Industry News

RAKUTEN, operator in the US of a cash- back and shopping rewards platform, is marketing a limited edition American Express brand credit card created in partnership with Viz Media. The face of the card features two characters from one of Japan’s influential pop-culture franchises. The no-annual-fee card provides 4% cash back on eligible Rakuten purchases on top of any existing cash back on the platform, which offers access to more than 3,500 stores.

MOVERE, a UK-based startup offering payment processing support to in-store and online retailers as well as gaming businesses, has opened for business. The company provides over 500 payment methods from more than 100 countries. Businesses can be live within 15 minutes owing to Movere’s use of AI agents that facilitate onboarding using Model Context Protocol (MCP).

CGI, the global technology and professional services firm, has joined the PCI Security Standards Council’s Global Executive Roundtable. The roundtable provides a direct channel for communication between payment security assessment organizations and senior leadership at PCI SSC.

FINIX, a full-stack payment processor handling in-store and online transactions, has integrated with Block’s Cash App Pay and Afterpay. Businesses can offer Cash App Pay for one-time and recurring payments. Afterpay is available for purchases paid in installments.

INGENICO, a top POS terminal manufacturer, has selected Cognizant as its global strategic technology partner. Cognizant will oversee embedding AI across Ingenico’s infrastructure, security and data to support modernization of Ingenico’s technology operations

NEWLINE BY FIFTH THIRD, which provides clients with BIN sponsorship and a modern API driven platform, will offer eligible US-based fintechs Visa corporate cards in more than 40 countries through Visa’s Multinational Program (MNP).Currently, when a US-issued corporate card is used in another country, transactions are subject to cross-border fees and currency conversion costs. Through Visa’s MNP, cards are issued for local use in the cardholder’s country. Transactions are authorized in local currency. Customers of Newline by Fifth Third include Stripe and Trustly.

NUVEI, which already possesses local acquiring licenses in more than 50 countries, has secured authorization from the Payment Association of South Africa to acquire transactions there. Global brands entering the South Africa market can use the same integration they use in other countries. Those businesses already selling in South African gain more optimized local payment processing without needing a separate gateway or acquiring relationship.

UPGRADE, a fintech that has provided over $53 billion in credit to US consumers over the last 10 years, has submitted an application to the Nevada Financial Institutions Division and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for a proposed Nevada-chartered industrial loan bank. The company provides personal loans, credit cards, BNPL, auto financing and mobile banking to mainstream consumers. Current bank partners include Cross River Bank and Celtic Bank.

VISA, BILL and BILLTRUST are conducting a B2B payments pilot test. Trusted AI agents will initiate and complete approved buyer invoice payments, endtoend, through supplier portals. No human authentication will be required. Bill and Billtrust are accounts payable and receivable automation platform providers.

OMNI INTEGRATION, a US-based payment engineering firm specializing in end-to-end Level 3 certification, has formed a partnership with Pax Technology. The companies will bring to market Pax Edge, enterprise payment software powered by Omni PayFlex, which supports the latest Pax PCI 7 POS terminals.

FISERV has announced that it has shipped over five million of its Clover POS devices. Clover terminals connect with Fiserv’s all-in-one business management platform. The first devices shipped in 2018.

AIRWALLEX, provider of a financial platform and technology infrastructure to more than 675,000 businesses worldwide, either directly or through platform customers, is now available to restaurants connected to OpenTable. Restaurants will use Airwallex to handle payments tied to managing reservations, for deposits to secure bookings and for prepaid transactions.

SELF LABS has launched Agent Vault, a payment login layer for AI agents to sign in and complete a purchase without seeing or storing a buyer’s credentials. Users can use Agent Vault with Muse, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, Grok Bot, Claude and Codex. Agent Vault is aimed at buyers that use multiple AI agents. Self Labs has over 20 million users.

INTELLICHECK will provide proprietary technology that analyzes DMV-issued IDs to Agility Credit, an automotive credit bureau reseller. Identity verification from Intellicheck is used before a credit file is pulled. Agility Credit then layers credit data, device intelligence and red flag workflows on top.

TRANSUNION has launched Transaction Matching, a service that connects transaction activity to privacy-conscious consumers. The product leverages Fiserv’s Unknown Shopper service that helps merchants recognize previously unidentified shoppers, which can include loyalty members who pay with a new card, shoppers who use a mobile wallet or those tap to pay. Merchants can use Transaction Matching to enrich pseudonymized customer profiles with demographic and lifestyle data.

VALIDIFI, a provider of alternative data and predictive analytics, offers Compass, a decision intelligence layer that connects account validation with identity, ownership, fraud, relationship and payment signals. The service, delivered via a single API, is customized for a business’s use cases.

RAMP, a fintech provider of spend management software and commercial cards to corporations, has submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Ramp National Trust Bank. If approved, the bank would be able to offer fiduciary investment management and custody of digital assets. It will not take deposits or make commercial loans.

PROOF, which provides an agent identity wallet that consumers can use to verify their legal identity, has become the first company to add legal verification and identity for transaction authorizations for AI agents. The company’s x401 is an open protocol that lets website agents ask an AI agent to prove it is acting on behalf of a buyer and to verify what the buyer has approved. Proof wallets reside on a consumer’s personal device. Muse, ChatGPT, Grok and Claude support x401.

TRANSUNION has launched a Credit Washing Score and a Synthetic Fraud Score, which are aimed at helping organizations identify and manage risks. Credit washing is when an individual falsely claims identity theft to remove negative but accurate information from their credit reports. TransUnion’s new score permits consumers to explain why they have previously been denied credit. Oscilar, an agentic risk platform used by financial institutions, is the first customer to incorporate these new scores.

BOOST PAYMENT SOLUTIONS, a top provider of B2B payment services that connect buyers and sellers worldwide, including for large-ticket commercial card transactions, will deploy technology from Airwallex to expand into new markets. Airwallex will provide global processing infrastructure and acquiring capabilities as well as helping to onboard new suppliers and improve reporting.

KLARNA financing options are now available on Fiserv’s Commerce Hub enterprise commerce platform to merchants in Canada, select countries in Europe, the UK and the US for in-store and online purchases. Buyers can use Klarna to pay in full immediately, pay in 30 days or split purchases into installments. The companies also have an agreement to offer Klarna’s financing options at 100,000 US merchants that use Fiserv’s Clover POS platform.

PPRO, a payment platform that delivers access to local payment methods for ecommerce payment service providers, including Stripe and PayPal, has partnered with Damisa, a regulated stablecoin-native settlement platform. Damisa provides an onramp and off-ramp network that replaces multibank correspondent chains. It converts fiat currencies into stablecoins and moves the funds across borders the same day.

BMO, the second largest corporate card issuer in Canada, is the first Mastercard issuer in the country to initiate and manage virtual card payments within the ERP, procurement, accounts payable and travel management platforms used by its clients. The service is also available to BMO customers in the US.

FIS has integrated Spade’s real-time transaction enrichment technology with its debit processing system to give issuers more precise merchant data. Cardholder statements will more accurately reflect a merchant’s name, helping to reduce unnecessary disputes. Added benefits include the potential for improving authorization rates and the better targeting of customized offers to cardholders.

VERTO, a cross-border B2B payment platform headquartered in the UK and focused on the African market, has launched a Visa corporate card product that gives businesses the opportunity to fund, spend and settle payments in multiple eligible currencies without any FX fees. The card supports 11 currencies. Monavate is the card issuer.