Glenbrook’s On-Demand Learning program combines our expertly curated payments education curriculum with a self-paced format that fits your schedule – start today!
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.
Search Payments News
October 14, 2026
Top Post
US Hits Bank of America with $1.2 Billion Fine, Saying It Violated Money Laundering, Sanctions Laws
The Associated Press
"The U.S. Treasury Department said that it’s imposing $1.2 billion in fines on Bank of America for allegedly violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws. The fines on America’s second-biggest bank amount to the third-largest in the department’s history. In a statement, Treasury said its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) assessed the $1.2 billion penalty for Bank of America’s “failure to mitigate and report priority national security risks, including Chinese Money Laundering Networks and illicit finance along the southwest border.’'
On the web
Case Study: PrizePay Strengthens Payouts with Confirmation of Payee
Australian Payments Plus
"PrizePay is a platform that helps businesses distribute cash rewards. As payout volumes increased, PrizePay wanted to reduce the risk of delays or misdirected payouts caused by incorrect account details, while maintaining a simple customer experience. PrizePay partnered with Azupay to integrate Confirmation of Payee into its payout process, giving PrizePay greater confidence payments are going to their intended recipients and helping identify potential discrepancies earlier."
Airtel’s Virtual Card Will Test Safaricom’s Grip on Kenya’s Online Payments
TechCabal
"Airtel Mobile Commerce N.V. plans to launch a virtual payment card in Kenya, setting up a new contest with Safaricom over international online spending. Developed with Mastercard, the Virtual Card Number (VCN) will integrate with Airtel Money wallets, enabling customers to pay for services on global platforms such as Amazon and Netflix without a traditional bank account. The launch puts Airtel Money Global Pay in direct competition with M-PESA GlobalPay, Safaricom’s virtual Visa card introduced in 2022."
Ripple Partners With Stripe-Owned Privy for AI Payments
Yahoo Finance
"Ripple and Stripe-owned Privy are bringing programmable wallets to the XRP Ledger. The integration lets developers create and manage XRPL wallets through software, authorize transactions, and build services using XRP, Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin, and other ledger assets. Embedded wallets allow customers to use payment applications without directly handling their private keys. Server-side wallets also support AI agents that hold funds and make purchases via x402 payments."
Banks Think They’re Ready for Tomorrow’s Fraud. Feedzai’s Survey Suggests Otherwise.
Feedzai
"Banks and fintechs are confident they’re ready for the next wave of fraud, but the evidence suggests they’re overestimating themselves. In Feedzai’s latest research report, Confidence & Capability: The Feedzai Fraud Readiness Index 2026—which surveyed more than 1,000 senior fraud leaders across 12 countries—financial institutions rated their own fraud readiness at an average score of 80.2 out of 100. But when measured against their actual capabilities across data, AI, intelligence sharing, and fraud team operations, the average dropped to 66.9."
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta: Surveying Consumers' Use of Personal Checks
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
"The sharp declines in the use of checks and the introduction of new paperless payment services are driving the repeated debates about the future of checks in the United States and other countries. According to the Federal Reserve Payments Study, the number of checks in the United States has declined from 17 billion in 2015 to 9.2 billion in 2024."
On the wires
PayJoy to Acquire Strategic Assets of Finia AI, Advancing AI Underwriting and Financial Product Innovation
PR Newswire
"PayJoy, a financial services provider for underserved consumers across emerging markets, announced the acquisition of select strategic assets of Finia AI, Inc., a fintech company that developed AI-powered underwriting and financial products for micro-businesses in Mexico. The transaction will enable PayJoy to apply Finia's technology and expertise to its global platform, strengthening its underwriting capabilities and expanding its financial product offering for customers with limited access to formal credit."
October 13, 2026
Top Post
Visa Receives Approval to Begin Preparations for a Domestic Business in China
Visa
"Visa announced that it has received approval of its Application to Prepare from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), which allows the company to begin formal preparations to establish a domestic bankcard clearing institution in China. This marks an important milestone toward the company serving China’s domestic payments market."
On the web
Wells Fargo Prepares for Stablecoins as CEO Questions US Use Cases
Crypto News
"Wells Fargo has outlined plans to issue stablecoins with 20 other financial institutions in the first half of 2027, while CEO Charlie Scharf has said their use cases in the United States remain unclear. Scharf said Wells Fargo launched tokenized deposits for corporate and commercial clients in September. The consortium plans to support cross-border payments and digital asset settlements across several customer groups."
Xero Brings Real-Time Financial Intelligence to Google Gemini
Business Wire
"Xero announced a new integration with Google Gemini, bringing live financial intelligence and Xero data directly into Gemini conversations where many small businesses, accountants and bookkeepers already work. As the first financial management platform to launch a connected app for Gemini, Xero will enable customers to use Gemini to retrieve real-time financial answers, analyze business performance, and complete routine tasks without switching between applications or losing financial context."
Nearly 7 in 10 Americans Would Let AI Complete Certain Financial Tasks, TD Survey Finds
TD Bank
"Consumers are open to using artificial intelligence for more than financial information and guidance. A new TD Bank U.S. survey finds that 69% would allow a bank-provided AI assistant to complete at least one financial task on their behalf, highlighting consumers’ willingness to let AI play a more active role in everyday banking."
Project Aurum Phase 2: Exploring Privacy-Enhancing Technologies for Digital Cash
Bank for International Settlements
"Project Aurum Phase 2 implements a privacy-preserving digital cash prototype upon the existing Aurum codebase to enhance policymakers’ understanding how privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) may alleviate the dilemma of privacy and compliance in digital cash. The prototype illustrates a balanced approach between complete anonymity on the one hand and full transaction transparency on the other. It also implements customisable functionalities to meet business needs for compliance and operations."
Canadian Payment Transactions Reach $12.9 Trillion as Real-Time Payments Near Launch
Canadas Entrepreneur
"Canadian payment transactions totalled $12.9 trillion in 2025, up 5.7 per cent from the previous year, as credit and debit cards maintained their dominance and more than half of Canadians expressed interest in real-time payments, according to a new report from Payments Canada. The findings come ahead of the planned fourth-quarter 2026 launch of Canada’s Real-Time Rail (RTR), a payment system designed to allow Canadians to send and receive payments instantly at any time of day."
Check Your Vendors’ Quantum-Safe Readiness with New Tool from Nacha’s Payments Innovation Alliance
Nacha
"The time for financial institutions to prepare for quantum-safe computing is now, and Nacha’s Payments Innovation Alliance has a new tool to help. The Alliance’s Quantum Payments Project Team has created a Vendor Questionnaire which banks and credit unions of all sizes can use to confirm their vendors’ plans, timelines, impacts to an FI’s organization, and to support current and emerging cryptographic standards."
AI Deepfakes Target Corporate America’s Multi-Bank Blind Spot
Early Warning
"According to new research from Certos, which is powered by Early Warning, the company behind Zelle – 81% of corporate financial leaders surveyed say their company experienced attempted fraud involving AI-generated or AI-enhanced content in the past year. The research also reveals a widening confidence gap across corporate America: business leaders know AI-enabled fraud is becoming harder to detect, but many are far less certain they can stop it before money moves."
Mastercard to Introduce Offline Payments in Croatia
Croatia Week
"Mastercard will introduce new rules for offline card payments across Europe in 2027, allowing consumers to pay for essential goods even when electricity or internet connections are disrupted. All newly issued Mastercard cards in Europe will support offline payments from February 2027. By May 2027, all new payment terminals, as well as terminals replacing existing equipment, will also be required to support the technology."
Wex and Mastercard Partner to Launch Asia-Pacific’s First Unified Fleet Payments Network
Mastercard
"WEX and Mastercard announced a strategic partnership set to simplify fleet management operations and modernize fleet payments across Asia-Pacific. The strategic partnership marks a first-of-its-kind initiative in the region that will drive the next-generation payments infrastructure by bringing together universal fuel, vehicle fleet maintenance, tolling, parking and more, in a single payment experience. The program is projected to process billions of dollars in annual transactions as it expands across key regional markets."
On the wires
TNS Helps Businesses Meet Changing Consumer Payment Preferences with 100+ Alternative Payment Methods
Business Wire
"Transaction Network Services (TNS), a global leader in managed network and payment solutions, announced that its payment orchestration platform now supports more than 100 alternative payment methods alongside traditional card schemes, giving businesses in unattended environments, such as parking and self-service, a single connection to support the payment methods their customers increasingly expect."
American Express Publishes Intent Intelligence Framework for Trusted Agentic Commerce
Business Wire
"American Express published its Intent Intelligence framework, detailing the company’s recommended approach to capturing and authenticating a customer’s purchase intent before an AI agent completes a transaction. The framework then preserves that intent as a control throughout the transaction lifecycle. By making its framework publicly available, American Express aims to help advance a common industry approach for intent in agentic commerce."
Rain Introduces Wallets, Putting the Account at the Center of Its Stablecoin Payments Platform
PR Newswire
"Rain, the global stablecoin payments platform, announced Rain wallets, embedded stablecoin wallets that partners can offer their users inside their own apps, with the ability to earn on balances to follow by end of year. The wallet is the account at the center of Rain's platform. It is accessible through the same integration that issues the card, powers rewards, and supports money movement, so a user can get paid, save, spend, and send from one balance."
October 12, 2026
On the web
FIS Equips CFOs With Agentic AI to Forecast Cash Flow and Surface Risk Earlier
FIS Global
"FIS has launched FIS® Agentic Insights Suite, an agentic AI solution that helps finance teams manage collections, liquidity, risk and cash flow from a single view. FIS Agentic Insights Suite includes a new cash flow forecasting module that projects cash across multiple time horizons. The solution combines a company's own data with outside credit and public data to score credit risk, business health and ESG in real time."
AI Shopping Has Outrun Its Plumbing, Says Payments Expert
Internet Retailing
"Meta’s Muse has hit five million downloads in its first 22 days. Muse is built to understand goals of users and to perform tasks on their behalf – including paying for items. It has integrated Stripe’s Link payment system, with Shop Pay support also on the cards. OpenAI has announced the launch of its rival Dots agent, which performs similar functionality – and there are signs that it is preparing a payment product called ChatGPT wallet, which would let users store payment cards for use while carrying out tasks."
Can Bank of America Turn the Next Technology Cycle Into Better Payments Outcomes?
The Asian Banker
"Bank of America sees the convergence of AI, distributed ledgers and tokenisation as a major new technology cycle in payments. Mark Monaco says the opportunity is to turn these technologies into faster, more efficient and safer outcomes for clients. At Sibos, he cited Payments Insights. Bank of America launched the capability within its AI-powered CashPro Data Intelligence suite. It uses payments data, peer benchmarking and visualisation to help treasury teams identify opportunities around payment efficiency."
Federal Reserve Board Releases Results of the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, With Detailed Insights Into the Economic Condition of American Families
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
"The Federal Reserve Board released the results of the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, which provides the public and policymakers with detailed insights into the economic condition of American families. The data provide a representative picture of what Americans own, how and how much they borrow, and how they bank. The current version of the survey has been undertaken every three years since 1989 and provides the public with an extensive time series of thorough information on the economic conditions of American families."
BNY Mellon Names XRP in Corporate Payments Roadmap, Stablecoin Report Shows
BigGo Finance
"BNY Mellon has explicitly named XRP in a stablecoin publication outlining its corporate payments strategy, stating the goal is to help treasuries move money around the clock through stablecoins and digital assets like XRP. The document confirms the bank serves as primary reserve custodian for Ripple USD, launched in July 2025, and references Ripple's acquisition of a treasury management system from GTreasury."
October 9, 2026
On the web
OCC Assesses $350 Million Civil Money Penalty Against American Express
OCC
"The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today announced a cease-and-desist order and a $350 million civil money penalty against American Express National Bank, Sandy, Utah (bank), for deficiencies in the bank’s Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance program. Deficiencies in the Bank’s BSA/AML program involved inadequate resources, including staff without sufficient expertise, systemic internal control gaps, weak independent testing, and weak BSA/AML training for employees and directors."
The Clearing House Targets Cross Border and Treasury as First Tokenized Deposit Use Cases
Ledger Insights
"In the past couple of weeks we have heard some of the architectural details about The Clearing House (TCH) interoperability solution for tokenized deposits that plans to launch in the first half of 2027. During a Sibos panel last week, Reena Verma, Head of Tokenized Deposit Commercialization at TCH, cited the primary driver as programmability. She also elaborated on the initial use cases, which include complex cross border payments and treasury management."
Education: Spreedly: Understanding Card Tokenization Failures
Spreedly
"Secure transactions are absolutely necessary for your payments stack. Card tokenization is crucial to the security of your payment stack and your customers’ payment data. However, even this system isn’t immune to hiccups. Let’s look at the nuances of tokenization failures and how platforms provide solutions."
Mastercard to Introduce Offline Payment Rules Across Europe
Yahoo Finance
"Mastercard will enforce new technical requirements across Europe starting in early 2027 to ensure payments can proceed during telecommunications or electricity outages. The measure follows an April 2025 blackout across Spain and Portugal, which left an estimated 55 million people unable to process digital transactions."
October 8, 2026
On the web
Samsung Wallet to Add USDC on Solana for US Transfers in October
Altcoin Buzz
"Samsung Wallet and Samsung Pay will support stablecoins on Solana, the Solana Foundation said on Oct. 7, 2026. US users will be able to send money across borders in USDC from the last week of October 2026. At launch the feature will sit across 82 million US Galaxy devices. Samsung defines that figure as the number of Galaxy devices in the country compatible with Samsung Wallet, not a count of users. USDC is the only stablecoin named as supported at launch"
Take us with you
Payments on Fire is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, and other podcast apps and services.
Watch new video episodes on our YouTube channel.