Visa, Mastercard and Amex join x402 body for agentic payments
Visa, Mastercard and Amex are premier members of the Linux Foundation's x402 Foundation, the new open-governance body standardising AI agent payments over HTTP.
Rick Steves
Senior Reporter, Regulation and Fintech
Rick Steves has seen business and economics through many lenses. He joined the financial services industry in 2009, and has been a financial journalist since 2011. He holds a degree in Business Administration and has experience producing real-time news, from both buy-side and sell-side, as well as for retail traders, brokers and service providers. Steves' work has appeared in a variety of online publications including FX Street, NewsBTC, FinanceFeeds, and The Industry Spread. Rick has great interest in the dynamics of the trading industry. The never-ending clash between technology, economics, regulation, and more importantly, the people.
July 2026
Nayax refuses to pay as leak deadline lands July 21
Nayax refused a ransom with the attacker's July 21 leak deadline live. Its shares fell 11% a day before the filing - the leak site beat the disclosure.
Bank regulators give themselves 72 hours; banks get 36
The Fed, FDIC and OCC pledged 72-hour breach notice to banks, twice the 36-hour rule they enforce. What the July 16 guidance requires, and where it stops.
PayPal board rejects $53bn Stripe-Advent bid as too low
PayPal's board rejected the $53bn Stripe-Advent offer as inadequate. Why the Braintree antitrust remedy is cheap and price, not regulators, is the block.
OpenPayd takes SPAC route to Nasdaq at $1.145bn
OpenPayd will list on Nasdaq via Titan Acquisition Corp at $1.145bn. A profitable infrastructure firm choosing a SPAC says more about listing windows than quality.
Riverty opens Luxembourg bank as BNPL firms chase charters
Bertelsmann-owned Riverty starts operating as a licensed Luxembourg bank in July 2026, days after Klarna filed for a US charter. The pattern is not a coincidence.
GENIUS Act deadline lands with foreign issuers in limbo
The GENIUS Act's July 18 rulemaking deadline passed with Treasury's foreign-issuer comparability regime unfinished — and no determination covering $189bn of USDT.
UK BNPL rules start as four jurisdictions split on scope
UK BNPL regulation began July 15, 2026. How the FCA regime compares with CCD2, Australia's licence rules and the US state patchwork - and what firms must do.
NinjaTrader cuts off Alpha Futures over rival platform
NinjaTrader terminated Alpha Futures after the prop firm built a rival platform, closing its Premium plan and converting earned payouts into refunds.
Fed’s skinny payment account won’t replace a bank charter
The Fed's proposed payment account gives fintechs direct Fedwire and FedNow access, but no ACH, no correspondent banking. Comments close July 27, 2026.
JetBlue ties TrueBlue points to BNPL in ClarityPay launch
JetBlue and ClarityPay launch loyalty-linked pay later: TrueBlue points on financed bookings, 0% intro APR, $50-$50,000 range. Why white-label BNPL wins.
FATF review: Travel Rule at 83% as stablecoins take focus
FATF's July 2026 update: 83% of jurisdictions have Travel Rule laws but enforcement lags, and stablecoins carry 84% of illicit flows. Five regimes compared.
Stripe, Advent bid $53bn for PayPal in record fintech deal
Stripe and Advent International offer $60.50 a share for PayPal - a $53bn record fintech deal that would fold 439m accounts into Stripe's rails. Who wins?
Sage and GoCardless put Pay by Bank on UK SME invoices
Sage and GoCardless embed instant account-to-account payments in SME invoices — the third UK pay-by-bank move in five days, with card interchange the target.
CFTC’s twin event-contract rules end the no-action era
The CFTC's two June 2026 NPRMs codify prediction-market rules: a rewritten Rule 40.11, a 10-100 day review clock, §16.03 reporting — comments close July 27.
Flex raises $70m at $1.2bn to bank business owners globally
Flex raises $70m seven months after its Series B, doubling to $1.2bn, as the owner-first private banking platform launches stablecoin-railed Flex Global.
Deutsche Bank, MIGA launch €1bn trade finance guarantee
MIGA's first programmatic trade finance guarantee platform with a commercial bank gives Deutsche Bank €1bn of cover on frontier-market state-bank risk.
Lloyds and Stripe launch ‘Lloyds Accept’ for 1m UK SMEs
Lloyds has launched Lloyds Accept, powered by Stripe, giving 1 million-plus business customers tap-to-pay, payment links and terminals to fight neobank rivals.
Why the CLARITY Act’s SEC-CFTC split reshapes US crypto rules
The CLARITY Act would split US digital-asset oversight between the SEC and CFTC. A July 17 House hearing is the last push before a Senate vote — here is what changes.
Klarna files for US bank charter to end WebBank reliance
Klarna has applied to the FDIC and Utah regulators for an industrial bank charter, Klarna Bank USA, to run payments and credit in-house and drop sponsor WebBank.
Also filing this week: Karthik Subramanian and Abdelaziz Fathi.