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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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June 2, 2025
On the web
Blackhawk Network (BHN) Proprietary Research Demonstrates Promotions Using Rewards and Incentives Provide Better ROI than Discounts and Elevates Industry Focus on Measuring Results in B2B Incentives
Business Wire
"Businesses use rewards and incentives for one primary reason: they help deliver business results. With the uncertainty almost every business is dealing with today, customer engagement is at a premium and demonstrating results is more important than ever. New research from Blackhawk Network (BHN), a global leader in branded payments and reward solutions, highlights how businesses can intelligently leverage precious marketing dollars using reward and incentive based promotions that outperform discounts."
Crunchfish Unveils White Paper on Rethinking Offline Payments
Cision
"Crunchfish Digital Cash AB announced the release of its latest white paper titled Rethinking Offline Payments: A Groundbreaking Ecosystem Approach. This groundbreaking whitepaper tackles the pressing need for resilient offline payment solutions while addressing the critical challenges currently faced by the payment ecosystems."
Visa Readies Agentic AI Tools for Consumer Payments
Digital Finance
"Visa is experimenting with agentic artificial intelligence that would add automated execution for consumers to queries on large-language models. Visa has announced its Intelligent Commerce product, which in Asia is being tested with partners including Ant International, Grab and Tencent, as well as with LLM companies in the US such as OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic."
Tencent Eyes Thai Market for Palm Biometric Payments in Race With Alipay
GlobalData
"Tencent is positioning Thailand as a testing ground for its palm biometric payment system, aiming to capitalise on the nation’s digital transformation push and “Cloud First” policy. The move signals a strategic play to outpace rival Alipay in Southeast Asia’s rapidly expanding fintech sector."
May 30, 2025
On the web
BIS: Digital Fraud
BIS
"The ongoing digitalisation of finance brings numerous benefits, such as increased efficiency, convenience, financial inclusion, transparency and quicker responses to crises. However, it also introduces significant risks to bank soundness and financial stability. One such risk is digital fraud."
Nordics and Estonia Rolling Out Offline Card Payment Back-up in Case Internet Cut
Reuters
"Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Estonia are rolling out offline card payment systems to provide a back-up if internet connections are lost, including due to sabotage, Bank of Finland board member Tuomas Valimaki said.The plans come after the Baltic Sea region has suffered several instances of unexplained damage to critical undersea infrastructure in recent years."
On the wires
Payment Firm Stripe in Early Talks With Banks About Stablecoins
Bloomberg
"Stripe Inc. has held early discussions with banks about their potential use of stablecoins, the latest sign that the digital assets are playing an increasingly central role in global money movement. The talks come as Stripe has debuted a number of products related to stablecoins in recent months, including a platform allowing fintechs to quickly start their own stablecoin-linked card programs for customers, according to John Collison, the co-founder and president of the payments giant."
NMI Now Offers Tap to Pay on iPhone for Merchants to Accept Contactless Payments
Business Wire
"NMI® now enables its U.S. customers to seamlessly and securely accept in-person, contactless payments with Tap to Pay on iPhone. Tap to Pay on iPhone allows merchants to accept all forms of contactless payments, including contactless credit and debit cards, Apple Pay and other digital wallets, using only an iPhone and a supporting iOS app — no additional hardware or payment terminal needed."
Neema Unveils Dynamic Routing For Cross-Border Transactions
PR Newswire
"Neema, a global cross-border payments network catering to financial institutions, launched Dynamic Routing®. Dynamic Routing, along with Neema's vast network of financial partners, enables a smarter method for global money movement. Rather than depending on a single pathway, Dynamic Routing establishes multiple real-time routes between countries."
May 29, 2025
Top Post
Federal Reserve Board Issues Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024 Report
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
"The Federal Reserve Board issued its Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024 report, which examines the financial circumstances of U.S. adults and their families. Overall, the report shows that financial well-being was similar to the previous two years as concerns about prices persisted and labor market conditions remained solid."
On the web
Reserve Bank of India to Roll Out New Use Cases for Digital Rupee
Cointelegraph
"The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is set to broaden the reach of its digital rupee pilots by introducing new use cases and features for both its retail and wholesale central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), according to the central bank’s Annual Report for 2024–25. The central bank said it aims to explore programmability and offline capabilities for the digital rupee, features that may increase its applicability in areas with limited internet access and tailor payments for specific use cases such as government subsidies or corporate spending controls."
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."
Mastercard Introduces Touch Card by Mastercard™ in Canada, a Tactile Notch Feature Designed to Help Empower the Sight Loss Community
Barchart
"Eight in ten Canadians agree it's important to embed accessibility in financial products for the sight loss community. As payment cards continue to evolve to drive accessibility while adopting modern, flat designs for increased security, Mastercard is introducing Touch Card by Mastercard in Canada. This accessible system of payment cards has unique notches that allow the sight loss community to identify their credit, debit and prepaid cards with just a touch."
UK Fraud Losses Hold Steady at £1.17bn as Experts Warn of Evolving Threats
IBS Intelligence
"Fraud continues to pose a grave threat to the UK’s financial stability and consumer safety, with losses from unauthorised and authorised fraud reaching a staggering £1.17 billion in 2024, according to UK Finance’s annual fraud report. While the figure remains broadly unchanged from 2023, the unrelenting scale of the threat has drawn calls for urgent cross-sector action."
BS2 Buys Fintech Platform to Advance With “International Pix”
Finsiders Brasil
"BS2 , a digital bank focused on companies, wants to move forward with an “international Pix” solution this year. To this end, the Minas Gerais-based institution is purchasing VoucherPay , a platform that allows Brazilians to pay for purchases abroad with Pix or credit card in installments in reais."
Stripe Fuels UK Business Growth With Global Money Management Capabilities
Stripe
"UK businesses are now able to: Hold, manage, and spend from balances in multiple currencies in their existing Stripe account, and pay out to customers, contractors, and other third parties in 50 countries with just an email address.Sell cross-border more easily using 25 new payment methods (including UPI in India and Pix in Brazil), collect and file taxes in 102 countries, and present prices in local currencies in more than 150 markets and more."
Card-Not-Present Fraud Rates in the United States After the Migration to Chip Cards
Kansas City Fed
"Unlike many other countries, the United States did not see a surge in the “card-not-present” fraud rate immediately after migrating to chip-card technology. Instead, the U.S. card-not-present fraud rate of non-prepaid debit cards has increased gradually over the past decade. Merchants’ and cardholders’ card-not-present fraud loss rates have increased for both dual- and single-message networks, while issuers’ card-not-present fraud loss rate has increased for single-message networks."
Will Consumers Accept Open Banking? A Global Perspective
Nacha
"Open banking has a lot of moving parts, but at the end of the day, it might well come down to two words: consumer acceptance. “In the U.S., it does seem that consumers are willing to engage in open banking to initiate payments, to link a bank account, to do things like a digital wallet load,” said Mike Herd, Nacha Executive Vice President, ACH Network Administration.
Regulating and Supervising Cross-Border Payment Service Providers
BIS
"Advances in digital technology are playing a key role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of transferring funds across borders. New service providers supplying more delivery channels based on new technologies offer consumers access to more convenient, cheaper and faster options for conducting transactions, such as paying bills, purchasing goods and services, and transferring cash to others."
May 28, 2025
Top Post
ISO 20022 for Financial Institutions: The Path to Compliance
Convera
"A key complexity of the ISO 20022 rollout is that payment schemes around the world are migrating on varied timelines and with different implementation strategies. For example: Fedwire in the United States plans to fully adopt ISO 20022 on July 14, 2025; The Eurosystem’s T2, and EBA Clearing’s EURO1 have already migrated; Australia’s New Payments Platform (NPP) is powered by ISO 20022 messaging standards; The SWIFT network will complete its transition to ISO 20022 for international cross-border payments in November 2025."
On the web
PayPal Gets RBI Nod for Cross-Border Transfers—Who Benefits and How
NewsBytes
"PayPal Payments (PayPal), the Indian arm of PayPal Holdings, has received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a cross-border payment aggregator. Another fintech firm, Worldline ePayments India, also announced that it has received RBI's approval to operate under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007."
Explore the First Brief in Our EMV 3DS Mini-Series
U.S. Payments Forum
"EMV® 3-D Secure (EMV 3DS) is a powerful tool for reducing eCommerce fraud, improving transaction approval rates, and protecting merchants from chargebacks. In this first installment of the U.S. Payments Forum’s EMV 3DS Mini-Series, we break down: How EMV 3DS works across issuer, acquirer, and interoperability domains; Real-world use cases like high-risk, high-value, and cross-border transactions; Key benefits for merchants—including fraud reduction, customer trust, and liability protection; Common adoption challenges and how to overcome them"
Did You Know Payment Stablecoins Have Similar Run Risks as Money Market Funds?
ABA Banking Journal
"Payment stablecoins issued by nonbanks are economically equivalent to MMFs. One could even characterize them as tokenized MMFs used for payments. They share the same vulnerabilities with MMFs, and may suffer similar runs under stress. As Congress and regulators debate the right level of stablecoin regulation, these run risks and the potential role of the Fed warrant careful consideration."
Vietnam Urges Corporate Banking Customers to Complete Biometric Verification as Deadline Looms
Biometric Update
"Vietnam is making biometric verification integral to corporate banking. From July 1 corporate bank customers will only be allowed to withdraw funds or conduct electronic payment transactions if their legal representatives have completed biometric and ID document verification. Electronic transactions will only be permitted if the biometric data and identity documents of the account holder or legal representative match encrypted ID card data, such as the citizen ID card, or through a verified digital identity account."
Worldpay to Enable Stablecoin Payouts for Global Businesses in Collaboration with BVNK
Worldpay
"Worldpay® and BVNK announced they are working together to enable nearly instant global payouts in stablecoins for Worldpay clients in the U.S. and Europe. This collaboration will enable Worldpay’s clients to pay out to customers, contractors, creators, sellers, and other 3rd party beneficiaries in stablecoins across more than 180 markets nearly instantly, all without having to hold or handle stablecoins themselves."
Visa Brings Click to Pay to Hong Kong with ZA Bank
IBS Intelligence
"Visa has announced the official rollout of Click to Pay in partnership with ZA Bank, Hong Kong’s first and largest virtual bank. This launch makes ZA Bank the first card issuer across Asia Pacific to enable the Visa Click to Pay solution, with further expansion planned in 11 additional regional markets."
Elon Musk Confirms Surprising New Feature on X
Yahoo Finance
"X owner Elon Musk confirmed on May 25 that the social media platform will soon unveil a payments feature. As the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley informed on X that Musk has confirmed X is launching X Money soon, the billionaire responded, "This will be a very limited access beta at first. When people’s savings are involved, extreme care must be taken."
Fighting Fraud Across the Globe: What Other Countries are Doing
Nacha
"If ever there was a case where misery loves company, it’s fraud. “Fraud is a global issue,” said Jane Larimer, Nacha President and CEO. To discover what’s being done in other parts of the world, Larimer brought together leaders from Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK for the April 28 panel “Industry Focus: Fighting Fraud Across the Globe: What Can the U.S. Learn from Other Geos?” at Smarter Faster Payments 2025."
Tink, Adyen Partner to Bring Pay by Bank to Vodafone Customers in Germany
Open Banking Expo
"Tink, A Visa Solution, and Adyen, the global financial technology platform of choice for leading businesses, have announced a partnership with Vodafone, a leading telecoms company, to offer their customers in Germany the option to pay their prepaid tariff and outstanding post-paid balances using Pay by Bank."
On the wires
Circle Launches Initial Public Offering
Business Wire
"Circle Internet Group, Inc., a global financial technology company and stablecoin market leader, announced the launch of the initial public offering."
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