HIGHLIGHTS:

PayPal will expand its omnichannel strategy to Europe, starting with NFC contactless payments in Germany this quarter, followed by the UK in Q3 2025. This aims to integrate PayPal into offline purchases, leveraging its strong e-commerce presence in these key European markets.

Nexi partners with Planet for better payments in hospitality. Nexi aims to offer the solution by partnering with Planet, combining its customer service, local payment method acceptance with Planet’s omni-channel and platform integrations.

Trustly teams up with Paytweak to support European merchants

In other news…

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

Vietnam Airlines partners with Adyen to process global transactions across Japan, Australia, the US, and Europe, among others.

BNPL

eBay and Klarna are expanding their partnership in the U.S., offering eBay shoppers flexible payment options like “Pay in 4” and financing. This builds on a successful rollout in Europe, allowing users to split payments for purchases. Klarna’s resell feature is also now available to US eBay users.

Tide, having secured £100 million in debt, is launching its B2B BNPL product, Credit Flex, to all eligible UK clients. This in-app feature allows pre-approved members to access up to £5,000, repayable over four months with 3.3% monthly interest, aiding SME cash flow management.

CASH(less)

The UK’s Treasury Committee has floated the idea of introducing legislation to force shops to accept cash in the future, warning that a lack of action from the Government to tackle declining cash acceptance could lead to a two-tier society with the most vulnerable bearing the cost.

The UK Post Office and banks have agreed to a five-year partnership, extending the Banking Framework until 2030. This ensures continued cash access for millions of individuals and small businesses at Post Office branches, where over 760 million transactions have occurred since 2020.

CROSS-BORDER

Mastercard and Corpay are expanding their partnership to offer enhanced corporate cross-border payment solutions, including carded and non-carded options. Mastercard will make a $300 million minority investment in Corpay’s cross-border business. The collaboration aims to simplify access to currency risk management and payment solutions for financial institutions and their customers.

CRYPTOASSETS/BLOCKCHAIN/DLT

PayPal and Coinbase are expanding their partnership to boost the adoption of PayPal USD (PYUSD). Coinbase will offer fee-free PYUSD purchases and 1:1 USD redemption. The companies will jointly explore new payment applications and DeFi use cases for the stablecoin, leveraging Coinbase’s reach and PayPal’s payment expertise. While PayPal is launching a new rewards program for US users holding PayPal USD (PYUSD) on PayPal or Venmo, offering a 3.7% annual reward. 

In a report from Innovate Finance they warn the Bank of England’s stablecoin rules are too prescriptive to create a global hub. 

Citi Research predicts the stablecoin market could reach $1.6 trillion to $3.7 trillion by 2030, driven by clearer US regulations under the Trump administration. The report predicts that around 90% of the stablecoin supply will continue to be US dollar denominated, with other countries focussing on CBDCs, a path Trump has said America will not go down.