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March 2, 2026
On the web
MoonPay, M0 and PayPal Announce PYUSDx
MoonPay
"Announcing PYUSDx, an offering that enables the creation of application-specific stablecoins backed by PayPal USD (PYUSD). PYUSDx is designed to help builders launch and scale application-specific stablecoins while lowering the technical and operational overhead. PYUSDx addresses a market gap: enabling developers to launch application-specific stablecoins quickly while leveraging the core foundation of an established stablecoin. PYUSDx is a tokenization and issuance framework offered by MoonPay Digital Assets Limited that enables developers to create application-specific stablecoins backed by PYUSD."
Could AI Agents Kill the Credit Card?
Investing
"Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc have spent decades building a fortress around how we spend money. They’ve hooked us with sleek metal cards, airport lounge access, and that sweet 2% cash back. What happens when humans stop making buying decisions? The "plastic" empire might be in serious trouble if autonomous AI agents take over purchasing decisions in the future. An AI agent doesn’t care about "top-of-wallet" prestige or earning travel points for a vacation it’ll never take. It only cares about efficiency and cost."
February 27, 2026
On the web
Visa Completes Acquisition of Prisma and Newpay
Visa
"Visa announced it has completed its acquisition of Prisma Medios de Pago S.A.U. and Newpay S.A.U. in Argentina. This transaction strengthens Visa's commitment to advancing payment innovation and modernizing financial infrastructure across the country. Prisma provides credit, debit and prepaid card issuer processing. Newpay is a multi-network infrastructure provider that operates real-time payments services, the Banelco ATM network and the bill payment platform PagoMisCuentas."
Lloyds ‘Set to Stop Opening Some Accounts in Branch’ in Bid to Force Customers to Go Digital
LBC
"Staff at Lloyds Bank will no longer open joint, premium or student accounts in branches or switch customers from another lender, The Telegraph says. The move would be a major blow against in-person branches amid worries that lender's pushes to go digital is set to leave elderly and disabled customers without vital help."
Harmonised ISO 20022 Data Requirements for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments
BIS
"The CPMI's harmonised ISO 20022 data requirements for cross-border payments (harmonisation requirements) are a key milestone under the G20 roadmap for enhancing cross-border payments. ISO 20022, an international financial messaging standard, enables more consistent and structured data, supporting the objectives of faster, cheaper, more accessible, and transparent cross-border payments. Variability in ISO 20022 implementation, however, could limit its benefits, making alignment crucial to achieving the roadmap's objectives."
Education: Stablecoins: USDT vs USDC: Key Differences, Fees, and Which Is Better
Mexc
"Wondering what the difference between USDT and USDC is? Both stablecoins are pegged 1:1 to the US Dollar, but they're built on very different foundations. USDT (Tether), launched in 2014, leads in global trading liquidity. USDC (USD Coin), launched by Circle in 2018, was built for regulatory compliance and transparency. This guide breaks down exactly how they compare."
On the wires
74% of Asia Pacific Consumers Already Use AI to Shop, But Trust and Transparency Hold the Key to Checkout: Visa Survey
PR Newswire
"Visa released new survey findings on the state of digital commerce in Asia Pacific, revealing that while consumers are increasingly using AI to shop, concerns over security and transparency are creating hesitation at the crucial moment of checkout. With Asia Pacific's rapid shift towards digital commerce and mobile-first shopping, the research shows that consumers are drawing a clear line between using AI to help them browse and trusting the same technology to handle their money and personal data."
February 26, 2026
On the web
The Agentic Finance Landscape Report: Q1 2026 Edition
Cambrian Network
"Since the last edition of The Agentic Finance Landscape in December 2025, the market segment has experienced explosive growth. We have seen new projects emerge, with growing adoption, and autonomous agents that are leveraging crypto infrastructure. Consider this evidence: x402 payments continue to accelerate, with 15M+ transactions in the last 30 days and institutional partnerships with large companies like AWS and Stripe. ERC-8004 hit mainnet launch in late January, a measure to establish trust between agents and marketplaces."
OCC Requests Comments on Proposal to Implement GENIUS Act
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
"The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a proposed rulemaking to implement the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. The notice of proposed rulemaking generally sets forth, and seeks comment on, the regulations that would apply to permitted payment stablecoin issuers and foreign payment stablecoin issuers under the OCC’s jurisdiction as well as certain custody activities conducted by OCC-supervised entities."
Cash Flow Needs from Consumers and Businesses Drive New RTP® Network Volume and Value Records
The Clearing House
"The nation’s largest instant payments system, operated by The Clearing House, recently set new single-day records. On Friday, February 13 the RTP network, which carries 98% of all bank-to-bank instant payments volume in the U.S, processed 2.05 million payments – the first time the network exceeded 2 million transactions in a single day. In addition, on Wednesday, February 18, the RTP network reached a new single-day value record of $8.36 billion."
Rainforest Launches Embedded PayPal Integration for Vertical Software Platforms
Yahoo Finance-Business Wire
"Rainforest, an embedded payment provider purpose-built for software platforms, and PayPal have joined forces to launch a new embedded payment integration to help software platforms shift more processing volume away from offline payment methods like cash and checks — which are still written by 61% of Americans and are the payment method most frequently used in payment fraud."
2025 PCI SSC Annual Report
PCI Security Standards Council
"The 2025 Annual Report tells the story of a year defined by progress, collaboration, and impact across the global payments community. As PCI SSC’s Executive Director reflects in the opening letter, the pace of change in payments continues to accelerate—and so do the threats. In response, PCI SSC and its community came together in 2025 to deliver bold, meaningful work designed to make a real difference for the industry."
February 25, 2026
Top Post
New Data on Card-Present and Card-Not-Present Fraud Rates in the United States
Kansas City Federal Reserve
"Recently updated data show that the card-present fraud rate of non-prepaid debit cards increased for transactions on single-message networks from 2021 to 2023 but decreased for dual-message networks—reversing a previous trend. The card-not-present fraud rate for both types of networks continued its upward trend. Cardholders’ fraud loss rates also continued to increase for both card-present and card-not-present transactions on both types of networks."
On the web
Revolut to Test Stablecoin in UK Trial
Yahoo Finance
"Britain's Revolut will start testing a crypto token pegged to the British pound, in a trial with three small companies but no big high-street lenders, the Financial Conduct Authority said. The trial will take place as part of the financial regulator's "sandbox" programme, which allows firms to trial stablecoin products in controlled conditions, it said. Britain's larger financial firms have been more cautious in their approach to stablecoins than European and U.S. counterparts, partly because of scepticism from the Bank of England."
Canada’s Real-Time Rail Quarterly Update with Jude Pinto: 2026 Q1 [Video]
Payments Canada
"Canada's Real-Time Rail (RTR) program made significant progress in 2025 and in 2026 we will continue to push forward on delivering real-time payments to businesses and consumers. While 2025 was a year of successes, there is still much work to do in delivering real-time payments to Canadian businesses and consumers. In Q1 of 2026, we are focused on testing, onboarding and operational readiness."
BillDesk to Acquire Worldline India Payment Businesses, Advancing Integrated Payments
BillDesk
"BillDesk announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Worldline India's payment businesses, in a strategic transaction that brings together large-scale payment aggregation, bank-grade transaction switching, and omnichannel merchant acquiring within a single, unified platform. This strategic move establishes a premier, vertically integrated payments stack designed to power the next era of India's digital economy."
Regional Banks Team Up for Tokenized Deposits
Banking Exchange
"Five regional US banks are preparing to launch a new tokenized deposit network by the end of this year, marking one of the most significant blockchain moves yet by mid-sized lenders. The initiative is being developed in partnership with blockchain platform Cari Network and involves Huntington Bancshares, First Horizon, M&T Bank, KeyCorp, and Old National Bank. The group plans to release a minimum viable product in March."
Agentic Commerce: When AI Buys on Your Behalf — Who Pays, Who’s Liable?
European Business & Finance Magazine
"Agentic commerce — where AI agents autonomously research, compare and purchase products on behalf of consumers — is projected to generate $3 to $5 trillion globally by 2030, according to McKinsey. ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout has been live since September 2025, and Google launched its Universal Commerce Protocol in January 2026. But no jurisdiction has enacted regulation specifically addressing autonomous AI purchasing."
FORM3 Expands Strategic Partnership With SumUp to Bring Real-Time SEPA Payments to European Small Businesses
Form3
"Form3 announced a significant expansion of its partnership with SumUp, as the global fintech extends its use of Form3’s payments platform to support European payment schemes. SumUp, which supports more than 4 million merchants across 37 countries, has adopted Form3’s platform for European payments including SEPA Instant, SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Direct Debit."
February 24, 2026
Top Post
Stripe Is Considering Acquisition of All or Parts of PayPal, Bloomberg News Reports
Yahoo Finance-Reuters
"Payments firm Stripe is considering an acquisition of PayPal or parts of the digital payments pioneer, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Stripe, which is privately held and is among the industry's most valuable companies, has expressed a preliminary interest in a potential acquisition of PayPal or its assets, the report said."
On the web
Is Europe Ready to Reduce Its Reliance on Visa and Mastercard?
GlobalData
"...Visa and Mastercard processed 47% of the eurozone’s card payment value in 2025, with 13 out of 19 countries being highly reliant on these two providers with at least 96% of their card transaction values, according to GlobalData’s Payment Cards Analytics. The duopoly’s combined market share in the eurozone has doubled since 2010; further intensifying concerns over long-term dependency on foreign providers. Key exceptions that operate dominant local card solutions are Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, but these individual systems are not interoperable."
Mastercard Move Set to Accelerate Banks’ Digital Payment Services
Banking Exchange
"Ericsson and Mastercard have announced a collaboration aimed at transforming how money moves globally, with implications for banks and fintechs. By integrating Ericsson’s Fintech Platform with Mastercard Move, which is Mastercard’s portfolio of money movement solutions, the partnership seeks to simplify digital wallet expansion, speed up new payment service launches, and reach underbanked populations."
Worldline Unveils “One Commerce”, Powering the Next Generation of Omnichannel Retail
Worldline
"Worldline announced the launch of Worldline One Commerce, a new integrated vision that redefines how merchants connect payments, data, technology and customer experiences. Merchants will gain full control to design ecosystems tailored to their customers’ expectations. Worldline will also introduce the European launch of its “à-la-carte” acquiring model, that allows merchants to flexibly choose their preferred multi-acquiring setup."
We Tested M-PESA’s Latest Feature Shiriki Pay. Here’s How It Works.
TechCabal
"Safaricom, is testing a subtle change in how money moves within the country’s most dominant financial product, M-PESA. In January 2026, the telco added Shiriki Pay, a new mini-app within the M-PESA super app. Shiriki Pay allows a user to add up to two beneficiaries who can pay merchants using the sponsor’s wallet balance, subject to a preset monthly cap. It is an experiment designed to test delegated spending without transferring ownership of the funds."
MoonPay Launches ‘MoonPay Agents’ to Power AI-Driven Crypto Transactions
The Block
"MoonPay has launched MoonPay Agents, a non-custodial infrastructure layer enabling AI agents to create wallets and transact autonomously. The launch deepens the industry’s push toward an emerging “agent economy,” where AI systems execute financial actions onchain."
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Is Planning Stablecoin Comeback in the Second Half of This Year
CoinDesk
"The Facebook owner’s stablecoin integration involves a third party vendor to help administer stablecoin-based payments and a new wallet to be implemented, sources said. Meta sent out a request for product (RFP) to third-party firms to help administer stablecoin-based payments, according to sources. Stripe, which acquired stablecoin firm Bridge last year, was mentioned by one source as a likely candidate for piloting Meta’s stablecoin."
Intuit and Anthropic Partner to Bring Trusted Financial Intelligence and Custom AI Agents to Consumers and Businesses
Intuit Inc.
"Intuit Inc. and Anthropic announced a multi-year, game-changing partnership to bring custom AI agents to mid-market businesses on the Intuit platform and highly personalized experiences for consumers and businesses, whether on Intuit’s platform or in Anthropic’s environments. Businesses will be able to build and customize secure, accurate AI agents to support compliant workflows using Anthropic’s Claude Agent SDK on the Intuit platform, regardless of technical expertise."
European Central Bank and ONCE Foundation Launch Collaboration to Ensure Digital Euro Is Accessible for Everyone
European Central Bank
"The European Central Bank (ECB) and the ONCE Foundation for Cooperation and Social Inclusion of People with Disabilities have signed a collaboration agreement to promote, develop and ensure the digital euro app is easily accessible for everyone, including people with disabilities or limited digital skills and older adults."
Crypto.com Wins Initial Approval for U.S. Federally Regulated Crypto Custodian Bank
CoinDesk
"Crypto.com received conditional U.S. approval to establish Foris Dax National Trust Bank, enabling expanded custody and digital asset services under federal oversight. The national charter would consolidate custody services under a single framework under federal oversight."
PayPal Data Breach Led to Fraudulent Transactions
Security Week
"PayPal recently disclosed a data breach that affected customers’ personal information and led to fraudulent transactions. The personal information was exposed for nearly six months, between July 1 and Dec. 13, 2025. Exposed information included names, email addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, and business addresses combined with SSNs. The code that had introduced the error was rolled back; affected customers’ passwords were reset. In a statement, PayPal said it notified the roughly 100 customers affected by the incident.”
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