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September 29, 2026
On the web
Marqeta Unifies Card and Non-Card Payments on a Single Platform
Marqeta
"Marqeta is announcing the expansion of its platform to enable companies to make payments using a variety of non-card rails, alongside card issuing. Businesses can now pay suppliers, reimburse workers, and disburse funds to consumers at scale — using virtual cards, bank transfers, and real-time payments without needing separate vendors for each. Marqeta will be expanding the number of non-card rails it supports, including ACH, same-day ACH, push to card, and The Clearing House's RTP network and the Federal Reserve's FedNow service."
Shopify Opens Checkout to Browser-Based AI Agents
TechCrunch
"While some retailers, like Amazon (and Adidas, apparently!), are blocking AI agents from making purchases on users’ behalf on their respective platforms, e-commerce platform Shopify has moved in the other direction. The company announced that browser-based AI agents can now complete purchases on Shopify merchants’ sites, extending their capabilities beyond just searching for products and adding items to carts.
September 28, 2026
Top Post
American Express is Now Accepted at More Than 190 Million Merchant Locations Worldwide; Acceptance Outside the U.S. Has More Than Doubled in Last Four Years
Business Wire
"American Express \announced that its Cards are now accepted at more than 190 million Merchant locations worldwide, an increase of approximately 20 million locations this year. The number of Amex-accepting Merchant locations outside the U.S. has more than doubled over the last four years. This growth reflects ongoing momentum in the company's global acceptance strategy, driven by key partnerships, targeted expansion in the places Card Members live, work, and travel, and continued innovation in how customers pay."
Google Tests Buying from Walmart-Owned Flipkart Through Gemini and AI Mode in India
TechCrunch
"Google has started testing a way for shoppers in India to buy products from Walmart-owned Flipkart directly through Gemini and AI Mode, as the search giant looks to expand its AI services from product discovery into transactions. Users in the test see a “Buy” button on select Flipkart product listings appearing in Gemini and Google’s AI Mode, which takes them directly to a Flipkart checkout flow without leaving the AI interface, according to people familiar with the matter and an experience seen by TechCrunch."
Thousands of Banks Can Now Sue Over Apple Pay Fees in One Antitrust Case
AppleInsider
"U.S. banks and credit unions can pursue their Apple Pay fee claims together after a federal judge certified their antitrust lawsuit as a class action. The financial institutions accuse Apple of blocking competing tap-to-pay wallets on iPhone while charging card issuers fees for transactions. They argue Apple could impose fees because rival wallets couldn't compete for payments on the iPhone. Card issuers pay Apple 0.15% of the value of credit card purchases through Apple Pay and half a cent for each debit transaction, according to the lawsuit."
On the web
Citi and Coinbase Expand Collaboration to Connect Digital and Fiat Payments for Corporations and Consumers
Business Wire
"The collaboration solves operational complexity and risk for businesses connecting traditional banking services with blockchain rails without requiring separate systems. Coinbase selects Citi Services’ Virtual Account Wallet (via Banking-as-a-Service) to power Coinbase Virtual Accounts, delivering bank-account-like functionality with automatic fiat-to-stablecoin conversion.
Swift and Its Community Innovate to Bring Ease of Domestic Consumer Payments to Cross-Border Transaction Experience
Swift
"Industry initiative aims to extend the front-end experience of domestic payments systems like Bizum in Spain, PayID from AP+ in Australia, and Pix in Brazil across borders Consumers will be able to send money to friends’ and family members’ accounts internationally using pay-by-alias identifiers like mobile phone numbers and email addresses The work builds on Swift’s consumer payments framework, which is elevating the standard for retail cross-border payments around the world."
Bank of America Expands “Ask Global Payments Solutions” with New Intelligence Capabilities
Bank of America
"Bank of America announced the launch of AskGPS Intelligence Hub, a suite of tools designed to help Global Payments Solutions employees bring together and interpret complex treasury information to deliver actionable insights for clients. The Intelligence Hub builds on AskGPS, the generative AI-powered solution introduced in 2025 that supports nearly 3,000 employees with trusted institutional knowledge. The new capabilities will bring together client, account and relationship information to support more informed client discussions."
Sony Patents Playstation Controller That Accepts Credit Card Payments
VGC
"Sony has filed a patent for a PlayStation controller that can accept contactless payments from credit cards and phones. The patent describes a scenario where, when prompted, players can bring their phone or payment card close to the controller, after which the controller will receive the details and send them to the console. The system could be used to purchase games, in-game credits, and add-ons, and describes a scenario where a player could purchase a full game with a quick payment touch after trying a demo at a store or expo."
Vodafone and Digital Virgo Partner to Drive Adoption of Trusted Mobile Commerce Using Global Network APIs
WebWire
Vodafone and Digital Virgo announced a partnership to help companies deliver secure, seamless and trusted digital experiences to consumers in Europe and Africa. Under the agreement, Digital Virgo will integrate Vodafone Network APIs into its monetisation solutions serving 300+ merchants and over 150 operators. Initially, the partnership covers five markets, including Germany, Greece, Spain, South Africa and the UK, with plans to extend it more countries.
Quant: What the Clearing House Mandate Really Means
CryptoTicker
"The Clearing House selected Quant as technology partner for tokenised deposits backed by 25 large US banks. Quant supplies the layer for interoperability, orchestration and transaction management for a new network through which financial institutions can clear and settle tokenised deposits. Connection to the existing RTP and CHIPS payment systems is explicitly part of it. Overledger is Quant's operating system for enterprises. It works as a programming interface that connects various public and private blockchains with classic banking systems."
On the wires
Mastercard Advances Commercial Payments With AI-Powered B2B Analytics Solution
Business Wire
"One of the biggest pain points for banks and corporates is supplier payments. Mastercard introduced Mastercard Advanced B2B Analytics, a card acceptance analytics platform that provides dynamic, accurate and actionable supplier payment insights in minutes. Issuers can now drive commercial card spend at scale, capture additional revenues and help corporate clients identify opportunities to optimize working capital."
September 25, 2026
Top Post
Meta’s Zuckerberg Says Muse AI Agent Will Take a Small Fee from Transactions
Yahoo Finance
"Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out his plan for monetizing the company's popular Muse AI agent during its Meta Connect. "We believe that Muse will make you money," Zuckerberg said. "And we are standing behind this by making Muse free for a huge number of tokens with the expectation that over time we will profit by taking a small fee from transactions." In addition to laying out the company's plans to monetize Muse, Wang also said the company is rolling out computer control for the Mac, allowing the agent to take over your Mac on your behalf."
Natwest Group First to Unveil Next Generation of AI Tools to Help Customers Manage Money and Receive Fraud Support
Natwest Group
"NatWest Group is set to trial an industry-first, fully generative audio-visual AI Spending Insights tool, enabling customers to explore their spending through natural voice and text conversations. Powered by the bank’s proprietary Small Language Models, the trial tool will be able to respond naturally to customers follow-up questions and interruptions."
On the web
Visa Integrates Blockchain Lending into Daily Payment Solutions
Small Business Trends
"Visa's new onchain lending initiative is aimed at transforming how small business owners access working capital. Visa’s approach integrates its renowned VisaNet settlement data with blockchain technology. This initiative aims to streamline the cumbersome process of obtaining credit. A practical application can be seen in Visa’s collaboration with Credit Coop, which utilizes smart contracts to provide settlement financing to stablecoin-linked programs. Credit Coop can assess credit performance, streamlining the way businesses obtain working capital."
B2B Payments: Business Processing and Challenges to Achieving Straight-Through Processing
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
"Electronic business-to-business (B2B) payments have the potential to reduce the manual handling required for checks, helping businesses advance straight-through processing (STP). Although businesses face several challenges to adopting electronic payments, partial solutions have emerged that facilitate STP."
Redefining ‘Banking Day’ in the Nacha Rules: Your Input is Needed
Nacha
"Regardless of how early or late your bank or credit union is open, and whether or not you’re open weekends, the term “Banking Day” is generally understood to mean Monday-Friday, excluding federal holidays. Now, Nacha is looking to formalize this in the Nacha Rules, which is why we’re issuing a Request for Comment (RFC) on a new proposal. It would change the definition of “Banking Day” in the Rules to “a calendar day other than a Saturday, Sunday, or Federal banking holiday in the United States."
Safeguards Could Boost Stablecoin Use Among Americans, Finds Visa Study
Visa
"Visa Inc. released Money Travels 2026, a global report on how technology is reshaping remittances. The research, which surveyed over 2,000 U.S. consumers, shows Americans want faster, cheaper ways to support family and friends abroad—but not at the cost of security. Stablecoins—digital currencies pegged to stable values like the U.S. dollar—are accounting for a growing share of cross-border money flows. The survey shows that consumer protections could unlock their adoption."
Block Joins the x402 Foundation to Advance Open, Agentic Commerce
Block
"Block has joined the x402 Foundation, an open standard for agentic payments, to help build the rails that will let people, businesses, and agents pay and get paid. We've contributed goose, our open-source AI agent, helped launch the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), and joined the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) to enable agentic commerce for small businesses. Joining the x402 Foundation is a natural next step: it puts a neutral, community-governed payment standard underneath that work."
Mastercard: From AI-Powered Planning to the Christmas Eve Rush: What to Expect This Holiday Season
Mastercard
"Holiday shopping may still be weeks away, but the 2026 season is setting up to be one of the strongest in years, according to the Mastercard Economics Institute’s annual holiday forecast for the U.S. MEI expects U.S. retail sales, excluding automobiles and gas, to increase 5.5% year over year between November 1 and December 24, based on SpendingPulse insights, which represent in-store and online spending across all forms of payment. That would mark the strongest holiday growth since 2022."
As Banks Pivot to Agentic AI, Feedzai Unveils Farol to Transform Fraud Analysis and Cut Investigation Times
Feedzai
"Feedzai launched Farol, an embedded AI agent engineered to slash fraud investigation latency and sharpen threat detection across risk operations in banking. Farol is built to alleviate those pressures – an always-on agent that lets fraud teams do more without adding resources, fundamentally changing how they work. Integrated directly into Feedzai’s RiskOps Studio, Farol delivers conversational intelligence, automated rule performance analytics, and contextual case summarizations, all within the software stack analysts already use."
September 24, 2026
Top Post
Federal Reserve Board Requests Public Comment on Two Proposals Related to Establishing a Regulatory Framework for Board-Supervised Payment Stablecoin Issuers Under the Genius Act
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
"The Federal Reserve Board requested public comment on two proposals related to establishing a regulatory framework for Board-supervised payment stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act. The first proposal would require that Board-supervised payment stablecoin issuers fully back their stablecoins with certain permissible reserve assets. The second proposal would establish an application process for banks applying to issue stablecoins. These applicants would be required to submit a business plan among other documents."
On the web
How New Meta AI Agent Muse Differs from Chatbots [Video]
CBS News
"Meta is announcing its latest artificial intelligence tools and smart glasses at its annual showcase on Wednesday. CNET AI reporter Katelyn Chedraoui joins CBS News to discuss."
ECB to Assess Feasibility of Interlinking with Brazil’s Instant Payment System Pix
European Central Bank
"The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) has approved initiating an assessment of the feasibility of interlinking the Eurosystem’s TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) platform with Brazil’s fast payment system, Pix. In collaboration with the Central Bank of Brazil, the ECB will explore the potential for interlinking TIPS and Pix by assessing technical, operational, legal and business considerations. An interlinking of the two payment systems could facilitate faster and lower-cost instant payments."
Tencent Rolls Out Payment App for Foreign Travellers Ahead of Apec Summit
South China Morning Post
"Tencent Holdings launched TenPayGo, a mobile payment app targeting foreign visitors, as the tech giant seeks to capture China’s growing inbound tourism market ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Shenzhen.Developed by Tencent’s WeChat Pay team, TenPayGo allowed international travellers to make payments at tens of millions of shops, restaurants and attractions across the WeChat Pay network by linking their credit cards or their home-country digital wallets to the app."
Safeguards Could Boost Stablecoin Use Among Americans, Finds Visa Study
Visa
"Visa Inc released Money Travels 2026, a global report on how technology is reshaping remittances. Stablecoins—digital currencies pegged to stable values like the U.S. dollar—are accounting for a growing share of cross-border money flows. The survey shows that consumer protections could unlock their adoption: in a hypothetical scenario with bank-level fraud protection and deposit insurance, U.S. adoption intent climbed from 36% to 56%."
NMI Expands Business Capital to Help More Small Businesses Access Financing When They Need It
Business Wire
"NMI® announced the expansion of NMI Business Capital with new term loans and starter offers, giving ISOs, software companies and SaaS platforms more ways to help their merchants access business financing. The expansion reflects NMI’s focus on helping small businesses get the funding they need to be successful."
On the wires
The Clearing House Partners with Quant to Advance the On-Chain Money Initiative
PR Newswire
"The Clearing House announced the selection of Quant to power its On-Chain Money Initiative, a new interoperable payments network that will enable financial institutions of all sizes to clear and settle tokenized deposit transactions. Quant's technology will enable the network's interoperability, orchestration, and transaction-management layer that coordinates the clearing and settlement of tokenized deposit transactions."
Cleverbridge Completes First Live AI Agent-Initiated Payment in France with Visa and Revolut
Business Wire
"Cleverbridge announced it completed France's first Passkey-authenticated agentic payment in a live checkout, in a pilot with Visa and Revolut announced earlier this month. Visa's test agent, My Agent, initiated the purchase. Cleverbridge completed the checkout. A Visa Payment Passkey authenticated the transaction, supporting Strong Customer Authentication requirements in Europe, and Revolut authorized the payment on a French consumer retail card."
PhonePe Plans 20,000 New Hires to Expand Merchant Network in Rural India
Reuters
"Digital payments platform PhonePe said it plans to hire 20,000 additional on-roll sales employees over the next year as part of a push to expand its merchant network into India's smaller towns and villages. The Walmart-backed company plans to deploy more than 5 million devices, including smart speakers and point-of-sale terminals, over the next 12 months to expand digital payments acceptance across rural areas."
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