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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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August 6, 2025
On the web
Mastercard Wants Everyone to Have a Digital Wallet and mDL to Make ID Like Payments
Biometric Update
"Online ID verification causes friction for customers more often than not, yet identity theft makes up 40 percent of Europe’s online fraud. Digital identity can work simply and deliver trust like payment cards, however, says Mastercard. The EU Digital Identity Wallet is in part a recognition of this issue, according to a post by Mastercard EVP for Services Europe Michele Centemero, who sees an opportunity for digital ID to work more like his company’s forte, digital payments."
World Bank Group Joins African Development Bank Group and Mastercard as Co-Chair of Mobilizing Access to the Digital Economy (Made) Alliance: Africa
Mastercard
"The World Bank Group has signed on as co-chair of the Mobilizing Access to the Digital Economy (MADE) Alliance: Africa, an initiative aiming to provide digital access to critical services for 100 million individuals and businesses across Africa by 2034."
August 4, 2025
On the web
Clarifying Recent Headlines on Gaming Content
Mastercard
"Mastercard has not evaluated any game or required restrictions of any activity on game creator sites and platforms, contrary to media reports and allegations. Our payment network follows standards based on the rule of law. Put simply, we allow all lawful purchases on our network. At the same time, we require merchants to have appropriate controls to ensure Mastercard cards cannot be used for unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content."
August 1, 2025
Top Post
Prevent, Protect and Recover: Mastercard Strengthens Trust in Account-To-Account Payments
Mastercard
"To support banks and deliver the payment protection consumers expect, Mastercard unveils Mastercard A2A Protect, a new global service launching first in the UK. By combining cutting-edge fraud prevention technology and a new clear dispute resolution framework, Mastercard A2A Protect will enable banks to provide consumers with the appropriate levels of protection against fraudsters. Today, 15 banks representing 90% of UK account-to-account payments protect their customers with Mastercard’s innovative AI powered real-time transaction scoring service Consumer Fraud Risk (CFR)."
July 30, 2025
On the web
Mastercard and BMO Expand Global Money Transfer Service to Nearly 70 Destinations
Mastercard
"Mastercard and BMO announced an expansion of BMO’s Global Money Transfer service, powered by Mastercard Move’s global money movement capabilities. With the addition of new destinations and currencies, BMO’s Canadian personal banking clients will now be able to reach family and friends in nearly 70 destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean."
July 29, 2025
Top Post
Mastercard Accelerates B2B Payment Automation Globally With Acceptance Innovations
Mastercard
"Mastercard is modernizing supplier reconciliation and streamlining virtual card payments with several new enablers. It’s launching widescale global availability of Mastercard Receivables Manager, its automated solution that makes virtual cards more efficient, secure and cost-effective for businesses to accept. To give payment service providers greater flexibility in how they offer B2B payment innovations, Mastercard is also introducing Commercial Direct Payments, an advanced straight-through processing solution that fully automates virtual card payments and reconciliation."
July 25, 2025
Top Post
Mastercard Unveils AI Card Design Studio: A Smarter, Faster Way to Design Your Perfect Card [Video]
Mastercard
"Mastercard is the first payment network to bring AI-powered card design to market. The tool enables the creation of stunning cards with a click of a button – streamlining market readiness and boosting brand impact."
July 24, 2025
On the web
Mastercard Expands Global Relationship With Uber to Enhance Payment Experiences for Drivers, Couriers and Consumers
Mastercard
"Mastercard is deepening its global payments partnership with Uber to improve experiences for drivers, couriers and Mastercard cardholders using the Uber platform. Uber will leverage a range of Mastercard products and services – including Mastercard Move for real-time disbursements, Mastercard One Credential to simplify the payment experience, and Mastercard Gateway capabilities for collections – to support its business operations."
July 23, 2025
On the web
Elevating Cardholder Experiences Worldwide With the Mastercard Collection and Introduction of World Legend Mastercard
Mastercard
"New Mastercard research reveals a powerful paradigm shift: consumers are prioritizing connection and spending time and money on what genuinely fulfills them – experiences with people who matter the most. To meet these evolving needs, Mastercard is unveiling a new suite of elevated benefits – The Mastercard Collection – across its World, World Elite and newly created World Legend Mastercard cards."
July 22, 2025
On the web
Equifax Australia and Mastercard Launch ‘Open Score’ to Improve Financial Inclusion
Open Banking Expo
"Equifax Australia and Mastercard announced a strategic relationship, bringing together data and analytics capabilities from Equifax alongside Mastercard Open Finance solutions to deliver innovative products to the Australian market to create greater financial inclusion. The first milestone is the launch of Equifax Open Score, a new bank transaction score designed to support the more than 2.5 million Australian consumers with limited or no credit history who may still need access to financial services."
July 16, 2025
On the wires
Elevating Cardholder Experiences Worldwide With the Mastercard Collection and Introduction of World Legend Mastercard
Business Wire
"New Mastercard research reveals a powerful paradigm shift: consumers are prioritizing connection and spending time and money on what genuinely fulfills them – experiences with people who matter the most. To meet these evolving needs, Mastercard is unveiling a new suite of elevated benefits – The Mastercard Collection – across its World, World Elite and newly created World Legend Mastercard cards."
July 10, 2025
Top Post
Apple, Visa and Mastercard Win Dismissal of Merchant Antitrust Lawsuit Over Payment Fees
Reuters
"Apple, Visa and Mastercard have persuaded a U.S. judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to suppress competition in the payments network market and causing merchants to pay inflated transaction fees."
July 9, 2025
On the web
Mastercard and Pay4You Partner to Enhance Tail Spend Management for Corporations
Mastercard
"Mastercard and Pay4You, a self-service payment portal, have announced a new partnership to deliver a comprehensive tail spend management solution for corporations across Europe. This collaboration leverages Mastercard's Virtual Card Network (VCN) technology and guarantees card acceptance, providing a seamless and efficient way for corporations to manage their travel spend. Tail spend refers to the portion of a company's expenditures that are not actively managed by procurement."
On the wires
Bank of England Fines Vocalink More Than $16 Million for Compliance Failure
Reuters
"The Bank of England has fined payment systems firm Vocalink Ltd 11.9 million pounds ($16.19 million) for falling short of its obligation to have adequate risk management and governance arrangements.Owned by U.S. payment processor Mastercard, Vocalink designs, builds and operates bank account-based payment systems in Britain, processing over 90% of salaries, more than 70% of household bills and 98% of state benefits, according to its website."
July 8, 2025
On the web
Mastercard Expands Small Business Navigator With Penny Rental Offer for Clover
Mastercard
"Mastercard has expanded its U.S. Small Business Navigator platform with a new offer from Fiserv’s Clover, one of the country’s largest point-of-sale and business management systems. As part of this broader collaboration, the first 1,000 small businesses to apply and qualify under the offer terms before December 31 will receive a select Clover device for just one penny per month in hardware rental fees."
June 24, 2025
On the web
Mastercard Makes a Move Toward Stablecoins, in an Effort to Boost Mainstream Use
MarketWatch
"Mastercard Inc. said it’s working to weave Fiserv Inc.’s FIUSD stablecoin into a range of its payment products. It’s another traditional financial firm jockeying for a seat at the table as cryptocurrencies become more mainstream."
On the wires
Chainlink and Mastercard Partner to Enable Over 3 Billion Cardholders to Purchase Crypto Directly Onchain
PR Newswire
"Chainlink and Mastercard are connecting the offchain payments world directly to the onchain DeFi world in close partnership with zerohash, Swapper Finance, Shift4 Payments, and XSwap, while leveraging the Uniswap protocol."
June 10, 2025
On the web
Onepay and Synchrony to Launch New Industry-Leading Credit Card Program With Walmart; Credit Card to Be Powered by Mastercard and Set to Go Live This Fall
Mastercard
"OnePay, a leading consumer fintech, and Synchrony announced a strategic partnership to exclusively power a new industry-leading credit card program with Walmart (NYSE: WMT). The credit card program is expected to launch this fall, with the experience embedded inside the OnePay app and powered by Mastercard’s global payments network, and will be made available to millions of Walmart customers and to consumers across the U.S."
June 5, 2025
On the wires
Mastercard and PayPal to Partner on Mastercard One Credential to Supercharge Choice at Checkout
Business Wire
"Mastercard and PayPal are teaming up to offer shoppers more choice and control over how they check out. Mastercard has innovated One Credential so that consumers can use a single credential that delivers multiple ways to pay and tailor their payment preferences. Now, Mastercard and PayPal will have the opportunity to codevelop new features utilizing Mastercard’s One Credential and bring these solutions to more consumers."
June 3, 2025
Top Post
One Year in, Mastercard’s Checkout Transformation Gains Ground Across Europe
Mastercard
"One year after announcing its vision to phase out manual card entry and drive 100% tokenisation, Mastercard is celebrating major strides across Europe, where a growing number of partners are adopting the technologies that underpin safer, smarter digital commerce. Nearly half of Mastercard e-commerce transactions are now tokenised in Europe. These tokenised transactions, including Secure Card on File (SCOF), Click to Pay, and digital wallets, have increased by over one third in the past year."
On the web
Deutsche Bank and Mastercard Partner to Power Merchant Solutions With Open Banking Payments
Mastercard
"Deutsche Bank and Mastercard are proud to announce a strategic partnership designed to accelerate the evolution of open banking and redefine the payment experience for merchants and consumers across Europe. The collaboration will elevate Deutsche Bank’s Merchant Solutions offering, particularly its Request to Pay (R2P) service, by introducing new levels of choice, flexibility, and efficiency with account-to-account based payments on Mastercard’s trusted open banking network."
May 29, 2025
On the web
Mastercard Unveils Small Business Navigator to Empower U.S. Entrepreneurs With Smarter, Safer Growth
Mastercard
"Mastercard launched Mastercard Small Business Navigator, a program designed to equip U.S. entrepreneurs with the tools, data and education they need to fuel and protect their passion and growth. Mastercard Small Business Navigator is a new curated offering of education, insights, protection, and planning tools to help entrepreneurs grow and thrive with confidence."
May 22, 2025
On the web
Mastercard and MoonPay Team Up to Mainstream Stablecoin Payments
Mastercard
"Mastercard and MoonPay will join forces to enable people and businesses to pay and be paid using stablecoins across global markets. Enterprises and fintechs will be able to leverage Mastercard branded cards linked to users’ stablecoin balances, empowering cardholders to spend their stablecoins, which will simultaneously be converted to fiat currency, at more than 150 million locations where Mastercard is accepted worldwide."
Visa and Mastercard Are Developing Artificial Intelligence ‘Agents’ to Spend Your Money for You
ABC
"Visa and Mastercard want to give artificial intelligence bots more control of Australians' bank cards, in a technological advancement they say could "revolutionise" shopping. The world's leading digital payment companies separately announced plans late last month to develop AI technology to streamline modern retail and allow autonomous agents to spend shoppers' money for them."
May 21, 2025
On the web
Millions of Consumers Could Get £70 After Mastercard Ruling
BBC
"Millions of shoppers could get up to £70 each after a tribunal approved a settlement in a lawsuit against Mastercard which stemmed from historic fees levied on businesses by the card provider. The decision comes after a long-running legal case going back almost a decade, brought forward by a former financial ombudsman. Walter Merricks argued that shoppers were charged higher prices after fees were wrongly levied on transactions made over a 15-year period between 1992 and 2008."
May 9, 2025
On the web
Mastercard Launches Agent Pay to Enable Secure AI-Powered Transactions
CDO Magazine
"Mastercard has introduced Agent Pay, an initiative aimed at embedding secure, intelligent payments into AI-driven experiences, advancing what it terms “agentic commerce”. The Agentic Payments Program, which includes Mastercard Agentic Tokens, builds on the company’s existing tokenization technology to allow AI agents to make personalized, secure, and seamless purchases on behalf of users."
May 8, 2025
On the web
Nuvei Offers Canadian Businesses Near Instant Pay-Outs via Mastercard Move
Mastercard
"Canadian fintech company Nuvei and Mastercard are collaborating to enable near instantaneous payout capabilities for businesses in Canada. Nuvei will leverage Mastercard Move’s money movement capabilities to facilitate payouts to a consumer’s Debit Mastercard or Reloadable Mastercard Prepaid card."
May 5, 2025
On the web
Suppliers and the Demands of the Digital Economy: A Powerful Case for Commercial Card Acceptance
Mastercard
"Until recently, business-to-business payments hadn’t changed much — dominated by bank or wire transfers and paper checks, they were slow, inefficient and prone to error. Now more financial decision-makers are realizing that the value of digital payments, including cards, extends far beyond the transaction itself, from streamlining reconciliation to optimizing working capital to improving transparency to reducing fraud."
May 1, 2025
On the web
CIBC Launches CIBC Adapta™ Mastercard®, the First Credit Card in Canada That Automatically Adapts to Spending Behaviour, Rewarding Cardholders More for Everyday Purchases
Mastercard
"CIBC announced its innovative new, no annual fee CIBC Adapta Mastercard, the first credit card in Canada that automatically determines the cardholder’s top three spend categories each month based on where they spend the most, and rewards them with 50% more points on those categories."
April 29, 2025
On the web
Mastercard Unveils Agent Pay, Pioneering Agentic Payments Technology to Power Commerce in the Age of AI
Mastercard
"Mastercard announced the launch of its Agentic Payments Program, Mastercard Agent Pay. The program introduces Mastercard Agentic Tokens, which build upon proven tokenization capabilities that today power global commerce solutions like mobile contactless payments, secure card-on-file, and Mastercard Payment Passkeys, as well as programmable payments like recurring expenses and subscriptions. Mastercard will collaborate with Microsoft on new use cases to scale agentic commerce, with other leading AI platforms to follow."
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