PAYMENTS ON FIRE RESOURCE CENTER
Smart thinking for smart payments professionals
Payments On Fire is the industry’s leading resource center for payments professionals. Here, you’ll find the resources and thought leadership that only Glenbrook’s experienced team can provide. Curated news stories, insightful opinion papers, provocative podcasts, and more – it’s all the thinking you need to stay competitive in a dynamic payments world.
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June 9, 2026
Nuvei Is In Talks To Buy Payoneer For $2.7 Billion
Finimize
Nuvei, a Canadian payments company, is in advanced talks to buy Payoneer, a cross-border payments firm, for about $2.7 billion, Reuters reported. Reuters says the $2.7 billion price includes Payoneer’s cash, which implies about $2.3 billion in enterprise value – notably above Payoneer’s roughly $1.7 billion market value.
The Future of Payments in Africa: Smarter, Connected, & Powered by AI [Video]
CNBC Africa
“Africa is rapidly moving beyond basic digital transactions to build an intelligent, interconnected financial network. Driving this shift is the integration of artificial intelligence, evolving cross-border infrastructure, and next-generation commerce tools that promise to redefine how money moves across the continent. Joining CNBC Africa to discuss the upcoming wave of transformation is Dr. Reda Helal, […]
June 4, 2026
Flutterwave Partners With Blockchain Network Tempo to Cut Costs on African Payments
Tech Labari
“Africa’s largest payments company is betting on blockchain to fix one of the continent’s most persistent financial headaches: the high cost and slow speed of moving money across borders. Flutterwave, which processes transactions across 34 African countries, announced on Wednesday a partnership with Tempo, a blockchain network backed by Stripe and Paradigm, to build a stablecoin-based […]
Bank of America to Launch Cross-Border Real-Time Payments, Expanding Global Payment Choice [Video]
Bank of America
“Bank of America announced plans to launch a cross-border real-time payments solution that will enable its corporate, commercial and financial institution clients to send and receive funds instantly through Swift or the bank’s flagship digital platform, CashPro®. The service will offer real‑time payment tracking, full-principal preservation and lower costs. The service is expected to launch […]
June 3, 2026
XTransfer Partners with BBVA
PR Newswire
“XTransfer and BBVA have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) during Money20/20 Europe 2026 in Amsterdam to deepen cross-border payment infrastructure across Latin America and Europe. Under the MOU, XTransfer and BBVA will combine their respective strengths to explore the delivery of integrated cross-border financial solutions, spanning FX conversion, local payments and cross-border payments across […]
June 1, 2026
Mastercard Advances Instant Cross-Border Payments with TIPS Cross-Currency Pilot
Mastercard
“Mastercard announced its participation in a Eurosystem-led pilot, conducted in collaboration with Danmarks Nationalbank and Sveriges Riksbank, on the TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) platform, testing instant cross-currency payments (TIPS X-CCY). As part of the pilot, Mastercard Move, the company’s money movement platform, was among the first participants to process transactions using the cross‑currency pilot […]
Enhancing Cross-Border Payments Step by Step: Insights from the 2025 Monitoring Survey
BIS
“Expanded access to payment systems, extended operating hours and interoperability by design form the foundation for enhanced cross-border payment services. The continued adoption of fast payment systems (FPS) has the potential to improve cross-border retail payments, particularly in corridors where links between those FPS are established. Continued international cooperation and technical assistance are crucial for […]
May 29, 2026
Brazil Nixes Settlement for Stablecoin eFX
Global Finance Magazine
“Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) has banned fintech and payment providers from settling overseas payments in stablecoins or crypto. The BCB is implementing new rules regarding its electronic foreign exchange (eFX) policy, which governs how payment institutions and e-money issuers provide cross-border services. Its immediate effects, when the new rules go into effect on Oct. […]
RBI Plans Cross-Border CBDC Pilots Amid Digital Currency Experiments
Business Standard
“The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it would explore bilateral and multilateral cross-border central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilots in 2026-27, as the central bank expands experiments around digital payments, asset tokenisation and programmable money. Additionally, the RBI, in its annual report, said that in 2026-27 it would widen domestic CBDC pilots to include […]
Education: Ripple vs SWIFT vs Visa: The Quiet Battle Over Cross-Border Payments
24/7 Wall St.
“Ripple now runs more than 300 financial institutions on the same ISO 20022 messaging standard SWIFT is adopting, letting it compete for bank settlement directly, though most of those banks still use its rails without touching XRP. SWIFT is building a blockchain settlement ledger with more than 30 banks across 16 countries, going live with […]
May 28, 2026
ISO 20022 Milestone for November 2026: Unstructured Addresses to Be Removed
Swift
“As the global payments community continues its transition to ISO 20022, a key component of the transition will be the removal of unstructured postal addresses, planned for November 2026 as part of the SR 2026 standards release. The removal of unstructured addresses will improve data quality in cross-border payments. Structured address data allows for greater […]
May 27, 2026
Episode 294 - Zelle’s Evolution in the Payments Landscape, with Preston McCaskill, Early Warning Services
In this episode, Russ Jones welcomes Preston McCaskill, COO for Zelle, an open loop fast payments network owned and operated by Early Warning Services, to discuss the network's growth, settlement process and alias directory, and expanding use cases.
Project Agorá: A Shared Programmable Platform for Wholesale Cross-Border Payments
BIS
“Project Agorá is a collaboration convened by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Institute of International Finance (IIF) to explore how tokenisation can enhance wholesale cross-border payments. The collaboration included seven central banks and more than 40 financial institutions. It delivered a prototype demonstrating that tokenised commercial bank deposits can be combined with […]
Bank of Canada Joins BIS Project Agorá to Test Improvements in Wholesale Cross-Border Payments
Bank of Canada
“The Bank of Canada is joining the Bank for International Settlements’ Project Agorá, an initiative exploring how tokenization could improve wholesale cross-border payments. The project has successfully tested the feasibility of a multi-currency unified ledger that enables atomic settlement of cross-border wholesale transactions. The Agorá prototype combines tokenized commercial bank deposits and wholesale central bank […]
Tencent Announces Three Initiatives to Make Inbound Payments for International Visitors Easier Than Ever During APEC 2026
PR Newswire
“Tencent launched the “2026 Inbound Payment Service Upgrade Initiative” with three measures: a collaboration between TenPay Global, Tencent’s cross-border payment platform, and PayPal World which enables PayPal users to complete payments at Weixin Pay merchants in China by scanning QR codes; a 90-day transaction fee waiver of 3% for first-time users who link an international […]
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