Mastercard Adds a New Trust Layer for AI-Powered Payments

Hey FinTech Fanatic!

One story that caught my attention today is Mastercard’s latest move into agentic commerce.

Mastercard is expanding Agent Pay with new trust and intelligence services designed to help banks and merchants understand when an AI agent is making a payment, what it is trying to do, and whether the transaction looks legitimate.

The first service is a probability score that identifies whether a transaction was likely initiated by an AI agent, with more signals around behaviour, merchant risk, credentials and transaction patterns coming into the picture.

I find this interesting because agentic commerce is moving from “AI can shop for you” to a much bigger question: how do banks know when an agent should be trusted to actually make the payment?

Mastercard is working with companies including Cloudflare and Skyfire to build that trust layer, and I suspect this will become a pretty important part of payments as more agents start acting on our behalf.

And a big shout-out to Pedro d'Avila and everyone who joined the FinTech Run Club in New York last Tuesday, September 22! The rain didn’t stop us. Despite the typical New York weather, we enjoyed another great day of running, followed by a coffee and a chance to catch up.

Here are a few photos from the run. If you’re in New York on October 14, come join us for the next one! This time, there won’t be coffee afterward, but we’ll have some drinks to celebrate Oktoberfest. 🏃‍♀️🍻

Anyway, plenty more happened in FinTech today.

Let’s dive in, and I’ll be back in your inbox tomorrow!

Cheers,

Marcel

🔴 LIVE FROM SIBOS 

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Not at Sibos? I’ve got you covered.

I’m tracking the announcements, deals, and developments coming out of Sibos across banks, FinTechs, payments companies, and infrastructure providers, and filtering it all down to what I think you need to know.

Here’s what stood out today: 

1. 🌎 Yuno partners with Cyclops to expand stablecoin payments for global businesses. Enterprise merchants, banks, and wallets can now access 30+ stablecoin infrastructure providers through Yuno's existing API and routing tools.

2. 🌏 Mizuho and the World Bank Group launch a $1B risk-sharing facility to expand supply chain finance in Asia-Pacific. IFC will provide up to $500M in risk sharing to help SME suppliers and distributors access working capital over three years.

3. 🌎 SMBC launches an AI platform for working capital management. The platform automates receivables and payables reconciliation using ERP data, helping corporate clients reduce manual work and improve visibility into working capital and cash flow.

That’s it for now. Back at it tomorrow with more from Sibos.

INSIGHTS

💡 Incognia: What happens when fraud starts operating like a business? In the first episode of The Fraud Economy, Dwayne Gefferie sits down with Incognia CEO André Ferraz to unpack how organised fraud networks operate, how they scale, and what makes them so difficult to detect. They also explore the people behind these operations, how different roles fit together, and why traditional approaches to fraud detection can struggle to keep up. Watch the full episode here

FINTECH NEWS

🇺🇸 Mastercard advances agentic commerce with new trust and intelligence services for AI-initiated transactions. The Agent Pay expansion adds a probability score and shared signals to help banks and merchants authorize agent-led purchases with greater confidence. Partners include Cloudflare and Skyfire.

🌏 Airwallex positions its business accounts as agentic infrastructure for global companies. The platform uses AI automation to provision accounts, orchestrate transfers, and optimize FX and liquidity across currencies and markets.

🇺🇸 Amex adds AI and expense tracking to corporate card to counter FinTech rivals. The new cashback card is Amex's first integrated with expense-management software, powered by a dedicated mobile app. AI agents will eventually automate routine expense management and accounts payable workflows.

🇸🇪 Payhawk makes Stockholm its Nordic hub, opening a new office covering Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland. The AI-native spend management platform recently surpassed $100 million in ARR and plans to introduce SEK accounts, SEK cards and Swedish IBANs in Q4 2026.

🇵🇱 Payhawk expands in Poland with a Warsaw office, establishing a standalone commercial region with a dedicated team. The move follows nearly 30% growth in demand from Polish businesses, as Poland becomes the first large EU economy since Italy to mandate B2B e-invoicing via KSeF.

🇺🇸 Robinhood puts the power of hedge funds in every trader's pocket, unveiling Robinhood Agents, perpetual futures, earnings contracts and plans for 24/7 weekend equity trading at HOOD Summit 2026. Over 150,000 customers have already opened agentic trading accounts, with agents using Robinhood's tools almost 30 million times a day.

🌏 Ant International's Antom supports Google Gemini in expanding access to AI services across Asia. The partnership enables Gemini users to pay for AI subscriptions through local payment methods powered by Antom's cross-border payment infrastructure.

PAYMENTS NEWS

🇺🇸 Kroger launches the Kroger Rewards World Elite Mastercard, a new everyday spend credit card with no annual fee. Powered by Imprint, the card lets customers earn up to 5X Points on Kroger com purchases and redeem rewards for grocery and fuel savings.

🇮🇳 Apple Pay launches in India, bringing contactless payments to Axis Bank credit card holders across Visa and Mastercard networks. The service is accepted at millions of merchants and supported by PSPs including Razorpay, Paytm, Pine Labs, and PayU, with more merchants and apps coming over time.

🇪🇺 Bancomat, Bizum, Wero, SIBS and Vipps form the European Network for Payments, a new Madrid entity to connect their solutions via a common A2A interoperability hub. The five partners already serve approximately 130 million users across 13 European countries, with cross-border P2P payments rolling out first.

🇯🇵 Binance Pay enables payments at PayPay merchants in Japan via HIVEX® for inbound travelers. Approximately 48 million eligible Binance Pay users across 100+ countries can now make purchases at millions of PayPay merchant locations nationwide, with merchants settled in yen.

🇬🇧 Ecommpay launches Partial Approval, turning declined card payments into completed transactions. Merchants can now collect lower top-up amounts without forcing customers to restart the payment flow, reducing drop-off at checkout.

🇪🇺 ECB puts AI agent payments on the digital euro drawing board, opening applications for its innovation platform. The experimentation track runs January through June 2027, with participants developing prototypes for e-receipts, conditional payments and AI-enabled transactions.

ARTICLE OF THE DAY

💡 MassPay: What happens when a payment gets stuck at 2 a.m.? The technology can move the money, but someone still needs to solve the problem when things go sideways. MassPay explores why support should be built into the product itself, with dedicated account support for clients and 24/7 human assistance for payees. Why support matters in payments 

DIGITAL BANKING NEWS

🇪🇪 Tuum named a Fast Follower in Everest Group's Innovation Watch: Agentic AI in Banking. The cloud-native core banking platform was assessed among 23 providers globally and positions its open, API-first architecture as giving banks access to the full AI market through one core.

🇷🇴 Revolut reaches 5 million retail customers in Romania, making it one of the company's largest European markets. The milestone comes as Revolut plans further expansion of its product offering in the country.

🌎 Prometeo launches a global trust layer for account verification across 110+ countries. The open banking infrastructure provider aims to help businesses verify bank accounts in real time, expanding beyond its Latin American roots.

🇬🇧 Zopa launches targeted investment support for customers using Invesco funds and Upvest's API. A nine-question assessment recommends a fund based on risk profile, with minimum investments starting at around GBP 1.

🇮🇹 An Italian bank reportedly loses $108M in an elaborate AI voice scam. Fraudsters allegedly used AI-generated voice cloning to impersonate executives and authorize fraudulent wire transfers, marking one of the largest deepfake losses reported.

BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS

🇦🇺 ANZ completes landmark cross-border tokenised deposit payment with Swift, BHP and Citi, settling USD payments between Melbourne and New York. ANZ is the first Australian bank to use Swift's blockchain ledger, demonstrating how shared ledger technology could support faster, seven-day processing.

🇦🇪 Mashreq collaborates with Citi and Swift to complete a live transaction using Swift's blockchain ledger infrastructure and tokenised deposits. The initiative is part of Swift's global pilot with 17 banks, exploring always-on cross-border payment capabilities beyond traditional banking hours.

🇬🇧 FCA opens the gateway to regulated crypto, allowing firms to apply for full authorisation for the first time. Firms intending to continue operating in the UK should apply by 28 February 2027, ahead of the new regime coming into force on 25 October 2027.

STABLECOINS NEWS

🌐 Open Standard issues dollar stablecoin backed by Visa, Stripe, and Mastercard. The consortium-backed token aims to establish an open, interoperable stablecoin standard for global payments infrastructure.

🇺🇸 Lossdog unveils Lucky Dog Coin as the first stablecoin on Zero Hash's Onchain Issuance Platform. Founded by thinkorswim creators Tom Sosnoff and Scott Sheridan, Lossdog plans to use LDC for card-based spending backed by stablecoins.

🇬🇧 Noah founder Shah Ramezani discusses stablecoin-powered cross-border B2B payments with Fintechly. He forecasts the sector growing from around $13B this year to over $500B by 2030, calling regulation the moat for winners.

🇭🇰 HSBC names its forthcoming stablecoin "HSBC RedCoin," backed by a survey showing 74% of local customers recognise at least one stablecoin use case. The phased rollout will begin with P2P and P2M payments, with 62% of respondents citing regulatory clarity as the top confidence booster.

🇪🇺 European stablecoin issuer AllUnity launches USD stablecoin USDAU, regulated under MiCA and debuting on Ethereum, Solana, Base, Tempo, Arc and Polygon. The token maintains a 1:1 USD peg through segregated reserves, bringing dollar liquidity inside Europe's regulatory perimeter.

🇬🇧 Visa and Lloyds complete live trials of stablecoin settlement, marking a step forward for stablecoin use in traditional card network infrastructure. The trials tested how stablecoins can settle transactions between acquirers and issuers within existing payment flows.

PARTNERSHIPS

🌍 Mastercard partners with Mojaloop and AfricaNenda to advance interoperable payments infrastructure across Africa. The collaboration aims to connect instant payment systems and expand financial inclusion across the continent by linking domestic payment networks.

🇦🇪 Bitpanda Enterprise expands its UAE footprint through a strategic partnership with Huru, a CBUAE-licensed FinTech. The integration will add digital asset services to Huru's platform, which offers zero-balance IBAN accounts, Visa cards and remittances to underbanked communities.

🌎 Open Standard and Infinia partner to bring Open USD infrastructure to emerging markets. Infinia connects local clearing grids — including Pix, SPEI, and Transferencias 3.0 — to enable compliant fiat-to-digital asset flows across Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

🇺🇸 Crate & Barrel Holdings partners with Affirm to offer flexible pay-over-time options. Eligible shoppers across Crate & Barrel, CB2, and Crate & Barrel Kids can now pay in biweekly or monthly installments starting at 0% APR in the U.S. and Canada.

🌎 PXP partners with OKTO Payments to offer locally operated Latin American payment rails. The integration covers instant pay-ins, payouts, and local card processing across Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru, and Argentina.

🇮🇹 Scalapay announces a new partnership with AliExpress, bringing BNPL to one of the world's largest online marketplaces. Customers in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal can now pay for AliExpress purchases in 3 or 4 installments with Scalapay.

🇬🇧 Thought Machine partners with AWS on AI-powered migration, combining AWS Transform tooling with Vault Forge to accelerate legacy banking modernisation. The joint solution can compress multi-year COBOL migration processes into days by extracting business intent rather than translating code line by line.

🇺🇸 SWIVEL taps Kinective as core connectivity partner for its real-time payments hub. The integration aims to accelerate real-time payment access for banks through Kinective's connections to 4,300+ financial institutions.

DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS

🌍 IFC commits $90M investment in Airtel Money ahead of its planned $8B+ London IPO. The International Finance Corporation's stake supports Airtel Money's expansion of mobile financial services across its African markets.

🇺🇸 Tiger Global and Dragoneer are in talks to invest in Kalshi's new $1 billion fundraise. The round would value the prediction markets exchange at a significant premium to its previous valuation, according to sources.

🇲🇽 FinTech Galgo secures a $56M credit line from BBVA Spark to expand motorcycle financing in Mexico. The platform has financed over 40,000 people in Mexico and operates across Colombia, Mexico, and Chile with 1,500+ partner stores.

🇺🇸 MoneyStack raises $1M to expand financial counseling in behavioral healthcare. Led by Cistern Capital with participation from the American Heart Association's Social Impact Funds, the raise brings total funding to nearly $2M to integrate financial counselors into behavioral health treatment.

M&A

💡 Largest payments M&A deals of the last decade, mapped by Multiples👇

🇺🇸 Stripe agrees to acquire Parafin, expanding embedded lending for platforms and small businesses. Parafin has helped over 60,000 businesses access capital since 2020, serving platforms including DoorDash, Gusto, and Mindbody with credit, Pay Over Time, and Spend products. Read more

🇸🇬 MoneyHero investor urges the board to consider a potential sale of the company. The Nasdaq-listed financial products platform, which operates across several Asian markets, faces pressure to explore strategic options including a full sale.

🇺🇸 Long Lake, the world's first AI holding company, completes its $6.3B acquisition of Amex GBT. Stockholders received $9.50 per share, a 65.1% premium to the 30-day VWAP, and Amex GBT will delist from NYSE and operate as a private company.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

🇲🇽 Nubank names Estephany Ley as Mexico CEO as it reshuffles its leadership team. Ley's appointment signals Nubank's focus on deepening its presence in one of its key Latin American growth markets.

🇩🇰 Former Saxo Bank deputy CEO Søren Kyhl leaves his CEO role at Nordic neobank Lunar. Kyhl joined Lunar in June after a decade at Saxo Bank but stepped down citing a mismatch in leadership profile for the company's next phase.

🇳🇱 Backbase appoints Roland Booijen as CPO, Agentic Banking. The Tikkie founder and ABN AMRO alum will lead product strategy across conversational banking, relationship intelligence, and customer operations.

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