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News and resources on payments systems, innovations and initiatives worldwide.

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Expert opinions

Briana Marbury

Briana Marbury CEO at Interledger Foundation

Money Has Been Digitized, But Its Movement Still Faces Physical Roadblocks

The opportunities that an open digital economy could create for business and individuals. Things that were once physical and are now digital–information, videos, photos and messages–make their way around the world in seconds. Meanwhile, there’s one thing that still can’t easily transcend borders despite shedding its physical form: money. Unlike ...

/payments /inclusion Frictionless Payments

Roberto Garavaglia

Roberto Garavaglia Independent Advisor at Innovative Payments & blockchain Strategic Advisor

Strategic agreement between EPI and EuroPA: building a unified European digital payments network

On June 23, 2025, the 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗜𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 (𝗘𝗣𝗜) and 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗣𝗔 announced a major collaboration aimed at creating an interoperable, sovereign European ecosystem for digital payments—offering a credible alternative to international card schemes. WHO ARE THE KEY PLAYERS? EuroPA is an alliance of national digita...

/payments /regulation

Oliver Tearle

Oliver Tearle Head of Technology Innovation at The ai Corporation

Generative AI on the Forecourt - Navigating Opportunity and Risk in Fuel and Payments

The fuel industry is constantly changing, driven by new technology and consumer behaviour shifts. While electric vehicles mark a fundamental change in energy use, the immediate challenges and opportunities for forecourt operations and payment systems continue to evolve. Generative AI (GenAI) is emerging within this dynamic environment as a technol...

/ai /payments Artificial Intelligence

Nkahiseng Ralepeli

Nkahiseng Ralepeli VP of Product: Digital Assets at Absa Bank, CIB.

GENIUS Act Clears the Way for Stablecoin-Powered Embedded Finance

For years, stablecoins existed in a regulatory grey zone – popular as “digital cash” but lacking official oversight. The GENIUS Act changes that virtually overnight. By passing this law, U.S. policymakers have sketched out the first federal framework for payment stablecoins. Under the Act, only approved and well-supervised issuers (think insured b...

/payments /crypto

Willem Wellinghoff

Willem Wellinghoff Chief Compliance Officer at Ecommpay

Bring on the BNPL regulation, but let’s get it right!

The rapid expansion of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services has undeniably reshaped the consumer credit landscape, offering a flexible and accessible payment method that caters to diverse lifestyles. However, this growth has simultaneously brought into sharp focus the imperative for suitable regulation. While further regulation is welcome in the wake...

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Research

Future of Report

The future of payments in major global markets: A mid-decade review

2025 is a significant year for the global payments industry. Marking the midpoint of the decade, and witnessing pivotal trends like the rise of real-time payments, advanced fraud detection and prevention, data portability, and open finance—these interlinked developments will set the stage for innovation through to 2030 and beyond.  The payments industry is now at the tipping point of global innovation, especially with global e-commerce market revenue projected to reach over $4.3 billion in 2025 and grow by 8% (CAGR 2025-2029). Further, by 2026, 5.2 billion people, or more than 60% of the global population, are expected to use digital wallets. The value of global transactions through account-to-account (A2A) payments is also predicted to rise from $1.7 trillion in 2024 to $5.7 trillion by 2029 – an increase of 230%. This will also pave the way for real-time payments to boom, with an expected CAGR of over 35% from 2024 to 2032. Looking at major global markets, the UK has continued to be at the forefront of the global payments revolution, quickly emerging as a hub for open banking as a result of the PSD2 directive and the UK’s pioneering standard. In October 2024, the Data Use and Access Bill was introduced to the House of Lords, signalling the UK’s commitment to bolstering open banking’s data sharing principles. Similarly, a month later, the National Payments Vision was unveiled, charting a clear path for the entire ecosystem to leverage technologies such as AI and DLT. The payments revolution is also taking over Europe. The Instant Payments Regulation (IPR) is rolling out instant payments by amending SEPA and adding specific provisions on instant credit transfers in euro to existing cross-border regulation: the Settlement Finality Directive (SFD) and the Payment Services Directive (PSD2). IPR also demands for Verification of Payee (VoP), confirming a recipient's account details before a payment is made and bringing down increasing numbers of fraud, particularly in the instant payments space. Similar to other regions, the US has made significant steps toward the innovation and interoperability of real-time payments – most recently through the launch of FedNow in 2023, the Federal Reserve’s real-time payment rail. Predictions show a total value of $95 billion in-app social commerce payments by 2030 in the US alone, meaning the integration of open banking is pivotal to maximising the value to be gained from e-commerce. However, the impact of the Trump administration’s strains on the CFPB and how that will effect Section 1033 and open banking in the US will be seen. This Finextra report, in association with Form3, examines the impact of these crucial advancements on the future of global payment schemes in the UK, Europe and the US, highlighting insights from experts at Bank of America, Crédit Agricole, ING, J.P. Morgan Payments, Lloyds, Santander, and Truist.

21 downloads

Report

PaaS, cloud and instant payments: Navigating the outsourcing question

Today’s institutions are in some ways faced with far greater challenges than ever before. Be it from the demand for ever-faster services; the pressure of always-on compliance; or the need to remain agile and competitive. Is PaaS the holy grail FIs have been looking for?  Outsourcing payments is an increasingly irresistible proposition for FIs. With end-user demand constantly evolving; real-time requirements on the rise; macro-economic trends becoming ever more unpredictable; and the pressure of regulatory compliance ratcheting up, the provision of proprietary payments has become a thorny pursuit.  Enter the stage: cloud technology. By leveraging modern tools and techniques to build, deploy, run, and manage software in a cloud-computing environment, FIs of all kinds can take advantage of scalability, elasticity, and automation. But the benefits of Payments-as-a-Service (PaaS) can extend beyond these practicalities – serving to revolutionise bank operations, unlock broader efficiencies, and enrich the end-user experience.  Mining this potential, however, obliges institutions to navigate some challenges. First, FIs must understand the potential of cloud-native technology as an engine for modernisation and embrace the cultural shift that is triggered by cuttingedge technologies. It may involve training, testing and concerted integration efforts.  Another key challenge is delegation: which tasks should be handed to third parties, and which should remain in-house? Indeed, when systems evolve, FIs must always keep one eye on compliance. As ever, approach and growth potential are directly impacted by the type and size of the institution in question, so approaches should be tailored.  This Finextra whitepaper, produced in association with FIS, evaluates:  The key considerations when placing client transaction data in the public cloud;  The art of delegation: Determining which tasks to offload;  The role of regulation and compliance; and  A PaaS checklist for finding the right solutions and partnerships.    Register to watch the related Finextra webinar, hosted in association with FIS – PaaS, cloud and instant payments in the spotlight: Overcoming outsourcing challenges

159 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of European Fintech 2025: A Money20/20 Special Edition

A special edition for Money20/20 Europe 2025. The European fintech space is seeing leaps and bounds in digital innovation, financial technology, and operational resilience. With incoming regulation focused on standarising the sector and disruptive fintech firms challenging banks - the ecosystem is in a transitional period.  Among these challenges, the fintech boom is sweeping the continent. New developments in AI, tokenisation, digital identity, open banking, and more is redefining the banking sector. Europe is primed to act as the epicentre for global fintech innovation.  This Finextra report dives into industry sentiment on what the future holds for European fintech, featuring key insights from NatWest Group, Standard Chartered, BNY Mellon, Magnetiq Bank, GoCardless, Moore Kingston Smith, Stripe, and Augmentum Fintech. It explores:  AI and predictive analytics integration in payments;  Enabling financial inclusion and accessibility in emerging markets;  The role of digital identity and behavioural biometrics in financial services;  Innovation in regulatory practices;  The revolutionary power of smart data and decentralised finance. 

194 downloads

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FinextraTV

How Evolving Regulation is Enabling Overdue Investment in Payment Hubs

Christina Fransson, Senior Business Development Manager, Enterprise & Instant Payments, FIS Global in her FinextraTV interview at NextGen Nordics discusses the history of centralised payment factories and how they have grown into the modern payment hubs, . From Fransson’s perspective, evolving regulation has been a much-needed push for banks to invest in a centralised system like payment hubs and the holistic abilities they provide. She details why this is important and what to expect from the future.

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Long reads

Henna Cheema

Henna Cheema Researcher at Finextra

Why 65% of the banking industry is not fully prepared for DORA: Key Insights from NextGen Nordics

Set against the dynamic backdrop of the Nordic financial landscape, the NextGen Nordics 2025 event in Stockholm, Sweden on 29 April 2025 featured key findings from Finextra’s latest survey, highlighting the Nordic community’s concerns and aspirations. Real time data gathered from interactive audience polls throughout the event offered live insight...

Sehrish Alikhan

Sehrish Alikhan Reporter at Finextra

Payments modernisation: How banks can leverage partnerships to scale up

As digital-first banks and neobanks take the lead in the global payments space, traditional financial institutions are looking to evolve. To keep up with the rapid pace of the industry, banks need to be in a constant stage of evolution. How can legacy banks modernise, and what tools are available to support them in their digital transformation jou...

Hamish Monk

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What happens when money thinks for itself?

This is an excerpt from The Future of European Fintech 2025: A Money20/20 Special Edition. The evolution of financial technology is characterised by increasing levels of simplicity, efficiency, and integration. We saw this in 2016, when Europe’s second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) encouraged financial institutions to open up their data and i...