Visa

Visa wins PBOC approval to prepare China card business

Visa said Tuesday, Oct. 13, that the People's Bank of China has approved its application to begin preparing a domestic bank card clearing institution. The decision gives the U.S. payments company a path into China's onshore card market. Visa first…

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…

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.

Visa pairs settlement data with onchain lending as stablecoin card programs surge

Visa announced Tuesday that more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs are now live globally, with payment volume surging nearly 200% year over year as the payments giant moves to pair its settlement data with onchain lending infrastructure for blockchain-based lenders.

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…

Researchers revive expired Visa cards for purchases using NFC relay attack

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have demonstrated a practical NFC relay attack that can revive expired Visa contactless credit cards for real in-store purchases, exploiting a weakness in how the payment network handles expiration date verification.

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.

Visa cuts 2,600 jobs globally as AI push reaches senior ranks

Visa is eliminating approximately 2,600 positions, or 7% of its global workforce, in a sweeping restructuring that has reached the company's most senior technical and executive ranks as the payments giant accelerates its pivot toward artificial intelligence.

Visa to buy fraud prevention firm BioCatch for $2.4B

Visa announced Monday it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire BioCatch, an Israeli AI-powered fraud prevention company, for $2.4 billion in cash, as the payments giant moves to strengthen its cybersecurity defenses against increasingly sophisticated digital threats.

Open USD stablecoin backed by 140 firms to debut on Ethereum

Ethereum Institutional, an independent nonprofit organization, confirmed that Open USD (OUSD) will debut on the Ethereum blockchain, marking a move that reinforces the network's position as the leading platform for institutional finance. The stablecoin is developed by Open Standard and…

Visa to cut 2,600 jobs in broad restructuring

Visa is eliminating approximately 2,600 jobs, representing about 7% of its workforce, as CEO Ryan McInerney moves to streamline the payments giant amid intensifying competition and a shifting industry landscape.

Visa launches stablecoin platform for 200M merchants

Visa on Wednesday unveiled the Visa Stablecoin Platform, an enterprise-grade infrastructure that allows banks, fintechs, and crypto firms to mint, move, and manage stablecoins through a single system connected to the payments giant's global network of more than 15,000 financial…

Visa, European banks complete first AI agent purchases with real merchants

Visa and a group of European banks have moved agentic commerce from controlled test environments into real-world merchant transactions, with AI agents now completing purchases on behalf of cardholders for the first time in live conditions.

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…

Visa integrates payment network into ChatGPT for AI shopping

Visa announced Wednesday that it has integrated its payment network directly into ChatGPT, allowing the AI chatbot to autonomously shop and complete transactions on behalf of users. The move, revealed at the Visa Payments Forum 2026 in San Francisco, marks…