NFC World

When Western governments cut major Russian banks off from the Swift messaging system in the wake of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, they hoped to choke the country’s ability to move money across borders. Stablecoins: Inside Russia’s shadow payments network Instead, the pressure has accelerated the creation of a parallel payments ecosystem that blends cash, […]

Mobile wallets were once presented as sleek digital accessories — a faster way to tap in store, a smooth way to pay online. That era has passed. The global wallet war Today, the wallet is becoming the central interface of the consumer economy, a hub that unites payments, identity, loyalty, lending and even commerce in

For decades, the POS terminal was a steadfast but unremarkable fixture of retail life — the small, grey box whose sole purpose was to approve or decline a card transaction. Its role was functional, its design purely utilitarian, and its intelligence minimal. The evolution of POS That world has disappeared. The modern POS (point-of-sale) is

Digital asset payments are edging closer to everyday commerce as Lydian launches a new application enabling cryptocurrency acceptance across Clover devices for crypto POS payments. Crypto moves into POS payments The move allows merchants using Clover hardware to offer customers a “Pay with Crypto” option at checkout, while continuing to receive settlement in local currency.

Visa has delivered a solid set of first-quarter results, comfortably exceeding market expectations as consumer spending remained resilient across its global network. Visa and Mastercard beat expectations Yet the numbers were not enough to placate investors, with the company’s shares sliding despite double-digit growth in earnings and revenue. For the three months to 31 December,

A quiet but consequential struggle is under way at the heart of the global financial system. The stablecoin battleground On one side sit Wall Street’s largest banks, guardians of deposits, credit creation and monetary transmission. On the other are crypto companies, arguing that stablecoins — digital tokens pegged one-for-one to sovereign currencies — represent a

OpenAI has raised a pointed warning about an underappreciated vulnerability in agentic AI systems: hyperlinks. A systemic risk for agentic AI As AI agents move beyond conversation into execution — browsing the web, retrieving data and completing tasks — links are becoming one of the most exploitable attack surfaces in the AI stack. This shift

Artificial intelligence is moving rapidly from novelty to infrastructure in retail, and nowhere was that more apparent than at Retail’s Big Show in New York. The future of retail payments While retailers once dominated the event, this year the largest crowds gathered around the stands of technology groups promising a future in which shopping is

Checkout.com has taken a decisive step deeper into Europe’s regulated digital money ecosystem with the acquisition of Blue EMI, a licensed electronic money institution authorised to issue euro-denominated stablecoins. Checkout.com doubles down on Europe The deal, accompanied by the launch of a new technology centre in Lithuania, signals the payments group’s growing conviction that Europe

Instalment payments are no longer confined to online checkouts or specialist buy now, pay later (BNPL) apps. They are increasingly becoming part of everyday banking, embedded directly into debit cards, mobile banking platforms and digital wallets. Debit cards move into instalments What began as a retail financing innovation is now reshaping the competitive boundaries between