Visa, Thredd & Zilch Prepare for the AI Payments Era

Hey Payments Fanatic!

AI agents are quickly moving from demos to real payment infrastructure.

The latest example comes from Visa, Thredd, and Zilch, which are working together to bring agent-initiated payments to European card issuers. Instead of building entirely new payment rails, the idea is to let AI agents make purchases on behalf of consumers while using the same infrastructure that already powers billions of card transactions today.

That's probably the most interesting part.

The industry isn't replacing today's payments ecosystem. It's adapting it. Tokenisation, biometric authentication, fraud monitoring, and issuer approval remain exactly where they are. What's changing is the customer at the checkout. In the future, it may no longer be a person clicking "Pay," but an AI agent acting within limits that the customer has already approved.

This also explains why so many announcements around agentic commerce are arriving almost at once. Networks, processors, issuers, and FinTechs all know that AI payments will only work if the entire ecosystem evolves together rather than one company moving on its own.

There's much more waiting below.

You'll also find why Brazil's Pix and India's UPI have quietly become two of the world's most influential payment systems, and why the next wave of payments innovation may be coming from emerging markets rather than the West.

See what else is shaping Payments. 👇 See you tomorrow!

Cheers,

Marcel

INSIGHTS

Brazil 🇧🇷 and India 🇮🇳 are lapping the West in payments. 

Pix and UPI. Two systems. 14,000 km apart. Same revolution. By dLocal 

 Let's dive in👇

NEWS

🇬🇧 Ecommpay has launched Ecommpay for Small Businesses, a self-serve payments platform for UK online merchants with up to €2 million in annual revenue. The solution enables businesses to accept payments within hours using no-code checkout tools, enterprise-grade fraud protection, smart routing, and support for major payment methods.

🇦🇪 RAKBANK and Mastercard strengthen strategic relationship to drive payments innovation. Building on their long-standing strategic relationship, the move reflects a shared commitment to developing secure and more seamless payment experiences that meet the evolving needs of consumers and businesses in an increasingly digital world.

🇨🇦 Canadian FinTech Chexy has partnered with Mastercard to let cardholders pay eligible bills through its platform while earning cashback and credit card rewards. The collaboration expands rewards opportunities to everyday expenses such as rent, taxes, insurance, and utility bills. 

🇬🇧 Thredd joins the Visa Agentic Ready Programme, bringing agent network readiness to issuers across Europe, starting with Zilch. By joining the programme, Thredd is ready to support Visa and its clients as the market moves into agentic commerce.

🇬🇧 PayPal launches Pay in 30 Days, giving millions of UK shoppers the freedom to buy today and pay later, with no fees and no interest. The launch complements PayPal’s existing Pay in 3 credit product, which allows customers to split a purchase into 3 payments, one at checkout and two over the next two months.

🇺🇸 Stripe and Advent offer to buy PayPal for more than $53 billion, offering $60.50 per share, a 28% premium to its previous closing price. If completed, the deal would unite two of the world's largest digital payments platforms and rank among the biggest FinTech acquisitions ever.

🇦🇪  Triple-A secures in-principle approval from VARA for broker-dealer services, advancing to the final stage of the licensing process. The milestone strengthens the company's regulated digital asset payments strategy and expands its global compliance footprint.

🇺🇸 PlexPay launches first complete patient finance and payments platform, leveraging U.S. Bank Avvance®. PlexPay's patient finance program leverages Avvance point-of-sale lending to bring embedded financing to healthcare practices of all sizes.

🇺🇸 Stable launches StablePay, a mobile app built on its Tether-aligned StableChain blockchain that enables free, instant USDT payments worldwide. The app also includes a built-in yield feature, targeting peer-to-peer payments, remittances, and payroll with a simplified stablecoin payment experience.

🇺🇸 Cyclops raises $20 million to help payment companies settle faster with stablecoins. Its platform enables 24/7 settlement, cross-border payments, treasury management, and fiat-to-stablecoin conversion, aiming to reduce costs and speed up payment processing without requiring businesses to manage blockchain complexity. 

🇧🇬 Remitly Europe CEO Eva Taleva-Borislavova named Paynetics COO. Taleva-Borislavova brings over 15 years of financial services experience to the role, most recently leading Remitly's European operations since late 2023. Read more

🇺🇸 CSI acquires Qolo to strengthen and expand its commercial banking and embedded finance capabilities. The acquisition strengthens CSI’s commercial banking solutions by helping community financial institutions enable more flexible deposit structures, intelligent money movement, and expanded commercial card programs.

🇺🇸 Plaid has introduced new Identity Verification enhancements, Plaid IDV, to help financial institutions combat AI-driven new account fraud. The updates strengthen document verification, personal data checks, and case management with features designed to detect manipulated IDs, suspicious email patterns, and data entry errors while improving fraud detection and customer onboarding.

🇺🇸 Yape partners with FinTech Félix to facilitate sending remittances from the United States via WhatsApp to Peru. Thanks to this integration, users will be able to receive transfers directly into their digital wallet in soles or dollars through a simple process that combines the Yape app with the messaging platform.

🇯🇵 Japanese card network JCB partners with Circle to explore stablecoins. The collaboration includes a proof of concept for internal fund transfers and initiatives to support stablecoin payments for merchants and international visitors to Japan.

🇬🇧 Construction payments FinTech Saible raises £2.9m to expand its payment platform, which helps ensure suppliers are paid on time. The company uses a trust-based payment infrastructure with banking partner Griffin to release funds simultaneously across construction supply chains.

🇦🇷 Grupo BIND partners with Circle to offer institutional USDC access in Argentina. The move enables financial intermediaries and corporations to access dollar-pegged stablecoins in a regulated setting. BIND is helping institutions gain dollar exposure amid Argentina’s economic challenges.

GOLDEN NUGGET

𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐎𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 "connectivity" 𝐭𝐨 "intelligence"👇Created by Arthur Bedel 💳 ♻️

The market is projected to reach $15 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐲 2035, but the volume doesn't tell the full story.

We are witnessing a structural shift. This isn't a new trend, but an evolving one that has moved past the simple need for "connectivity."

In a global ecommerce market hitting $6.8 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 by 2026, having five gateway integrations is no longer a competitive advantage; it’s table stakes. Soon, AI agents will automate the "plumbing" of connectivity in seconds.

The real competitive advantage? 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞.

↳

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐋𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫

True orchestration is the art of gathering 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬, 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞, and 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐝 data to create a singular, actionable intelligence.

It’s not just about routing a transaction from point A to point B and rudimental If X then Y. It’s about synthesizing data points in real-time to answer a single question:

"𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐱𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥, 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧?" - and that's just for payment purposes...

↳

𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

The industry is moving from static routing rules to 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬. We see this evolution clearly with innovators like DEUNA and their AI, 𝐀𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐚.

Instead of a payment team manually adjusting failover logic, these agents ingest identity and commerce data to "think" for the merchant. They navigate the complexity of global corridors, local regulations, and shifting issuer behaviors automatically.

The orchestrators that win won't be those with the most APIs, but those whose 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 shapes how value moves.

↳

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭:

• 𝟔𝟐% 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 now prefer multi-provider setups (up from 50% in 2023).

• 𝟕𝟎% 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬 abandon carts if their local payment method is missing — intelligence predicts and prevents this.

• 𝟒.𝟕% 𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐭 in authorization rates when combining intelligence with network tokenization.

Connectivity is the skeleton. Intelligence is the brain. 🧠

We are entering a world where payments aren't just processed; they are 𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 and that regionally.

Payments, they never stops...

Source: The Paypers - Global Ecommerce Report 2026

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