Visa has appointed Antony Cahill as its new regional president and CEO for European operations, effective in early June. His appointment is subject to regulatory approval.
Cahill replaces Charlotte Hogg, who is departing Visa after eight years to pursue opportunities outside of the payment processing giant. In a LinkedIn post, she wrote that she is joining Alter Domus, a company that provides fund administration and corporate services for the alternative investment industry, as CEO.
"We are grateful to Charlotte for all she has done to advance our business in Europe," said
In his new role, Cahill will be tasked with building upon the foundation Hogg laid during her eight-year tenure. Hogg has been credited with increasing revenue in the region, expanding Visa's business, and growing its teams and market share in important European markets such as the U.K., France, Germany, Spain and Italy.
Cahill has served as president of value-added services at Visa since 2023, where he was responsible for designing, developing and delivering a global portfolio of more than 200 products. He first joined Visa in 2018 as a managing director for Visa Europe and in September 2021 became deputy CEO of the European market, where he oversaw client relationships in 38 European markets. —Joey Pizzolato
Global Payments divests payroll business
Global Payments is selling its payroll business to Grand Rapids, Michigan-based fintech Acrisure for $1.1 billion, the company announced today. The deal is expected to close in the latter half of 2025 and is subject to regulatory approval.
Global Payments will continue to offer human capital management and payroll services to its merchant customers as part of a referral agreement and long-term commercial partnership with Acrisure.
The divestiture is the latest in Global Payments' ongoing
"I am pleased with the progress we are making with our transformation program as we move aggressively to simplify our business and enhance value for shareholders," said Cameron Bready, CEO of Global Payments, in a statement. "This transaction further sharpens our strategic focus and allows us to amplify investment in the markets and solutions where we are most differentiated, while also positioning the payroll business to benefit from greater scale and investment moving forward." —Joey Pizzolato
Curve adds Apple Pay rival to Apple devices
Taking advantage of
The London-based Curve launched Curve Pay in early May on Android, and has extended access to iPhones and other Apple technology.
Curve Pay replaced an earlier user experience in which consumers had to add their Curve card to Apple's wallet and complete transactions through Apple Pay. The new Curve Pay launched in the U.K. and EU with plans to expand to other markets.
The mobile wallet adds to existing products including a payment app, credit and debit cards. Curve's cards enable users to consolidate other payment card accounts and switch accounts to manage overdraft risk, using advanced
Curve has drawn investors to fuel its product expansion. The company received a $1 billion credit line from Credit Suisse in 2022 and an undisclosed investment from Samsung in 2024 that it has used to open an office in New York to expand in the U.S. In addition to the mobile wallet, other recent product launches include the buy now/pay later Curve Flex and a line of credit that can be accessed before a payment.
The company also supports cryptocurrency investment and is developing what it called "agentic commerce," using new forms of artificial intelligence to aid shopping, payments and customer service. —John Adams
DLocal courts partners to lower African remittance costs
Cross-border payment platform dLocal has partnered with remittance firm Panda Remit to improve connections to African mobile money providers, a step designed to remove friction from cross-border transfers. Panda Remit's processing system will use dLocal's network, which includes M-Pesa, Orange and Airtel — payment systems that use telecommunications networks to distribute transactions.
Mobile network operated payment systems such as
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest remittance costs globally, with an average of 8.72% for sending $200, according to the World Bank. And 52% of adults in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to formal financial services.
"Seamless remittances are a lifeline for millions in emerging markets, and enabling fast, cost-effective cross-border payments is at the core of what we do," said Justin Goh, head of China at dLocal, in a release. "By partnering with Panda Remit, we're driving their expansion of financial services across Africa, enabling faster, more secure fund transfers that not only benefit individuals but also strengthen the remittance landscape." —John Adams
Affirm expands travel collaboration to Canada
Payments fintech and buy now/pay later lender Affirm will offer travel financing and checkout in Canada through its existing partnership with search engine Kayak.
Consumers who select Affirm at checkout on
During
HSBC launches tokenized deposits in Hong Hong
Chinese e-commerce firm Ant International and HSBC have taken a blockchain-powered payment system out of pilot. The payments use tokenized deposits, which are often positioned as an
Tokenized deposits, or deposit tokens, are issued by banks and backed by deposits at the issuing bank. They run on distributed ledgers, which adds efficiency by enabling the payment to skip some processing steps. By comparison, stablecoin issuers may or may not be banks.
Most stablecoin issuers thus far are not banks, so the relationship between the tokenized asset and its backing reserves is less direct. Stablecoins are backed by reserves such as U.S. dollars or Euros with the promise that the stablecoin can be redeemed at par at any time.
In the case of HSBC, the tokenized deposits are used to speed corporate transactions involving Hong Kong dollars and U.S. dollars on either end.
The tokenized deposits are used to speed corporate transactions. Ant is using its Whale platform, which develops blockchain-powered payment products and is forging partnerships with banks to use tokenized deposits as an option. —John Adams
ACI Worldwide launches centralized, cloud-based payments hub
ACI Worldwide has launched a centralized, cloud-based payments hub called ACI Connetic that integrates major payment networks from Europe, the United Kingdom and other global networks into one unified platform, the company announced at EBAday, a payments summit hosted by Finextra, on Tuesday.
Swift cross-border payments, real-time-gross-settlement payments such as Target2 and Single Euro Payments Area Instant RT1 and TIPS payments have been integrated, with more to come, ACI said. Account-to-account payments, card payments and AI-powered fraud detection are included in the platform.
"ACI Connetic is not just a new product, it is a new standard for how banks must operate in the digital economy and approach payments transformation,"
ACI has been working with the Bank of England, Pay.UK, the European Central Bank, EBA Clearing, Stet, Swift, the Federal Reserve and The Clearing House to integrate their payment capabilities onto the platform. —Joey Pizzolato
SEPA Instant to cost European banks millions in lost interest
The Single Euro Payments Area, or SEPA, Instant Payments Regulation, which is set to go into effect in October 2025, is set to cost European banks millions in lost interest income, according to a RedCompass Labs survey of 300 senior payment executives.
The
The problem for banks in the region is that the European Central Bank's Target2 system, which is used for wholesale payments and liquidity management, only operates on weekdays between 07:00 and 18:00 central European time, forcing banks to pre-fund accounts to ensure liquidity when Target2 is closed, according to RedCompass Labs.
That capital could otherwise be used for lending or investment. In addition, the planned removal of the 100,000 euro transaction limit makes it harder for banks to plan how much money they will need to set aside to cover liquidity requirements.
Nearly half of respondents — 47% — said they expected to lose millions of euros in interest as a result. And a majority of respondents — 93% — said they were concerned about the removal of transaction limits.
"SEPA Instant is a transformative opportunity for commerce and society, but it brings serious operational and financial challenges," Pratiksha Pathak, head of payment services at RedCompass Labs, said in a statement. "Imagine it's a Saturday evening and multiple high-value instant payments hit your system. What then? The ECB isn't open. But instant payments are. If your TIPS account is underfunded, you'll be forced to reject payments, and that hits your customers, your brand, and your bottom line. You can't top up until Monday morning. … That's the risk banks are now grappling with." —Joey Pizzolato
Adyen enables Tap to Pay on iPhone in 7 new European markets
Global payments fintech Adyen has added new Tap to Pay on iPhone functionality to seven new markets across Europe, the company said on Tuesday.
Tap to Pay on iPhone allows merchants to accept contactless payments through an iPhone without having to purchase or maintain additional hardware. Merchants in Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Iceland, Luxembourg and Malta will now be able to accept payments using near field communication on an iPhone.
"With Tap to Pay on iPhone, we're enabling a secure, scalable and smooth payment process for merchants and their customers that enhances the shopping experience, rather than interrupting it," said Alexa von Bismarck, president EMEA at Adyen, in a statement. "The in-store experience remains a key touchpoint between consumers and brands, so we're proud to be expanding this offering to even more countries today in partnership with
