Adyen and Mastercard Power Embedded Payments for Sage's Small Businesses

Hey Payments Fanatic!

Your accounting software might soon be where you bank, too.

Sage has partnered with Adyen and Mastercard to offer small businesses a business account with a debit card, built directly into its software. It starts in France with Sage 50, Sage 100 and Sage Active, before expanding to other European markets where Sage operates.

Adyen provides the Banking-as-a-Service infrastructure and the integration, while Mastercard is the card network behind the debit card.

Businesses can make payments, manage spending and see their cash position in real time, with accounting entries updating automatically as money moves. Sage says the service is designed to complement existing banking relationships, not replace them.

"The future of finance is embedded," says Nicole Olbe, President EMEA at Adyen.

That makes sense to me. Small businesses already spend their day in this software, and 53% of SMEs surveyed in France, Germany and the Netherlands see it as their preferred place for embedded financial products, according to Oliver Wyman.

Would you run your business account from your accounting software?

In the meantime, here's what else is happening in payments today👇

See you tomorrow!

Cheers,

Marcel

INSIGHTS

💡 Fiserv: Q3 2026 Results: Banking Business Returns to Growth as Client Retention Improves. Fiserv reported $5.2B in GAAP revenue, with flat organic growth and adjusted EPS of $1.75. Financial Solutions returned to organic growth (+2%), while banking client attrition declined by more than 25% YTD. Merchant Solutions remained under pressure, with organic revenue down 2%, although Clover continued to grow. Meanwhile, Fiserv doubled its Project Elevate savings target to $1B and reaffirmed its full-year guidance. CEO Takis Georgakopoulos also highlighted an “AI-everywhere mindset” as part of the company's efficiency drive. The key question is whether improving banking performance and aggressive cost reductions can accelerate growth into 2027. Read the full Q3 analysis here

NEWS

🇫🇷 Sage partners with Adyen and Mastercard on business accounts for small businesses. Small businesses using Sage 50, Sage 100 and Sage Active will get accounts with debit cards, starting in France, using Adyen's banking-as-a-service infrastructure and Mastercard's network.

🇸🇬 Elephants selects Thredd to power its Mastercard business card programme. Thredd will provide issuer processing, including card controls, fraud management and 3D Secure, for the upcoming Elephants Reserve debit card, which is open for waitlist registration.

 🌍 Mastercard and LiaPay bring earned wage access cards to GCC workers. The payroll app will issue Mastercard Platinum prepaid cards to salaried employees across four markets, letting them spend wages earned before payday. It marks Mastercard's entry into earned wage access.

🇩🇪 Pliant opens its platform to third-party AI agents. Its Pliant for Agents connector and CLI allow external AI agents to access transaction data, manage receipts and assist with card controls, subject to user permissions, according to co-founder and CPO Fabian Terner.

🇺🇸 Global Payments adds Visa IDX to its Adaptive Authentication platform. The Visa Intelligent Data Exchange API lets merchants send richer transaction data to issuers during authorisation to reduce false declines. It initially covers eligible US and Canadian transactions.

🇺🇸 Bilt moves beyond housing with Neighborhood OS for local commerce. The platform connects merchants' payment, reservation and loyalty systems, with partners including Adyen, Shift4, Clover and Verifone. Bilt has more than 8 million members and 50,000 merchant partners.

🇦🇺 Wise launches Everyday Account in Australia. The account adds PayID, BPAY, BSB details and fee-free domestic transfers for all Australian customers, whose balances reached A$2.8B by September, up 53% YoY.

🇬🇧 Stripe powers HSBC UK's Tap to Pay for small businesses. Eligible HSBC UK business customers can accept contactless payments on a compatible smartphone without a card reader, setting up the service in the HSBC Business Banking app.

🌎 Clara secures $105M through Series C and General Catalyst funding. The $65M Series C was backed by Citius, Kaszek and DEG, alongside a renewed $40M facility from General Catalyst. The funding will support commercial expansion, particularly in Brazil, and further development of its AI and automation tools.

🌐 Rain launches Agent Vaults for AI agent payments. AI agents can spend, receive and send money from owner-funded balances under owner-set rules, with partners embedding the product under their own brands.

🇲🇽 BanCoppel adds bill payments and top-ups to its app with tapi. The service, live from 9 November for the bank's 14 million monthly app users, lets customers pay electricity, water, phone and internet bills from their BanCoppel accounts.

💡 Shopify Q3 2026: Revenue Grows 32% as Profits Outpace Sales. Shopify’s Q3 performance, with revenue reach $3.74B (+32%) and GMV rising 29% to $119.1B. Operating income jumped 66% to $568M, while free cash flow reached $816M, representing a 22% margin. Merchant Solutions led growth with a 35% increase, accounting for nearly 78% of total revenue. The analysis also examines improving cost efficiency, merchant lending expansion and Shopify’s ambitions to become infrastructure for AI-driven commerce. Read the full analysis here

🌎 MiPlata launches Visa prepaid card for direct stablecoin spending. The card, issued by Lead Bank and built on Stripe Issuing, lets users spend USDC balances and targets underserved Latino customers in the US and 16 Latin American countries

🇦🇪 AFS partners with Tabby on in-store instalments for UAE merchants. AFS merchants in the UAE can let customers spread payments with Tabby at the point of sale, as AFS expands the capabilities available across its merchant network.

🇺🇸 Bottomline completes first USDC payments through its enterprise platforms. Working with Circle, Bottomline processed cross-border stablecoin payments via its Global Payments Hub and Cash Management, starting with an intra-company transfer.

🌍 Circle and Global Citizen partner on USDC payments in Africa. Circle will introduce USDC as a payment option for vendors at Move Afrika events, starting in Rwanda in 2027, and fund an impact award for charities in USDC.

🇺🇦 Ukraine moves toward joining the Single Euro Payments Area. Parliament faces a mid-November deadline to pass the legislation needed for SEPA accession, after which Ukraine can apply to the European Payments Council.

🇺🇸 REPAY's Q3 revenue nearly doubles to $153.4M. Revenue rose 97% YoY, helped by the KUBRA acquisition, with organic growth of 14%. REPAY posted a net loss of $10.4M and kept its full-year guidance of $490M to $500M.

🇺🇸 Echelon makes strategic investment in CREATE. Payments. The investment builds on a partnership begun in 2025, when the non-profit payments provider joined Echelon's Strategic Partner Program. Terms were not disclosed.

🇿🇦 Lumepay raises $6M pre-seed for cross-border B2B payments. The South African firm used the funding to launch its products, build payment infrastructure and partnerships, and secure regulatory approvals. It also secured approximately $10M in capital float to support liquidity for clients across its African markets.

🇬🇧 Raenest acquires UK payments company Remitise. The Nigerian FinTech takes 100% of Remitise, gaining its UK FCA registration as it expands globally. Raenest has more than 1.5 million registered customers.

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