JPMorganChase, Ant team for real-time 'on-chain' Asian payments

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• JPMorganChase and Ant are speeding transaction processing for business payments.
• Airwallex makes a deal to bolster its payments tech.
• Wise considers a U.K. banking license, and more in this week's global payments and fintech roundup.

Chinese technology giant Ant International has completed a nearly instant U.S. dollar to euro foreign exchange payment in Asia through JPMorganChase 's blockchain unit, giving a boost to efforts to enable international interoperability for real-time payments.

Ant, which is affiliated with the Alipay digital wallet, integrated JPMorganChase's Kinexys Digital Payments into Whale, Ant's blockchain treasury management platform. Ant's goal is to reduce processing steps for multicurrency cross-border business transactions.

Blockchains, which support cryptocurrencies, have long been used to streamline cross-border payments, particularly as firms such as Ripple use distributed ledgers to cut time, fees and correspondent banks out of international e-commerce.

In the case of JPMorganChase and Ant, the payment system is designed to give businesses access to liquidity across a group of currencies, including U.S. dollars, euros and British pounds. These businesses can make payments outside of business hours that settle in a few seconds.

"Near-instant on-chain FX cross-border payments through Kinexys Digital Payments provide businesses with uninterrupted access to liquidity across selected global currencies, enabling them to conduct transactions outside of designated market hours and beyond the limitations of traditional market cutoff times," a JPMorganChase spokesperson told American Banker in an email. "By overcoming limited settlement windows and currencies, on-chain FX settlements can enable new economic efficiencies."

JPMorganChase is expanding its blockchain payments as a growing number of banks use payment automation to lure business-to-business clients, JPMorganChase recently expanded its B2B strategy adding programmable payments through the bank's digital asset and blockchain unit. —John Adams

Anthony Kwan/Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloom

Airwallex acquires billing fintech to compete with Stripe

Airwallex has acquired software-as-a-service platform OpenPay for an undisclosed amount in an effort to directly compete with Stipe Billing, a recurring payments tool for small businesses.

San Francisco-based OpenPay provides billing, subscription management, payment orchestration and revenue analytics tools to small businesses.

"Most billing systems are locked in the past, they were never designed for a global, multi-currency world. That's the gap we're closing," said Jack Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Airwallex, in a statement.

Payment fintechs are increasingly looking for ways to entice small businesses into the fold. The OpenPay acquisition comes as Airwallex looks to compete with other payment fintechs that have made small businesses their bread and butter, such as Stripe, and other emerging subscription billing fintechs, such as Recurly.

Billing capabilities are expected to be available to Airwallex customers in the fourth quarter, according to the company. —Joey Pizzolato 

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Wise considers UK banking license

International remittance fintech Wise is considering applying for a banking charter in the United Kingdom, The Times reported.

Wise is in the early stages of exploring the license and has not yet applied for one, according to The Times.

Wise, which was founded in 2011, is currently classified as an electronic money institution in the country. That classification allows Wise to move money but does not allow it to take deposits or lend using those deposits. Money held in consumers' accounts must also be ring-fenced.

A banking license will allow Wise to gain direct access to U.K. payment rails in a move that will reduce its margin expense to third-party banks that currently provide that service to the fintech, Simon Taylor, an advisor at Sardine, said in a LinkedIn post. It will also help to reduce counterparty risk for Wise.

Wise applied for a U.S. banking charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in June. A U.S. banking charter would provide similar benefits to the company, including direct access to FedNow rails and autonomy from the country's sponsored bank system most fintechs are required to follow. —Joey Pizzolato

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Visa adds green data for payment processing

Visa will incorporate data from U.K. climate fintech Ample Earth into merchant payments as part of a strategy to expand analysis of the environmental impact of commerce.

The card brand argues there is a demand for data on the sustainability of the materials and resources that merchants access through supply chains, yet a lack of sources for that data.

Visa and Ample will gather and include sustainable data in digital banking apps and loyalty programs, enabling the banks to offer incentives based on merchant and consumer segments that have an interest in lowering carbon footprints. Apple analyzes merchants' environmental impact and produces labels and tags that serve as a score that consumers can view and act on.

"Transactions are a touchpoint people interact with daily. By helping people understand the impact of their spending, we can empower millions of businesses and customers to use their purchasing power as a force for good," said Raja Darbari, co-founder & CEO of Ample Earth, in a release.

Visa and Mastercard have deployed dozens of products and services that measure, manage and invest in environmental issues, such as carbon calculators, support for carbon offsets and loyalty programs for "green payments." At the same time, a growing number of U.S.-based banks have pulled away from environmentally focused strategies during President Trump's second term.—John Adams

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Klarna launches flexible credential card in Europe

Swedish buy now/pay later financier Klarna is launching its Klarna Card across Europe following the card's U.S. launch in July.

The Klarna Card is issued by Marqeta and powered by Visa's Flexible Credentials, technology that allows the payer to access multiple funding sources, such as debit, credit, prepaid, installment plans or multicurrency accounts from a single physical or digital card.

The Klarna Card defaults to debit payments, but users can choose other payment options through the app, including Pay in 3, its 30-day option Pay Later, or longer-term financing for larger purchases, according to Klarna.

Klarna is currently rolling out the card to consumers in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. It also has plans to add more markets, including Denmark, Germany, Norway and Poland "soon."

BNPL-affiliated cards have proven themselves to be a great way for providers to drive increases in gross merchandise volume and acquire new customers. The Affirm Card, which is also issued by Marqeta and powered by Visa Flexible Credentials, has been a key piece of its strategy this year as it worked toward profitability targets. —Joey Pizzolato

Ingenico

Ingenico names new chief financial officer

Ingenico has named Joanne Bennett its new chief financial officer, effective Sept. 1.

Bennett will replace Jon Locke, who will become a member of Ingenico's supervisory board. Locke was named CFO of Ingenico in June of last year.

"We are delighted to welcome Joanne to Ingenico," said Laurent Blanchard, Ingenico's CEO, in a statement. "Her financial leadership, deep transformation expertise, and experience across multiple businesses and in private equity environments make her a strong addition to our leadership team."

Bennett most recently served as CFO of McCarthy Stone, a retirement community developer and manager. She also served as CFO of Swedish bedding company Hilding Anders International and women's clothing company Jacques Vert Group, according to her LinkedIn profile. —Joey Pizzolato

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PayPal invests in agentic AI startup

As PayPal leans on agentic AI to enhance its shopping and payment technology, it's also investing in firms that are developing new forms of artificial intelligence.

PayPal Ventures this week led an $18 million funding round in Kite, a company that builds technology to AI-generated autonomous payments.

Kite's products include Agent Identity Resolution, which allows AI agents to authenticate users and make payments. It supports blockchain technology that is designed for AI agents, which perform tasks with little or no human supervision.

Kite also offers an Agent App Store, which includes application programming interfaces, data analysis and other digital payment tools. The app store recently went live through integrations with Shopify, PayPal and other e-commerce firms.—John Adams

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Most UK adults don't carry a wallet or purse

The U.K. ATM network Link reports that only 48% of U.K. adults carry a wallet or purse outside of their homes, though 51% still have made at least one payment in cash per week.

In a report called "Tapping into Trouble?," Link said the reliance on digital payments is also increasing risk for consumers.

Sixty one percent of consumers have experienced a payment failure, according to Link's research.

The cost of maintaining cash has been a major issue in the U.K. in recent years, leading to disputes between regulators and banks over rules that require banks to accommodate a lingering demand for cash while investing in digital payments.

The Financial Conduct Authority, for example, requires banks and credit unions to link access to cash, check cashing, manual withdrawals, and deposit availability to branch networks, in effect creating hurdles to financial institutions trying to close centers to cut costs or add fees to ATMs. The FCA has also encouraged resource sharing and alternative access to cash. —John Adams