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Payments

Payments covers how money actually moves: the card networks, processors and acquirers behind a checkout, the bank rails underneath them — ACH, SEPA, instant payments and ISO 20022 — and the cross-border corridors that connect them. Fintechbits tracks the infrastructure layer most people never see: who is issuing and processing cards, which merchants are switching acquirers, which real-time payment schemes are going live, and where settlement still takes days. Coverage follows the companies building those rails, from Visa and Mastercard to Stripe, Adyen, Checkout.com and Marqeta, and the regulatory decisions that shape what they can charge. Stablecoin settlement appears here only where it touches an existing payment rail; the rest sits under stablecoins.

Featured in Payments

Icon Solutions MongoDB benchmark of the Icon Payments Framework on MongoDB Atlas for instant payments
Icon Solutions and MongoDB Say Their Payments Stack Hits 6,000 TPS With No Data Loss

Fintech—Charitarth Sindhu—September 18, 2026

Icon Solutions MongoDB benchmark results landed on Tuesday, September 8, 2026. The two companies said the Icon Payments Framework (IPF), running on MongoDB Atlas, processed 6,000 SEPA Instant-style payments per second end to end. Mean latency was 0.51 seconds, well inside the roughly 10-second window instant schemes typically allow. Banks including Citi, NatWest and BNP

Latest Payments

Checkout.com Best Buy Marketplace payments partnership for card acquiring and debit routing
Checkout.com Signs On for the Next Phase of Best Buy Marketplace Payments

September 18, 2026

Checkout.com Best Buy news landed on Tuesday, September 8, 2026. Checkout.com said it will support the next phase of Best Buy's Marketplace payments infrastructure as the retailer expands third-party selling on BestBuy.com and the Best Buy app. Specifically, it will handle card acquiring plus pinless and debit routing. That is essentially the whole announcement: a

Klarna StockX checkout offering Pay in 4 to resale shoppers in the U.S. and Canada
Klarna Expands StockX Partnership to the U.S. and Canada

September 17, 2026

Klarna StockX checkout went live in the U.S. and Canada on September 8, 2026. The launch extends a partnership already running in ten European markets and Australia into two of StockX's largest markets. The integration runs through Adyen. North American shoppers now get Klarna's interest-free Pay in 4 plan and longer-term financing for sneakers, apparel,

Stripe Link Muse integration letting Meta personal AI agent check out on behalf of consumers
Stripe Link Becomes a Payment Rail for the New Meta AI Shopping Agent

September 17, 2026

Stripe Link Muse checkout went live on September 8, 2026. Stripe announced that Meta has integrated Link's wallet for agents into Muse, Meta's new personal AI agent. As a result, US consumers can connect Link and let Muse buy from businesses across the internet. It is Stripe's clearest bet yet that agents, not humans, will

Circle Tazapay acquisition bringing cross-border payout rails into the USDC network
Circle to Acquire Cross-Border Payments Firm Tazapay

September 17, 2026

Circle Tazapay deal terms emerged on September 8, 2026, when Circle Internet Group agreed to acquire Tazapay, a Singapore-based B2B cross-border payments company. The transaction is expected to close in 2027, pending approvals that include the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Circle's press release left out the price. However, its Form 8-K filing sets base

Checkout.com MALPB charter enabling direct card network access for US enterprise merchants
Checkout.com goes live with direct US card acquiring under its Georgia bank charter

September 16, 2026

The Checkout.com MALPB charter is now live and processing volume. Granted by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, it gives the company direct access to Visa and Mastercard for its US enterprise merchants. That removes the third-party acquiring bank most processors route through. Inside the Checkout.com MALPB charter launch The Checkout.com MALPB charter timeline

FinXP Thredd partnership connecting issuer processing with European BIN sponsorship
FinXP taps Thredd for card processing, offers Europe access in return

September 15, 2026

FinXP Thredd is a two-way deal. The Malta-licensed electronic money institution and Mastercard principal member is moving its debit card programmes onto Thredd's issuer-processing platform. In return, FinXP will act as a European BIN sponsor for Thredd's global client base. Inside the FinXP Thredd deal The FinXP Thredd stack supplies tokenisation, provisioning, risk and fraud

DNA Payments iwoca embedded lending inside a merchant portal for UK small businesses
DNA Payments merchants get instant access to iwoca loans

September 15, 2026

DNA Payments iwoca integration lets UK merchants apply for a Flexi Loan of between £1,000 and £1 million without leaving the Merchant Portal or app. The application is fully digital, and approvals typically come back within minutes. Inside the DNA Payments iwoca deal The DNA Payments iwoca mechanics are familiar. DNA's payment processing already gives

Visa IFC risk-sharing facility supporting card issuance at regional banks in Latin America
Visa and IFC launch $200 million risk-sharing facility for emerging-market card issuers

September 12, 2026

Visa IFC risk-sharing arrangements now cover credit settlement exposure for banks that could not otherwise clear the bar. Here the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank Group's private-sector arm, absorbs part of the settlement risk on Visa transactions for enrolled institutions. So below-investment-grade lenders can extend digital payments to underbanked consumers and small businesses without

Klarna engagement ring financing options shown at an online diamond retailer checkout
Klarna Adds 0% Financing to Rare Carat Engagement Ring Checkout

September 10, 2026

Klarna engagement ring financing is now live at one of retail's highest-ticket categories. The buy now, pay later company announced a partnership with Rare Carat, one of the largest online diamond and ring retailers in the US. Shoppers can pay in full or split the cost interest-free over four payments. Beyond that, they can finance

POSaBIT cannabis payments terminal at a dispensary where card networks still prohibit transactions
POSaBIT Refinances Cannabis Payments Loan, Buys Two More Years Before Maturity

September 9, 2026

POSaBIT cannabis payments infrastructure just got cheaper to finance. The company has refinanced its $4.75 million loan with Perga Capital Partners LP. It will repay $2 million of principal over the next 18 months, push maturity from March 2028 to March 2030, and cut the interest rate from 12% to 10% immediately, with a further

TabaPay bank charter strategy illustrated by the Transact Bank acquisition and the $155 million FTV Capital round
TabaPay Raises $155 Million, Moves to Buy Its Own Bank

September 7, 2026

TabaPay bank charter ambitions stopped being theoretical on September 2. The payments processor closed a $155 million strategic growth financing round led by FTV Capital and confirmed plans to acquire Transact Bank, N.A., an OCC chartered and FDIC insured bank in Denver. Once the deal closes, Transact becomes TabaBank, N.A. and sits alongside TabaPay under

Nacha dhango partner ACH payments network
Nacha Names dhango a Preferred Partner for ACH Risk and Compliance

September 4, 2026

Nacha and dhango, Preferred Partner designation, announced September 3. The new Nacha dhango partner designation names dhango, an Austin-based payments infrastructure company, a Nacha Preferred Partner covering risk and fraud prevention, compliance, and open banking. Nacha is the organization that governs the US ACH network, which processed 35.2 billion payments worth 93 trillion dollars in

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