Europe

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

Endava has partnered with Paysafe to combine Endava’s AI transformation services with Paysafe’s acquiring, digital wallets, prepaid solutions, and gateway capabilities. The collaboration targets faster rollouts of customer journeys that compress checkout steps, unify fraud decisions across channels.

BCD Travel has introduced the industry’s first Virtual Card Acceptance (VCA) Rating for the hospitality sector. The new rating system leverages live transactional data captured through Conferma’s Connect platform to score properties based on their virtual card acceptance. The score enables travellers to filter bookings by virtual card acceptance, and allows travel buyers to benchmark and negotiate with hotels more strategically.

SCHEMES

Mastercard has launched a Digital Country Partnership with the Government of Ukraine to speed digitalisation of payments and public services. The MoU focuses on scaling cashless acceptance, improving merchant onboarding, and enabling secure digital identity and disbursement use cases. The initiative aligns with efforts to stabilise commerce rails and expand cross‑border acceptance for Ukrainian businesses.

Rest of the World

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

Shift4 has been selected by the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals to modernise payments across Paycor Stadium concessions, deploying its integrated commerce stack to speed food and beverage checkout and centralise reporting. Venue deployments continue to drive contactless and QR-based ordering, with Shift4 focusing on faster checkout, reliable contactless EMV acceptance, and back-office tools that simplify reconciliation across events.

Kazakhstan has announced the gradual roll out of a unified national QR system with PSP 8B.world, establishing one QR standard, one terminal approach for merchants, and interoperability across participating banks. This domestic QR system joins existing ones in Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Mexico, as well as instant payment systems across Central Asia. Cross‑border transactions will be enabled via local banks, integrating national QR and real‑time domestic rails into a single platform for regional acceptance.

DIGITAL, RETAIL & ‘NEO’ BANKING

dLocal and Félix have launched instant, stablecoin‑funded WhatsApp remittances across Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, with USDC funding at the sender side and local‑currency bank payouts handled by dLocal. Transfers are initiated and tracked inside WhatsApp, with embedded KYC/AML controls. While focused on person‑to‑person remittances, faster inflows to recipients’ accounts can support local card and A2A spending, expanding acceptance volume in cash‑heavy corridors.