Join us in New York on September 29-October 1 for our next Payments Boot Camp and Advanced Payments workshop!
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
August 5, 2026
Top Post
Samsung Is Poised to Become a Dominant Stablecoin Distributor, Analysts Say
CoinDesk
"Samsung’s recent announcement that it is adding stablecoin support to 800 million new smartphones could position the tech giant to become a major stablecoin distributor. Samsung outlined its Samsung Wallet expansion plans during its Galaxy Unpacked 2026 event, saying over 800 million smartphones would have stablecoin features by default, including fiat-pegged savings and payments accounts."
On the web
Lithic and Lightspark Partner to Power Global Card Program on Stablecoin Settlement Rails
Business Wire
"Lithic, the card issuer processing platform and Lightspark, the open infrastructure for moving money worldwide, today announced a partnership to power Lightspark’s card program on the Visa network issued by Lead Bank. The program settles in USDC, part of a broader industry shift toward using stablecoins and blockchain-based infrastructure for real-world settlement."
Meta Adds Stablecoin Option for Advertisers to Fund Ad Accounts
Social Samosa
"Meta has introduced stablecoin payments as an option for advertisers in select countries to add funds to their ad accounts. Advertisers can use USDC, a stablecoin designed to maintain a 1:1 peg with the US dollar, to fund their accounts. The company does not directly hold, transmit, or process stablecoins. Instead, a third-party payment partner converts USDC into local currency and settles the payment with Meta. The corresponding amount is then added to the advertiser's ad account balance in the selected currency."
Visa’s $2.4 Billion BioCatch Acquisition Signals the Next Wave of AI-Powered Payments
International Supermarket News
"For Visa, the investment represents a strategic move to strengthen the security of digital transactions at a time when online fraud is becoming increasingly sophisticated. BioCatch has become one of the industry’s leading providers of behavioural biometrics, a technology that analyses how users interact with their devices. The platform studies hundreds of behavioural indicators such as typing rhythm, mouse movements, touchscreen gestures and navigation patterns to determine whether the person using the account is the legitimate customer."
The Art of Assessing Customer Intent: Authorized Party Fraud Trends
The Federal Reserve
"Over recent years, authorized party fraud committed deliberately by legitimate customers (often referred to as first-party fraud) has emerged as a fast-growing, complex category of loss for financial institutions. One industry source estimated that in 2025, this type of fraudulent behavior made up 37% of fraud events (PDF, Off-site) across financial services globally. Fraudulent behavior, such as false claims, misuse of payment channels or money mule activity, may resemble normal behavior."
On the wires
NectarPay to Deploy 11,000 Payment Terminals Across Texas, Expanding Real-World Crypto Payments
GlobeNewswire News Room
"NectarPay, a non-custodial cryptocurrency payment platform, is investing $1.2 million to deploy 11,000 handheld point-of-sale terminals to merchants across Texas. The rollout builds on an initial deployment already underway in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with the first 1,000 terminals, where merchants have begun onboarding ahead of full hardware delivery. The terminals give merchants a way to accept cryptocurrency directly from customers without the fees charged by traditional card networks like Visa and Mastercard."
August 4, 2026
Top Post
2026 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice: Cash Remains Essential for U.S. Consumers
The Federal Reserve
"After a decade of tracking U.S. payment habits, the Federal Reserve's latest research from the 2026 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice reveals notable consistency in consumer payment behavior, even as technology has rapidly evolved. Consumers made an average of 47 payments per month in 2025, similar to 2024 levels. The total number of payments made with cards — both debit and credit — remained consistent with the previous year. All other payment instruments and their respective shares also held steady."
On the web
Wells Fargo to Launch Tokenized Deposits for Corporate and Commercial Clients
Wells Fargo
"Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) today announced the introduction of tokenized deposits, a blockchain-based representation of commercial bank money that when fully deployed will enable Wells Fargo’s corporate and commercial clients to move, program, and settle funds 24/7/365 — without leaving the regulated, insured banking system. The program will roll out this fall with a limited U.S. dollar (USD) to British pound (GBP) exchange and will expand over the course of 2027 to more clients, countries, and currencies."
Fiserv and Mastercard Deepen Global Partnership to Help Merchants Innovate & Expand
Fiserv, Inc.
"Fiserv, Inc. and Mastercard announced a strategic global partnership to help eligible enterprise merchants simplify commerce through an expanded suite of integrated value-added services. The companies will integrate Mastercard Merchant Cloud into Fiserv Commerce Hub, bringing together their complementary strengths to give merchants a single connection to Mastercard’s advanced services across online, mobile and in-store channels."
Adyen to Provide Payment Technology Services for LillyDirect
Adyen
"Adyen announced it will help facilitate payment services for prescribed patients accessing Lilly’s FDA-approved medicines and free home delivery through LillyDirect. The platform's scalability provides LillyDirect with a foundation to continuously enhance payment options as patient needs evolve. Transactions will utilize Adyen's Intelligent Payment Routing, an AI-powered feature that automatically selects the most efficient U.S. debit network for each transaction, optimizing performance without additional integration."
Apple Pay Launches in the Philippines
Apple Newsroom (Philippines)
"Apple announced users in the Philippines can now make purchases using Apple Pay with their iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac. Thousands of merchants in the Philippines will accept Apple Pay, with support from some of the country’s most established banks. When using a credit or debit card with Apple Pay, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device, nor on Apple servers. Instead, a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted, and securely stored in the Secure Element safely on the device."
Agentic Commerce 2026: The State of Consumer Demand and Merchant Readiness
Checkout
AI is reshaping how brands compete – 42% of merchants are already testing agentic commerce. This creates a new commercial dynamic, raising both risk and opportunity. Explore consumer attitudes towards AI agents across six countries, and discover how merchants are moving from ideas to action [Report].
Is Your Checkout Set Up for Peak Seasons?
Payabl
"This guide blends exclusive consumer insights from Coleman Parkes research with data from The state of European checkouts."
Western Union Launches Stablecard in Partnership with Rain
Business Wire
"The Western Union Company and Rain, announced the launch of Stablecard by Western Union, a digital wallet and USDPT-backed Visa secured credit card designed to enable consumers to hold, move and spend U.S. dollar value globally."
Plaid and Sierra Partner to Move AI Agents from Conversations to Business Outcomes
Plaid
"Last month Sierra launched Horizon, a platform that enables agents to proactively engage over days, weeks, or months, figuring out the next steps required to refinance a loan, collect an overdue payment, or settle an insurance claim. Customers can now securely connect their bank accounts with Plaid directly within Sierra’s agent. This creates new customer experiences. People can make payments or verify their finances without leaving the conversation."
August 3, 2026
Top Post
Introducing Ask Google Pay, and Expanding Everyday Credit
"Google launched Ask Google Pay, a new conversational experience built right into the app. Powered by our Gemini models, Ask Google Pay is an opt-in experience that helps you analyze your spending patterns and helps you with information related to managing your money. You can chat with it to understand your spending patterns, get savings tips, explore tailored offers (such as finding the right credit card for your travel expenses), and learn about financial concepts like SIPs or credit scores."
On the web
Open Banking: A Critical Piece in the Future of Financial Services
Kansas City Federal Reserve
"Open banking enables consumers to securely share data from their bank accounts with third-party service providers. By using application programming interfaces, open banking facilitates innovations such as Pay-by-Bank payments, instant bill payments, and cash-flow-based lending. While regulatory efforts are underway at both federal and state levels, technological and operational barriers and a lack of standardization continue to challenge widespread use of open banking in the United States."
Volante Launches “Vol360i” Agentic AI at the Core of Payments, Setting a New Global Standard for Intelligence in Banking
Volante Technologies
"Volante Technologies announced that its Payments Platform and PaaS operations are now powered by its “Vol360i” Agentic AI. The core upgrade unlocks autonomous and semi-autonomous collaboration to reduce manual intervention, significantly increasing straight-through processing (STP) rates to over 95%, accelerating exception resolution, and proactively managing SLA performance."
Mastercard Closes Acquisition of BVNK
FX News Group
"Mastercard Inc. completed its acquisition of BVNK, expanding the company’s strategy to support greater choice in how people and businesses exchange value by enabling interoperability across fiat and digital currencies. BVNK provides the infrastructure that supports fiat and on-chain payments behind the scenes — enabling people, businesses and machines to hold, move, manage and convert value across fiat and digital currencies within a framework of security, compliance and interoperability."
Introducing OnePay for Agents
OnePay
"OnePay for Agents is live as an MCP server, allowing customers to connect their OnePay accounts to AI tools and agents. MCP, or Model Context Protocol, is an open standard that enables AI tools to securely connect to the services, including financial information from OnePay. When you connect your OnePay accounts to an AI tool, it can access financial information through OnePay and incorporate that context into the assistance it provides. The result is output that is more personalized, relevant, and informed by your financial situation."
Visa to Acquire BioCatch
Business Wire
"Visa announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire BioCatch, a leading provider of behavioral-first, multi-signal fraud intelligence, from funds advised by Permira and other shareholders for $2.4 billion in cash. The acquisition of BioCatch complements Visa’s existing cyber, fraud, risk and security solutions and is expected to help clients better protect themselves and their customers from the growing threat of account takeovers, scams, money mules and application fraud."
Remitly Launches the Global Card, Built for People Whose Lives Extend Across Borders
Remitly Newsroom
"The launch of the Remitly Global Card is helping customers manage more of financial moments all from one card. The Remitly Global Card combines several one-of-its-kind features including: Better remittance prices and faster, lower-fee sends; No-fee everyday spending; The ability to hold and move money in fiat currency or USDC; No foreign transaction fees"
Worldline Wraps up the Sale of Its Indian Payments Operations
MarketScreener
Worldline announced the completion of the sale of its payments operations in India to BillDesk, a leading Indian payments player, for an enterprise value of about €37m and an equity value of about €60m. In parallel, Worldline will enter into a long-term technology and software agreement, under which BillDesk will continue to use its advanced payments software.
July 31, 2026
Top Post
Visa to Integrate Stablecoin Platform with Pismo, Flags Acquisition Appetite
Ledger Insights
"Visa will integrate the Visa Stablecoin Platform (VSP) with its Pismo subsidiary and is willing to pursue acquisitions across the stablecoin stack, CEO Ryan McInerney disclosed during the company’s Q3 earnings call. McInerney framed the company’s stablecoin involvement around four modes of participation, stating Visa will engage “whether through building Visa products and services, integrating with partners, investing, or acquiring.”"
On the web
Circle Granted Trust Charter by the New York Department of Financial Services
Circle
"Circle Internet Group, Inc. announced that it has received a limited purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for Circle Internet Trust Company LLC, d/b/a Circle New York Trust. Circle’s New York trust charter underscores Circle’s commitment to the highest standards of safety, transparency, and compliance. In 2015, Circle became the first company to receive a BitLicense from NYDFS, marking the beginning of an enduring regulatory relationship with the agency."
BIS Project Agorá Settles $1 Million in Tokenized Cross-Border Payment Trials
Cointelegraph
"The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said Project Agorá completed real-value testing of tokenized wholesale cross-border payments, with 28 financial institutions and central banks settling 800,000 Swiss francs ($1 million) across 17 transaction scenarios. The BIS said that the tests used tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits to settle payments in Swiss francs, euros, pounds sterling, Japanese yen, South Korean won and US dollars, with an average settlement time of about 80 seconds."
Alkami Expands Partnership with Plaid to Deliver Connected Digital Banking Experiences
Alkami Technology
"Alkami Technology, Inc., a digital sales and service platform provider for financial institutions in the U.S., announced the expansion of its partnership with Plaid, the data network powering the digital financial ecosystem. Through a pre-built integration within the Alkami Digital Banking Platform, financial institutions can allow account holders to link external accounts instantly, see all their transactions in one place, and get clean, accurate data about where their money is going."
Consumers Are Ready for AI to Shop. They Are Not Ready for It to Pay.
Nuvei
"Consumers have accepted AI as a way to think about a purchase. They have not accepted it as a way to complete one. The reasons they give are specific enough to read as a product requirement, and almost all of them sit in the payment layer rather than the model. The Nuvei data shows that consumers want limits, approvals, reversibility, and clear accountability before they will trust AI to move money on their behalf."
FedNow Turns Three: The Next Growth Opportunity for Regional Banks
Finzly, Inc.
"While regional banks represent only a small fraction of FedNow participants today, there is still significant runway to use real-time payments as a foundation for commercial banking growth. FedNow just reached its third anniversary, and the adoption story reveals an important opportunity. More than 1,800 financial institutions are now live on the network—but participation remains concentrated among smaller institutions. More than 96% of participants are community banks and credit unions with less than $10 billion in assets."
Education: Anyone Can be a Victim: Understanding Scam Risk Across Customer Segments
FedPayments Improvement
"Criminals don’t always choose victims at random. While many scams are broad and opportunistic, criminals also segment, personalize, test and refine their tactics. To understand how various groups are targeted and what financial institutions can do about it, we will begin with the psychology that drives modern scams operations. This introductory article sets the foundation for a deeper exploration of victim demographic and event specific vulnerabilities covered throughout this series — Understanding Scam Risk Across Customer Segments."
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.