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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August 28, 2025
Deutsche Bank Optimises UPI Connectivity to Streamline Merchant Payments in India
LeapRate
“Deutsche Bank said that it has enhanced its merchant solutions in India by directly integrating with the country’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), enabling faster and more reliable digital payment processing for large merchants and Payment Service Providers.”
August 27, 2025
Episode 272 - Fanning the Flames - 2025 Mid-Year Payments Industry Trends Update
To help you read the tea leaves in the mountains of publications, Yvette Bohanan rounded up Chris Uriarte and Drew Edmond for this mid-year update on payments industry trends. Tune in to hear updates and perspectives on topics like regulation, stablecoins, agentic commerce, tokenization, and fraud.
August 15, 2025
RayNeo and Ant Group Forge Strategic Partnership to Advance AR Glasses Innovations in Payments and Beyond
Business Wire
“RayNeo X3 Pro AR glasses are the first to support payments through both the merchant terminal and QR code, powered by Alipay’s multidimensional risk-control solution for AR glasses.The two parties will expand AR glasses applications across various daily services, with the goal of making AR glasses an essential part of daily life and a true […]
August 14, 2025
Xsolla and Adyen Partner to Power Global Game Payments and Introduce Xsolla Payment Service Provider to Give Developers Full Control of Payments, Checkout, and Revenue Strategy
Business Wire
“Xsolla, a global commerce company helping developers launch, grow and monetize their games, announces today a strategic partnership with Adyen, a leading financial technology platform, to power seamless and scalable payment experiences for game developers around the world. This partnership supports the launch of Xsolla Payment Service Provider (PSP), a new payment solution designed for […]
August 13, 2025
Episode 271 - Sufficiently Solving the Non-Sufficient Funds Puzzle with Chanan Lavi, Kipp
In this episode, Drew Edmond is joined by Chanan Lavi, CEO and Co-founder of Kipp, to discuss solutions to the major problem of non-sufficient funds declines, as well as the implications for merchants, issuers, and consumers.
August 5, 2025
ICICI Bank Starts Charging PhonePe, Google Pay While UPI Hits 700 Million Daily Transactions
MSN
“India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has reached a new milestone, crossing 700 million transactions in a single day for the first time on August 2, according to NPCI data reported by Moneycontrol. Meanwhile, ICICI Bank has begun charging payment aggregators like PhonePe and Google Pay a fee per transaction, sparking fresh debate on the sustainability […]
July 17, 2025
We (Really) Can’t Stop Talking About Tokenization: A 2025 Update
Glenbrook's Chris Uriarte unpacks network tokenization updates from Visa and Mastercard.
July 14, 2025
The FTC Gives the Merchant of Record Model a Paddling
JD Supra
“The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently settled an enforcement action with Paddle.com, a U.K.-based payments company, and its U.S. subsidiary (“Paddle”). The settlement resolves claims against Paddle for violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act, Telemarketing Sales Rule, and Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act. The settlement is notable for the FTC’s focus on Paddle’s use of a […]
July 10, 2025
Apple, Visa and Mastercard Win Dismissal of Merchant Antitrust Lawsuit Over Payment Fees
Reuters
“Apple, Visa and Mastercard have persuaded a U.S. judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to suppress competition in the payments network market and causing merchants to pay inflated transaction fees.”
July 9, 2025
Mastercard, Visa’s Merchant Fees Breach Competition Law, UK Tribunal Rules
MSN
“Global payments processors Visa and Mastercard’s default multilateral interchange fees which are charged to retailers infringe competition law, a London tribunal ruled on Friday in the latest round of the long-running legal saga. London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal unanimously ruled that Visa and Mastercard’s multilateral interchange fees breach European competition law, in a ruling in linked […]
Truist’s Merchant Engage Combines Banking and Payments in One
Digital Transactions
“Truist Financial Corp. is courting merchants and their banking and payment needs with a new service called Merchant Engage. The free service is an integrated merchant-services platform, enabling small businesses up to large merchants to view all of their transaction data in one location.”
July 7, 2025
Visa’s Blockchain Leap Redefining Global Payments
Blockchain Magazine
“Visa is pioneering blockchain with two key projects. The Visa Tokenized Asset Platform (VTAP), launched in October 2024, enables banks to issue digital tokens, like stablecoins (digital currencies tied to dollars) or tokenized bank deposits, on public blockchains like Ethereum. In 2025, Visa partnered with Bridge, a Stripe-owned startup, to expand stablecoin payments in Latin […]
July 2, 2025
Episode 268 - Rethinking Payment Optimization Through the Merchant of Record Model, with Rehman Baig, FlexFactor
In this episode, Rehman Baig, Chief Product Officer at FlexFactor joins Drew to talk about how FlexFactor is rethinking payments optimization through a Merchant of Record model. For most people in the industry, “Merchant of Record” is usually associated with global tax compliance and marketplaces, not optimization. But FlexFactor is using it to directly address failed payments and auth rate challenges in a way that merchants simply can’t do on their own.
June 27, 2025
Mastercard, Visa's Merchant Fees Breach Competition Law, UK Tribunal Rules
Reuters
“Global payments processors Visa and Mastercard’s default multilateral interchange fees which are charged to retailers infringe competition law, a London tribunal ruled on Friday in the latest round of the long-running legal saga. London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal unanimously ruled that Visa and Mastercard’s multilateral interchange fees breach European competition law, in a ruling in linked […]
Bolt Announces Bolt Connect for Marketplaces and Launches Support for Stablecoin Payments
PR Newswire
“Bolt, the checkout, identity and payments platform, today announced Bolt Connect, a new product designed to help marketplaces onboard merchants faster, streamline operations and scale with fewer resources. Bolt Connect gives marketplace operators a single integration to support one-click merchant onboarding, built-in compliance workflows, and low-fee or no-fee payouts.”
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