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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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July 30, 2026
On the web
Plaid Builds AI Model to Decode Consumer Financial Behavior
Bank Info Security
"Banks and lenders often can't tell the difference between a customer having a bad month and a bad customer having a good month. Financial data company Plaid built a foundation model that it says makes that distinction. Plaid spent about a year building the foundation model, which analyzes how and where money moves and the sequence in which it moves."
Mastercard Launches Scam Program And Expands Stablecoin Payment Infrastructure
Yahoo Finance
"Mastercard launched a new Scam Merchant Monitoring Program that pushes acquiring banks to investigate suspected fraud within strict timelines. In addition, the company is expanding stablecoin settlement support, including through its acquisition of BVNK and a focus on deeper banking as a service offerings. These moves aim to tighten consumer protection and build out Mastercard's infrastructure for stablecoin linked payments."
Wise Denied US Banking License After Shifting Main Stock Market Listing
Yahoo Finance
"Wise said it has been denied a US banking license in a setback to the payments firm after moving its main stock market listing across the pond. The London-based business had applied for a national bank charter in the hope of being able to operate under the regulation of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The license would give it direct access to payment systems through the Federal Reserve. But Wise said the application was denied due to historical issues with its original application including relating to financial crime."
Swift: A Better Cross-Border Payment Experience Is Here
Swift
"The industry has worked towards a simple ambition: making cross-border payments feel as seamless as domestic ones. That ambition is becoming a reality. In some of the world’s busiest remittance corridors, consumers can now send money across borders with greater speed, transparency and predictability. Payments from Australia to Spain have been completed in as little as 23 seconds, while transfers from Australia to India have arrived in 37 seconds. This progress is being delivered by Swift’s new scheme—a shared framework for retail payments."
AI and the Global Economy: Implications for Central Banks
BIS
"The AI boom is driving a large, increasingly debt-financed investment surge and boosting trade and equity markets, generating sizeable terms-of-trade and wealth effects that differ across countries. The productivity payoff from AI, though potentially large, remains uncertain and uneven, across both sectors and countries. By simultaneously affecting demand and supply, AI blurs cyclical signals, complicating central banks' assessment of underlying economic conditions and monetary policy calibration."
Revolut to Offer ChatGPT Subscriptions in OpenAI Deal [UK]
UKTN
"Fintech Revolut will give its retail customers access to ChatGPT Go as part of a new partnership with OpenAI. ChatGPT Go is a medium tier subscription for the AI chatbot that typically costs users a monthly fee of £7. Revolut will offer retail customers on its Metal and Ultra subscriptions free access to the premium tier of ChatGPT 12 months, while the cheaper two Revolut subscriptions will offer ChatGPT Go for three and six months respectively."
Visa: Agentic Payments from the Ground Up: What the Onchain Data Tells Us
Visa
"Until recently, software could read a webpage and suggest what to do next, but it couldn’t actually pay for anything. AI agents now book travel, reorder inventory, query data providers, and buy compute for the businesses and people they work for. Visa worked with Artemis to look at the protocols, standards, and live onchain data behind agentic payments, and to get a clearer read on where this is heading."
On the wires
BNY Launches Global Digital Transfer Agency Capabilities, Extending Leadership in Fund Servicing to Digital Market
PR Newswire
"BNY announced the launch of its new Digital Transfer Agency (TA) capabilities, meeting an expanded set of client needs by extending the firm's leading TA services to support digitally native funds. BNY Digital TA modernizes BNY's fund servicing capabilities to support both digital and traditional asset funds in an end-to-end lifecycle across multiple jurisdictions and blockchains, enabling a unified client servicing experience."
July 29, 2026
Top Post
Visa Used Mythos to Hunt for Bugs in Its Own Payment Network, Then Open-Sourced the Harness That Made It Possible [Video]
VentureBeat
"Visa aimed Anthropic's Claude Mythos at the infrastructure behind billions of daily transactions, a network that spans more than 200 countries and territories, moves money in roughly 160 currencies, and connects nearly 5 billion payment credentials to more than 175 million merchant locations. The model stitched minor weaknesses deep in the stack into working exploit chains that would traditionally have surfaced only late in penetration testing. Hear about a new metric that is mean time to exploit and adapt."
Is Agentic Commerce the Future of AI-Powered Shopping?
J.P.Morgan
"Right now, AI shopping is essentially decision support. The human customer drives the process, with the chatbot as an advisor. The vision is that AI agents will go shopping for you, and act as your autonomous representatives in the market: negotiating with suppliers, interacting with brands, even completing a transaction. Businesses are preparing for this world. But would you be happy to delegate decision-making to AI—or to let it spend your human-earned cash? We asked thought leaders for their perspective."
On the web
Financial Services Intelligence Report July 2026
J.D. Power
"The great unbundling of the banking and financial services industry may have reached a turning point. After several quarters of losing share of new account openings to FinTech challenger brands, the big banks have come roaring back in the second quarter of 2026. According to JD Power Signals Intelligence for Financial Services, major national brands have assumed the top spots in new checking, savings, investment, retirement, credit card and personal loan account opening rates."
How Do We Regulate Payments When It’s AI Agents Spending the Money?
World Economic Forum
"AI agents are moving from giving advice to taking action – for payments, the consequences are immediate and can be difficult to reverse. Financial institutions have long built trust around knowing who is behind a transaction; agentic AI adds a layer between the human and the payment that existing controls were not designed to handle. The future of trusted transactions will depend on understanding intent, authority and context alongside established rigorous identity checks."
TCH: Use Case Evolution Is One Factor in RTP’s Instant Payments Growth
Digital Transactions
"Business-to-business payments were one of the first use cases for instant payments when the RTP network from The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC debuted in 2017. The use cases are evolving, with digital wallets—like PayPal and Venmo—now being the largest use cases on the RTP network. Another use with potential is request for payment [RfP]. This option enables billers and merchants to receive nearly immediate payment. RTP has RfP activity on the network, with 300,000 to 400,000 RfPs processed monthly."
On the wires
MoonPay Launches PayBox, a Payment Vault for Claude and ChatGPT That Turns Prompts Into Payments
PR Newswire
"MoonPay has launched PayBox, the first payment vault built for AI that lets a person's AI agent transact on the open internet without leaving the conversation. Anyone can now connect PayBox to Claude or ChatGPT through a custom connector and give their AI the ability to securely transact across the open internet. Users simply describe what they want in natural language: "Onramp $100 into PYUSD""Swap $100 of PYUSD to SOL."
July 28, 2026
Top Post
Three New Nacha Rules Approved
Nacha
"Nacha voting members have approved three new Nacha Rules—including one which took effect immediately, opening the ACH Contact Registry to the U.S. Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS). Another newly approved Rule will document the current set of characters that are accepted by the two ACH Operators. The third approved Rule creates an exception to a separate, upcoming Rule concerning funds availability."
On the web
Visa Is Cutting 7% of Employees in Efficiency Push as AI Reshapes Work
CNBC
"Visa plans to eliminate about 2,600 jobs, mostly in its technology and product operations, representing roughly 7% of its workforce. CEO Ryan McInerney said AI is helping “shape the way work gets done at Visa,” while a person with direct knowledge said AI was a significant factor, but not the sole driver, of the layoffs. Visa intends to reinvest in growth areas including affluent customers, cross-border payments, business remittances and geographic expansion."
Corpay Introduces Agent Card Capability to Power Secure Agentic Commerce
Business Wire
"Corpay announced Agent Card, a new capability that enables secure virtual card creation for AI-driven commerce workflows. In April, Corpay brought AI into the everyday work of finance teams with an AI Virtual Assistant in the Corpay Complete platform. With Agent Card, Corpay extends their AI first approach a step further, allowing AI agents to act on a business's behalf directly, within the same controls that have always defined Corpay's approach to payments."
Musk’s Payments Platform X Money Launches Limited US Rollout After Invite-Only Beta
Technology
"X has opened its financial services platform to paying subscribers in the U.S. X Money is now available to Premium & Premium+ members aged 18+, following an invite-only beta phase. The product gives users a deposit account, peer-to-peer payments and a debit card. The platform integrates with both Visa and Apple Wallet, and offers a digital card plus a physical metal version that can be engraved with a user’s X handle. Advertised perks include up to 6.00% APY, 3% cashback bonuses, no foreign transaction fees and early direct deposit."
Checkout.com Strengthens UAE Offering with In-Principle Stored Value Facilities License
Checkout
"Checkout.com announced that it has been granted in-principle approval for a Stored Value Facilities (SVF) licence by the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE). The regulatory milestone will allow Checkout.com to introduce issuing capabilities alongside its existing acquiring services in the UAE on a single platform built for performance."
Fidelity Chooses Ethereum for Its First Stablecoin
CoinPedia
"Ethereum has been selected by Fidelity as the blockchain for its first stablecoin, Fidelity Digital Dollar (FIDD). Issued by Fidelity Digital Assets, an OCC-chartered national trust bank, the stablecoin marks the firm’s expansion into on-chain financial services. Fidelity serves more than 50 million investors, oversees $17.9 trillion in assets under administration, and processes 5.5 million average daily trades."
On the wires
ACI Worldwide and dLocal Bring Latin America's Leading Local Payment Methods to Global Merchants
Business Wire
"ACI Worldwide and dLocal announced a strategic partnership that gives global merchants immediate and seamless access to leading local payment methods in Brazil and Mexico through the ACI Payments Orchestration Platform, with Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru planned for future rollout. Merchants can onboard and begin processing transactions today using six local payment methods across the two markets, including Pix, PicPay, Mercado Pago and NuPay in Brazil, and Mercado Pago, OXXO and SPEI in Mexico."
July 27, 2026
On the web
Circle Acquires IBM Blockchain Patent Portfolio
Circle
"Circle Internet Group, Inc. announced the acquisition of fundamental assets from the IBM blockchain patent portfolio. The portfolio comprises over 680 patent families and nearly 1,000 issued patents worldwide, spanning foundational blockchain technology, banking, financial services, insurance, enterprise infrastructure, supply chain verification, and secure cloud operations. With this acquisition, Circle becomes the leader in blockchain patent holdings in the United States."
Billtrust Is First AR Platform to Connect Live Invoice-to-Cash Intelligence to Claude and Microsoft Copilot
Billtrust
"Billtrust, the B2B Cash Generation Platform, announced the launch of the Billtrust MCP Server, becoming the first AR platform to directly connect live invoice-to-cash intelligence to leading AI assistants via the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Finance teams can now query their live invoice-to-cash data directly from inside Microsoft Copilot™ and Claude™, using plain language to get data-backed answer in seconds without logging into a separate platform or stitching data together from multiple sources."
July 24, 2026
Top Post
Mastercard Expands Virtual Card Platform with New Security Controls, Embedded Payments Network and Single API Access
Mastercard
"Mastercard announced enhancements to Mastercard In Control® – a virtual card number (VCN) platform for scalable B2B payments. New innovations include advanced virtual card controls that help reduce risk across the full payment lifecycle, and one scalable connection to Mastercard’s growing embedded partner network — enabling enterprises, financial institutions and platforms to manage payments with greater confidence, flexibility and efficiency."
On the web
Samsung Wallet Will Add Stablecoin Support, Bringing Payments, Rewards and Digital Assets Into One Service
Global Crypto
"Samsung has announced that Samsung Wallet will introduce stablecoin support, marking a significant step toward bringing digital assets into mainstream mobile payments. The update aims to combine payments, rewards, digital assets, and identity services into a single platform, giving users a more unified digital wallet experience. As competition intensifies among digital wallet providers, Samsung seeks to position Samsung Wallet as a comprehensive financial hub."
Meta Launches Standalone Seller App for Facebook Marketplace, Still Ignoring Crypto Payments
Crypto Briefing
"Meta just carved out a standalone app specifically for Facebook Marketplace sellers, giving millions of people hawking used furniture and vintage sneakers their own dedicated workspace. The app, which dropped in mid-July 2026, lets sellers manage listings, field buyer inquiries, and process sales without toggling back to the main Facebook app. It’s also a reminder that despite sitting at the center of one of the largest peer-to-peer commerce networks on the planet, Meta still wants nothing to do with crypto payments."
Visa and Lianlian Advance Trusted B2B Agentic Commerce Through LoopXPay's First Live B2B Agentic Transaction
Yahoo Finance
"Visa and Lianlian DigiTech Co., Ltd., an AI-native global financial infrastructure provider, announced the first live B2B agentic transaction completed using LoopXPay, Lianlian's AI agent. In the transaction, the LoopXPay agent was used to source a product sample from a supplier and complete the purchase in a single workflow."
Checkout.com Moves Airflow to Google Cloud, Cuts Costs
CFOtech Australia
"Checkout.com has migrated its data orchestration platform to Google Cloud's Managed Service for Apache Airflow, a move that changed the reliability and cost profile of its data platform. The payments company moved away from a self-managed Apache Airflow setup on another hyperscaler, where its data platform team handled server management, patching, upgrades, and incident response alongside day-to-day pipeline work. That arrangement also created strain during periods of heavy use."
Education: The Federal Reserve Cash Services
Federal Reserve History
One purpose for the establishment of the Federal Reserve System was to "to furnish an elastic currency." The Federal Reserve issues and distributes currency in the form of Federal Reserve notes. The Federal Reserve provides cash services to ensure that cash (currency and coin) in circulation is sufficient to meet public demand. Cash remains an important means of payment, even as Americans have adopted other forms of payments since the Fed's founding.
July 23, 2026
On the web
For the 19th Year in a Row, American Express Has the Lowest U.S. Credit Card Fraud Rate Among Major Card Networks
American Express
"For 19 consecutive years, Amex has maintained the lowest U.S. fraud rate among major card networks, reflecting our long-standing commitment to protecting customers. Behind this achievement is a powerful combination of data scientists, advanced AI and machine learning models, emerging Gen AI capabilities, and a closed-loop network which provides end-to-end visibility into transactions, enabling strong protection and fast fraud detection."
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