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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July 17, 2026
PhonePe, Paytm or Google Pay? Which Payment App Is Used Most in India? Data Will Shock You
News24
“India’s UPI market continues to expand at a rapid pace. This has made digital payments a part of everyday life from small tea stalls to large shopping malls. Latest data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) shows which UPI apps dominate the market by transaction volume. The figures reveal that PhonePe remains […]
July 14, 2026
New X9 Standard for Secure, Interoperable QR Code Payments Will Accelerate U.S. Use of Instant Payments
Business Wire
“Today the Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc. (X9), the organization accredited by ANSI to develop financial industry standards for the United States, announced the publication of a new standard, “X9.150, Merchant-Presented QR Codes For Secure Payment.” The standard can now be downloaded from the ANSI website. Using payment QR codes for instant or account-to-account transactions bypasses […]
July 10, 2026
Visa Tests AI Agent Payments in Live Commerce Proof of Concept
Yahoo Finance
“On July 2, Nuvei said it had completed a live agentic-commerce proof of concept with Visa Inc., merchant technology provider Arvato Systems, and fashion brand Kings and Priests. The PoC demonstrated the first in-agent purchase where an AI agent completed a payment entirely on a shopper’s behalf without redirecting to a separate checkout page, Nuvei […]
July 9, 2026
Stripe’s Solana Stablecoin Push Brings Another Real Payments Use Case Into View
Trading View
“Stripe introduced stablecoin payment settlement for US merchants using Solana. The rollout centres on USDC and aims to make on-chain settlement practical inside merchant flows. It is another sign that stablecoins are moving from trading tools to real payment infrastructure. Solana’s low-cost and relatively fast settlement profile makes it an obvious network for this kind […]
June 30, 2026
Visa Highlights Key Role of Smartphones in Global Payment Transactions
Trend
“The company is developing a suite of solutions that simplify both accepting and sending payments, turning smartphones into universal financial transaction tools. Traditional POS terminals remain expensive and not always economically feasible for small retailers. There is a particular focus on reducing barriers to accepting payments through Tap to Phone and Visa Accept technologies, which […]
June 16, 2026
Nuvei’s $2.75b Payoneer Bet: Can the Combined Giant Out-Muscle Stripe at $91.5b?
Tech Funding News
“The combined company enters a market where scale is becoming critical. Stripe recently reached a $91.5 billion valuation and continues expanding its global payments, treasury, and embedded finance capabilities. Dutch payments company Adyen processes transactions for global enterprises, including Uber, Spotify, and Microsoft, and continues to invest in unified commerce and cross-border infrastructure. What the Nuvei-Payoneer combination […]
June 9, 2026
HSBC, Mastercard Pilot Agentic B2B Payments in Singapore
Tech In Asia
“HSBC and Mastercard said they were piloting agentic commerce for business-to-business (B2B) procurement and payments in Singapore. The proof of concept links a multinational corporate buyer, Singapore-based procurement platform SourceSage, and ecommerce supplier FortyTwo through Mastercard Agent Pay, tokenised payments, and merchant discovery and referral tools. HSBC said the pilot would let trusted digital agents […]
June 2, 2026
Worldline and ING Complete a Live End-to-End European Agentic Payment in Production
Worldline
“Completed between an ING cardholder and a merchant in the Netherlands, the solution operates on the same underlying infrastructure across Belgium and runs across Mastercard network – leveraging their respective secure authentication and authorisation mechanisms. This milestone demonstrates that merchant AI agent-initiated and authenticated payments can function end-to-end, across multiple European markets.”
NMI Acquires Fee Navigator, Adding AI-Powered Pricing Intelligence to Its Embedded Payments Platform
Business Wire
“NMI® announced it has acquired Fee Navigator, a specialist provider of AI-powered pricing intelligence for payments companies. The acquisition builds on NMI’s existing AI capabilities by adding specialist pricing intelligence to its embedded payments platform. Built for ISOs, ISO agents, ISVs and other payments partners, Fee Navigator’s technology analyzes merchant statements and recommends optimized pricing […]
May 28, 2026
Ballerine: The Agentic Commerce Readiness Report 2026
Ballerine
“The merchant supply side is not ready, and the scale of the gap is larger than published estimates. Most merchants cannot be reliably verified by an AI agent, most PSPs have not adopted the protocols that make agent transactions safe, and the financial liability that accumulates in between sits in places no one in the […]
May 22, 2026
Mastercard Is Asking Brazilian Payment Processors To Share A Costly Bill
Finimize-Bloomberg
“Mastercard is pressing some of Brazil’s largest payment processors to absorb part of nearly 5 billion Brazilian reais (about $997 million) in card payments linked to Will Financeira after the fintech collapsed. Bloomberg, via MT Newswires, reports that Mastercard – the card network behind Will Financeira’s cards – became responsible for reimbursing merchant acquirers (the […]
May 20, 2026
Tether Brings USDT Payments to Over 200,000 Merchants in New Partnership
Crypto News
“Stablecoin issuer Tether has announced a significant expansion of its $USDT payment capabilities, enabling transactions at more than 200,000 merchant locations worldwide. The initiative is the result of a collaboration with decentralized treasury management protocol Lydian and U.S.-based payments company Shift4, marking one of the largest integrations of a stablecoin into traditional retail and online commerce.”
dLocal CEO Says Payment Fragmentation Is Its Moat as Growth Momentum Builds
Yahoo Finance
“dLocal’s key moat is its ability to give global merchants one integration into more than 60 emerging markets, where fragmented payment systems and regulations often create major friction for expansion. CEO Pedro Arnt said the company is shifting from a more defensive rebuild phase to growth initiatives, with emphasis on new products like BNPL, alternative payment […]
May 19, 2026
Zip US and InComm Payments Bring Flexible Payments to Gift Cards, Giving Shoppers a New Way to Pay
InComm Payments
“Zip and InComm Payments,announced a partnership that brings installment buying to the gift card category. Through the integration, eligible shoppers can purchase popular gift card brands directly in the Zip app. With 4.6 million active customers in the US and 29,000 merchant partners, Zip is bringing that same flexibility to gift cards, giving consumers more flexibility over how they manage their […]
Mastercard: How to Stop the Scammers Behind the Storefronts
Mastercard
“The growth of digital payments helped millions of legitimate businesses move online fast and gave people a convenient, safe way to shop from home. But the same tools that help a real merchant launch quickly also made it simpler for criminals to set up fake storefronts. Technology like generative AI has made it even harder […]
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