Fintech Payments Trends and Funding
Card networks, real-time rails, stablecoin settlement, and the processors moving money between them. Every entry cites its primary source.
More: Banking · Crypto and Stablecoins · Lending · Investing · Insurance
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India's NPCI Delays 0.4% UPI Merchant Fee Rollout Past Oct. 15
NPCI has postponed the planned October 15 implementation of a 0.4% fee on large UPI transactions, citing the festive shopping season. Operators building on UPI rails or pricing payment acceptance in India need to revise their compliance and margin timelines.
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PBOC Approves Visa to Launch Domestic Card Clearing Operation in China
China's central bank has granted Visa an 'Application to Prepare' approval, allowing it to begin building a domestic bankcard clearing business in the country. This is a consequential market-access milestone for the global card scheme duopoly and shifts the competitive…
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OPay Files SEC S-1 for US IPO, Reporting 50M Monthly Active Users
OPay, the Africa- and emerging-market-focused digital financial platform, has filed an S-1 registration statement with the SEC to go public in the US, disclosing 50.1 million monthly active users. The filing is a market-structure signal for operators tracking cross-border…
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The Clearing House Picks Quant to Run US Tokenized Deposit Interop Network
The Clearing House has selected UK-based Quant to build and power its On-Chain Money Initiative, a new interoperable payments network enabling US financial institutions to clear and settle tokenized deposit transactions. This is a market-structure event: TCH is the operator of…
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SoFi Goes Live with Stablecoin Settlement on Mastercard Rails, Targeting $25B Volume
SoFi has launched production stablecoin settlement using SoFiUSD on Mastercard's network, with its card program targeting $25 billion in annualized volume — making this one of the first live stablecoin-on-card-scheme deployments at scale. Payments operators should watch this as…
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SEC Releases Final Innovation Exemption for Digital Capital Markets
The SEC issued its long-anticipated innovation exemption, formally opening a regulatory pathway for digital-asset capital markets activity outside the standard securities framework. Operators should assess which product structures now qualify for exemption and update compliance…
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India Imposes 0.4% Merchant Fee on Large UPI Transactions Starting Oct. 15
India's government will apply a 0.4% merchant discount rate to select UPI transactions beginning October 15, ending the zero-cost model that has governed the world's largest real-time payments network. Operators running cross-border or merchant-facing payment products connected…
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DBS and Citi Complete First Weekend Cross-Border USD Settlement via Tokenized Deposits
DBS and Citi’s New York office settled a live USD payment between Singapore and the US on Saturday 5 September using tokenised deposits on Swift’s Digital Ledger. It took minutes against the usual two business days, and it ran outside banking hours: the first weekend…
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TabaPay Files to Acquire Community Bank, Seeks Charter Conversion to TabaPay Bank
Instant payments firm TabaPay has announced a $155M fundraise and filed to acquire Transact Bank, aiming to convert it into TabaPay Bank — a direct charter-acquisition strategy that signals a new playbook for fintechs seeking banking infrastructure without a de novo application.
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Félix Raises $200M Series C from a16z and General Catalyst for WhatsApp Remittances
Miami-based Félix, which routes remittances for Latino immigrants via WhatsApp, closed a $200M Series C co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst. The round signals top-tier conviction in conversational-channel money movement as a distribution wedge against traditional…
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Nacha IAT Definition Rule Takes Effect September 18
Nacha's final rule clarifying the definition of International ACH Transactions goes live September 18, tightening the scope of what must be flagged and screened for cross-border compliance. Operators processing payroll or vendor payments with any international leg need to audit…
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Nacha Funds Availability Rule Effective September 18
Nacha's updated funds availability requirements become mandatory on September 18, accelerating when receiving banks must make ACH credits accessible to account holders. This directly compresses float windows and changes risk exposure for any financial institution processing ACH…
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CFTC Fines Federal Employee $172K for Insider Trading on Kalshi Event Markets
The CFTC ordered a former White House teleprompter operator to pay $172,000 for trading on non-public information in Kalshi's prediction markets, marking its second federal-employee insider trading settlement in a month. Operators in event-contract and prediction-market…
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Swift Extends ISO 20022 Structured Address Migration Deadline
Swift has formally granted an extension past the November deadline for banks to migrate from unstructured to structured postal addresses in ISO 20022 payment messages, following broad industry requests. Operators running cross-border payment infrastructure need to revise…
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Stripe Acquires AI Gateway OpenRouter in $7B Deal
Stripe has agreed to acquire OpenRouter, an AI model routing platform, for $7 billion, per Bloomberg. The deal signals Stripe embedding AI infrastructure directly into its payments stack, with implications for how payment platforms monetize and route AI-driven transaction flows.
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Ant International Closes $1.2B Series A for Cross-Border Payments Expansion
Ant International, Alibaba's global payments arm, raised $1.2 billion in a Series A equity round to scale cross-border payment infrastructure and agentic commerce capabilities. A raise of this size from an operator with established transaction volume signals a significant…
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PayPal Board Rejects $53B Stripe-Advent Takeover Offer as Undervalued
PayPal's board formally rejected a ~$53 billion acquisition bid from Stripe and Advent International submitted July 15, calling it inadequate — a response that keeps the deal alive for renegotiation on price and structure. For payments operators, a Stripe-PayPal combination…
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Deluxe to Acquire Payments Processor Celero Commerce for $625M Cash
Deluxe has agreed to buy Canadian payments processor Celero Commerce for $625 million in an all-cash deal, combining Deluxe's legacy payments infrastructure with Celero's modern acquiring stack. Operators should note the ongoing consolidation among mid-tier payment processors…
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Adyen Acquires Enterprise Billing Platform Orb for $335M
Dutch payments processor Adyen has agreed to buy enterprise billing platform Orb for $335 million, its second acquisition in recent months as it pushes deeper into corporate billing infrastructure. Operators should note Adyen consolidating the billing layer alongside core…
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Colorado Gov. vetoes law barring swipe fees on taxes
Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, vetoed a bill passed by the state legislature last month that would have barred banks and credit card companies from charging interchange fees on taxes, arguing that the bill would create too much legal risk for businesses and consumers.
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Paxos gets green light to settle securities on blockchain
Paxos has become the first blockchain-native firm to be approved by US regulators to provide clearing and settlement services by the SEC.
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Visa Aims at the Real Virtual Card Bottleneck: Suppliers Who Will Not Take Them
Visa is folding its Accounts Receivable Manager into the Commercial Solutions Hub, so eligible issuers get virtual card processing and reconciliation through one integration when it arrives in September 2026, at no added cost. AR Manager already runs in 69 geographies. The…
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General Catalyst just led a $63M bet on India’s travel payments market
Scapia, an Indian startup that combines travel booking with co-branded credit cards and mobile payments, said the deal doubles its valuation.
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NMI Acquires Dwolla to Add A2A, FedNow and Payout Rails
NMI acquired Dwolla, adding API-first account-to-account payments, real-time payments, FedNow connectivity, open banking and payout capabilities to its embedded payments platform. NMI says the combined business processes close to $700B in annual transaction volume; financial…
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Appeals judge sends Illinois interchange case back to district court
A Seventh Circuit ruling remanded the challenge to Illinois' interchange-fee law, keeping the payments fight active ahead of the July 1 effective date.
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Brazil central bank prohibits crypto use in regulated cross-border payments under new FX rules
The rule forms part of the central bank's broader effort to bring cross-border payments fully inside the regulated FX system.
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US Treasury unveils proposed stablecoin rules targeting money laundering, sanctions
The U.S. Treasury's sanctions agency and its financial crimes bureau released a joint rule proposal for stablecoin issuers.
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Reserve Bank of Australia to introduce caps on interchange fees
The Reserve Bank of Australia is to ban merchant surcharging and cap interchange fees in an effort to boost competition in the payments sector.
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KUBRA sells to REPAY for $372 million
REPAY (NASDAQ:RPAY) acquires KUBRA in a $372 million deal, with FT Partners serving as financial advisor. KUBRA is a customer communications and payment solutions provider.
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EU, UK and Switzerland issue T+1 testing plan ahead of joint move on 11 October 2027
The EU T+1 Industry Committee, UK Accelerated Settlement Taskforce and Swiss Securities Post-Trade Council outlined testing logistics, scenarios and readiness metrics to help firms de-risk the transition.
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Mastercard to offload Nets payments unit bought for $3.2bn - FT
Mastercard is trying to find a buyer for the real-time payments business it acquired for $3.2 billion from Danish outfit Nets in 2019, according to the Financial Times.
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Silverflow — Series B
Cloud-native payment processor Silverflow raises $40M Series B led by Picus Capital. Nearing 1B annual transactions, 1.75M daily.
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Visa Pays $1.5B for Argentina's Prisma, Its Biggest Bet Yet on Issuer Processing
Visa bought 100% of Prisma Medios de Pago and Newpay in Argentina for $1.5 billion cash in February 2026, disclosed in its Q3 FY2026 10-Q. Prisma runs credit, debit and prepaid card issuer processing; Newpay operates real-time payments, the Banelco ATM network and the…
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PicPay raises $434 million in IPO
Brazilian digital payments platform PicPay completes its IPO raising $434 million, with FT Partners serving as IPO advisor and co-manager.
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Credit Key — Growth
B2B embedded payments platform Credit Key raises $90M growth capital from Barings. Embeds into merchant checkout to offer business buyers net terms and flexible repayment.
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Juspay — Series D
Payments infrastructure provider Juspay raises $50M Series D at $1.2B valuation from WestBridge Capital. Processes $1T+ annualized TPV across 300M+ daily transactions.
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FIS Closes $13.5B TSYS Purchase, Splitting the Payments Stack With Global Payments
FIS completed its acquisition of Global Payments' Issuer Solutions business — the former TSYS — on January 12, 2026, at $13.5 billion enterprise value and roughly $12 billion net after $1.5 billion in tax assets, and closed ahead of schedule. FIS simultaneously sold its…
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FedNow Volume Surges 645% YoY, Crosses 1,000 Institutions
FedNow daily transactions grew from 3,657 to 27,239 — a 645% year-over-year increase. Over 1,000 financial institutions across all 50 states are now live, signaling the shift from pilot to production.
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Intermex — M&A (Acquisition)
International Money Express acquired by Western Union at ~$500M ($16/share, 72% premium). Enables remittances from US, Canada, and Europe to 60+ countries.
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Ramp — Series E-2
AI-powered corporate spend management raises $500M at $22.5B valuation led by ICONIQ Capital. 40,000+ customers including Shopify and Notion. Now cash-flow positive.
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Quavo — Growth
Dispute management platform for banks and fintechs secures $300M from Spectrum Equity. Automates 12.5M+ consumer disputes annually. Back-office payments infrastructure.
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Bilt — Series D
Rent payments loyalty platform raises $250M at $10.75B valuation (3x in one year), co-led by General Catalyst and GID. United Wholesale Mortgage put in $100M.
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Airwallex — Series F
Cross-border payments platform raises $300M at $6.2B valuation. $720M annualized revenue, $130B+ annual payments volume. Backed by DST Global, Salesforce Ventures, Visa Ventures.
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AvidXchange — M&A (Take-Private)
AP automation leader AvidXchange taken private by TPG and Corpay at $2.2B ($10/share, 45% premium). FT Partners advised since 2009 across 16+ transactions including 2021 IPO.
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Plaid — Late-Stage
Financial data infrastructure provider raises $575M in common stock at $6.1B valuation (down from $13.4B peak). Led by Franklin Templeton with BlackRock, Fidelity, NEA, and Ribbit Capital.