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Clara Brings 800 Travel Agencies Toward Mastercard's Virtual Cards

Clara Becomes Mastercard Travel Program Issuer

Hey Payments Fanatic!

Paying airlines, hotels, and other suppliers is one of the more complicated corners of B2B payments, and Clara wants a bigger part of it.

The Latin American corporate card company has become an issuer for the Mastercard Wholesale Program in Brazil and Mexico. It's Mastercard's virtual card programme for travel payments, reaching more than 400,000 suppliers in over 200 countries.

Clara isn't starting from zero, either. More than 800 travel agencies already use its TravelPay product, and from November they'll begin moving onto the Mastercard programme after around six months of integration and certification. Colombia is next on the list.

What I find interesting is who Clara is lining up alongside. Citi became the programme's first issuer in Brazil just two months ago. Now a FinTech founded in 2021 is joining it, with an existing client base ready to move across.

And Clara isn't stopping at travel. Its new Mastercard fleet card signed up 100 companies in its first week, with another 200 on the waiting list.

Here’s what else is happening in payments today👇

See you tomorrow!

Cheers,

Marcel

INSIGHTS

💡 Mastercard Q3 2026: Services Revenue Jumps 19% as Net Income Climbs 18%. Mastercard reported $9.81 billion in net revenue (+14% YoY) and $4.63 billion in net income (+18%), supported by growing payment activity and demand for value-added services. Cross-border volume increased 11%, while switched transactions reached 49.3 billion (+9%). The standout performer was its services business, with revenue rising 19% to $4.06 billion, outpacing the core payment network. The results highlight Mastercard’s growing ability to generate revenue beyond transaction processing through security, analytics, and consulting services. Read the full analysis here

NEWS

🌎 Clara joins Mastercard Wholesale Program as a travel card issuer. The corporate card provider will begin moving the more than 800 travel agencies using its TravelPay virtual cards onto the programme in Brazil and Mexico from November. Citi was the first issuer in Brazil.

🇳🇬 FCMB and Mastercard launch AgroPass for smallholder farmers. The Mastercard-built platform links farmers with lenders, input suppliers and buyers to improve access to credit. FCMB lent ₦364.6B to more than 196,000 smallholder farmers in 2025.

🇪🇺 easyShop adds Klarna across 19 European markets ahead of its first Black Friday. Shoppers in 19 of the new marketplace's 21 countries, including the UK, France and Germany, can now use Klarna's interest-free payment options. easyShop is operated by OnCommerce, which also runs OnBuy.

🇺🇸 Klarna goes live at Kohl's online and in-app. Shoppers at the department store chain can now pay in full, use interest-free Pay in 4 or finance larger purchases through Kohls.com and its mobile app.

🇺🇸 Global Payments shares jump 12% on report of potential $40 billion buyout. CD&R is working with GTCR, the largest outside shareholder, on a potential bid. The reported $40 billion valuation would be among the largest leveraged buyouts on record.

🇳🇬 SoftBank-backed OPay prices its US IPO at $19 a share, raising $304M. The Nigerian payments company sold 16M American depositary shares at the bottom of its range, valuing it at about $4B. It is listing on the NYSE as OPAY, with closing expected on 2 November.

🇮🇳 Pine Labs' Q2 net profit rises more than sixfold to ₹385.7M. Revenue from operations grew 24% YoY to ₹8.06B in the July–September quarter, led by its issuing and acquiring platform, which rose 30%. International markets contributed 15% of revenue.

🇦🇪 Qashio launches Global Pay with rewards on cross-border supplier payments. Businesses earn Qashio Points on overseas transfers, redeemable with more than 50 travel partners including Emirates Skywards and Accor. FX rates are shown upfront, with no fixed transfer fees.

🇪🇺 ECB selects network service providers for the digital euro. A grouping of Nexi and Deutsche Telekom Business Solutions will provide connectivity to the digital euro platform for the pilot, with Telefónica and Indra as the second-ranked provider from May 2027. Both must be ready by 2029 for a potential issuance.

🇺🇸 Liquidity Services implements Flywire to process domestic and cross border B2B payments. Its 6 million qualified buyers can now pay in 140 currencies across 240+ countries. Flywire is integrated via API with the customer portal.

🇲🇽 Colombia's BordexPay expands stablecoin-based payments to Mexico. Mexican businesses can collect in pesos via SPEI or directly in stablecoins, with settlement in USDC, USDT, US dollars or Colombian pesos. The Bogotá-based company also serves Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador.

🇰🇷 MoonPay, NH NongHyup Bank and Finger sign MoU on digital asset payments. The partners will develop a model for overseas remittances, corporate payments and settlement, linking MoonPay's global network with Korea's domestic financial system. A proof of concept comes first.

🇺🇸 MoonPay adds Whop to PayBox Markets for AI agent purchases. AI agents connected through Claude, ChatGPT or Grok can now buy from hundreds of thousands of Whop businesses. Users can approve each payment by passkey or let agents act within preset limits.

🇬🇧 DNA Payments pilots Zeal's card-linked loyalty with UK merchants. Selected merchants can recognise returning customers by their payment card and reward them without an app, while gaining customer-level purchase insights from their DNA terminals.

🇮🇪 Unipaas expands embedded payments to Ireland with J.P. Morgan Payments. The provider will offer white-labelled card acceptance, fraud controls and routing to vertical SaaS platforms serving Irish businesses, with J.P. Morgan handling merchant acquiring and settlement.

🇺🇸 American Express hires U.S. Bank's Jodi Richard as its new chief risk officer. Richard, at U.S. Bank since 2014, joins Amex and its national bank on Jan. 25, 2027. She will also head the global risk and compliance team, reporting to CEO Stephen Squeri.