EUROPE

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

Adyen has partnered with Danish cafe chain Joe & The Juice to upgrade its in-store payments using new multimedia terminals, aiming to streamline checkout and integrate loyalty features as the chain expands globally.

Worldline is rolling out an AI-driven payment routing solution that dynamically selects optimal transaction paths, boosting authorisation rates by over 2% on top of prior improvements and helping merchants increase conversion and revenue.

CASH(less)

European Union policymakers are moving to guarantee access to cash, responding to fears that a rush to cashless payments could exclude vulnerable groups. Even Europe’s most digital economies (like Sweden) have passed laws to ensure banks provide cash services (e.g. maintaining ATMs in rural areas) to protect consumers’ “right to use cash”.

CRYPTOASSETS/BLOCKCHAIN/DLT

ESMA (EU regulator) warned crypto firms not to mislead customers about how regulated their products are under the EU’s new MiCA rules. Authorities are concerned some crypto platforms might blur the line between regulated and unregulated offerings, using their new licenses as a marketing tool despite certain services (like crypto lending or commodities-linked tokens) falling outside investor protections.

FINTECHS

Trendyol – Turkey’s largest e-commerce platform – has signed an agreement with Baykar’s CEO Haluk Bayraktar, Abu Dhabi’s ADQ, and Ant Group’s international arm to explore a joint fintech venture. The planned platform would offer digital payments, lending, deposits, investments, and insurance to consumers and SMEs in Turkey (leveraging Trendyol’s seller network), pending regulatory approval.

FRAUD & CYBERSECURITY

Card Fraud is rising again across Europe. A new FICO report shows UK card fraud losses climbed ~4% year-on-year to £572.6 million in 2024, with online/Card-Not-Present fraud now accounting for about 70% of UK card fraud losses. Several other European countries (including Norway, Denmark and Hungary) also saw double-digit jumps in payment fraud, reversing years of declines.

REGULATION (UK)

APP Fraud – A UK parliamentary group report on authorised push payment scams says the new mandatory reimbursement rules (in force since late 2024) are a welcome step but still leave “gaping” holes. The cross-party review urges a more comprehensive approach to APP fraud, noting that fraud via crypto platforms and international transfers remains outside the refund framework and requires coordinated action beyond just the banks.

NORTH AMERICA

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

Cash App has launched Tap to Pay on iPhone for its business sellers, allowing micro and “nano” merchants to accept contactless payments (credit/debit cards, Apple Pay and other wallets) directly on an iPhone with no additional hardware. Early pilots showed that sellers using Tap to Pay on iPhone saw a 35% increase in purchase volume from new customers.

Uber Eats is expanding access to SNAP EBT payments on its platform by adding Wegmans, Gopuff and Family Dollar as participating merchants. With these additions, 51 grocery and retail partners now accept SNAP benefits for orders on Uber Eats, extending online food delivery options to more low-income Americans.

CRYPTOASSETS/BLOCKCHAIN/DLT

Citigroup and JPMorgan are signalling plans to issue their own bank-backed stablecoins as the regulatory environment for crypto evolves in the U.S. Citi CEO Jane Fraser told analysts the bank is working on a “Citi stablecoin” and tokenised deposit platform, while JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon said his bank will “be involved” with its JPM Coin and other stablecoins – a notable shift toward digital currency engagement by major banks.

DIGITAL & eCOMMERCE

Albertsons saw a 25% increase in digital sales last quarter, outpacing its in-store growth as the grocer enhanced its online offerings. The company introduced new AI-driven and interactive features – such as allowing customers to chat with in-store employees during order fulfilment and add items to an order after checkout – which boosted customer engagement and helped digital channels reach 9% of total grocery revenue.

Shopify has quietly set new limits on “agentic” AI shopping bots, requiring a final human review for any purchase an autonomous AI agent tries to complete on Shopify-powered sites. The platform updated its code to warn that “checkouts are for humans,” effectively blocking fully automated “buy-for-me” bots from placing orders without a person approving the transaction at the end.

FRAUD & CYBERSECURITY

Google is deploying advanced AI to bolster cybersecurity, integrating an “agentic” AI tool into its open-source Timesketch forensics platform to automate parts of cyber incident response. Powered by Google’s Sec-Gemini, the system can handle initial breach investigations – greatly accelerating response times – and Google reports that its DeepMind-developed Big Sleep AI agent has already discovered real-world software vulnerabilities through these efforts.

ISSUING

Mastercard introduced a new ultra-premium tier, the World Legend Mastercard, as part of its updated “Mastercard Collection” of cardholder perks. The World Legend (along with refreshed World and World Elite cards) will grant cardmembers enhanced travel, dining and entertainment benefits in response to consumers’ growing preference for experience-based rewards.

REALTIME/INSTANT PAYMENTS

Visa and ICBA Payments (the Independent Community Bankers of America’s payments arm) have renewed their 40-year partnership to support community banks with modern payment solutions. The extended deal will give local banks streamlined access to Visa Direct – Visa’s real-time money-movement network – enabling community bank customers to send and receive funds instantly with greater ease.

Federal Reserve officials marked the FedNow service’s second anniversary by highlighting rapid growth in the U.S. instant payments network. FedNow now has over 1,400 participating banks and credit unions (up from 900 in its first year), and the volume of instant payments continues to climb steadily as adoption of the 24/7 real-time system expands nationwide

REGULATION

America’s Credit Unions (the credit union trade association) is urging Congress to reform the Dodd-Frank Act and rein in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In a letter to lawmakers, the group argued that post-crisis rules – from the Durbin Amendment’s debit card fee caps to the CFPB’s current single-director structure – have overburdened community lenders, and it called for measures like converting the CFPB to a bipartisan commission and even repealing Durbin, which it labels “one of the most harmful” provisions for credit unions.

LATAM

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

EBANX has integrated Peru’s leading mobile wallet Yape as a new payment option for cross-border e-commerce, allowing global merchants to accept online payments from Yape’s 14 million users and tap into Peru’s fast-growing digital market.

CASH(less)

Cash Usage Plummets: New research shows cash now represents just 25% of in-store transaction value in Latin America – down from 67% in 2014 – as consumers rapidly shift toward digital payments.

CROSS-BORDER

Mastercard released a study highlighting that 3 in 5 Latin American SMEs engage in cross-border trade but are hampered by high fees (sending $250 can incur ~23% in fees) and week-long delays. The report underpins Mastercard’s push to promote its “Move” platform, which aims to cut costs and enable faster, same-day international payments for small businesses.

CRYPTOASSETS/BLOCKCHAIN/DLT

Tether, issuer of the USDT stablecoin, is acquiring a 70% stake in agri-producer Adecoagro (with operations in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay) in a ~$600 million deal as a springboard to embed USDT in commodities trading. Tether aims to slash cross-border payment times from days to seconds in global trade and is even exploring tokenizing assets like sugar or corn via this venture

DIGITAL & eCOMMERCE

Digital Payments Surge: An industry report forecasts that digital methods will account for 66% of Latin America’s e-commerce transaction value and nearly half of in-store sales by 2030, up from 48% and 30%, respectively, last year. The trend reflects consumers’ rapid adoption of mobile wallets and instant transfer apps in place of cash and cards.

FRAUD & CYBERSECURITY

Brazil is seeing a sharp rise in fraud: 63% of Brazilian consumers have been victims of some form of payment fraud, according to Adyen’s new Retail Report 2025. In 2024 alone, 42% of Brazilians suffered a financial scam, with average individual losses jumping 44% to around R$2,900. About 60% of Brazilian retailers reported fraud losses (averaging R$4.35 million, vs. R$11.2 million globally), prompting 48% of companies to use AI for fraud prevention and 41% to plan increased investment in anti-fraud AI tools.

ISSUING

Thredd and Payblr have partnered to provide a compliant card-issuing infrastructure in Latin America, streamlining the typically complex process for fintechs to launch and scale programs across the region. Thredd will bring its modular processing stack while Payblr (a Puerto Rico-based BIN sponsor) contributes cross-border issuing capabilities – offering clients a faster, one-stop path to enter LAC markets without compromising on compliance or speed.

MOBILE MONEY/WALLETS

Oxxo & Mercado Pago have launched a new service enabling Mercado Pago digital wallet users to withdraw cash at over 23,000 Oxxo convenience stores across Mexico. This partnership – leveraging Mastercard’s clearing infrastructure – is aimed at boosting financial inclusion by safely bridging digital finance with ubiquitous cash access, allowing 24/7 cash-outs in a wide retail network.

REALTIME/INSTANT PAYMENTS

Cobre has become Colombia’s first platform to offer real-time, interbank payments exclusively for businesses under the central bank’s new Bre-B framework. The launch of Cobre Real-Time B2B Payments Colombia allows companies to send and receive interbank transfers instantly, 24/7, improving corporate cash flow and marking a major step in digitizing enterprise payments in the country.

REGULATION

Brazil’s Central Bank is defending Pix – its free, real-time payments system – amid a new U.S. trade investigation claiming Pix unfairly blocks American firms like Visa and Mastercard. The U.S. Trade Representative has threatened tariffs up to 50% on Brazilian goods, but experts say the probe is largely a geopolitical pressure tactic and is unlikely to force Brazil to alter Pix’s public, zero-fee model.

APAC

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and network operator NETS will introduce “stand-in” processing at point-of-sale terminals, allowing contactless card payments to be completed during a bank IT outage (up to a set transaction limit). The move improves the resilience of retail payments, and MAS plans to extend similar backup capabilities to QR code payments as their usage grows.

Neosurf has partnered with payment orchestration provider Paysecure to enable merchants to add Neosurf’s prepaid vouchers at checkout. The collaboration expands secure, cash-based digital payment options for privacy-conscious and underbanked customers across 31 countries – including markets in Asia-Pacific – by offering a bank-independent alternative to cards.

CROSS-BORDER

NPCI International (the global arm of India’s payments network) has expanded the UPI–PayNow linkage with Singapore by adding 13 Indian banks, bringing the total participating Indian banks to 19. Effective 17 July 2025, users of both countries can send instant cross-border payments to a much wider base of bank customers, making the India-Singapore real-time remittance corridor more accessible and convenient.

CRYPTOASSETS/BLOCKCHAIN/DLT

China Asset Management (Hong Kong), China’s second-largest fund manager, has rolled out the world’s first renminbi-denominated tokenised money market fund. The product – Asia’s first tokenised fund tied to RMB assets – caters to rising demand for regulated on-chain investment products and stablecoin-linked liquidity, as Hong Kong’s new stablecoin regulatory framework comes into effect on 1 August.

FRAUD & CYBERSECURITY

Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has released draft guidelines to combat online fraud by mandating “phishing-resistant” multi-factor authentication for brokerage accounts. The FSA’s proposal would require securities firms to implement stronger two-factor login measures and outlines a timeline for industry-wide adoption of the enhanced authentication standards.

REGULATION

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has proposed scrapping surcharges on most debit and credit card transactions and lowering interchange fee caps, a move expected to save consumers and businesses about A$2.4 billion annually. In a new consultation paper, the RBA argues these card fees are no longer in the public interest and is seeking industry feedback on the plan by 26 August.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

HyperPay Introduced its new “HyperTap” service that turns any smartphone into a contactless POS terminal. Launched at Seamless Middle East 2025, HyperTap leverages advanced NFC and 3D Secure authentication to enable secure, on-the-spot merchant payments without additional hardware, supporting HyperPay’s expansion into Bahrain, Egypt, and Qatar. This SoftPOS solution aims to simplify card acceptance for SMBs, reducing fraud risks via real-time cardholder verification and eliminating upfront terminal costs.

iNet, Saudi Arabia’s network provider has expanded its partnership with ACI Worldwide, joining ACI’s Retail Payments (Postilion) program to modernise the Kingdom’s payment infrastructure. Through this tie-up, iNet will deploy ACI’s platform to power fast, omni-channel transaction processing (including SoftPOS, QR and link-based payments) on a highly available, locally-hosted system. The collaboration supports Saudi’s Vision 2030 cashless goals by enabling banks, fintechs and merchants to launch instant, secure payment services at scale.

BNPL

Amazon Payment Services (MENA) has added Saudi-based Tamara as a Buy Now, Pay Later option at checkout in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The integration of Tamara’s Sharia-compliant split-pay service will allow customers on Amazon’s platforms to pay in four instalments, reflecting rising BNPL demand in the region and boosting conversion for merchants.

EazyPay, based in Bahrain, has formed a strategic partnership to serve as Tamara’s local acquirer and payment gateway provider. By processing Tamara’s BNPL transactions in Bahrain, EazyPay will support Tamara’s Gulf expansion, enabling seamless point-of-sale and online installment payments for merchants and consumers across the GCC.

Valu, Egypt’s leading BNPL fintech has secured initial approval from the Central Bank of Jordan to launch its instalment payment services in Jordan. The move marks valU’s first foray outside Egypt as part of its regional growth strategy, aiming to offer Jordanian consumers and merchants flexible payment plans for retail, electronics, healthcare and more – an expansion buoyed by valU’s recent EGX listing and Amazon’s strategic investment.

Kashier, an Egyptian payments platform is integrating BNPL capabilities from Contact Creditech to allow its merchants to offer installment plans. The partnership will let Egyptian consumers using Kashier’s checkout split purchases into monthly payments, illustrating how fintech collaborations are driving BNPL adoption in North Africa.

CASH(less)

Kenya & South Africa, Africa’s two largest mobile money markets are emerging as leaders in the push toward cashless economies. A recent study indicates Kenya could phase out ATMs in ~28 years and South Africa in ~32 years, thanks to high mobile payment adoption and pro-digital policies. In South Africa, 95% of adults have made at least one digital payment, while Kenya’s M-Pesa has long driven cashless transactions – though both countries are balancing rapid fintech growth with inclusion efforts for those still reliant on cash.

CRYPTOASSETS/BLOCKCHAIN/DLT

Emirates Airline signed an MoU with Crypto.com to integrate cryptocurrency payments into its systems by next year. The partnership will explore adding Crypto.com Pay as a payment option, allowing customers to pay for flights and services in crypto. Emirates says the move – which will prioritize regulatory compliance – aligns with its strategy to meet evolving preferences of younger, tech-savvy travelers who favor digital currencies. It also complements Dubai’s wider drive to position itself as a global crypto hub with robust industry regulation.

Binance has launched a Sharia-compliant crypto offering dubbed “Sharia Earn”, targeting Muslim investors hesitant about conventional crypto yield products. Certified by Islamic finance scholars (Amanie Advisors), Sharia Earn allows users in countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, and Indonesia to stake tokens (e.g. BNB, ETH, SOL) in a manner designed to avoid prohibited interest and excessive uncertainty. Binance’s CEO Richard Teng said the product is meant to include faith-conscious investors in the digital asset space, though its reception depends on regional scholars and regulators.

DIGITAL & eCOMMERCE

TikTok and Visa have partnered on a UAE program to help small businesses grow online. From July through Sept 2025, first-time SMB advertisers on TikTok who spend at least $250 using a Visa business card receive $150 in ad credits. The collaboration also provides SMEs with training (TikTok masterclasses, Q&As) and a resource hub to improve their digital marketing skills. By combining Visa’s SME initiative with TikTok’s reach, the program aims to boost e-commerce engagement for UAE entrepreneurs and aligns with the nation’s digital innovation agenda.

DIGITAL, RETAIL & ‘NEO’ BANKING

Ecobank is teaming with Google Cloud to accelerate its digital banking transformation across 33 African countries. The bank will leverage Google Cloud’s AI and analytics (e.g. BigQuery) to develop frictionless payment and remittance solutions that are more accessible and secure for individuals and SMEs. The partnership will also focus on using cloud APIs to make transactions faster and more affordable across borders, and on building more intuitive digital banking platforms to support Africa’s growing fintech ecosystem. Executives say this collaboration will help Ecobank drive financial inclusion by offering personalized, data-driven financial services and supporting entrepreneurial growth via scalable tech infrastructure.

FINTECHS

Wave, a Senegal-based mobile money unicorn, raised €117 million (~$137 million) in debt financing (led by Rand Merchant Bank and global development institutions) to deepen its footprint in West and Central Africa. Wave – which operates a low-cost mobile wallet with 29+ million active users and 150,000 agents – will use the funds to expand into new markets and enhance financial inclusion services (savings, transfers, credit) across its 8-country network. This sizable raise underscores investor confidence in Africa’s mobile money sector, where Wave aims to make digital financial services more affordable for the unbanked.

FRAUD & CYBERSECURITY

Mastercard announced a new Start Path Security accelerator program to back startups innovating in cybersecurity, fraud mitigation, digital ID, and payment resilience. The first cohort includes firms like OneID (bank-based digital ID), Scamnetic (AI scam detection for phishing/deepfakes), Spec (bot/fraud prevention in digital commerce), VanishID (personal data scrubbing), and Shield-IoT (securing IoT payment devices). This initiative extends Mastercard’s investment of over $10.7 billion in payment security since 2018, aiming to scale new technologies that protect consumers and merchants as digital transactions rise. By supporting agile startups through Start Path, Mastercard seeks to strengthen the industry’s defenses against cyber threats (which are projected to cost $15 trillion+ globally by 2029) and build trust in the digital economy.