Europe

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

Checkout.com has partnered with Portuguese grocery chain Pingo Doce to launch the retailer’s first online store and modernise its payments. Checkout.com’s Intelligent Acceptance technology applies machine learning, AI and data science to optimize transaction flows, reduce friction and increase conversion across Pingo Doce payment channels. The partnership includes broader capabilities such as network tokenization, Fraud Detection Pro and support for MBWay.

Worldline has introduced its Android SmartPOS solution to the UK market, targeting small and mid-sized merchants. The POS device merges secure card payment acceptance with the flexibility to run business apps. The SmartPOS is fully integrated with Worldline’s acquiring services, supporting all major card schemes and providing next-working-day settlement to merchants, which improves cash flow for SMEs.

DIGITAL & eCOMMERCE

Worldpay has launched its Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open framework of server specifications and tools to drive “agentic” commerce. Available via Worldpay’s developer portal and GitHub, MCP allows developers and retailers to download, modify and deploy the protocol to create AI-driven shopping assistants that connect directly with Worldpay’s payments API.

Rest of the World

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

TerraPay has launched Xend, a global Payments Interoperability Network aimed at unifying digital wallets, banks and cards into one borderless ecosystem. Xend serves as a universal “financial roaming” layer, allowing e-wallet users transact with 11,500 banks via Swift and pay at 150 million merchants worldwide directly from their wallet apps. The network is already live with 200 million wallet users and can scale to reach 3.7 billion endpoints, connecting mobile money platforms with global banks and merchant networks in real time.

CROSS-BORDER

BENEFIT and Ant Group’s Ant International unit have partnered to launch Alipay+ in Bahrain for cross-border QR code payments. Under a newly signed MoU, the two will link Bahrain’s national QR payment scheme with Ant’s Alipay+ global wallet platform, enabling over 15,000 Bahraini merchants to accept digital payments from Alipay+’s international wallet users.

CRYPTOASSETS/BLOCKCHAIN/DLT

Crypto exchange KuCoin has integrated its payments arm with Pix, allowing millions of Brazilians to spend over 50 cryptocurrencies at any merchant that accepts Pix QR codes. The integration enables near-instant crypto-to-BRL conversion from KuCoin accounts directly to any Brazilian bank or pay merchants via Pix without manual conversion delays.