LiaPay Launches Earned Wage Access Card For UAE Workers

Hey Payments Fanatic!

Mawarid Finance and Liabify have partnered to launch LiaPay in the UAE. A prepaid Platinum Mastercard designed for middle-income workers.

At the core sits Earned Wage Access. Employees can access their earned salary directly through the app.

The card runs within Mawarid Finance’s regulated and Sharia-compliant framework. And it is issued on the Mastercard network.

But LiaPay goes further than wage access. Users get instant digital account creation, remittances, instant payments, and AI-powered financial tools in one ecosystem.

Liabify CEO Allan Villegas pointed to the platform design. He said the company is building digital experiences that prioritize financial wellness and make money management seamless and secure.

That shift is worth watching. Earned Wage Access is increasingly becoming the entry point for broader digital financial ecosystems for workers.

The landscape keeps evolving. Scroll down 👇 I’ll unpack more developments further below.

Cheers,

Marcel

INSIGHTS

📰 The often-ignored reason your customers abandon their carts by Dor Golan, Co-founder & CEO, Grain. This article highlights an often-overlooked reason behind cart abandonment: lack of price trust in cross-border transactions. It explains how unstable currency conversions, approximation symbols, and hidden FX buffers can make shoppers hesitate at checkout. Read the full article here

NEWS

🇲🇾 Mastercard conducts its first live agentic transaction in Malaysia with CIMB, Maybank, and RHB Pilot. The pilot demonstrated how AI can help consumers complete everyday tasks, such as transportation, securely and seamlessly.

🌎 Bitget Wallet has partnered with Mastercard to launch a crypto payment card in 11 Latin American countries, providing local users with a zero-fee USD-denominated payment experience. This expansion further covers key markets including Argentina, Mexico, Panama, Guatemala, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

🇦🇪 Mawarid Finance and Liabify join forces to redefine infancial lfexibility fr middle-income workers in the UAE. The strategic partnership introduces LiaPay, an AI-powered prepaid platinum Mastercard with Earned Wage Access and a full digital financial ecosystem. The card is designed to offer middle-income workers in the UAE smarter and more flexible ways to manage their finances.

🇿🇦 South African payment routing startup NjiaPay raises $2.1 million seed round. NjiaPay helps online businesses manage their payments in one place by connecting to many different payment providers and methods through a single integration.

🇵🇭 Security Bank and VeritasPay expand digital payment solutions for MSMEs. Through this partnership, Security Bank’s MSME clients can access VeritasPay’s secure POS terminals at preferential rates through the Bank’s referral program, making digital payment acceptance more accessible and affordable.

🇮🇪 Main Irish banks to launch mobile payments service. Customers of AIB, Bank of Ireland, and PTSB will be able to send, request, and split payments under the new system this week. The Zippay service will be rolled out on a phased basis, with the potential to reach more than five million eligible customer accounts of the three retail banks.

🇸🇬 Visa Intelligent Authorization modernises payment processing for banks and financial institutions, unlocking the era of innovation. Visa Intelligent Authorization enables modern payment processing across major card networks through a single API, helping eliminate the need for costly infrastructure rebuilds.

🇺🇸 Stablecoin firms bet big on AI agent payments that barely exist. Circle Internet Group Inc. and Stripe Inc. are building payment systems for a future with autonomous AI agents that transact in stablecoins. Continue reading

🇰🇪 Safaricom’s M-PESA hits 40 million active customers in Kenya after 19 years of operation. While reacting to the milestone, Safaricom’s CEO, Peter Ndegwa, noted that the platform remains committed to ensuring Kenyans and the rest of Africa have the opportunity to navigate their financial life.

🇦🇷 Banco do Brasil launches a feature in Argentina. Banco do Brasil has announced the arrival of Pix to physical establishments outside of Brazil. The initiative allows Brazilians, whether or not they are account holders with the institution, to make purchases abroad using the same QR Code reading system already used here.

🇷🇴 CEC Bank launches RoPay P2B for instant payments to merchants. The new functionality enables customers to complete payments by scanning a QR code displayed in stores, with funds transferred instantly from account to account. Read more

🇸🇬 UQPAY launches full-stack payment infrastructure bridging fiat and stablecoins for global commerce. The platform combines global acquiring, multi-currency accounts, cross-border payouts, card issuing, and stablecoin infrastructure to help businesses manage the entire payment lifecycle through one API.

🌍 Orca Fraud raises $2.35M to scale real-time fraud intelligence across emerging markets. The company already processes over $5 billion in monthly transactions across 70+ countries, supporting banks, telcos, and payment providers as demand for advanced fraud prevention grows in emerging markets.

🌎 Stablecoin Payments Firm KAST raises $80 million in funding. The funding will be used to fuel the company’s global expansion in key markets across North America, Latin America, and the Middle East, as well as for hiring, licensing, and product development.

🇺🇸 LINE NEXT launches stablecoin platform ‘Unifi’ globally. Unifi is a stablecoin-focused wallet designed to enable the seamless use of stablecoins. The platform provides an end-to-end stablecoin experience, including deposits, custody, payments, transfers, and rewards, all within a single service.

🇮🇳 PayU and GoKwik launch checkout and payments solutions, aiming to address persistent revenue leakage caused by checkout drop-offs and payment failures. The collaboration combines GoKwik’s checkout optimisation and conversion intelligence capabilities with PayU’s payments infrastructure to create a unified commerce layer designed to improve transaction completion rates.

GOLDEN NUGGET

OpenAI (𝐀𝐂𝐏) 𝐯𝐬 Google (𝐔𝐂𝐏) — two visions for agentic commerce 👇Created by Arthur Bedel 💳 ♻️

As AI agents move from recommendation to execution, checkout itself is being redesigned.

Both OpenAI and Google are introducing new commerce protocols that allow AI systems to discover, decide, and complete purchases — but they take very different approaches.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 (𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐲):

OpenAI — 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐜𝐨𝐥 (𝐀𝐂𝐏)

ACP is an open, agent-initiated commerce protocol that allows AI agents to transact directly with merchants using delegated payment authority.

The agent acts on behalf of the user, following predefined mandates and policies, while merchants retain control of checkout, payments, and business rules.

Google — 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐜𝐨𝐥 (𝐔𝐂𝐏)

UCP is a Google-native commerce layer embedded across Search, Gemini, and other Google surfaces.

It enables purchases directly inside Google experiences, with checkout and payments largely hosted and orchestrated by Google.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞:

At a high level, both aim to simplify buying in AI-driven interfaces — but the control point is very different.

𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

→ ACP: inside AI assistants and merchant flows

→ UCP: inside Google-owned surfaces

𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

→ ACP: agent-initiated, policy-driven

→ UCP: user-initiated within Google

𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥

→ ACP: delegated payment tokens, flexible credentials

→ UCP: Google Pay payloads (with more methods planned)

𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥

→ ACP: merchants keep full control of pricing, policies, and checkout logic

→ UCP: Google often acts as seller of record with hosted checkout

𝐌𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 — 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐬 & 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬:

𝐀𝐂𝐏 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐜𝐨𝐥-𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭

Designed to be adopted by any AI platform and integrated into existing merchant infrastructure.

→ Pros: openness, merchant control, cross-platform reach

→ Cons: requires merchants and PSPs to adapt their stacks

𝐔𝐂𝐏 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧-𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭

Built to maximize conversion inside Google’s ecosystem.

→ Pros: frictionless UX, instant scale

→ Cons: reduced merchant control, dependency on Google surfaces

In short:

→ ACP optimizes for openness and programmability

→ UCP optimizes for conversion within a closed environment

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭:

Agentic commerce isn’t a single model — it’s a spectrum.

Some merchants will prioritize reach and simplicity through embedded platforms. Others will prioritize control, data ownership, and long-term flexibility through open protocols.

One thing is clear:

👉 Checkout is no longer just a page — it’s becoming a programmable interface between agents, merchants, and payment rails.

Source: Checkout.com, Google, OpenAI

Want your message in front of 100.000+ FinTech fanatics, founders, investors, and operators?

Shoot me a message on LinkedIn or send me an  e-mail.