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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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April 1, 2026
On the wires
Elavon and Liberis Expand Partnership Enabling Small Businesses to Access Fast Funding
Business Wire
"Liberis announced an extended partnership with Elavon to launch Quick Capital, a seamless funding solution for small businesses across Canada. Following a successful launch in the U.S. in 2025, this partnership will provide access to capital to more than 202,000 Canadian small to medium sized businesses (SMBs), offering fast, flexible revenue-based financing from Liberis through an easy-to-navigate application that starts within the Elavon merchant portal. "
March 31, 2026
Top Post
Reserve Bank of Australia Determines Hidden Debit Tap and Go Surcharge to Be Removed [Video]
News
"One of Australia’s most hated hidden fees has been scrapped. The RBA released its long-awaited review of merchant card payment costs and surcharging. As part of three key changes, the RBA says it is removing surcharging on debit, prepaid and credit cards across eftpos, MasterCard and Visa networks. The surcharges will be removed by October 1, 2026. Another change announced will lower the amount that businesses pay card merchants to use their services. Under the changes, the “interchange cap” will be dropped from 0.8 to 0.3 per cent for domestic-issued consumer credit card transactions. The RBA will also increase the transparency of card payment fees by requiring the likes of eftpos, MasterCard and Visa to publish the fees they charge."
On the web
Billtrust Report: Navigating Economic Headwinds Why Cash Generation Has Become the Ultimate Competitive Edge in 2026
Billtrust
"With 67% of customers paying slower than six months ago, rising costs and tariff pressures are making fast, efficient cash generation the defining priority. Finance leaders are pulling back hard on spending and growth, and at the same time, pouring money into AI and automation like the future depends on it. That push and pull is the story of 2026."
Treasury Releases Two New Resources to Guide AI Use in the Financial Sector
U.S. Department of the Treasury
"In support of the President’s AI Action Plan, which calls for clear standards, shared understanding, and risk-based governance to ensure artificial intelligence is deployed safely and responsibly, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released two new resources to guide AI use in the financial sector, a shared Artificial Intelligence Lexicon and the Financial Services AI Risk Management Framework (FS AI RMF)."
Small Businesses Can Soon Enjoy New Rewards With the Prime Business and Amazon Business Credit Cards [U.S. Bank & Mastercard]
Amazon
"Amazon announced a new Prime Business Card and a new Amazon Business Card, coming this spring, with a suite of new features designed for small business customers. The cards will be issued by U.S. Bank as part of the Mastercard network. Customers can choose between two options: the Prime Business Card, offering Prime members 5% back on Amazon purchases, or the Amazon Business Card, offering 3% back for customers without a Prime membership*. Both versions of the card offer more rewards when shopping off-Amazon, flexible credit terms, and no annual fees."
Alipay’s AI Pay Surpasses 100 Million Users
MSN
"Alipay’s AI Pay has surpassed 100 million users as of 23 February, according to an announcement by Ant Group. AI Pay earlier surpassed 120 million transactions between February 5-11, 2026. Launched in 2025, AI Pay transactions through AI agents. Consumers can pay via voice command, eliminating the need to switch between pages."
Stablecoins: Reimagining Money Movement for a Digital Economy
Visa
"According to the Visa Onchain Analytics Dashboard, the data suggests an increase in retail-sized stablecoin transfers and purchases (transactions below $250), occurring at a frequency similar to everyday consumer spending.¹ Retail‑sized volumes for stablecoins USDC, USDT and PYUSD* climbed from about $0.5 billion in 2019 to $69.8 billion in 2025, roughly matching the size of the Uganda economy. However, this still represents a small portion of global payments; for instance, stablecoins account for around 0.1 percent of U.S. cashless payments. Over the same period, retail‑sized transaction counts jumped from around 4.7 million to about 1.3 billion. In 2025, retail-sized volume makes up only about 0.6 percent of total adjusted stablecoin volume, but retail-sized transactions account for 57 percent of total transaction count."
SWIFT Blockchain Pivot Puts XRP Back in Cross-Border Spotlight
Yahoo Finance
"SWIFT is building blockchain-based cross-border payment infrastructure with more than 40 global banks targeting a live scheme by mid-2026, and the plumbing it is laying quietly positions XRP crypto as an optional liquidity rail inside that network. The mechanism is not a partnership announcement or a headline integration, it runs through Thunes, a payments company now embedded in SWIFT’s network, whose connections reach Ripple’s payment products and, by extension, XRP’s on-demand liquidity functions."
Soon You Can Switch Banks Without Closing Your Account Under RBI’s New Plan [India]
Business Today
"The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is moving to introduce account portability under its Payments Vision 2028, according to a report by Times of India. RBI’s work around this stickiness is a Payments Switching Service where all standing instructions are centralised. This interface will allow customers to view and migrate all payment mandates, both incoming and outgoing reducing dependence on individual banks making accounts portable. The central bank’s plan is to fix this through a system that allows users to shift these instructions easily, reducing their dependence on a single bank."
New York-Based Ramp Launches Stablecoin Accounts, Letting Businesses Pay in USDC
Live Bitcoin News
"Ramp has officially launched its Stablecoin Accounts feature in public beta. The New York-based fintech, which serves over 50,000 businesses globally, now lets companies hold USDC directly on its platform. Users can earn rewards on their balances, currently sitting at 3.98%. They can also pay vendors and employees worldwide using stablecoins. The move brings crypto payments into the same system businesses already use for traditional dollar transactions."
Marqeta Delivers AI-Driven Risk Decisioning to Enhance Real-Time Fraud Prevention
Marqeta, Inc.
"Marqeta, Inc. announced it enhanced its Real-Time Decisioning (RTD) offering with an AI-powered risk score that analyzes transaction risk levels at the point of the authorization decision. Part of its suite of risk services, the company’s RTD offering allows customers to create custom rules and controls to manage fraud. The risk score evaluates 300+ real-time transaction attributes against historical behavioral patterns, automatically adapting to unique cardholder behaviors and market shifts."
Digital Assets and Estate Planning: The Growing Challenge of Cryptocurrency
Today's Wills and Probate
"Digital assets are becoming an increasingly significant component of personal wealth, yet they present estate planners with risks that differ fundamentally from traditional property. The defining feature of cryptocurrency is decentralisation. There is usually no central authority capable of restoring access if login credentials, private keys or recovery phrases are lost. If this information dies with the owner, the asset may effectively cease to exist in practical terms, regardless of its theoretical legal status. Estimates suggest that a significant proportion of cryptocurrency in circulation is already inaccessible due to lost credentials."
The Five Most Dangerous New Attack Techniques [AI Threats-Video]
Bank Info Security
"Ed Skoudis, president of the SANS Technology Institute, pointed to a near-term scenario where artificial intelligence dramatically increases the discovery and exploitation of software flaws. These include AI-driven vulnerability discovery, supply chain compromises, rising OT complexity, overreliance on AI in forensics and faster attack life cycles. These techniques are compressing the time defenders have to respond."
NRF: Swipe Fees Could Cost Easter Shoppers Almost $600 Million
Chain Store Age
"The National Retail Federation has a not-so-happy forecast for the financial impact of swipe fees on consumers who shop for Easter using credit cards. The Merchant Payments Coalition, a subsidiary of the NRF , estimates that if all of the record $24.9 billion the NRF has forecast consumers will spend on Easter this year were transacted with credit cards, the average 2.36% swipe fee rate charged to retailers for Visa and Mastercard credit cards would total $587.6 million, or $4.62 per shopper."
Wise Launches UK Current Account to Take On High Street Banks
Wise Newsroom
"Wise is launching its UK Current Account with new features, challenging traditional banking with a smarter way to manage everyday money. The move comes as everyday usage in the UK surges: Wise served 3 million active people and businesses in the UK last year, holding over £8bn in their accounts. Globally, the company serves more than 15.6 million active customers, with 100,000 new customers joining Wise each week. In total, customers hold over £27.5 billion in their Wise Accounts."
An Update on the Move to New Payments Platform [Australia]
Australian Payments Plus
"In this update, we share the latest on payday super, key focus areas, industry progress towards the modernisation of A2A payments and the proposed bulk solution. The move to faster, more efficient superannuation payments is underway, with payday super legislation taking effect in July 2026. Real-time super payments via the NPP will play a central role in facilitating fast, secure, data-rich payments that will improve transparency and efficiency for employers, super funds and employees."
Mitsubishi Adopts JP Morgan’s 24/7 Blockchain Payments
Ledger Insights
"Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation is the country’s first firm to adopt JP Morgan’s Kinexys Digital Payments to enable instant cross border payments 24/7. The company will take advantage of the programmability of the blockchain-based deposit account to initially move US dollars when needed between its Singapore, London and New York subsidiaries. The key advantage is there is no dependence on bank opening hours."
Square Auto-Enables Bitcoin Payments for Millions of US Businesses
CoinCentral
"Square has started automatically enabling bitcoin payments for millions of eligible US sellers, marking a broader push to bring digital asset payments into everyday commerce. The rollout allows small businesses already using Square’s payment system to accept bitcoin without additional setup, with transactions converted to US dollars at checkout by default. The company said the feature includes near-instant settlement and zero processing fees through 2026."
Worldpay: Introducing the Agentic Commerce Report
Global Payments
"Now, a new generation of autonomous agents is taking its next step, actually making purchases on behalf of consumers. This shift, known as agentic commerce, marks a major change in how buying and selling happen. To see what comes next, we asked 8,000 consumers across seven countries how they feel about agents, data and trust. Their answers reveal how quickly this transformation will take hold – and what merchants can do to prepare now."
March 30, 2026
On the web
Instant Recurring Payments: Unlocking Opportunities in High-Growth Vertical Markets
Faster Payments Council
"This white paper explores the expanding landscape of instant recurring payments (IRP) and assessesthe strategic opportunities for financial institutions and payment originators. Traditional paymentsystems are often characterized by long settlement timelines , inefficiencies , and lack the finality ofinstant payments that affect both businesses and consumers. Instant recurring payments —powered byinnovations like FedNow ® Service and RTP ® network —represent a shift in foundational assumptions,allowing for instant authorization, settlement, and greater flexibility for both payers and payees."
Banks Eye Crypto Specialists
Global Finance Magazine
"Traditional finance is rapidly integrating stablecoins as an “always-on” payment rail. Barclays’ January 2026 acquisition of a stake in Ubyx, a US startup specializing in stablecoin clearing, highlights this. The strategic investment allows the bank to accept any regulated stablecoin and instantly convert it into a “par value” bank deposit. This aligns with Barclays’ existing participation in a 10-bank consortium, including Goldman Sachs and UBS, exploring a regulated stablecoin pegged to G7 currencies. Ubyx functions as an interoperability and clearing layer, enabling banks to accept stablecoin transactions without managing the underlying crypto."
Carrefour Becomes First European Retailer to Offer Shopping on ChatGPT
Yahoo Finance
"Carrefour has introduced a new AI-powered grocery shopping service on ChatGPT, becoming the first major European retailer to integrate its full product offering directly into the chatbot interface. The move reflects a wider shift towards “AI shopping” and conversational commerce, where consumers use generative AI tools to search, plan, and purchase goods. Users in France can now interact with ChatGPT to find recipes, check product availability, build a shopping basket, and select delivery options before completing their purchase on Carrefour’s e-commerce platform."
Zelle® Expands MDI Access Program to Jack Henry®, Broadening Access to Fast, Reliable Digital Payments
Early Warning
"The Zelle® Network announced the second year of its Minority Depository Institution (MDI) access program: Renewing its collaboration with Velera to bring Zelle to MDI credit unions. Velera is the nation’s premier payments credit union service organization and an integrated financial technology solutions provider. Expanding the program through a new partnership with Jack Henry to bring Zelle to additional MDI banks and credit unions."
Mind the Gap: AI Adoption in Europe and the U.S.
Federal Reserve
"For three decades, American workers have been pulling ahead of their European counterparts. Between 1995 and 2025, output per hour increased by 88% in the U.S. versus just 30% in the 20 countries using the euro. Now, a new wave of technology is arriving. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to reshape work across many sectors of the economy. As with the ICT revolution, the economic impact of AI will depend critically on how quickly and broadly workers and firms adopt it. Will the U.S. again pull ahead, or will Europe be able to close the gap?"
Phixius by Nacha Adds Advanced Fraud Solutions as Fourth Data Responder
Nacha
"Phixius by Nacha—a secure, peer-to-peer payment information network—announced today that Advanced Fraud Solutions is now live on the Phixius network as a data responder. This addition makes Advanced Fraud Solutions the fourth data responder on Phixius, further expanding the breadth of account validation coverage available to Phixius users."
Namibia Launches National Payment System Vision 2026–2030 to Boost Digital Economy
TechAfrica News
"The Bank of Namibia, in collaboration with the Payments Association of Namibia and stakeholders, has launched the National Payment System (NPS) Vision and Strategy 2026–2030. The initiative builds on progress achieved under the previous Vision framework. These include regulatory reforms, increased interoperability across payment channels, expansion of digital payment services, and adoption of global standards such as ISO 20022. The country also introduced Open Banking frameworks and NAMQR code standards to enhance payment efficiency."
E-Cheques Coming Soon? RBI Unveils Payments Vision 2028, Plans Wider Oversight of Digital Players
MSN
"The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday unveiled its ‘Payments Vision 2028’ document, outlining a roadmap that includes exploring electronic cheques, expanding regulatory oversight to digital platforms, and strengthening safeguards in the fast-growing payments ecosystem, PTI reported. The central bank aims to enhance access to payment data and reimagine the card payments ecosystem by promoting secure tokenisation, improved transparency in pricing, and greater choice for users and merchants."
On the wires
Nium Launches Dual-Network Stablecoin Card Issuance Platform Enabling Businesses to Spend Digital Dollars at Hundreds of Millions of Merchant Locations Worldwide
PR Newswire
"Nium launched its stablecoin card issuance platform. The solution enables companies holding stablecoins to issue spending cards on both the Visa and Mastercard networks through a single API integration, allowing stablecoins to be used at hundreds of millions of merchant locations globally."
March 27, 2026
On the web
Google Just Revised Its ‘Q-Day’ [Quantum]Timeline: Quantum Computers Could Break Existing Encryption Techniques Within Three Years
IT Pro
"Google has warned that “Q-Day”, the point where a quantum computer is powerful enough to crack current encryption techniques, could come as soon as 2029. The new timeline comes in light of progress in quantum computing hardware development, quantum error correction, and quantum factoring resource estimates. Quantum computers pose a particular threat to encryption and digital signatures, according to the company, and attackers are already stealing encrypted data they believe they'll be able to decrypt some time in the future."
Now Available: Advanced EMV 3DS Products and Emerging Use Cases
U.S. Payments Forum
"The U.S. Payments Forum has released the fourth and final brief in our EMV® 3DS Mini-Series: Advanced EMV 3DS Products and Emerging Use Cases. This final installment explores how EMV 3DS continues to evolve to support new authentication methods, emerging payment models, and shifting fraud dynamics. The brief highlights advanced capabilities such as decoupled authentication, the use of FIDO authentication data, and Secure Payment Confirmation (SPC)—all designed to improve security while reducing friction in the customer experience."