EUROPE

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

payabl. has added SEPA Direct Debit to its acquiring gateway and business accounts, enabling merchants to collect and businesses to initiate recurring euro payments across 36 SEPA countries via a single API.

CRYPTOASSETS/BLOCKCHAIN/DLT

Ripple has activated a Legal Entity Identifier for Ripple Payments Europe S.A. in Luxembourg, the first step towards obtaining an e‑money licence under MiCA and launching its planned RLUSD stablecoin across the EEA.

DIGITAL, RETAIL & ‘NEO’ BANKING

OpenAI is testing an in‑chat checkout system for ChatGPT in partnership with Shopify, aiming to take a commission on completed sales and monetise its free user base — a direct challenge to traditional search‑led commerce.

FINTECHS

Citi has deployed Fenergo’s SaaS Client Lifecycle Management platform across its European Global Transfer Agency business to automate investor onboarding, AML/KYC and perpetual due‑diligence for regulated funds.

REGULATION

Financial Conduct Authority has opened consultation CP25/23 to bring Buy Now Pay Later (Deferred Payment Credit) under full FCA supervision from 15 July 2026, proposing mandatory affordability checks and Ombudsman access. Feedback closes 26 September 2025.

Payment Systems Regulator has published its 2025/26 fee figures, confirming a funding requirement of £27 million to be recovered from regulated PSPs on more than 106 billion UK payment transactions.

European Commission has proposed raising the ETIAS travel authorisation fee to €20 (from €7) to reflect inflation and new technical costs, pending Parliament and Council scrutiny.

LATAM

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

Global Payments has renewed its multi‑year merchant‑acquiring alliance with Banamex, committing to deepen omnichannel acceptance for Mexico’s SMEs; the partners already process ≈ 900 million transactions a year across 250 000 POS terminals.

Thredd has partnered with Puerto‑Rico‑based Payblr to give international fintechs a single BIN‑sponsorship and issuing stack that slashes go‑live times for Latin‑American and Caribbean card programmes from months to weeks.

Uber México has increased nationwide fares by up to 7 %, citing new social‑security contributions for gig‑workers; the Labour Ministry and Profeco condemned the move as “unilateral and irresponsible”.

CROSS-BORDER

Citi and Ant International have launched an AI‑driven pilot that uses Ant’s Time‑Series Transformer model to cut airlines’ FX‑hedging costs—an initiative expected to extend to LATAM carrier clients as the tool scales.

DIGITAL, RETAIL & ‘NEO’ BANKING

Nuvini has staged its inaugural “NuviniAI Day” at Oracle’s São Paulo HQ, unveiling three generative‑AI pilots that are already delivering a mean 523 % ROI and sub‑five‑month pay‑back across its Brazilian SaaS portfolio.

RS2’s CEO Radi El Haj has warned that Latin America’s “payments complexity crisis” can only be solved through unified, cloud‑native processing; he highlighted proactive local regulators and exportable innovations such as Pix as key growth levers.

NORTH AMERICA

CASH(less)

Senators Cramer and Fetterman have introduced the bipartisan Payment Choice Act, legislation that would oblige brick‑and‑mortar merchants across the United States to continue accepting cash without surcharge, safeguarding tender choice for the 4.5 % of U.S. households that remain unbanked.

FINTECHS

Velocity Clinical Research and Palantir Technologies have formed a partnership that applies Palantir’s agentic‑AI platform to automate reconciliation of clinical‑trial invoices and sponsor payments, turning months‑long settlement cycles into near‑real‑time processing and freeing finance teams for higher‑value analysis.

ISSUING

Mastercard has launched The Mastercard Collection—a global suite of premium dining, entertainment and travel benefits—alongside a new World Legend Mastercard tier, which will debut with U.S. issuers in Q3 2025 to target top‑spending consumers seeking experiential rewards.

SCHEMES

American Express has posted record Q2 2025 revenue of US $17.9 billion (↑9 % YoY) and EPS of US $4.08, citing all‑time‑high Card Member spend and reaffirming its full‑year revenue and earnings guidance.

APAC

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

Commerce Commission New Zealand has confirmed its final decision to cut interchange and network fees on Visa and Mastercard transactions, a move expected to save Kiwi merchants tens of millions of dollars each year once the caps take effect on 13 November 2025.

CASH(less)

Westpac is joining the RBA & DFCRC’s Project Acacia to test delivery‑versus‑payment settlement of tokenised assets via its PayTo infrastructure, integrating Chainlink’s Cross‑Chain Interoperability Protocol to explore wholesale CBDC use‑cases for large‑value corporate flows.

REALTIME/INSTANT PAYMENTS

Westpac Institutional Bank has revealed that its QuickSuper clearing‑house platform will offer real‑time superannuation contributions nationwide from September, following a 100‑employer pilot that processed Australia’s first live instant “Payday Super” payments this week.

SCHEMES

Visa has become an Official Global Supporter of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026™, using the tournament to showcase its digital‑payments brand across Asia‑Pacific and deepen its longstanding commitment to women’s football.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

Network International has partnered with Ghanaian aggregator Blu Penguin to switch on mobile‑money acceptance across its N‑Genius POS estate, letting merchants process MoMo from every major wallet without changing hardware; Ghana’s PoS fleet is now 35 % MoMo‑enabled, and Network predicts a 20 % rise in ticket‑size as cash users migrate to digital.

Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy and Dubai’s Department of Finance have signed an MoU to co‑ordinate governance, innovation sandboxes and public‑awareness drives under the emirate’s Cashless Strategy, aiming to lift the non‑cash share of government payments from 88 % to 100 % by 2026.

BNPL

Wabeh, Kenya’s smartphone BNPL provider, has suspended operations with its 500‑retailer network after default rates breached 50 % on some devices and pending digital‑credit licensing left it without a compliant funding line; the pause underscores looming regulation that will bring BNPL under Central Bank of Kenya oversight.

CROSS-BORDER

CLOWD9 has inked a strategic deal with Moniepoint GB to provide real‑time issuer processing for the London–Lagos remittance corridor, promising sub‑30‑second settlement and 40 % cheaper FX spreads through cloud‑native tokenisation; the tie‑up is being showcased on the Mayor of London’s Africa fintech trade mission.

DIGITAL, RETAIL & ‘NEO’ BANKING

ProfitShare Partners (South Africa) is urging fintech peers and regulators to adopt outcome‑based metrics—jobs created, contracts fulfilled—for AI lending models after deploying R 1.2 bn (≈£50 m) to >90 % Black‑owned SMEs through its behavioural‑risk engine; the firm argues that “hype‑first AI” widens, rather than closes, the credit gap.