The Fin Desk Newsroom

The Financial Conduct Authority has launched an application gateway allowing cryptoasset businesses in the UK to seek full FCA authorisation for the first time, marking what the regulator describes as a structural shift in crypto oversight. The new framework includes standards covering consumer protection and safeguarding, according to the FCA's published statement.

Mastercard has launched a multi-phase programme to support AI-driven autonomous commerce, centred on two named products — Agent Connect and Agent Pay — with a follow-on trust and intelligence services announcement in 2026 extending the initial September 2025 reveal. The initiative is framed around merchant readiness for non-human transaction participants.

SoFi Bank, N.A. began settling its Mastercard-powered credit and debit card transactions in SoFiUSD on 22 September 2026, six months after the partnership was announced. The card programme is expected to process more than $25 billion in annualised volume under the blockchain-based settlement arrangement.

Mastercard and Google Pay have announced a collaboration to enable device biometric authentication for card payments in India, using Mastercard's Consumer Device Cardholder Verification Method. The partnership was previewed at Global Fintech Fest 2026 in Mumbai and is conditional on participation by eligible issuing banks.

Thredd and Velocity have announced a partnership to integrate stablecoin-powered funding, payouts and on-chain settlement into Thredd's existing card and payments platform, targeting B2B and B2B2B use cases from launch. The deal follows Thredd's August 2026 work powering Cashi's stablecoin spending card, signalling a deliberate build-up of stablecoin card infrastructure across the year.

Visa data published on 1 October 2026 shows nearly 17% of stablecoin-linked card volume is concentrated in business and commercial card programmes, offering one of the network's most specific disclosures yet on where stablecoin activity is settling within its ecosystem. The figure is a single-source company claim; methodology and sample details were not disclosed in material reviewed by The Fin Desk.

Coinbase opened IPO-access to eligible U.S. retail customers on 21 September 2026, allowing them to request shares at the final offer price. The first listing available through the feature is Oura, a smart-ring maker that has filed an S-1/A with the SEC.

Global Payments reported Q4 2024 adjusted EPS of $2.95, up 12% on a constant-currency basis, alongside a $250 million accelerated share repurchase and an upward revision to its transformation programme target of $600 million in operating income benefit. The results were released as the company moved to complete its acquisition of Worldpay.

Adyen has nominated Niclas Neglen, formerly CFO of Klarna for six years, to lead its finance function and join its statutory Management Board from 1 February 2027, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.

Visa has announced a Taulia-SAP ERP partnership, the general availability of its Commercial Solutions Hub and a domestic stablecoin settlement capability alongside a new Global Stablecoins Advisory Practice. The moves collectively signal an effort to embed Visa deeper into B2B payment workflows from origination through to settlement.

A targeted cyberattack on Revolut on 11 September 2022 exposed personal data including names and email addresses of more than 50,000 customers before the company contained the intrusion. Lithuania's State Data Protection Inspectorate has formally opened an investigation into the breach.

AI-generated synthetic identities have been shown to defeat document verification, video verification, liveness detection and biometric matching — the four layers underpinning most digital KYC frameworks in European banking. Research corroborated by State of Surveillance finds the assumption of layered redundancy that justified current remote onboarding architectures no longer holds.

A Mastercard-commissioned Bain & Company report projects fintechs will hold 48% of primary SME cross-border payment relationships by 2028, up from 30% in 2025, while banks are forecast to fall from 42% to 28% over the same period. The findings draw on a survey of internationally active SMEs across 11 countries.

Worldline announced on 15 January 2026 that it is introducing capabilities to connect AI agents to its global payment ecosystem, framing the move as infrastructure for merchants to experiment with agentic commerce. The France-headquartered payments group is one of several companies announcing agentic payment initiatives within a short window, alongside IDEMIA Secure Transactions and WSPN.

Visa launched its Tokenized Asset Platform on 3 October 2024, giving banks access to a sandbox environment to create and manage fiat-backed tokens, with Spanish bank BBVA named as the first partner for live Ethereum pilots expected in 2025.

Checkout.com has announced an annualised net revenue run-rate of $750 million for 2026, representing 28% year-on-year growth, alongside a return to full-year profitability. The UK-registered payments processor also disclosed it processed over $300 billion in total payment volume in 2025, a 64% annual increase.

Global Payments reported Q4 2024 GAAP diluted EPS of $2.25, up 63% year-on-year, and adjusted EPS of $2.95, rising 12% in constant currency, as the payments technology group announced a $250 million accelerated share repurchase and upgraded its operational transformation target to $600 million in operating income benefit.

Mastercard's inaugural Dreamonomics report finds 89% of small and medium-sized business owners want more digital tools, while 71% cite cyber protection as a priority — even as 68% say they favour stability over speed. Key methodological details including sample size and country coverage are not confirmed in verified press materials.

Visa has released the 2025 edition of its Global Digital Shopping Index for Brazil, produced with PYMNTS, positioning embedded payment functionality in apps, websites and AI environments as a structural change in retail rather than a product feature. Several data figures linked to the report remain unverified and have been withheld pending primary-source extraction.

Visa and OpenAI announced a strategic collaboration on 10 June 2026 at the Visa Payments Forum in San Francisco, embedding Visa's tokenisation, credentialing and risk infrastructure into OpenAI platforms to support autonomous, agent-initiated transactions. The arrangement includes user-defined spending limits and merchant restrictions to preserve cardholder control over AI-executed payments.

Mastercard and PYMNTS co-convened an executive roundtable on agentic commerce at Mastercard's New York City Tech Hub in September 2026, moderated by PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster. Panelist identities, attendance figures and specific takeaways could not be independently verified from primary sources at publication time.

Visa has announced a series of product moves spanning real-time domestic transfers, AI-agent payment infrastructure and commercial payments tooling, with a one-minute funds-availability commitment for US cardholders taking effect in April 2025. The announcements signal a deliberate effort to extend the network's reach beyond traditional card rails.

Visa introduced its Tokenised Asset Platform on 3 October 2024, enabling financial institutions to issue and manage fiat-backed tokens on blockchain networks via the Visa Developer Platform. BBVA has been named as a pilot partner, with live tests on the public Ethereum blockchain expected in 2025.

Deutsche Bank has announced plans to offer digital asset custody for institutional and corporate clients across Europe, covering Bitcoin, Ether and select stablecoins including euro-denominated EURC and AllUnity EUR. The service, built over three years with infrastructure partner Taurus, is conditional on regulatory clearance under MiCA.

Visa has announced a series of moves between July and September 2026 spanning behavioural biometrics, stablecoin infrastructure, account-to-account fraud prevention and onchain lending. The announcements, confirmed across Visa's official newsroom and press release listing, signal an intent to operate across multiple layers of the digital payments stack.

Five domestic payment networks — Bancomat, Bizum, EPI Company/Wero, SIBS-MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay — have established a jointly owned entity called the European Network for Payments to connect their systems across 13 countries. The equal-shareholding structure, announced on 30 September 2026, follows an MoU signed in February and targets cross-border instant account-to-account payments starting with P2P transfers.

Visa has announced a series of initiatives spanning AI-enabled payments, upgraded merchant services and a blockchain tokenisation platform for financial institutions. Taken together, the moves outline where the network is betting the next phase of commerce will be shaped.

Visa announced a strategic collaboration with OpenAI on 10 June 2026 at the Visa Payments Forum in San Francisco, committing its credentialing, tokenisation and security infrastructure to support AI agent-initiated transactions. The arrangement keeps payments within user-defined spending limits and merchant restrictions.

EBANX product director Sebastian Fantini told PYMNTS on 17 September 2026 that global merchants risk authorisation failures and checkout friction by treating Latin America as a uniform payment landscape. The company's infrastructure separates multi-country methods from country-specific local rails across Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Rutgers University, RWJBarnabas Health and Amazon Web Services announced a joint innovation hub on 15 September 2026, focused on AI development to support a future unified medical school merging Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and New Jersey Medical School. The Rutgers School of Medicine is pending accreditation in 2027 and expects its first student intake in 2028.