Companies Domains

Thunes Launches Cross-Border Payouts Across Six New Middle East Markets

Thunes

“Thunes announced a major expansion of its Direct Global Network across the Middle East. The expansion introduces new payout services into six key markets: the Kingdom of Bahrain, Lebanon, the Sultanate of Oman, South Yemen, Syria and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This move significantly enhances Thunes’ cross-border infrastructure in the region, delivering faster, highly transparent […]

Tags: Cross-border payments

Companies Global

India: RBI Executive Director Unveils New RuPay And UPI Payment Innovations At GFF 2026

BW Disrupt

“The Reserve Bank of India announced the launch of several innovations, including a pilot of the Unified Ticketing Platform, a concept showcase of RuPay ON-THE-GO Card-on-Device Tokenisation, RuPay Tap on Phone, RuPay passkey-based biometric authentication, and cross-border merchant payments using RuPay credit card on UPI International. The initiatives are designed to enhance convenience, security and […]

Tags: Reserve Bank of India

Companies Global

Ant International Secures Payment Institution License from the Central Bank of Brazil

Yahoo Finance

“Ant International, the leading global digital payment, digitisation, and FinAI solutions provider, today announced that it has received a Payment Institution (PI) licence from the Central Bank of Brazil. Ant International provides cross-border payments and account services, embedded credit and treasury services, and other finAI and blockchain solutions to clients across Asia, Europe and the […]

Tags: Ant International Brazil

Companies

DBS and Citi Partner to Enable Instant Cross-Border USD Payments with Tokenized Deposits

TNGlobal

“Singapore-based banking group DBS and US lender Citi have teamed up to enable instant cross-border USD payments with tokenized deposits. This was made possible with the first successful USD payment between Singapore and the United States executed over a weekend. The transaction, completed by DBS and Citi’s New York office on last Saturday, was executed […]

Tags: Citi DBS

Companies Domains Global

Circle Expands Global Payments Infrastructure with Agreement to Acquire Singapore-based Cross-Border Payments Platform, Tazapay

Circle

“Circle Internet Group, Inc., the global financial technology firm and issuer of USDC today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Tazapay, a Singapore-headquartered B2B cross-border payments infrastructure company focused on serving payment service providers and financial institutions. The deal is expected to close in 2027, subject to customary closing conditions and receipt […]

Tags: B2B

Companies Global Systems

Brazil, ECB Studying Instant Payments Link in Potential First Cross-Border Move for Pix, Sources Say

MarketScreener

“Brazil’s central bank and the European Central Bank (ECB) are studying a potential link between their instant payment systems, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said, in a move that could mark the first cross-border expansion of Brazil’s successful Pix platform. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the discussions reflect […]

Tags: Faster payments

Companies Domains Global

India Stalls Alipay+ Payments Link over Security, Data Concerns, Sources Say

Reuters

“Alipay+’s proposal to link with India’s instant payments system for cross-border transactions has been stalled due to national security concerns ‌in New Delhi and questions about the storage and use of customer data, three sources familiar with the discussions said. The proposal, made by Alipay+ in January, was the first by a China-linked entity in the […]

Tags: Alipay China Fast Payments India

CBDC Digital Currency European Union

Episode 301 - Casting Light on the Digital Euro, with Nicola Branzoli, Banca d'Italia

In this episode, Nicola Branzoli, Head of Division for the Digital Euro Regulation, Research, and Technical Support at the Banca d'Italia, joins Glenbrook's Ashley Lannquist and Simon Skinner for an in-depth exploration of the digital euro. Listen in as they cover the objectives and value proposition, design choices and pilot details, and what the digital euro means in the broader European payment context. 

Global

Can Asia’s Banks Make Stablecoins Work Across Borders?

Asian Banking & Finance

“Asia’s banks are developing stablecoins to keep deposits and capture cross-border payments, but fragmented regulations and gaps in payment infrastructure could limit how quickly the technology scales. “Banks are rolling out stablecoin capabilities to prevent deposits and payments from shifting to nonbank issuers,” Michael Benz, head of the Asia-Pacific region at AMINA Group AG, said. […]

Tags: Asia

Companies Global

DBS and Stripe Partner to Accelerate the Digital and Ai-Powered Economy in Asia

DBS

“DBS and Stripe have announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the growth of agentic commerce and cross-border payments in Asia. By combining DBS’ banking capabilities and pan-Asian connectivity with Stripe’s global programmable financial services, both institutions aim to help businesses collect, move and manage funds more seamlessly across markets. The partnership will also explore jointly […]

Tags: Asia China Stripe

Industry

U.S. Faster Payments Council Report Evaluates Emerging Approaches to Cross-Border Payment Interoperability

EIN Presswire

“The U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC) announced the publication of a report, Interoperability: Bridging the Cross-Border Gap in a Faster Payments World, developed by the FPC Cross-Border Payments Work Group, sponsored by Mastercard. The report examines the end-to-end cross-border payment journey through the lens of interoperability, exploring why advances in faster payments, ISO 20022 adoption, […]

Industry

Stablecoins Are Becoming Payment Infrastructure: How Visa, Banks, and Crypto Firms Are Rebuilding Global Payments

Big News Network

“Stablecoins have moved from trading tools into the operational backbone of global payments. In the first half of 2026, adjusted on-chain volumes reached $8.82 trillion, with June alone hitting a record $1.79 trillion, according to Visa’s analytics. Market capitalization stabilized near $300-322 billion, dominated by USDT and USDC. Traditional networks and banks no longer treat […]

Companies

Stablecoins Won’t Replace the Dollar: Mastercard CEO [Video]

Yahoo Finance

“Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach explains to Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi how stablecoins could help suppliers in high-inflation countries and make difficult cross-border payments faster and more predictable, while also explaining why crypto still won’t replace the dollar.”

Tags: Mastercard

ACH Artificial Intelligence Bitcoin Digital Currency Fast Payments Financial Inclusion Payments Fraud Payments on Fire Podcasts Tokenization

Episode 300 - Reflecting on 12 Years of Payments on Fire

2026 is a milestone year for Glenbrook as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the firm. We also find ourselves airing the 300th episode of our Payments on Fire podcast - founded by George Peabody in 2014, nurtured by Yvette Bohanan, and now continued on through the hosting efforts of most of the team. We thought there would be no better way to mark the 12 year achievement - and pay respect to what George and Yvette built - than to revisit the journey with clips from the first 299 episodes. From early episodes on digital currency and AI, to fast payments evolution and financial inclusion efforts (and how could we leave out tokenization), listen in as Bryan Derman and Jill Wurst guide you through significant moments in the podcast’s history.

Companies

Nium Launches Card Issuance in the United States

Nium

“Nium , the global infrastructure leader for real-time cross-border payments, today announced the launch of domestic card issuance in the United States, extending its multi-region issuing platform to North America. Businesses can now issue local cards across APAC, Europe, Middle East, and North America while maintaining access to Nium’s global payment network spanning 190+ countries […]

Tags: Nium