Europe

ACCEPTANCE & PROCESSING

Deutsche Bank’s Merchant Solutions business is integrating the new European Payments Initiative digital wallet Wero into its offerings ahead of the wallet’s launch in Germany. The move will allow merchants (and payment partners) in Germany, Belgium, and France to accept instant account-to-account payments via Wero as a modern European alternative to card schemes, with the Netherlands and Luxembourg to follow.

CORPORATE ACTIVITY

Standard Chartered has entered a strategic partnership with China’s Alibaba Group to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence in financial services. Under the agreement, Standard Chartered will leverage Alibaba Cloud’s AI solutions to boost operational efficiency, automate risk management and enhance customer service, while also providing Alibaba with tailored banking services (e.g. supply chain financing and cross-border cash management) as the tech giant expands globally.

Shareholders of UK-based payments fintech Wise have voted to move the company’s primary stock listing from London to New York. Wise’s decision to shift its listing to the US – aiming to tap deeper capital markets and tech investor pools – reflects broader challenges for the UK in retaining high-growth tech listings and may signal a trend of European fintechs seeking better valuations abroad.

CRYPTOASSETS/BLOCKCHAIN/DLT

PayPal is rolling out a new “Pay with Crypto” feature that enables businesses to accept payments in over 100 different cryptocurrencies. The service will let merchants offer more choice at checkout by allowing customers to pay with a wide range of digital assets, which PayPal will handle and convert as needed for settlement.

Jürgen Schaaf, an advisor to the European Central Bank, warned that Europe must support euro-denominated stablecoins or risk subservience to US-dollar tokens. He noted that dollar-based stablecoins account for 99% of the market and cautioned that if USD stablecoins became widely used in the euro area, the ECB’s monetary control could be weakened – a scenario that underscores the need for credible euro-alternative stablecoins.

REALTIME/INSTANT PAYMENTS

CaixaBank (Spain) has enabled instant cross-border mobile transfers to neighbouring countries via the Bizum platform, marking a milestone for pan-European instant payments. Its customers can now send money in real time to recipients in Portugal, Italy and Andorra through Bizum – a first step toward seamless cross-border instant payments across Europe.

REGULATION (UK)

The Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has reportedly clashed with UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves over efforts to expedite Revolut’s bank license approval. Reeves has pushed for faster progress on the fintech’s full banking authorization, while Bailey defended the need for thorough regulatory scrutiny – highlighting tensions between political aims to foster innovation and the central bank’s prudential oversight.

North America

CORPORATE ACTIVITY

Trovata has acquired legacy treasury management system Atom and raised an additional $9 million in a Series B extension (from State Street and PNC), bringing its total funding to $80 million. The San Diego-based cash management fintech will integrate Atom’s robust treasury features into its cloud platform – positioning Trovata as a modern alternative to legacy TMS providers.

Corpay is set to acquire London-based FX and cross-border payments firm Alpha Group International for $2.2 billion. The deal (expected to close in Q4 2025 pending approvals) will expand Corpay’s product suite with Alpha’s currency management tools and multi-bank connectivity platform, and give the U.S. payments company access to Alpha’s 7,000+ corporate clients across Europe.

CRYPTOASSETS/BLOCKCHAIN/DLT

PayPal has unveiled a new “Pay with Crypto” service that will allow U.S. merchants to accept customer payments in over 100 different cryptocurrencies, with instant crypto-to-stablecoin/fiat conversion. The feature, launching in coming weeks, promises near-instant settlement and up to 90% lower fees (0.99% transaction rate) compared to card payments – connecting merchants to a $3 trillion crypto market while shielding them from volatility.

FIS has partnered with Circle to enable stablecoin payments for banks and businesses. The collaboration will integrate Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) into FIS’s Money Movement Hub, giving U.S. financial institutions the ability to offer domestic and cross-border payments in USDC – a fully reserved digital dollar – through existing banking channels. By leveraging Circle’s blockchain infrastructure with FIS’s payments network, the partnership aims to speed up transactions and reduce costs for real-time corporate and consumer payments.

LATAM

MOBILE MONEY/WALLETS

EBANX has integrated Peru’s popular mobile wallet Yape to streamline payments for global merchants. The direct integration allows international e-commerce companies to offer Peruvian consumers one-click recurring payments via Yape balances or linked cards, eliminating checkout friction. By tapping into Yape’s large user base and ~93% transaction approval rate, EBANX and Yape aim to boost cross-border sales in Peru’s rapidly growing digital economy (projected $60 billion by 2027).

APAC

ISSUING

Zindigi, a Pakistani digital bank backed by JS Bank, has launched a Visa virtual debit card that users can instantly generate through its app. Aimed at Gen Z and millennial customers, the virtual card enables online and international purchases without a physical card, while offering 3-D Secure protection and in-app controls (such as on-off toggles for local vs global use and spend limits). Zindigi’s one-tap virtual card rollout marks a significant step in Pakistan’s fintech evolution, expanding access to e-commerce and digital payments with added security and convenience.

Middle East and Africa

CASH(less)

Visa reports that 53% of Egyptian small and mid-sized merchants have introduced digital payment acceptance in the past two years. According to a new Value of Acceptance study by Visa, an additional 55% of cash-only SMEs in Egypt are now considering going cashless, driven by the clear business benefits. Among merchants already taking cards or mobile payments, over 80% are satisfied with digital payments and more than 75% say it has boosted revenues and customer footfall. The report finds strong demand for value-added services (loyalty programs, data insights, security tools) to further enhance the digital payment experience, as well as calls for more education and incentives to help remaining cash-reliant businesses transition to electronic payments.

OPEN BANKING

Lean Technologies, a MENA-based open finance platform, has received In-Principle Approval from the Central Bank of the UAE under the country’s new Open Finance regulatory framework. This makes Lean one of the first companies authorized to offer regulated open banking services in the UAE, advancing it toward full licensing. With demand growing for connected financial services, Lean’s API infrastructure will enable use cases like instant account-to-account payments, faster loan approvals, and personalized finance tools built on secure data sharing. Lean’s approval aligns with the UAE’s national drive to foster a world-class digital financial ecosystem, and follows its participation in Abu Dhabi’s fintech sandbox and prior licensing in Saudi Arabia.