Visa has rolled out Visa A2A, its account-to-account payment scheme, in the U.K., allowing customers to manage bills and subscriptions through their banking app. It also allows merchants the ability to include more transaction data for reconciliation and to see when a consumer changes or cancels payment permissions.
Visa A2A uses
"Visa A2A is a game-changer — it means for the first time U.K. consumers and businesses using Pay by Bank will benefit from a similar level of protection typically associated with card payments," Mandy Lamb, managing director at Visa UK and Ireland, said in a statement.
Pay by Bank has struggled to supplant traditional card payments due to the lack of incentives that are often required to get consumers to switch their payment habits. Some fintechs have been working to
Deutsche Bank partners with Mastercard for A2A payments
Deutsche Bank and Mastercard are teaming up to bring account-to-account payments to merchants across Europe.
The partnership will allow merchants to offer account-to-account payments, also called
"With the further expansion of our partnership, we combine our open-banking payments technology with Deutsche Bank's payments expertise and big merchant base across Europe, and together we're shaping a future where account-based payments are becoming the new norm," said Valerie Nowak, executive vice president of open banking for APEMEA at Mastercard Open Banking, in a statement.
HSBC invests in open banking, account-to-account payment fintech
London-based
HSBC has partnered with Token since 2019; Token powers the bank's Open Payments solution. The size of the investment was not disclosed.
"Our investment in Token.io reflects the trust and confidence we have in their team and technology, and our firm belief in the role that innovative Open Banking solutions play in transforming the payments experience for both corporates and consumers," Manish Kohli, head of global payments solutions at HSBC, said in a statement.
Token said analysts expect A2A payment volumes in Europe to increase by 30% this year, and that three of four Europeans will regularly use Pay by Bank by 2029.
Trump pulls Shift4 CEO's nomination to lead NASA
President Donald Trump over the weekend withdrew his nomination for the chief executive officer of Shift4 Payments to lead NASA.
"After a thorough review of prior associations, I am hereby withdrawing the
While Trump didn't specify his specific reason, KBW analyst Sanjay Sakhrani said in a research note that the "most notable association there is with Elon Musk" rather than some other "inappropriate circumstance."
Shift4 processes payments for SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service and made a $28 million investment into SpaceX in 2021. Isaacman is also a "frequent flyer" on SpaceX and has funded multiple SpaceX flights, according to KBW.
Trump's about-face complicates Shift4's succession planning. Shift4 President Taylor Lauber was set to take over the company's top role once Isaacman was confirmed to lead NASA. Isaacman also said he would surrender majority voting control of the company and reduce his 75% voting interest to 25%.
"The obvious question is whether there is a possibility for Isaacman to retake the [reins] as CEO at [Shift 4], and we view this scenario as a positive if it occurs," Sakhrani said. "To the extent he doesn't, we think investors might question why not."
Banco Santander considers stablecoin plans
Santander's Open Bank has reportedly applied for a license to offer retail crypto services in Europe,
The Spanish bank is considering offering a stablecoin and access to cryptocurrencies for retail clients. Santander is the latest financial institution to consider launching a stablecoin, following rival BBVA, which said in October that it had plans to launch its own stablecoin with Visa this year.
Stablecoins are having a moment in Europe thanks to the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, a 2024 rule that created a framework for crypto assets, issuers and service providers. Similarly in the U.S., stablecoins have gained new momentum thanks to the
Some of the largest banks in the U.S., such as
Almost half of European e-commerce transactions are tokenized
Mastercard's
Tokenized transactions via Secure Card on File, Click to Pay and digital wallets have increased by roughly 33% this year, accounting for nearly half of all e-commerce transactions, Mastercard said. The data comes one year after Mastercard said it wanted to phase out manual card entry in favor of tokenization.
"One year into our 100% tokenization and authentication journey, Europe is gaining strong momentum," said Brice van de Walle, executive vice president of Core Payments Europe at Mastercard, in a statement. "We're working with partners to make digital payments more secure and seamless, through Click to Pay, passkeys and tokens."
Merchant tokenization, which Mastercard calls Secure Card on File, is now live in 45 European countries and territories. And Click to Pay has expanded to 26 European markets, with enrollments more than doubling over the past year.
Crypto platform Kraken partners with instant payment fintech Ivy
Cryptocurrency trading platform Kraken is using fintech Ivy as its instant payment provider in Europe.
Under the new partnership, Kraken users will be able to deposit and make spot purchases using instant bank payments through SEPA Instant, the instant payment scheme in the Single European Payments Area. The crypto platform has more than 15 million users worldwide.
"For
Ivy has offices in Berlin, Munich, London and Helsinki, and has secured more than $30 million in funding, including investments from Creandum and Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures.
Kraken, which was founded in 2011, has more than 300 digital assets and six national currencies trading on its platform, according to the company.
European Trust Payments teams with Trulioo for verification
Payment technology provider Trust Payments has partnered with Trulioo for person and business verification in an effort to reduce costs and consolidate technology providers.
Trust Payments, which was founded in 2019 and processed 1 billion pounds ($1.4 billion) of payments in 2024, will use a number of Trulioo's
"Building trust online is more important than ever," Trulioo CEO Vicky Bindra said in a statement. "Enabling high-growth companies such as Trust Payments to consolidate processes, reduce costs and scale confidently is exactly what we aim to deliver. We're excited to support its continued expansion across Europe and beyond."
