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.

Payments Views

Payments Post #17: Cutting Costs

In this Payments Post, we discuss the DOJ bringing a lawsuit against Visa that alleges the company operates an illegal monopoly in the debit card space. Does the argument have merit in our non-legal minds? And if so, what could the DOJ’s move mean for an evolving payments landscape?

Payments Post #16: The Apple Drops

It’s time for another edition of Payments Post and (surprise!) we’re thinking about the Visa Flexible Credential again. Now that Apple has plans to open up the NFC chip and Secure Element to third party developers, we’re scratching our heads. Who benefits from this newfound NFC access? What opportunities can fintechs unlock? How will conventional financial institutions react? And to tie it all back, does the VFC still matter?
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Payments on Fire Podcasts

Episode 295 - Fanning the Flames - 2026 Mid-Year Payments Industry Trends Update

The Glenbrook team is taking stock in June 2026 to see how the predictions from our January episode are holding up. Tune in for updates on trending topics in payments, including agentic commerce, stablecoins, cross-border and instant payments, risk and fraud, and the regulatory landscape. We also share insights on the “hot off the presses” news on tokenized deposits and the Visa/Mastercard interchange settlement.
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Payments News

Europe’s Most Valuable Fintech Faces Banking-Supervision Reality

EU Today

“The issue is not whether Revolut is a successful fintech. It is one of Europe’s most prominent technology businesses. The London-based company has secured a full UK banking licence after a prolonged regulatory process, and has built a business that extends beyond foreign exchange and card payments into savings, investments, crypto, lending, subscriptions and other […]

Mastercard Opens Card Rails to AI Agents With 30-Plus Crypto Partners

Defiant

“Mastercard launched Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M), extending its payments network to AI agents with 30-plus crypto and fintech partners including Coinbase, RippleX, Solana Foundation, Polygon, Aave Labs and Stellar. Agent Pay for Machines positions Mastercard’s network as the governance and trust layer for commerce conducted entirely between software agents, without human checkout flows. The […]
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