- Key insights: Western Union faces pressure from foreign exchange weakness.
- What's at stake: The quarter was a "significant bottom-line miss," according to Citizens Bank analysts. Meanwhile, stablecoins are gaining a lot of attention, but are largely not used for payments.
- Forward look: Western Union execs said trends in some remittance corridors are improving.
Global remittance-company Western Union posted disappointing earnings for the quarter ended March 31 as unexpected one-time expenses as well as higher expenses tied to foreign exchange losses weighed on profits.
Revenue was flat at $982.7 million, and GAAP net income hit $79.5 million, or 20 cents per diluted share, a decline of 48% from a year ago and well below analysts estimates of $124.53 million, or 35 cents per diluted share.
"As you know, remittances in the Americas have faced meaningful pressure that began early last year and continued through this winter, particularly across our key U.S. to Latin American corridors," Western Union CEO Devin McGranahan said.
McGranahan sought to reassure investors that the brunt of the macroeconomic pressures the company had been facing were behind it.
"What we're seeing now, however, is a business that is beginning to show stabilization and even potentially signs of improvement," McGranahan said. "Trends have improved across these corridors with the most recent month, March, showing revenue growth rates 800 basis points or better in each of these corridors relative to the lows that we saw last summer."
Remittances to Mexico were down just 0.5% in January and February when compared to the same reporting period last year, according to Banco de Mexico. By comparison, remittances were down 11% in the second quarter of 2025, 5% in the third quarter and 2% in the fourth quarter.
Still, the quarter was a "significant bottom-line miss," according to Citizens Bank analysts.
"Once again, we noted a significant 'tonal disconnect' between management's repeated declarations of being 'optimistic,' 'excited,' and 'encouraged,' and the repeated failures to deliver any meaningful growth," David M. Scharf wrote in a research note. "The reiterated 2026 guidance, which calls for flattish organic growth off depressed ('easy') comps, continues to signal to investors to wait another year for validation of management's
Visa adds five blockchains to its stablecoin settlement pilot
Visa has added five new blockchains to its stablecoin settlement pilot as it looks to increase the number of avenues on which issuers and acquirers can settle with the network.
"Our partners are building in a multi-chain world, and they expect their options to reflect that reality," said Rubail Birwadker, Visa's global head of growth products and strategic partnerships, in a statement. "Expanding our stablecoin settlement pilot program to more blockchains means our partners can choose the networks that best fit their needs, while relying on Visa to provide a common settlement layer across all of them."
Newly supported blockchains include
With the additions, Visa supports nine blockchains in total, including Avalanche, ethereum, Solana and Stellar. Its pilot reached $7 billion in annualized stablecoin settlement run rate, an increase of 50% from the prior quarter.
Stablecoins are another green-field opportunity,
"Stablecoins and blockchain are significant opportunities, and we've established Visa's role as a key interoperability layer between this powerful infrastructure and real-world solutions for users," McInerney said. "We have deep conviction in our ability to grow revenue well into the future, not just for the next three to five years, but beyond." —Joey Pizzolato
Tether ties card to gold-backed assets
Digital-asset firm Tether and Fasset, a company that sells technology to neobanks, have collaborated to issue a gold-backed payment card.
The card will be usable on Visa's network, with cashback incentive in XAU₮, a Tether token that enables users to invest in gold. It also rounds up every transaction to the nearest dollar and auto-invests the spare change in XAU₮.
Fasset has a presence in Asia and Africa, with products including transfers from stablecoins to traditional currency.
Tether is committing up to $1 million in XAU₮ to back the card's rewards ecosystem to accelerate distribution and real-world use of tokenized gold.
"Historically, gold has been a store of value and not a medium of exchange. This changes that narrative," said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, in a release.
In an earlier
India throws the book at Paytm Payments Bank
The Reserve Bank of India has canceled Paytm Payments Bank's banking license, which prohibits the company from taking deposits, executing fund transfers or offering credit.
The RBI said an audit of the institution found the "affairs of the bank were conducted in a manner detrimental to the interest of the bank and its depositors." India's central bank will next move to "wind up" Paytm Payments Bank, and said the institution has adequate capital to repay its account holders.
The
Paytm Payments Bank's parent company, Paytm, has built a "
The RBI ruling on Paytm Payments Bank does not affect the parent Paytm, the company told American Banker in an email.
"[Paytm Payments Bank] operates independently, with no board or management involvement from One 97 Communications Ltd. [Paytm's owner]. There is no direct financial impact on Paytm, as previously disclosed, with the investment in Paytm Payments Bank having already been fully impaired as of March 31, 2024," Paytm's public relations office said in the email. —John Adams
Nacha boosts limits for same-day ACH
The association says the new cap will open same-day settlement for tax payments, insurance claims, payroll, merchant settlement and other uses requiring large transfers.
"Nacha has been hearing from ACH Network users that they wanted a higher limit, and we are pleased to meet that need," said Jane Larimer, Nacha president and CEO, in a release. "With its speed and security, Same Day ACH is helping to meet the demand for faster payments."
In the first quarter of 2026 Nacha reported there were 403 million same-day ACH payments totaling $1.1 trillion, up 23.6% and 22.1% respectively, from the first quarter of 2025. For the full year 2025, Nacha reported 1.4 billion same-day payments totaling $3.9 trillion, up 16.7% and 21.4% from 2024. The U.S.'s two large real-time settlement networks,
Same-day ACH has a structural advantage that neither FedNow nor RTP can match, its universal reach, according to a research note from CCG Catalyst. "Every bank and credit union in the United States must accept same day ACH credits. That ubiquity is not a feature that real-time payment networks can replicate quickly, given that FedNow has approximately 1,700 participants and RTP approximately 1,200 out of roughly 10,000 financial institutions nationwide."
FedNow's advantage is speed and availability, according to CCG.
"Settlement is immediate, 24/7/365, versus same day ACH's three daily processing windows on business days. For time-critical payments, that distinction matters. But for the vast majority of commercial payments, same-day settlement within defined windows is sufficient," CCG Catalyst's note said. —John Adams
Alipay adds agentic AI for businesses
China's Alipay app has launched a payment-processing product that enables businesses to accept payments from AI agents.
Alipay says merchants can support agentic payments by onboarding their services to Alipay, which can help these businesses avoid technology upgrades. Users at launch include Bocha, an AI-powered search tool.
The payment processing service has a large addressable market through Alipay's AI business. Alipay's AI Pay service enables transactions through AI agents through voice commands. Alipay's AI Pay has more than 100 million users, according to a release.
In the U.S.,
UK fintech Sokin taps Adyen for payment acceptance
London-based payments-as-a-service fintech Sokin is teaming up with
Payment acceptance supplements Sokin's existing services, which include multicurrency accounts, foreign exchange and treasury infrastructure, and allows businesses to run payment acceptance and treasury management on the same platform.
Services are live in the U.S., with support for Canada, the U.K., Europe, Singapore, the UAE and Australia in the works, according to Sokin.
"Expanding into new markets always brings complexity around how businesses can accept and optimize local payments," said Adrian Davis, Adyen's managing director of financial services and insurance, in a statement. "By partnering with Sokin, we're helping to remove those barriers and give growing businesses the ability to scale internationally with the confidence that their payment experience is built to perform in every market."
The partnership comes less than a week after Adyen said it was undertaking its
ANZ to buy out Worldline from joint venture
Melbourne-based ANZ Bank is set to buy out
ANZ Worldline was founded in 2022 and provides Australian businesses with point-of-sale and online payment technology. ANZ currently holds a 49% stake in the venture, and Worldline owns a 51% interest.
"The ANZ 2030 strategy puts transaction banking at the centre of what we deliver to customers – whether it's improving their experiences, offering them leading technologies and platforms, or keeping them safe," said Lisa Vasic, ANZ managing director, transaction banking, institutional, in a statement.
"This acquisition will allow us to strengthen our direct relationship with our customers and better meet our customer's needs, as we continue to focus on providing our small business customers, right up to our largest institutional customers, with a compelling merchant proposition," Vasic said. —Joey Pizzolato
