EUROPE

AI

Spain’s Unicaja Banco has signed a 10-year deal with tech provider DXC Technology to modernise its operations using AI-driven solutions. DXC will deploy automation and analytics tools to improve Unicaja’s efficiency and digital customer experience, supporting the bank’s 2025–2027 strategy for growth in digital banking. The partnership will also see DXC acquire a Unicaja IT subsidiary (pending approval), underscoring DXC’s commitment to advancing the bank with AI-enabled systems

BNPL

Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has proposed new rules for Buy Now, Pay Later credit. Lenders would be required to check borrowers’ affordability and offer support if customers face financial difficulty, mirroring protections in other regulated credit products. The plan – part of bringing BNPL into regulation in 2026 – would also give BNPL users access to the Financial Ombudsman for complaints, ensuring stronger oversight of the £13bn BNPL sector.

CORPORATE ACTIVITY

Airwallex has announced a multi-year partnership with Arsenal FC, becoming the football club’s Official Finance Software Partner. The deal makes Airwallex the presenting partner for Arsenal’s pre-season tour in Asia, with the fintech’s services to be used throughout the tour. In the longer term, Airwallex will work with Arsenal to enhance the club’s payment systems, aiming to streamline payment processing for the club’s operations and fans.

Singapore-based Coda Payments is acquiring Netherlands-based platform Recharge to expand its global prepaid digital payments business. The deal broadens Coda’s reach beyond gaming into wider digital content, by integrating Recharge’s direct-to-consumer storefronts and strong European footprint. The combined entity (based on 2024 figures) would have processed over US$1.75 billion in sales for 200+ million customers across 180 markets, creating a scaled global platform for digital content monetisation from day one.

FRAUD & CYBERSECURITY

A new industry report warns that authorised push payment (APP) fraud continues to surge in the UK. Sophisticated social engineering scams are tricking victims into sending money themselves, driving up losses even under new refund rules. Banks are under pressure to deploy better payee verification and behavioural analytics to curb these scams. The report also notes similar fraud patterns emerging on the US FedNow instant payment network – underscoring a global challenge in preventing real-time payment fraud when customers are duped into approving transfers.

LITIGATION

Visa and Mastercard face a new multibillion-pound UK class action lawsuit over allegedly unlawful card fees. The claim, to be filed in the Competition Appeal Tribunal, seeks repayment of excess interchange fees charged on Visa and Mastercard credit/debit transactions to UK businesses. It follows a June tribunal ruling that these card network fees restricted competition – a decision both networks are appealing. The new suit would cover all UK businesses accepting Visa/Mastercard since 2019, adding to ongoing legal battles over card fees.

REGULATION  (EU)

The European Central Bank (ECB) says it is accelerating work on a digital euro, responding to an “ambitious pace” set by EU leaders for a sovereign digital currency. In its third progress report on a potential CBDC, the ECB noted increasing urgency amid geopolitical challenges and a desire to reduce Europe’s reliance on non-European payment networks (e.g. Visa/Mastercard). The ECB has launched an innovation platform with 70 banks and fintechs to test features like conditional payments, while also gathering feedback from merchants and consumers to ensure a digital euro would be broadly usable and inclusive.

NORTH AMERICA

CORPORATE ACTIVITY

Block Inc. is set to join the S&P 500 index on 23rd July, replacing oil producer Hess Corp after Hess’s acquisition by Chevron. The inclusion – following Block’s evolution beyond payments into broader fintech services like Cash App and crypto – marks a milestone highlighting the mainstreaming of digital payments in traditional finance.

Atlanta-based Viva Finance has secured $220 million in new funding (a large debt facility plus equity) to expand its affordable lending platform for underserved American workers. The fintech, which partners with employers to offer payroll-linked personal loans, plans to scale its model nationally – providing credit based on employment data rather than credit scores – and develop new products that advance financial inclusion in the workplace.

LITIGATION

Cash App (part of Block) has agreed to pay $12.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging it sent unsolicited spam text messages to users without consent, violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The settlement, which awaits final court approval, would provide eligible U.S. users with compensation (estimated up to around $147 each) and underscores the importance of obtaining consumer consent for digital communications.

REALTIME/INSTANT PAYMENTS

The Federal Reserve’s FedNow instant payment network now has over 900 participating financial institutions two years after its launch, reflecting a steady rise in adoption of real-time payments. Volume on FedNow and the private-sector RTP network continues to climb, with industry data showing sharp increases in transaction counts – a trend expected to continue as more banks enable sending capabilities and develop new instant payment use cases for consumers and businesses.

REGULATION (US)

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a landmark stablecoin bill (the GENIUS Act) with broad bipartisan support, creating the first federal regulatory framework for dollar-pegged stablecoins. The bill – which would require issuers to hold robust liquid reserves and make monthly disclosures – now heads to President Trump for signature into law. In the same session, House lawmakers also advanced a broader crypto market structure bill and a measure to ban a U.S. central bank digital currency, underscoring Congress’s pivotal moves to bring regulatory clarity to digital assets.

LATAM

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

Mercado Pago has partnered with Mexican convenience store chain OXXO to enable users to withdraw cash from their Mercado Pago digital wallets at all 23,000 OXXO stores nationwide. The 24/7 service lets customers access up to MX$3,000 per transaction using their Mercado Pago card, expanding cash-out points and financial inclusion for millions of Mexicans BNPL.

Mastercard unveiled a regional plan to promote frictionless payments in Latin America through biometric authentication and tokenization. The company’s strategy – presented at Mastercard Day 2025 – aims to enhance security and user convenience in both in-store and online transactions by eliminating passwords in favor of FaceID/fingerprint biometrics and replacing sensitive card data with tokens for safer, smoother checkouts.

Hula, a Colombian fintech, has launched an AI-powered platform to automate payment reconciliation for enterprise finance teams. The solution uses native artificial intelligence to match and validate massive volumes of transactions in real time, detecting discrepancies or fraud before they result in losses – promising to cut manual workload and reduce reconciliation costs by up to 90%.

CORPORATE ACTIVITY

500 Global, a major venture capital firm, announced a new acceleration program to back Latin American startups, reflecting growing international investor interest in the region. The Silicon Valley-based VC is seeking 30 startups from LatAm for its latest cohort, in which each selected company will receive a $300,000 investment and support to scale. This move by 500 Global underscores a commitment to fuel early-stage innovation across LatAm’s fintech and tech ecosystem at a time of rising global capital inflows.

Mexico has overtaken Brazil in venture funding, leading Latin America in total startup investment during Q2 2025 – for the first time in over a decade. According to Crunchbase data, Mexican startups attracted more venture dollars than Brazilian peers in the quarter, buoyed by big deals in AI, fintech, and data sectorsthisweekinfintech.com. The milestone, widely noted in the region’s tech community, highlights Mexico’s emergence as a dynamic startup hub and shifts the historical funding balance in LatAm’s two largest economies.

CROSS-BORDER

B89, a fintech from Peru, launched a new app “B89+” that leverages Visa Direct technology to streamline international money transfers for Peruvians. B89+ is the first service in Peru to integrate Visa Direct for cross-border remittances, allowing users to send funds from Peru to Visa cards overseas almost instantly and at lower cost. By enabling card-to-card transfers that settle in minutes rather than days, the app offers a fully digital alternative to traditional remittance channels – users can deposit money directly to a recipient’s Visa card abroad via the B89+ app, with better exchange rates and without the paperwork or delays of conventional wire services.

ISSUING

Thredd, a global card processing platform, has partnered with Payblr, a Puerto Rico-based BIN sponsor, to help fintechs launch and scale card programmes across Latin America and the Caribbean. The collaboration combines Thredd’s international processing infrastructure with Payblr’s local issuing and regulatory expertise, offering a modular API-driven solution that accelerates go-to-market and overcomes fragmented regional compliance hurdles – enabling use cases from gig-worker payouts to cross-border corporate disbursements with multi-currency support.

MOBILE MONEY/WALLETS

EBANX announced a direct integration with Yape, Peru’s popular mobile wallet super-app, to support international e-commerce merchants in the country. This partnership enables global online retailers to offer Peruvian consumers one-click recurring payments via Yape, with transactions settled in local currency – allowing merchants to tap into Yape’s user base and recurring payment functionality for subscriptions and cross-border services.

OPEN BANKING

Banco de Crédito del Perú (BCP) strengthened its Open Finance strategy through new partnerships with SAP and fintech Shinkans. BCP became the first Peruvian bank to integrate with SAP’s Multi-Bank Connectivity platform, allowing corporate clients on SAP ERP to connect directly to the bank for 24/7 automated payments and transfers without manual file uploads. In parallel, BCP and Shinkansen will launch a platform that links the bank’s systems with any enterprise ERP, featuring intelligent real-time payment processing and reconciliation – a milestone that underscores BCP’s use of open APIs and third-party collaboration to deliver value-added financial solutions for businesses.

REALTIME/INSTANT PAYMENTS

Brubank has become the first bank from Argentina to integrate with Brazil’s instant payment network Pix. Through a partnership with fintech Depay, Brubank now enables its users traveling in Brazil to pay any Pix-accepting merchant directly from the Brubank app in pesos, with automatic real-time currency conversion to Brazilian. This cross-border Pix connectivity means Argentine tourists can transact in Brazil as if they were locals – no cash or cards needed – marking a significant step toward interoperable regional payments.

Bradesco, one of Brazil’s largest banks, introduced voice-activated Pix transfers via WhatsApp using its AI virtual assistant BIA. The new feature allows customers to send instant Pix payments by speaking or texting natural-language instructions in WhatsApp – without opening the banking app – with the system intelligently interpreting commands (even if the word “Pix” isn’t mentioned) and executing transactions up to R$300 for now. This “conversational payments” service, initially rolled out to 1,000 users, will scale to Bradesco’s entire client base by year-end as part of a broader generative AI strategy.

REGULATION

The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has launched a Section 301 investigation into Brazil’s promotion of its instant payments system Pix, examining whether Brazil’s digital payment policies unfairly disadvantage U.S. companies. The probe, announced after President Trump’s recent tariff threats, puts a spotlight on Pix’s rapid rise – now used by 150 million Brazilians – and will assess if Brazil’s support for Pix and related digital trade practices constitute an unfair barrier to U.S. payment networks (like Visa and Mastercard) and fintech providers in the market.

APAC

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

DBS has introduced Programmable Rewards, a blockchain-based digital voucher system now available via the DBS PayLah! app. The digital vouchers can be used at over 40,000 NETS QR acceptance points across Singapore, allowing organisations to set custom rules (e.g. merchant eligibility or expiry dates) for each voucher. Conditions are automatically verified at checkout, and payments clear through existing networks like NETS for easy settlement.

AI

Capgemini’s latest report highlights the potential of agentic AI – autonomous AI agents – to generate up to US$450 billion in value by 2028. However, only 2% of organizations have fully scaled such AI deployments so far, and declining trust is a barrier. The study finds strong executive support for keeping human oversight in AI workflows (nearly 75% of executives see oversight benefits outweighing costs), suggesting that human-AI collaboration and clear ethics will be key to realising agentic AI’s promise.

CASH(less)

New Zealand First has proposed a Cash Transactions Protection Bill to mandate businesses accept cash for purchases up to NZ$500. The member’s bill is intended to preserve cash as a payment option for privacy and inclusion, especially for rural communities, the elderly, and low-income groups who are disadvantaged by purely digital payments. It would also require retailers of essential goods (like food, fuel, utilities) to take cash and obligate businesses to hold enough cash on hand for use during extended power or network outages.

CROSS-BORDER

NPCI International (the global arm of India’s payments body) has expanded the UPI–PayNow linkage between India and Singapore by adding 13 more Indian banks, bringing the total to 19 participating banks. This significantly widens access to instant cross-border remittances via mobile number or UPI ID, with funds reaching recipients in seconds. Indian users at any of the 19 banks can now receive money from Singapore, and seven major banks in India support sending funds to Singapore, while in Singapore the service is available via DBS and Liquid Group. The linkage – the world’s first cloud-based real-time payments corridor – is expected to particularly benefit the Indian diaspora in Singapore by providing a faster, low-cost alternative for frequent small remittances.

CRYPTOASSETS/BLOCKCHAIN/DLT

Crypto exchange Tokenize Xchange is shutting down its Singapore operations after failing to obtain a Digital Payment Token license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The platform, which had been operating under an exemption, will cease Singapore activities by end-September and lay off its 15 local staff. Tokenize plans to relocate its base to the Labuan offshore financial center in Malaysia and is seeking regulatory approvals there and in Abu Dhabi’s ADGM as it pivots focus outside Singapore.

DIGITAL, RETAIL & ‘NEO’ BANKING

Australian software firm MYOB has launched Solo Money, an embedded business bank account feature inside its Solo by MYOB app for sole traders. The new offering provides Australia’s 1.6 million sole operators with a combined banking and accounting solution – a transaction account linked with MYOB’s accounting software – enabling real-time cash flow visibility, AI-powered transaction matching and auto-reconciliation of business finances. Solo Money also supports invoicing and Tap-to-Pay on smartphones, and will be one of the first admin apps in Australia to offer an integrated business debit card plus connectivity to other banks’ accounts via Open Banking APIs. It is set to roll out nationally within July 2025.

FRAUD & CYBERSECURITY

Cambodia has arrested over 1,000 people in a major sweep on cyber-scam operations across at least five provinces. The three-day crackdown (led by police and military following an order from the Prime Minister) targeted scam compounds – often run by trafficking syndicates – where thousands of trafficked workers are forced to perpetrate online fraud schemes (such as romance or investment scams) that have defrauded victims worldwide of billions of dollars. Authorities detained hundreds of foreign nationals (from Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Indonesia and more) and seized computers and phones, in what the government calls a push to curb the country’s burgeoning scam industry.

MOBILE MONEY/WALLETS

WhatsApp Pay’s usage in India remains lackluster even after regulators lifted its user cap. The service handled only 67 million transactions via UPI in June 2025 (up merely 6 million since the cap removal), vastly trailing rivals like Google Pay and PhonePe, which grew by hundreds of millions of transactions in the same period. Industry observers cite WhatsApp’s late market entry and minimal efforts to promote or enhance its payments feature – no major product updates, incentives or merchant tie-ups – as key factors behind its stagnation. Meanwhile, parent company Meta is reportedly shifting focus: exploring stablecoin-based payouts and creator monetization tools to drive growth, as it seeks to lower cross-border payment costs and diversify revenue streams beyond traditional wallet transfers.

OPEN BANKING

Mastercard and credit bureau Equifax Australia have teamed up to launch a new Open Banking-based credit scoring solution called Equifax Open Score. The partnership combines Equifax’s data analytics with Mastercard’s open finance platform to evaluate consumers’ bank transaction data (with consent) in real time. The goal is to better assess creditworthiness of “thin-file” customers – such as young adults, new migrants or others with little credit history – by analyzing their cashflow and spending patterns. The Open Score generates a 0–10 score and insights from bank data to help include more people in the financial system, and is one of the first products developed under Australia’s Consumer Data Right regime leveraging secure data sharing via Mastercard’s network.

MEA

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

Network International has partnered with Ghanaian fintech Blu Penguin to enable mobile money payments on its N-Genius POS terminals in Ghana. The integration allows merchants to accept mobile money from all providers via existing card terminals – expanding payment options for both banked and unbanked customers and supporting greater financial inclusion across Ghana and West Africa.

CASH(less)

UAE fintech Beehive reports it has surpassed $1 billion in SME financing after one year of using the Direct Debit System (DDS) platform for automated collections. By replacing legacy cheque-based loan repayments with DDS’s fully digital, API-driven direct debits (linked to UAE’s digital ID), Beehive streamlined its processes – eliminating manual delays, reducing risks (lost cheques, signature issues), and achieving same-day payment reconciliation. The partnership highlights a regional push to digitize recurring payments (from rents and fees to loan instalments), supporting a broader shift toward cashless, efficient payment infrastructure.

CRYPTOASSETS/BLOCKCHAIN/DLT

Abu Dhabi’s Judicial Department (ADJD) has become the Middle East’s first government body to accept a digital currency for payments, now allowing court fees to be paid in the UAE-dirham-backed stablecoin AE Coin via the AEC Wallet. This landmark move – implemented under a partnership with Al Maryah Bank (the issuer of AE Coin, regulated by the UAE Central Bank) – introduces a secure, fully digital alternative to cash or card for judicial services. The initiative is a significant step in the UAE’s fintech agenda, integrating a regulated stablecoin into public sector payments to improve speed, transparency, and user convenience in government services.