Industry News

FIDO ALLIANCE has announced an initiative to develop interoperable standards for agentic commerce and interactions. An Agentic Authentication Technical Working Group will be formed. Specifications will be developed that leverage existing work from Google (A2P) and Mastercard (Verifiable Intent). The Fido effort will focus on enabling users to authorize AI agents through phishing-resistant mechanisms, allow services to verify that an AI agent is acting on behalf of an authenticated user and define how agent-initiated transactions can be executed within user-controlled boundaries.

CASH APP, part of Block, is a banking app that customers use to receive paychecks via direct deposit, spend funds on deposit using a Visa card, hold funds in a savings account, trade stocks, buy and sell bitcoin and gain access to buy now, pay later payment options from Block’s Afterpay unit. The app, which has more than five million teenage users, has begun rolling out to parents and guardians a set of features aimed at kids ages 6-12. Parent-managed accounts let users send allowances, set aside savings and track spending per child.

VENMO has expanded its Stash cash back rewards program partners to include Sephora, Ulta, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. Venmo Debit Mastercard customers can earn up to 5% cash back at partners. There is a $100 monthly cap on cash back. Venmo
Debit Mastercard cards are issued by the Bancorp Bank.

NUVEI has begun acquiring in Mexico through direct integrations with domestic infrastructure and the global card networks. It can give local merchants real-time transaction data, which improves fraud detection and boosts authorization results. Merchants connect to Nuvei through a single integration to reach local payment methods, including Oxxo Pay and Spei, payouts, risk management and real-time reporting. Nuvei now holds local acquiring licenses in 52 markets. The company supports more than 720 alternative payment methods.

ACI WORLDWIDE offers connectivity to Fedwire, Swift, Chips, the Clearing House RTP, Zelle, FedNow and digital access rails (stablecoins, tokenized deposits) through a single link to its ACI Connetic platform. Connectivity to Nacha for EPN and FedACH transactions will be added by the end of 2026.

ZELLE FORWARD is an initiative to expand the Zelle person-to-person money transfer service into real-world payment use cases. Truist, the eighth largest US bank based on total assets, has started a pilot test within Zelle Forward for recurring consumer bill payments. The test will involve rent, utilities, mobile services and auto payments initiated by Truist employees. Zelle is owned and operated by Early Warning Services (EWS). Truist is one of seven banks that own EWS.

OMPAY, an Oman-based fintech, has launched a branded digital wallet using Foo’s white-labeled app. The wallet supports QR code-based payments, tap to pay with tokenization of virtual cards, P2P money transfers, P2M payments, cross-border remittances, bill payments and other use cases. The Ompay wallet is available from Android, Apple and Huawei stores.

FREEDOMPAY, an independent payment gateway provider for in-store, online and mobile payments, has launched an app for cloud-based SaaS ecommerce platform provider BigCommerce. The precertified plugin enables BigCommerce merchants to accept card and alternative payment methods.

SYNCHRONY, the 11th largest US credit card issuer based on outstanding receivables at year-end 2025, has launched a co-branded Mastercard credit card with fashion retailer Chico’s FAS. That company operates three brands (Chico’s, WHBM and Soma) and sells them through more than 1,000 stores in the US. Cardholders will earn 7.5% back in rewards on Chico’s FAS purchases in-store and online. Mastercard and Synchrony also contributed to new loyalty programs for Chico’s FAS.

INTERPAYMENTS has launched a surcharging integration on the Stripe App Marketplace for merchants that use Stripe Checkout, Stripe Checkout Sessions and Stripe Payment Link Sessions, including for card-not-present transactions. Surcharging will be added directly to their existing system. InterPayments guides them through setup, data configurations and rollout. It also helps merchants communicate surcharging to cardholders.

ALVIERE offers enterprises the ability to enhance their core business by providing financial products to their customers. The company has just integrated its Hive financial technology platform with InComm Payments’ VanillaDirect Pay, gaining access to cash-in barcode technology that supports prepaid card loads, bill payments and remittances. Alviere clients will be able to offer their customers cash deposits at more than 90,000 retail locations in the US.

ADYEN is providing virtual Visa card issuance services to lastminute.com, a provider of holiday packages in Europe. The cards are used to pay airlines, hotels and other suppliers. With Adyen handling pay-ins and pay-outs, supplier payments have accelerated by 2 to 3 days and reconciliation times have been reduced by 5%.

PAYPAL will offer the Pix instant payment method to the small and midsized merchant customers in Brazil that use its PayPal Complete Payments (PPCP) checkout service. Pix is used by more than 170 million people in Brazil. PPCP combines cards, local payment methods and business tools in a single integration.

VODAFONE FIJI, which provides mobile network services to more than 780,000 subscribers, has used an SDK to deploy Entrust’s Digital Card Solution. Mastercard cards are available for ecommerce transactions through the existing Vodafone M-Paisa app supported by the Entrust Issuer TSP Hub feature of the Mastercard Digital Enablement Service. The telecom company also created a proprietary
in-app wallet using the Entrust NFC Issuer Wallet to give customers with Android devices tap to pay capabilities for in-store purchases.

PAYSAFEWALLET from global payment platform provider Paysafe is now available in 18 markets in Europe. Consumers can use it to send, receive and withdraw money from a dedicated Iban-enabled personal payment account and prepaid Mastercard card. More than 600,000 consumers in Europe are already users of the company’s PaysafeCard product, which provides a payment account and prepaid Mastercard card. Those customers will be given access to PaysafeWallet in their existing app. Both products provide cash-to-digital functionality.

NEXI, the second largest merchant acquirer in Europe, has launched an open source Model Context Protocol (MCP) that enables developers and merchants to connect to AI agents through conversational commands instead of complex code. The MCP provides a standardized way for AI systems to interact with Nexi’s payment infrastructure. Nexi has also built MCP-ready payment gateways to automate workflows, handle required permissions and provide auditing and tracking of agent-initiated transactions.

JETBLUE VACATIONS, which provides flight and hotel vacation packages, will integrate with Flex Pay, a buy now, pay later service of Upgrade. As they browse flight and hotel options, customers are presented with estimated monthly payment amounts. At checkout, they can choose to pay in full, pay a deposit or select a monthly payment option. Since 2017, Upgrade has delivered $47 billion in credit to more than 7.8 million customers, including through cards and personal loans.

WORLDPAY offers its Authentication Optimization Service to merchants that deploy 3D Secure (3DS). The patent-pending service uses AI and transaction insights to maximize payment approval rates by making real-time decisions on when to apply 3DS to authenticate the transaction or when to directly authorize the payment based on factors such as risk and issuer preferences.

ZUM RAILS, which offers companies the ability to embed customized payment options in their platforms, has become a payment facilitator for credit card acceptance in the US and Canada through an integration with Fiserv.
The Zum Rails platform also delivers FedNow, ACH, RTP, Interac, Visa and Mastercard debit card and open banking data aggregation.

MONEYHASH, a payment orchestration platform provider serving customers in the Middle East and North Africa, will integrate its platform with a suite of payment technologies and services from Visa, including network tokenization and  Cybersource.

BLACKHAWK NETWORK has built a new platform that brands can use to consolidate the presentation and management of prepaid cards, refunds, promotional dollars, loyalty rewards and appeasements. The comprehensive stored value platform is delivered through BHN’s digital wallet API. A consumer’s consolidated balance can be displayed at a brand’s ecommerce website, on its mobile app and at checkout.

GR4VY has added support for agentic payment transactions to its cloud-native orchestration platform. The company also offers an agentic development kit (ADK) running on Model Context Protocol to help merchants build and launch storefronts within AI platforms without redoing their existing payment infrastructure. The ADK allows merchants to monitor performance, optimize conversions and refine
routing strategies.

NEWLAND PAYMENT TECHNOLOGY POS terminals have been certified in the UK with AIB, Barclaycard, Global Payments (including Worldpay) and Shift4.  The first Newland devices to deploy are managed by independent processor Paya Gateway for clients in retail, charity, EV charging and vending.

FISERV offers the Visa Acceptance Platform within its merchant acquiring and processing offerings in Europe. Visa Acceptance Platform, a set of cloud-based, front-end authorization capabilities for acquirers, is available via an API.

CROSSMINT will integrate Mastercard Agent Pay and Verifiable Intent framework with its Lobster.cash open payment standard for AI agents.  Lobster.cash facilitates payment card and stablecoin payments from agents inclusive of human controls and audits. Verifiable Intent is a trust layer, co-developed by Mastercard and Google and aligned with the Agent Payments Protocol and Universal Commerce Protocol. Crossmint provides embedded smart wallets, on/off ramps, cross-chain stablecoin orchestration and other services to more than 40,000 clients.