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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March 21, 2025
How Agentic AI Will Transform Financial Services With Autonomy, Efficiency and Inclusion
World Economic Forum
“Agentic artificial intelligence (AI) goes beyond generative AI (GenAI) by enabling autonomous decision-making, collaboration, and learning to revolutionize financial services. While offering efficiency and innovation, Agentic AI raises concerns about labour disruption, privacy, market volatility and governance, necessitating robust oversight and ethical frameworks.”
Visa and Misa Partner To Drive Digital Payments in Vietnamese Businesses
IBS Intelligence
“Visa and MISA, a provider of digital transformation solutions for finance, accounting, and enterprise management, have teamed up to empower Vietnamese businesses through comprehensive digital payment solutions. This collaboration aims to accelerate digital transformation within Vietnam’s business community, fostering greater financial inclusion and operational efficiency for enterprises of all sizes.”
March 6, 2025
Safaricom M-Pesa to Assist Healthcare Payments Digitisation in Ethiopia
Developing Telecoms
“The mobile payment group Safaricom M-Pesa, along with another, unnamed financial service provider, has signed a service level agreement (SLA) with the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia to transform healthcare payments through a secure, efficient and scalable digital payment system. This partnership aims to enhance financial inclusion, streamline healthcare payments, and improve service delivery nationwide.”
What’s Next for Real-Time Payments: Navigating the Next Wave
Mastercard
In the latest episode of “What’s Next In,” Mastercard’s podcast that informally explores technology, innovation and ideas, host Vicki Hyman chats with Peter Reynolds, Mastercard’s executive vice president for real-time payments, about the growth of real-time account-to-account payments, what is means beyond speed, and how it can help enable greater financial inclusion and well-being.
March 5, 2025
U.S. Faster Payments Council Report Explores How Digital Assets Can Advance Financial Inclusion
Faster Payments Council
“The U.S. Faster Payments Council, a membership organization devoted to advancing safe, easy-to-use faster payments in the United States, announced the publication of a new industry report, Digital Assets and Digital Ledger Technology: A Pathway to Financial Inclusiveness.”
March 4, 2025
Mastercard And MoMo Uganda Launch Virtual Card
CIO Africa
“MTN Mobile Money Uganda has unveiled its new Virtual Card by MoMo through a partnership with Mastercard, Diamond Trust Bank, and Network International. This strategic move is part of MTN Group’s broader Ambition 2025 initiative aimed at driving financial inclusion and boosting digital accessibility across Africa.”
February 19, 2025
Instant Payments Wait Their Turn
Gadget
“Cash is dying. But it’s not going quietly. Across the globe, instant payments are accelerating financial inclusion, economic activity, and the velocity of money, but adoption remains uneven. While countries like India and Brazil have embraced real-time transactions, the United States lags far behind – and South Africa finds itself at a crossroads.”
February 7, 2025
South Sudan Launches First-Ever Instant Payments System Three Years After Proposal
TechCabal
“Three years after it was first proposed, the Bank of South Sudan (BoSS) has launched its first National Instant Payment System (NIPS) in collaboration with the AfricaNenda Foundation, an advocacy group for instant payments. NIPS will enable instant transactions to cut delays, lower costs, and improve financial inclusion for over 6 million adult citizens with […]
January 23, 2025
African Fintech Moniepoint Gets Visa Backing, Plans to Work on Contactless Payments
TechCrunch
Visa has joined African fintech Moniepoint as a new investor. The business banking and payments platform confirmed to TechCrunch that it received a “strategic investment” from the global payments giant as both companies look to drive financial inclusion and support the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Africa.
January 13, 2025
The Use and Disuse of Fintech Credit: When Buy-Now-Pay-Later Meets Credit Reporting
BIS
“Non-bank lenders that use innovative technologies to improve the delivery of financial services have significantly promoted financial inclusion. However, these fintech lenders often do not share information about their lending with other creditors.”
December 20, 2024
Real-Time Payments Projected to Boost India GDP by $76.5 Billion, Bring Banking Access to 25.5 Million Indians by 2028
Yahoo Finance
“Real-time payments boosted India’s GDP by $50 billion in 2023, making it the world’s largest market in terms of GDP growth, according to the Real-Time Payments: Economic Impact and Financial Inclusion report published by ACI Worldwide in collaboration with The Centre for Economics and Business Research. This is equivalent to the output of approximately 6.8 […]
December 12, 2024
M-PESA Hits 34 Million Users, Strengthening Financial Inclusion Across Kenya
TechAfrica News
“Safaricom mobile money platform M-PESA hit 34 million subscribers in November. M-PESA, which turns 18 in March 2025 has evolved over the years beyond payments and transactions to a financial ecosystem offering credit, savings, investment solutions, wealth management, insurance solutions and a host of other financial services in order to meet the evolving financial needs […]
December 11, 2024
Reserve Bank to Open National Payments System to Fintechs
TechCentral
“The Reserve Bank has been working to add non-banks as players in South Africa’s national clearing and settlements system as part of a plan to drive financial inclusion to the unbanked and underbanked. Allowing non-banks into the clearance and settlement system will allow standalone fintechs as well as those run by retailers and mobile operators, for […]
November 27, 2024
Tranglo Expands Cross-border Payments to Seven African Countries
Yahoo Finance
“Cross-border payments company Tranglo has further deepened its reach to seven African countries, aiming to enhance financial inclusion across the continent. This move supports payouts in Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Senegal, and Zambia.”
November 22, 2024
SIIPS Report 2024: Charting Africa’s Progress in Inclusive Digital Payments
AfricaNenda
“As Africa continues its digital transformation, the SIIPS Report 2024—launched today in Accra in partnership with AfricaNenda, the World Bank, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)—highlights the extraordinary growth of Instant Payment Systems (IPS) across the continent and explores their impact on financial inclusion.”
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