First Pass

20 stories from 5 sources

Fintech Pushes Into Infrastructure While Controls Catch Up

Day’s Recap

Supporting Articles

The Independent Community Bankers of America sued the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, alleging that an OCC rule allows cryptocurrency firms to enter the banking system with less scrutiny than community banks. The challenge centers on the OCC's March 2 final rule concerning interpretive authority.

8:05 PMPYMNTS

EMVCo is developing a framework to carry information about what a consumer authorized an AI agent to do through card payments. The standards body closed public comments on the proposal on September 30.

5:42 PMPYMNTS

AI can already recommend products, but payment systems still need a reliable way to authorize purchases made by software agents. The discussion centers on trust, identity, and accountability when an AI acts on a shopper's behalf.

4:03 AMPYMNTS

BNY and Payward, the parent company of Kraken, are discussing a partnership spanning digital assets and financial market infrastructure. Potential areas include custody, trading, payments, wealth management, crypto products and Payward's business-to-business infrastructure platform, though no agreement has been finalized.

7:42 PMPYMNTS

BMO and Mastercard are enabling eligible corporate-card customers to initiate and manage virtual card payments inside the software platforms they already use to run their businesses.

10:26 AMFinextra

BMO and Mastercard have launched an embedded commercial payments capability that lets eligible corporate card clients initiate and manage BMO virtual card payments inside the business software they already use. BMO is the first Mastercard issuer in Canada to offer this type of integrated virtual card experience through participating platforms.

6:00 AMFinextra

Other Developments

A curated list of other prominent stories from this day.

Stablecoins could reduce global manufacturers' supplier-payment times from days to minutes, freeing working capital and reducing payment friction. The main constraint is no longer money movement but verifying counterparties and maintaining the controls needed to release funds safely.

4:25 PMPYMNTS

Payments Canada approved six new members: Bounce Finance, FIS Everlink, Nium Canada, Pesa, Remitly Canada and Vancity.

3:55 PMFinextra

Nayax has completed its all cash acquisition of IPS Group from Windjammer Capital Investors for $350 million. IPS provides payment enabled smart parking technology.

11:58 AMFinextra

California has prohibited public officials and government employees from issuing meme coins and barred digital asset platforms from listing certain tokens tied to public officials. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2409 as Congress continues debating a federal cryptocurrency framework.

11:46 AMPYMNTS

NG.Cash, founded by a former YouTuber, has raised $15 million to expand financial services for young and unbanked Brazilians. The company plans to offer credit and crypto products through its mobile platform.

11:15 AMFinextra

The discussion examines how digital assets might help banks address modernization challenges as customer expectations, regulation and competition evolve.

11:00 AMFinextra

Make it yours

Build Your First Pass.

Pick your topics, set your cadence, and receive your personalized First Pass in your inbox. It’s that simple!