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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."
‘Pay with Smile’ Facial Recognition Store Checkout System Piloted by Revolut
RTE
"An in-store facial recognition checkout system has been unveiled by Revolut in the UK, enabling customers to make everyday purchases with a "simple glance". The Pay with Smile option will be available for in-store payments using a Revolut Register terminal. When paying at a Revolut Register, customers will tap Pay with Smile on a screen to complete a face identity check, in a similar way to unlocking a smartphone or accessing a banking app."
On the web
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."
Sofi and Mastercard’s New Stablecoin Partnership Is a Big Deal. Here’s Why. [Video]
Yahoo Finance
Mastercard and SoFi have a new stablecoin partnership. Scott Melker outlines the details in the video.
Kenswitch Enters Kenya’s Card Market with Domestic Card Scheme
TechCabal
"Kenswitch, Kenya’s largest independent payments switch, has launched a domestic card scheme that will let banks and other financial institutions issue physical and virtual cards on its network, putting a new player into the country’s mobile money-dominated market. The company unveiled the Kenswitch Card, a digital card issuance system built with TAI FINTECH , a fintech innovation venture affiliated with the university, and Stanchion Payments."
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."
September 23, 2026
On the web
Mastercard: Changing Lanes: Cross-Border Payment Providers in New Race to Win Small Business Loyalty
Mastercard
"Nine in 10 (91%) small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) trading internationally are set to switch their current cross-border payment provider in the next two years, according to Mastercard’s new Money in Motion report. The findings point to a fast-changing market, as SMEs look for more efficient ways to move money across borders."
AsiaPay Pilot Launches Voice Pay for Merchants in Asia
PR Asia
"AsiaPay announced the pilot launch of Voice Pay, an AI-powered voice payment experience that lets consumers speak into their mobile device and instruct a payment using their preferred payment method — from digital wallets to cards. With Voice Pay, customers can confirm purchases through natural speech on their mobile phone or other supported device."
On the wires
Reap and Visa Collaborate to Launch Stablecoin Card Programs Across 100+ Markets
PR Newswire
"Reap, a global financial technology company building stablecoin-enabled infrastructure, and Visa announced a strategic collaboration to bring stablecoin-linked Visa credit card programs to over 100+ markets globally, powered by Reap's card issuance infrastructure, in compliance with local regulations. The collaboration will bring Reap's market-leading Visa credit card issuing infrastructure beyond Asia and Latin America, into EMEA and Africa."
September 22, 2026
Top Post
Global Banks Collaborate on Principles for Trusted Agentic Commerce
Bank of America
"ASB Bank, Bank of America, Capital One, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ING Group and NatWest Group unite to publish a set of joint principles as agentic commerce is poised to reshape the future of payments. The principles are designed to help guide the development of agentic commerce while supporting wider industry collaboration. Publication of this paper builds on a wider conversation, with the consortium inviting participants across the ecosystem to apply the principles in practice and shape future implementation."
GoCardless Processes the First Agentic Account-to-Account Payment in the UK
Business Wire
"GoCardless has processed the first agentic account-to-account transaction in the UK, an AI-driven donation on its website for Trussell, the anti-poverty charity and community of food banks. The transaction was completed through a conversation with an AI agent whilst the payer stayed in complete control. Each donation amount -- £5, £10, or £15 per month -- comes with a description of how funds will be used. The supporter selects their option, then the AI agent prompts them to enter their bank details to set up a Direct Debit mandate."
On the web
PayPal Joins Meta’s Muse Checkout Ecosystem — Partnership Extends AI Shopping Across Its Merchant Network
Yahoo Finance
"PayPal Holdings Inc. said it is partnering with Meta Platforms Inc. to bring PayPal checkout to the tech giant's fast-growing Muse AI agent. The partnership gives Muse another major payments option as Meta builds shopping directly into its personal AI agent, while giving PayPal a route into a form of commerce where an AI assistant can search for products and complete transactions on a customer's behalf."
BVNK Expands Multi-Chain Stablecoin Infrastructure with Stellar Integration
BVNK by Mastercard
"BVNK announced the integration of the Stellar blockchain into its stablecoin payments platform, giving businesses access to another high-speed, low-cost payment rail through BVNK’s single platform and API. The integration gives BVNK’s customers an additional route for moving stablecoins globally, while enabling businesses to access multiple blockchain networks through a single API. This abstracts much of the technical complexity of connecting to individual blockchain networks."
Thunes Powers J.P. Morgan Payments’ Xpedite Remit Solution to Accelerate Global Payouts
Thunes
"Thunes has been selected by J.P. Morgan Payments to expand the business’ cross-border capabilities through its Xpedite Remit solutions suite. The new solutions leverage both J.P. Morgan Payments’ connectivity to local real-time payments rails and Thunes’ extensive Direct Global Network in order to meet growing demand for fast, simple and reliable cross-border payments. The solution will enable clients to access 12 billion mobile wallets and bank accounts across more than 100+ corridors provided by Thunes’ Network."
Google Upgrades Universal Commerce Protocol; Adds Retail AI Tools
Chain Store Age
"Google is expanding the functionality of its open-source agentic commerce standard and giving retailers new artificial intelligence capabilities. Google is updating the Universal Commerce Protocol. UCP, an open standard for agentic AI-based commerce intended to cover the entire shopping journey from discovery and buying to post-purchase support, has already been enabling direct checkout for brands and retailers using it. Now, retailers can also enable capabilities like cart transfer to a retailer site with more coming soon."
Moov Launches Moov Money, a New P2P Solution Built Using the Debit Cards Americans Already Carry
Business Wire
"Built in collaboration with Mastercard and Visa, the new solution enables participating banks and credit unions to deliver secure P2P payments while keeping deposits and customer relationships at their primary institution. Turnkey integration with Jack Henry’s Banno Digital Platform™ gives over 1,000 banks and credit unions more choice in P2P payments"
Amazon Versus Meta: The First Big Turf War of Agentic Shopping
Internet Retailing
"Amazon has blocked Meta’s AI shopping agent Muse from browsing and buying items from its retail platform. Shoppers who attempted to use Muse on Amazon on 20 September received the message: “Continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazon’s Conditions of Use, to which our customers have agreed.” The standoff between the two tech giants points to a bigger issue: tension over who controls the agentic shopping experience and the valuable first-party customer data it generates."
SoFi Becomes First National Bank to Go Live with Stablecoin Settlement across Mastercard’s Global Payments Network
Business Wire
"SoFi Technologies, Inc. and Mastercard announced that stablecoin settlement is now live across SoFi Bank, N.A.’s debit and credit card program, bringing stablecoin settlement through SoFiUSD, issued by a federally regulated bank, to Mastercard’s global payments network following the companies’ partnership announced in March. As part of the launch, SoFi Bank is migrating its entire $25 billion card program to stablecoin settlement of transactions using SoFiUSD. Transactions are live on the blockchain today."
UPI Merchant Fees Set To Boost PhonePe And Google Pay
StratNews Global
"India’s decision to introduce merchant fees on UPI payments could create a major new revenue stream for leading digital payment apps. Walmart-backed PhonePe and Google Pay could earn millions of dollars annually. From October 15, merchants will face a 0.4% fee on transactions above 2,000 rupees ($21). According to estimates from Bernstein, the new fee could generate up to $1.1 billion in annual revenue for payment apps by March 2028. Based on market share, PhonePe and Google Pay could receive around $900 million of that amount."
JPMorgan's Neukirchen on India Payments Business [Video]
Bloomberg
"Max Neukirchen, Global Co-Head of Payments at JPMorgan, discusses the business opportunities in India’s merchant payments sector. He speaks with Menaka Doshi at the sidelines of the JPMorgan India Conference in Mumbai."
PhonePe Gets Preliminary Approval for UAE Payment Licenses
Investing
"PhonePe said it received in-principle approval from the UAE central bank for two licenses covering retail payment services, card schemes, and stored value facilities. The Walmart-backed digital payments platform said the approval follows initial regulatory due diligence. The company still needs final central bank approval before it can start commercial operations in the Gulf state. PhonePe said it plans to work with regional banks, licensed payment service providers, and local technology vendors once it receives final regulatory approval."
Shopify Turns Meta’s Muse Into a Shop Pay Checkout Channel
ContentGrip
"Shopify is partnering with Meta so Muse can use Shop Pay to complete purchases across Shopify stores, giving the personal AI agent a direct checkout path through Shopify’s commerce infrastructure. The partnership makes Shopify’s approach to agentic commerce clearer. As AI assistants become shopping interfaces, Shopify wants its catalog and payment rails to remain underneath the transaction even when the customer never begins on a merchant storefront."
On the wires
InComm Payments Expands Reach of Secure Digital Promotions Platform to Sam's Club
PR Newswire
"InComm Payments announced that its InComm Generated Offers solution is now accepted at Sam's Club, expanding access to secure, SKU-based digital promotions for participating brands and shoppers. Powered by InComm Payments' technology, IGO enables brands to create personalized digital offers that are authenticated and redeemed in real time at checkout. Recipients scan the barcode at the point of sale, and IGO validates it against qualifying purchases."
ACI Worldwide Extends ACI Connetic to Support Payments Orchestrated Through Swift’s Ledger
Business Wire
"ACI Worldwide announced it is bringing intelligent routing for Swift ledger transactions to ACI Connetic, its cloud-native payments hub. The capability will allow banks to process tokenized deposit payments alongside traditional payment types using the same operational controls, workflows and infrastructure, eliminating the need for separate digital-asset payment operations."
Finzly Certified for Request for Payment on the RTP® Network
PR Newswire
"Finzly announced it is technically certified to provide Request for Payment (RfP) functionality to financial institution participants of the RTP® network, operated by The Clearing House, following the successful go-live of the capability at one of its bank customers. The deployment gives the bank the ability to originate, receive and respond to payment requests through APIs and customer-facing digital experiences. RfP remains an emerging capability in U.S. banking."
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