Fiserv bets on Japan's digital initiative; Klarna deepens Walmart ties

• Key insight: Fiserv has signed a deal with Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company to sell payments technology to Japanese merchants. 
• What's at stake: The bank technology seller is recovering from a recent earning slump. 
• Forward look: Japan's government is pushing digital payments, creating an opportunity for payment technology companies. 

Three months after posting an earnings miss that analysts said was "difficult to comprehend," Fiserv has reached a deal with Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company that enables the bank technology company to sell payments technology to thousands of businesses in Japan. 

Expected to take effect in late 2026, Fiserv says it will tailor Clover to sell a localized version in Japan, which is in the midst of a government-backed initiative to reduce cash payments by 65% in the next four years.  

"This marks a significant step in expanding our global reach and enabling businesses of all sizes to thrive in a new era of commerce," said Mike Lyons, CEO of Fiserv, in a release. Clover, Fiserv's point of sale system, is a venue for the company to showcase payment technology and a way to compete with merchant-facing fintechs such as PayPal, Stripe and Block. Fiserv is looking to sell Clover internationally, launching Clover in Brazil in December 2024 and Australia in March 2025.

Lyons, who after Fiserv's earnings miss in October said, "Our current performance is not where we want it to be nor where our stakeholders expect it to be" also promised a "vigorous analysis" of the company. 

Clover has been a catalyst for earnings in the past. Fiserv's point of sale system, which it acquired from First Data, helped the company grow during the Covid-19 pandemic when merchants rushed to add digital payments and e-commerce. 

Lyons became CEO of Fiserv in February 2025, taking over for Frank Bisignano, the long-time CEO of Fiserv as well as First Data — the payment processor Fiserv acquired in 2020. Bisignano has joined the Trump administration as head of the Social Security Administration and CEO of the Internal Revenue Service.

Fiserv's next earnings report is scheduled for Feb. 10. In a research note on Wednesday, analysts at Jeffries said they were "not expecting any other shoes to drop" at Fiserv. —John Adams  

ADRIAN DENNIS/Photographer: Adrian Dennis/AFP/

Revolut joins Google's Agent Payments Protocol

Revolut is tossing its hat into the agentic commerce ring with the hopes of becoming a core payment rail for AI agents in Europe and the U.K. 

Revolut is working to make its checkout solution, Revolut Pay, compatible with AI agents. The company is also adapting the flows for account-to-account payments in an agentic transaction, the company said. 

"The future of shopping isn't a website; it's a conversation. We aim to move beyond the click-and-pay model to a world where your AI assistant streamlines the checkout for you," Revolut's General Manager of Acquiring Alex Codina said in a statement. "By enabling Revolut Pay for Agentic Commerce, we are aiming to make our customers' favorite, most secure payment experience the standard for AI-driven transactions. This will ensure speed, trust, and absolute zero friction for the next generation of digital buying."

AP2 is an open protocol that establishes a payment-agnostic framework for users, merchants and payments, and is being developed by payment companies such as Adyen, American Express, Coinbase, Gr4vy, Mastercard, Worldpay and others. Google earlier this month also unveiled its Universal Commerce Protocol, or UCP, a protocol that allows retailers' systems to work with AI agents. —Joey Pizzolato

Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

Klarna expands lending via Walmart-backed fintech

As Klarna adds more financial services beyond buy now/pay later, it is also bolstering its existing lending options. 

The Swedish financial institution plans to launch Swipe to Finance, a payment option for consumers that use OnePay, a fintech backed by Walmart and Ribbit Capital that's open to shoppers at Walmart and other retailers.

Using Klarna's payment processing tools, OnePay Cash consumers can convert recent purchases into payment plans within the OnePay app. The product is designed to reach consumers that wish to finance purchases beyond the point of sale, which is the starting point for most buy now/pay later loans. 

"Not every purchase comes at the right time," said Thomas Hoare, chief commercial officer at OnePay, in a release. Swipe to Finance is scheduled to debut in the "coming months," according to the companies, and will add to an existing partnership between Klarna and OnePay.

Klarna's other moves include a digital wallet, a debit card using technology from Marqeta and Visa's Flexible Credentials, and phone plans.—John Adams 

Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg

Santander seeks a role in the agentic commerce race

With large banks preparing for agentic artificial intelligence to impact financial services, Santander has provided some details on its approach. Getnet, a Santander-owned fintech, says it will enable autonomous AI agents to initiate, manage and execute purchases and transactions for consumers. 

Getnet will do this by using its existing merchant acquiring platform, which has an application programming interface that enables multi-country integration. The API supports security and compliance, and will be the rail to support agent identification and validation, along with interoperability with financial industry protocols for agentic AI. 

"Agentic commerce represents a turning point at which AI ceases to observe the customer's journey and starts to drive it with autonomous agents that discover, make deals and pay on behalf of customers," Juan Franco, Getnet global CEO, said in a release. —John Adams 

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Block's loan originations surpass $200 billion

Block's loan originations across its business lines, including Afterpay, Cash App and Square, surpassed $200 billion globally, the company said. 

Block has been beefing up lending operations last year after receiving the go-ahead in March from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to begin originating and servicing small-dollar loans, called Cash App Borrow, on its peer-to-peer network. Block previously used First Electronic Bank, a Utah-chartered industrial bank, as its sponsor bank to originate and service those loans. 

In 2024, Cash App Borrow originated nearly $9 billion in loans, according to the company. Its merchant acquiring business, Square, also expanded its small-business lending to the U.K. in July of last year.

Block uses its own internal credit score, and has been a vocal critic of the way traditional financial institutions extend and report credit. 

"Traditional lenders use scale to be more selective; we use it to be more inclusive while managing risk responsibly," said Brian Boates, Block's risk lead. "Our near real-time underwriting models don't just expand access — they create better outcomes for both customers and our business. This isn't theoretical; we've proven it by scaling to $200 billion in lending while maintaining consistent loss rates."

Cash App Borrow had about a 3% loss rate among its borrowing base, of which 70% had a FICO score below 580. About 96% of its BNPL loans were paid on time, and only 2% of purchases incurred a late fee. And Square Loans had a loss rate of less than 3%, according to Block. 

Block has also been working to merge Afterpay, its buy now/pay later point of sale lending business that it acquired in 2021, into Cash App, and in November released a slew of new product updates, including an increased credit line on Cash App Borrow, to draw more deposits from banks and bring more young people to its platform. 

Banks are wary of nonbank payment rivals, according to American Banker research. Nearly 70% of bankers said they were confident that nonbank payment companies would increase their market share in 2026.  —Joey Pizzolato

Bloomberg

Circle Ventures invests in stablecoin API startup

Circle Ventures, the venture capital arm of Circle Internet Group, has made an undisclosed investment in BlindPay, a stablecoin API fintech, BlindPay said. 

BlindPay's API allows companies to send and receive payments using fiat and stablecoins with low transaction fees and instant settlement, get FX quotes, and connect to instant payment systems in Latin America, according to Circle. BlindPay will use the funds to grow its network of partners, including financial institutions and digital platforms, the company said.  

"We're focused on building modern infrastructure to simplify cross-border money transfers, especially between Brazil and the United States, using stablecoins like USDC," said BlindPay founder and CEO Bernardo Simonassi in a statement. "Circle Ventures' support represents an important step that helps us move faster toward that goal and continue expanding access to more inclusive, transparent, and efficient payment solutions." 

BlindPay is a Y Combinator-backed startup that was founded in May 2024 and has secured $3.8 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. —Joey Pizzolato

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

FCA wants fintechs and payments companies to join a 'stablecoin sprint'

The U.K.'s key financial regulator is calling on "innovators, consumer groups, regulators," fintechs and payment companies to join its "stablecoin sprint" to help shape the future of stablecoin payments in the country. 

The Financial Conduct Authority will hold the sprint in March. That event will focus on shaping policy and setting standards for stablecoin payments in retail payment, cross-border payments, remittances, and e-commerce and B2B transactions. 

The FCA will also hold a trade payments roundtable in May that will focus specifically on potential stablecoin applications for B2B and trade finance. 

Applications to participate in the events are due by Feb. 4, and the FCA will let applicants know the status of their application by Feb. 14, according to the FCA. —Joey Pizzolato

Bloomberg

Stripe boosts credit card alternative in Finland

Payments technology company TrueLayer has inked a deal with Stripe to sell account-to-account payments in Finland.

TrueLayer's open banking technology drives Kustom Checkout, which will add an option to execute payments directly between consumer and merchant bank accounts.

Stripe, which has a stake in TrueLayer, initially launched account-to-account payments in the U.K., France and Germany in 2025. Also called pay by bank, A2A payments are an older payment method that has gained ground in recent years as a way to avoid credit card fees. The method has become popular enough for the card networks to offer A2A to boost relationships with their merchant clients. 

"With pay by bank now available to 100% of the Finnish population, businesses can offer a truly universal payment experience," says Mikko Karjanlahti, country manager for Finland at Kustom, in a release. —John Adams