year. Last year, clients approved a record $1.2 trillion in payment value through the app—an average of $38,000 every second—underscoring the scale of activity and the app's integral role in day‑to‑day treasury operations across industries and geographies."
BILL Extends Supplier Payments to Power a Connected B2B Ecosystem and Help Large Enterprise Suppliers Get Paid Up to ~7 Days Faster
Bill
"BILL announced the latest expansion of BILL Supplier Payments Plus. These new capabilities further extend the solution’s ability to automate and intelligently orchestrate payments and cash application for Enterprise Suppliers, streamlining SMB payments, reducing manual work, and supporting enterprise-grade controls. By sitting between buyers and suppliers, BILL absorbs complexity at scale to reduce friction across both sides of the transaction."
Circle Rolls Out USDC Payments Platform That Lets Users Pay Without Holding Stablecoins
The Block
"Circle launched a stablecoin settlement service that allows payment service providers, fintechs, and banks to benefit from the efficiency of using blockchain-based rails without having to hold digital assets like USDC. The platform is meant to facilitate cross-border settlement using USDC, help merchants accept stablecoin payments, and lower FX costs."
AP+ and Bolt Group Announce the Next Chapter for Popular Peer to Peer Payments App, Beem [Australia]
Australian Payments Plus
"Australian Payments Plus (AP+) has signed an agreement for Bolt to acquire its consumer payments app, Beem. Over the years, Beem has spearheaded the group expense tracking trend and achieved more than 3 million app downloads, while maintaining an average app store rating of 4.9 out of 5. The sale of Beem reflects a deliberate move for AP+ to sharpen its focus on the role it plays in building and operating Australia’s critical payments and identity infrastructure, including eftpos, the NPP, ConnectID and BPAY.”"
Lloyds Bank Uses Quantum Computing to Detect Money Mules
The Times
"Lloyds Bank has been experimenting with quantum computing to improve financial crime prevention, in an early test of whether the technology can deliver practical benefits for banks. The bank tested whether quantum algorithms could spot money mule behaviour within a large collection of transactions, a task that traditional computers tend to struggle with due to the complexity of detecting subtle patterns within large-scale transaction data."
Finastra and Marketnode Transform Credit Agreement Onboarding Through AI
Finastra
"Finastra announced a strategic partnership with Marketnode to digitize and automate the credit agreement onboarding process for corporate lenders. The collaboration brings together Marketnode’s LLM/AI‑powered intelligent document automation and Finastra’s Loan IQ platform through the Loan IQ Nexus Build module. It enables FIs to digitize the credit agreement onboarding process via an integrated, automated workflow."
Mastercard and Krungthai Card Complete First Live Agentic Transaction in Thailand
Mastercard
"Mastercard announced the completion of a pilot that delivered its first authenticated agentic transaction in Thailand with Krungthai Card Public Company Limited (KTC). The pilot demonstrated how AI can support consumers to complete everyday tasks — such as transportation — securely and seamlessly. In the inaugural test case, an AI agent booked a ride from Suvarnabhumi airport to Central Chidlom through Elife, a global mobility provider. The booking and agentic transaction were facilitated by an AI agent, which connects to Elife’s network of services."
Why the UK is Mulling a Centralised Testing Regime for Banking AI
The Global Treasurer
"The Bank of England and the UK government are weighing a landmark proposal to introduce a common testing regime for general-purpose AI models. The move aims to strip away the ‘black box’ opacity of US-developed algorithms and relieve the operational burden on individual lenders. With roughly 75% of UK financial firms now deploying AI, the sector has “substantially outpaced” almost every other industry in adopting the technology. However, this rapid rollout has left regulators uneasy."
Capital One Completes Acquisition of Brex
Capital One
"Capital One Financial Corporation announced that it has completed its acquisition of Brex in a combination of stock and cash transaction. Brex is a modern, AI-native software platform offering intelligent finance solutions that enable businesses to issue corporate cards, automate expense management and make secure, real-time payments. The company also leverages AI agents to help customers automate complex workflows to reduce manual review and control spend."
Namibia Sets 2030 Vision for Digital Payments Growth
CoinGeek
"The Bank of Namibia (BoN), together with the Payments Association of Namibia and financial stakeholders, has launched the National Payment System (NPS) Vision and Strategy 2026 – 2030 to accelerate digital transformation and promote inclusive economic growth in the African nation. The NPS was unveiled as part of the “Inclusive Payments, Shared Prosperity: Charting the Next Era” strategy, which aims to modernize Namibia’s payments infrastructure and strengthen financial innovation."
April 7, 2026
Top Post
FDIC Reveals Proposed Rules for Stablecoin Issuers Under Genius Act
Decrypt
"The FDIC approved a proposed rule implementing stablecoin regulations under the GENIUS Act, establishing standards for permitted payment stablecoin issuers. Deposits held as reserves backing payment stablecoins would not receive pass-through deposit insurance protection for token holders. Stablecoin issuers must redeem tokens within two business days and cannot represent that tokens pay interest or yield. The FDIC's action implements the GENIUS Act, which allows payment stablecoin issuers with less than $10 billion in outstanding tokens to choose state-level regulation if their state meets federal standards. The FDIC seeks feedback on 144 specific questions in its proposal, with the 60-day comment period beginning upon Federal Register publication.
On the web
Kenswitch and Visa Sign Framework Agreement to Support the Evolution Of Kenya’s Payments Ecosystem
Kenswitch
"Kenswitch Limited, Kenya’s shared payments infrastructure provider, and Visa, a global leader in digital payments, announced the signing of a framework agreement to collaborate on advancing payment innovation and supporting the continued development of Kenya’s domestic payment processing and settlement ecosystem. The agreement brings together Kenswitch’s national payments infrastructure and Visa’s global digital payments expertise to support financial institutions, merchants, businesses, and consumers across Kenya."
Ahold Delhaize USA Makes Pay by Bank Available for Online Grocery Orders
Progressive Grocer
"Ahold Delhaize USA has grown its partnership with Fiserv Inc. to make Pay by Bank available on the grocer’s proprietary omnichannel platform, providing customers with a secure, streamlined digital payment option for online grocery orders directly from their bank accounts. The solution is currently available on the e-commerce websites and mobile apps of three Ahold Delhaize USA grocery brands: The Giant Co., Giant Food and Stop & Shop."
Dual-Sided ATM Offers Improved CX in a Smaller Footprint
ATM Marketplace
"The traditional ATM has many limitations, such as the fact it can take up a lot of space, and only one customer can interact with the machine at a time. NCR Atleos is answering this issue with a small form factor dual-sided ATM, where two customers can transact on separate screens across from each other. This proof-of-concept device uses shared safes and a PC core to provide a smaller footprint, alongside 3D printed components for reduced weight and waste."
Bitcoin Day Is Live: Cash App, Square, and Bitkey Are Giving Away $1 Million in Bitcoin
Block
"For the first time, Cash App, Square, and Bitkey are teaming up to celebrate Bitcoin Day with $1 million in bitcoin giveaways. Running April 6 through April 10, Bitcoin Day is designed to help people actually use bitcoin in everyday life, from buying coffee, to getting paid, to owning it for real."
Multicurrency Crypto Wallet: The Future of Flexible and Secure Payments
News18
"The #1 global gaming platform, proudly announces the launch of Multiwallet – an innovative feature that brings all currencies together in one account with separate wallets for INR, USDT, and USDC. This innovative solution lets users easily manage their funds, combining crypto and fiat payments while keeping every transaction safe, transparent, and fully under their control."
Cross Switch Goes Live With Absa Pay to Deliver Frictionless, Bank Authenticated Payments for South African Merchants
Cross Switch
"When customers select Absa Pay at checkout, they are routed to a secure Absa environment to authenticate the payment directly with their bank before being returned to the merchant’s platform to complete the transaction. Absa developed Absa Pay to provide fintechs, e‑commerce platforms, and other digital partners with a safe, authenticated way to engage with the bank through secure, API‑based systems. Through the enablement of Absa Pay, Cross Switch merchants benefit from strong customer authentication, real‑time payment confirmation, and consistent system reliability delivered through bank‑side monitoring."
April 6, 2026
On the web
Why UPI Payments Will Feel Different From April 2026 [India]
ET Edge
"From April 1, 2026, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is set to implement a major overhaul of India’s digital payment security framework. These new rules which were formally issued under the “Authentication Mechanisms for Digital Payment Transactions Directions, 2025”,will significantly change how Indians use UPI, debit/credit cards, mobile wallets, and online banking. The most important feature of the new framework is mandatory two-factor authentication (2FA) for all digital payments."
Aussies Face Grim Warning Amid New Bank
Yahoo Finance
"One of Australia’s most hated hidden fees has been removed. The RBA released its review of merchant card payment costs and surcharging, recommending three changes to Australia’s payment network. These include removing surcharges which will be banned from October 1, with businesses now having to display the entire cost - including credit charges – as part of the sticker price. The RBA is reducing interchange fees – which are paid by a business’ bank to the customer’s bank, will be lowered while the RBA promised to ensure increased transparency surrounding fees charged by card networks."
The United States Attacks Pix Again, and Lula Reacts
Finsiders Brazil
"Pix has once again come under scrutiny from the US government led by Donald Trump . A report published by the Office of the United States Trade Representative alleges that the Brazilian instant payment system "disadvantages" US electronic payment service providers. According to the annual US trade the Central Bank will give preferential treatment to the Pix system, to the detriment of other payment systems. This includes, therefore, card brands such as Visa and Mastercard."