PhotonPay Deepens Its UK Payments Stack… and Local Rails Come Into Play
Hey Payments Fanatic!
PhotonPay just expanded its UK capabilities through a new collaboration with ClearBank.
This gives PhotonPay’s business customers access to named virtual accounts, GBP collections and payouts, plus Confirmation of Payee. All are plugged directly into Faster Payments, BACS, and CHAPS.
The result is faster settlement, tighter liquidity control, and smoother operations for enterprises operating in the UK. It also sets the base for broader European expansion, which PhotonPay says is next.
Lewison Chen, Founder & CEO at PhotonPay, frames this as a foundational step. Local rails first, scale later. That’s usually how these builds stick.
ClearBank, on its side, keeps extending its role as the infrastructure layer behind embedded banking and real-time Payments...
Before you scroll, a quick community note 🏃♂️
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11:00 AM
Hosted by Jill Ebanoidze
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Hosted by Drup Kubadia
Find all the details and register for both runs 👇
Now, scroll down and catch what’s moving in Payments today. I’ll be back next week with more.
Cheers,
INSIGHTS
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NEWS
🇬🇧 PhotonPay expands UK local payment rails via new collaboration with ClearBank. Through this collaboration, PhotonPay’s business customers will gain access to a wider range of financial services, including virtual accounts, GBP collections, payouts, and Confirmation of Payee (CoP) functionality.
🇵🇹 Nickel integrates Mastercard's Click to Pay to revolutionize the online shopping experience. With Click to Pay, Nickel customers can make payments on compatible e-commerce websites through a faster and more intuitive process. This consolidates Nickel's position as an accessible, inclusive, and technologically advanced alternative in the Portuguese financial market.
🇮🇱 Tipalti is laying off dozens of employees. The FintTech company is not publishing the number of employees included in the layoff process, but according to industry estimates, it is more than 100 employees. Read more
🇫🇷 Worldline empowers agentic commerce with new AI capabilities. Worldline is introducing new capabilities to connect AI agents to its global payment ecosystem, making payments agent-ready and enabling merchants to experiment with AI-powered workflows and commerce experiences.
🇬🇧 Mastercard, Visa, and Revolut lose UK case over proposed cross-border card fees cap. Mastercard, Visa, and Revolut argued that the PSR did not have the power to impose price caps. The judge, however, rejected the challenge and ruled that the PSR does have the power to impose its proposed price caps on interchange fees.
🇦🇪 Ziina becomes the first in the UAE to execute live Open Finance payments with Lean. Ziina app users can now complete instant, account-to-account bank payments through regulated Open Finance APIs that connect directly to their bank accounts, giving them a faster, more transparent, and secure way to move money.
🇨🇳 Visa teams up with Apple to enable overseas Apple Pay payments for Chinese cardholders. The initiative reflects rising demand for mobile and interoperable payments and builds on Visa’s expanded investment in tokenization and cross-border payment security.
🇦🇺 Thredd and Paywith team to launch Australian card programs. The collaboration is designed to help businesses launch “flexible, customer-centric card programs” with the help of Paywith’s technology and Thredd’s local market expertise and infrastructure.
🇺🇸 PayEngine partners with ServiceTitan to bring tap-to-pay to the $6 billion field service industry. The integration enables ServiceTitan customers to accept contactless card payments directly on their existing mobile devices, eliminating the need for separate payment terminals, Bluetooth dongles, or manual card entry.
🇺🇸 Stripe has completed its acquisition of Metronome, strengthening its capabilities in orchestrating complex usage-based billing models. Stripe CEO Patrick Collison said the deal supports a broader shift toward usage-based monetization, positioning metering and billing as the critical link between product and business.
🇰🇷 K Bank launches digital asset-based remittance and payment services between Korea and the UAE. This agreement aims to jointly develop a next-generation remittance and payment network connecting Korea and the UAE, the financial hub of the Middle East, based on digital assets, and to discover new business models utilizing blockchain technology.
🇮🇱 Neema unveils global push-to-card payments for instant, and bank-less business transactions. The Push-to-Card enhancement to Neema’s cross-border payment platform, however, enables businesses to send funds directly to a recipient’s card, without requiring bank account details or traditional bank transfers on the receiving side.
🇦🇷 Lemon launches Bitcoin-backed credit card in cash-hoarding Argentina. By letting users post Bitcoin as collateral for local credit lines, Lemon is effectively trying to turn a favored savings asset into day-to-day spending power, without forcing savers to unwind their BTC or their stash of hard currency.
🇬🇧 Standard Chartered completes first ICC-Swift API standards digital bank guarantee transaction through Komgo. Fully compliant with ICC-Swift API standards for bank guarantees, the transaction marks a significant step towards creating a fully interoperable and integrated digital bank guarantee ecosystem, reducing friction and supporting the digital transformation in global trade.
🇺🇸 Bolt appoints Olta Andoni as SVP of Legal and People to support platform expansion across checkout, identity, and payments. In this role, Andoni will oversee Bolt's legal, regulatory, compliance, and people operations as the company continues to expand its platform across digital commerce, identity verification, and payments, including crypto-enabled checkout.
🇺🇸 Edenred Pay expands B2B payments network through Bottomline partnership and Paymode integration. By connecting Edenred Pay's platform with Paymode's network, the partnership drives higher digital payment adoption, delivers rich remittance data to vendors, and increases customer and vendor satisfaction through a streamlined experience.
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