Mastercard

Airtel Money prices London IPO at £5.3 billion value

Airtel Money, the mobile money arm of Airtel Africa, on Thursday set the price for its London initial public offering at £1.96 per share. That values the payments company at about £5.3 billion, or $7 billion, ahead of its planned…

Mastercard, Visa launch tools to govern AI shopping agents

Mastercard is introducing an autonomous payment feature this week in collaboration with startup Alchemy, which enables users to create virtual cards for AI bots with specific spending limits and purchase restrictions, according to The Wall Street Journal News Corp. The…

Mastercard launches Wallet Pay to link digital wallets globally

Mastercard has introduced Wallet Pay, a global suite of solutions designed to bridge digital wallets across contactless, QR code, and online payments, as the company moves to position itself at the center of a rapidly growing ecosystem serving more than…

Visa, Mastercard, Ant International team up on AI agent payments framework

Visa, Mastercard, and Ant International announced on September 10 that they will collaborate on a Know-Your-Agent interoperability framework designed to verify and onboard AI shopping agents across payment networks, a step toward enabling software to make purchases on behalf of…

Visa, Mastercard and Ant International team up to verify AI shopping agents

Ant International, Visa and Mastercard announced Thursday they have begun collaborating on a Know-Your-Agent interoperability framework, an effort to create common standards for identifying and verifying AI agents that make purchases on behalf of consumers and businesses.

Mastercard launches Wallet Pay to connect digital wallets globally

Mastercard on Tuesday unveiled Wallet Pay, a suite of solutions aimed at connecting digital wallets worldwide across contactless, QR code, and online payments, as the company positions itself as the infrastructure layer for a rapidly expanding ecosystem that already serves…

Visa, Mastercard complete first international card payments in Syria

Visa and Mastercard each completed landmark first live international payment transactions in Syria on Wednesday, marking the country's most concrete step yet toward full reintegration into the global financial system — just days after the United States formally removed Syria…

Visa, Mastercard join alliance to set AI payment rules

More than 25 organizations across payments, crypto, and fintech have joined a newly formed coalition aimed at shaping how AI agents transact on behalf of humans and machines, as the industry races to define standards before trillions of dollars in…

Visa seeks new stablecoin partner after Mastercard acquired BVNK

Visa is searching for a new stablecoin payments and settlement partner after its previous collaborator, BVNK, was acquired by rival Mastercard, according to a report by CoinDesk on Monday.

EU pushes digital euro to cut reliance on US card networks

The European Union is pressing ahead with plans for a digital euro, entering the final stretch of negotiations aimed at building a homegrown payment system that would curb the bloc's dependence on Visa and Mastercard, the American networks that process…

Mastercard launches direct stablecoin settlement in US and UK

Mastercard has obtained a BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services, allowing the payments giant to settle stablecoins directly through its network rather than relying on intermediaries. The approval, granted to Mastercard Transaction Services (U.S.) LLC on…

Visa and Mastercard race to embed stablecoins into core payment rails

The world's two largest card networks moved aggressively to embed themselves in the stablecoin economy this week, each announcing separate infrastructure deals on August 5 while also joining forces as founding supporters of Circle's new Arc blockchain.

Mastercard completes $1.8B acquisition of stablecoin firm BVNK

Mastercard on Monday finalized its acquisition of BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure provider, in a deal valued at $1.8 billion that marks the payments giant's largest bet on digital currency technology to date.

Mastercard tops Q2 forecasts as profit surges 21%

Mastercard reported second-quarter 2026 earnings on Thursday that handily beat Wall Street expectations, as steady consumer spending and growth in the company's services business drove a 19% jump in net income.

Crypto M&A funding surged 26-fold in six months, CryptoRank data shows

Crypto mergers and acquisitions reached $9.37 billion in the first half of 2026, driven by traditional finance players racing to buy rather than build their way into digital assets. According to data from CryptoRank, capital deployed through crypto M&A transactions…

Mastercard launches payment system for AI agents

Mastercard on Wednesday unveiled Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M), a payment framework designed to let AI agents and connected machines authorize, coordinate, and settle transactions autonomously across the company's global network — including payments worth fractions of a cent.