Visa

Leading British banks are launching a funding round for the newly formed UK Payments Delivery Company to create a national payments network as an alternative to Visa and Mastercard. Initially around £50 million will be raised from banks, lenders and payment providers to cover founding and start‑up costs through 2028. The initiative, which is already searching for a chief executive, could threaten the market position of Visa and Mastercard in UK payments. » More on de.investing.com

Visa is combining VisaNet settlement data with onchain lending infrastructure to help stablecoin-linked card programs and fintechs obtain working capital faster. The company now supports over 160 stablecoin card programs, with payment volume up nearly 200% year over year and stablecoin settlement volume at an annualized $20 billion run rate. Pilots with partners have financed more than $2.5 billion in settlement volume with no reported defaults, though Visa cautions that stablecoin growth remains a small part of its business and carries regulatory, credit and privacy risks. » More on finance.yahoo.com

Visa research finds only 23% of consumers currently trust AI agents to make payments, but trust rises to 61% when Visa is associated with the transaction. Visa is developing Trusted Agent Protocol, an Agentic Directory, Agent Score and Visa Intelligent Commerce to authenticate agents, prevent fraud and clarify dispute and liability rules. Key obstacles include merchant resistance, adapting fraud detection for machine-speed transactions, and establishing clear consumer controls; Visa expects B2B procurement and human-in-the-loop workflows to be the initial proving grounds for agentic commerce. » More on forbes.com