- Key insights: Google has added Klarna to its Universal Commerce Protocol, which guides agentic commerce.
- What's at Stake: The card brands and other large payment companies have signed on to support UCP.
- Forward Look: As new forms of AI spread in the payments industry, there will be a need to ensure AI bots communicate safely and accurately.
Google's push to create a standard for artificial intelligence "agents" to communicate and recognize each other is gaining traction, with Klarna becoming the latest financial institution to signal its support.
Best known in the U.S. as a buy now/pay later lender, the Sweden-based Klarna will
"As AI-driven shopping continues to evolve, it's important that the underlying commerce infrastructure is built on openness, trust, and transparency," said David Sykes, chief commercial officer at Klarna, in a release. "Supporting UCP is part of Klarna's broader work with Google to help define responsible, interoperable standards that support the future of shopping."
Payoneer expands local collections in Mexico, Indonesia
Cross-border payment fintech Payoneer is adding local collections in Mexico and Indonesia that will increase the speed at which merchants receive funds.
Local collections allow merchants to receive funds from international buyers in the country's domestic currency and across domestic payment rails, which reduces the cost of transactions in addition to speeding up funding times.
"Global trade is dynamic — reshaping in response to macro factors and trade policy," said Derek Green, senior vice president of treasury and payment services at Payoneer, in a statement. "By expanding our capabilities in critical markets like Mexico and Indonesia, we continue to empower our customers as they look to expand into fast growing markets, leveraging our e-commerce marketplace ecosystem to enable access to customer demand on Amazon Mexico, Walmart, Mercado Libre and Shopee."
Indonesia makes up more than half of e-commerce volume within the ten countries that are part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc, which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Payoneer has customers in more than 190 countries, according to the company. —Joey Pizzolato
DLocal, Amway collaborate on 'local payments' in Latin America
Uruguay-based fintech dLocal is attempting to boost scale by supporting local payment methods for Amway sellers.
Amway will work through dLocal to support payments in local currency and local card processing, which is designed to improve authorization, faster settlement and clearer reporting for Amway sellers. Columbia is the initial market for the partnership, which will expand to other parts of Latin America over time. The companies are trying to address friction in payments that involve sellers and buyers in different markets.
"As a global direct selling company, payments need to work reliably at the local level," said Carolina Vásquez, customer service manager at Amway Latin America, in a release. "Overall, the experience for both our operations and our end users has been positive."
DLocal is in the midst of a
"Consumer payments in Latin America demand local rails and coverage to maximize acceptance and reliability," said Agustin Botta, head of EMEA at dLocal, in a release. —John Adams
Zip Co. adds two-payment option
Buy now/pay later lender Zip is adding a payment option that allows customers to split purchases into two installments paid over the course of two weeks.
The two-payment installment loan is designed for everyday spending and
"Pay in 2 offers the flexibility to bridge the time between paychecks for smaller, recurring purchases without the commitment of a longer installment plan," said Joe Heck, Zip's U.S. CEO, in a statement.
Competitor Affirm also offers two-payment terms on its installment loans. —Joey Pizzolato
FuturePay teams with PaySafe for LatAm expansion
Hong Kong-based cross-border payments fintech FuturePay is looking to expand into Latin America with the help of PaySafe.
FuturePay will use PaySafe's non-card payment platform called SafetyPay to offer merchants bank transfers and cross-border transactions in the region. SafetyPay also connects to local payment networks, including Pix in Brazil and PaySafe-owned digital wallet PagoEfectivo, which operates in Peru.
All told, the partnership covers Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru, according to PaySafe.
Merchants will also be able to accept
Corpay offloads mobile parking payment business to private equity firm
Corporate payments company Corpay is selling its mobile payment business PayByPhone to private equity firm Lightyear Capital, the company said Wednesday ahead of its quarterly earnings report.
"The transaction is another step to simplify our portfolio, and speed our rotation to more corporate payments," Corpay Chairman and CEO Ron Clarke said in a statement.
The deal is expected to close in the second quarter, and won't affect its 2026 cash outlook, the company said, without providing further details. Corpay acquired PayByPhone in 2022 for $302 million, according to a Keefe Bruyette & Woods research note.
The sale supports the company's renewed focus on its corporate payments business, KBW analyst Sanjay Sakhrani said. "We view this move as accretive to the story not only because it simplifies Corpay's story towards focus on corporate payments, but also likely raises liquidity to be more aggressive on capital return."
Corpay had previously indicated that it could raise up to $1.5 billion through divestitures, according to KBW. —Joey Pizzolato
BNP Paribas offers financing for Apple purchases
One of the early forms of what would be called "buy now/pay later" involved a
BNP Paribas is making a similar move by providing what it is calling a flexible finance account for Apple customers in the U.K., covering Apple's physical, online, and app stores.
The bank is trying to encourage larger cart sizes by allowing consumers to finance multiple products in a single transaction, which BNP will offer through Creation, the bank's consumer brand.
The financing options include a credit line specific to Apple products such as iPhones, Macs, iPods, Apple Watches and related accessories. The bank is also offering a range of 0% and interesting bearing offers and a monthly payment plan similar to a BNPL loan.
"We're making this possible by bringing fairness and flexibility to how consumers break down their purchases into affordable installments both online, and in Apple Stores across the U.K.," Stephen Hunt, CEO at BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK, said in a release. —John Adams
Spotify hooks up with Checkout.com's payments AI
Audio streaming service Spotify has partnered with Checkout.com to support subscriptions for Spotify, which has more than 280 million paying customers.
Spotify will use Intelligent Acceptance, an artificial-intelligence powered payment product that draws on data from Checkout.com of merchants to determine the best route for payments based on cost, accuracy and speed, a process called
"By combining our global acquiring network with Intelligent Acceptance – which performs 87 million real-time optimizations daily – we're helping maximize acceptance rates, reduce costs, and deliver the best possible payment experience for Spotify's global audience, today and in the future," Guillaume Pousaz, CEO and founder of Checkout.com, said in a release. —John Adams
