HIGHLIGHTS:

According to data from a report from Barclays, contactless payments dominates UK spending with a record 94.6% of all eligible in-store card transactions in the UK were made using contactless last year.

ECB President Christine Lagarde urged the EU to create its own alternative to payment giants like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Alipay for financial sovereignty.

Open Banking expands into food delivery as Papa Johns partners with TrueLayer to offer Pay by Bank. Papa Johns  will accept  direct payments from bank accounts,  with the aim to enhance customer experience, reduce fraud and transaction costs.

In other news…

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING 

Temu expands partnership with Adyen enabling Temu’s launch in more markets across North and South America, Europe, Oceania, South Asia and the UAE.

Unipaas is partnering with Mastercard to boost card acceptance for SMEs on vertical SaaS platforms with manual payments. The partnership provides SaaS platforms with a simplified payments acceptance process.

Mondu is expanding its European B2B payment network through partnerships with Payin3 and Lemonway. This aims to bring consumer-like payment ease and buy now, pay later options to businesses and marketplaces across Europe, leveraging Payin3’s PSP network and Lemonway’s platform.

Mollie is expanding into Sweden, its first Nordic market. Counting to expand from its 250,000 merchants, the hyperlocal strategy includes local payment methods like Swish and local support teams.

CORPORATE ACTIVITY 

NatWest has made a minority investment in Yonder, a credit card platform focused on lifestyle rewards for young professionals and expats. This partnership aims to accelerate Yonder’s growth and allow NatWest to enhance customer engagement and personalize financial tools for younger demographics.

Fiserv acquires Pinch Payments, an Australian payment facilitator with a management platform called “Glassbox,” serving around 2,000 merchants in Australia and New Zealand. This acquisition enhances Fiserv’s payment orchestration capabilities and expands its reach in the Asia-Pacific region, integrating Pinch’s technology with Fiserv’s solutions, including Clover.

Turkish embedded finance fintech Sipay raised $78 million led by Elephant VC and QuantumLight at an $875 million valuation. This follows a $15 million Series A in 2024. Sipay offers white-labelled digital wallets, investments and loyalty schemes.

Klarna has paused its planned IPO due to market turbulence following the announcement of new US tariffs.

The US Department of Justice has cleared the $35 billion merger between Capital One Finance Group and Discover Financial Services.

Plaid raised $575 million at a $6.1 billion valuation, a decrease from its 2021 peak. The funding will cover employee tax obligations and offer some liquidity. Plaid reported revenue growth and aims for sustained profitability but will not IPO in 2025.

CROSS-BORDER 

Félix Pago raises $75m Series B to expand remittances platform The company’s WhatsApp-based platform processed over $1 billion in remittances last year and plans to expand to Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

CRYPTOASSETS/BLOCKCHAIN/DLT 

Kraken partners with Mastercard to introduce crypto debit cards in the UK and continental Europe. This will allow users to spend their crypto and stablecoins at over 150 million Mastercard merchants. The cards, both physical and digital, are expected in the coming weeks, building on Kraken’s existing Kraken Pay service.

Public transport passengers in Toulouse can now pay for their rides in bitcoin. In a European first, the city’s public transit operator Tisséo has rolled out a system that lets people pay for Metro, bus, tram and cable card tickets using a host of different cryptocurrencies. Tickets can be purchased on Android devices, with a third-party provider converting the crypto into euros.

DIGITAL, RETAIL & ‘Neo’ BANKING 

Revolut will allow Belgian users to open local bank accounts with “BE” IBANs from May, aiming to become their primary bank and address IBAN discrimination. This follows their Lithuanian-based accounts.

Financial platform Airwallex plans to pursue banking licences in the UK and US to expand into lending. Airwallex recently expanded its services to France and Benelux and intends to grow further in Europe.

Santander secures Canadian banking licence for expansion. This allows Santander Consumer Bank to offer a full suite of financial services in Canada, building on its existing presence since acquiring Carfinco.

Stripe applies for US banking license to expand merchant acquiring capabilities This will allow them direct membership with Visa and Mastercard, enabling them to process payments without a sponsoring bank.

FRAUD & CYBERSECURITY 

Forter has announced several updates to their fraud detection service, focussing on enhancements to device takeover detection, new capabilities to detect GenAI agents and improved detection of connection manipulation.