60% of hospitality businesses say speed is their key reason for investing in smarter point-of-sale (POS) systems ahead of the 2025 holiday shopping season, according to new research from Lloyds Merchant Services. As festive trading ramps up, businesses are upgrading their checkout technology to handle higher volumes, reduce wait times and deliver a more seamless payment experience across busy venues. From restaurants to retail counters, faster and more reliable POS systems are now seen as critical to maintaining customer satisfaction and securing sales during peak periods.

Kraken, one of the world’s longest-standing, most secure and most liquid crypto platforms, today announced the phased rollout of the Krak Card with 1% cash back rewards on all purchases, alongside new features, such as salary deposits and expanded wealth-building opportunities.

UK manufacturing firms are urging the Government to tackle the late payments crisis, as new research from independent funder Bibby Financial Services (“BFS”) reveals the dual pressures of unpaid invoices and high costs are hampering the sector.

Want to keep an eye on how South Africans are buying this Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Peach Payments’s Black Friday Dashboard is live at peachpayments.com/black-friday from midnight tonight until midnight on Monday, 1 December.

MoneyHash, the leading payment orchestration platform in emerging and global markets, and Amwal Tech, the Saudi fintech platform leading the way in providing aggregated credit card installment services, announced a strategic partnership to strengthen collaboration in Saudi Arabia’s rapidly evolving fintech landscape.

Pubali Bank PLC, the largest private commercial bank in Bangladesh, has signed an agreement with BPC, global payments solutions provider, to migrate from its legacy stack to the next-generation SmartVista Card Management System as part of a strategic programme to enhance its digital footprint and modernise banking operations.

Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, has announced the expansion of its flagship remittance solution, Send App, across the United States, and the return of all major cards including Amex, Discover, etc.

Visa, a global leader in digital payments, today announced the expansion of its stablecoin settlement capabilities across the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region (CEMEA) through a partnership with Aquanow, a global digital assets platform expert in liquidity and infrastructure solutions.

Monex Canada Inc. (“Monex Canada”), a subsidiary of the wider financial services group Monex S.A.P.I. de C.V. (“Monex”), an investment-grade global financial institution and a leader in commercial foreign exchange, today announced the launch of Mass Payments within its online FX payment platform, Monex Pay. The new capability enhances the platform’s treasury functionality by enabling businesses to automate, manage, and execute high-volume, multi-currency payments with greater efficiency, accuracy, and visibility.

Inclusive global payments platform, Ecommpay, has published a new white paper championing the role of payments professionals as profit generators – not just costs to a business. Featuring research amongst a number of e-commerce businesses, the new white paper – Making Payments a Profit Centre – explores how the payments function is being repositioned as a core driver of growth.

BENEFIT, the Bahraini innovator and a leading company in fintech and electronic financial transactions service, and Ant International, a leading global digital payment, digitisation and financial technology provider, headquartered in Singapore, have partnered to launch cross-border QR payments between Bahrain’s BENEFIT QR payment scheme and Ant International’s global wallet gateway, Alipay+, during 2026 to support the transition to toward a more inclusive digital payments ecosystem.

Worldpay®, a global leader in payment technology, has announced the launch of Worldpay MCP (Model Context Protocol), a publicly available set of server specifications and tools, designed to accelerate AI-powered payment integration and open the door for agentic commerce innovation. This launch marks the next milestone in Worldpay’s ongoing focus on innovation, shaping the future of commerce.

Worldline [Euronext: WLN], a European leader in payment services, has announced the UK launch of Android SmartPOS, an Android-based payment platform designed for small and medium-sized merchants that goes beyond traditional payment terminals.

RTGS.global, the fintech transforming how cross-border payments are made and settled, has today announced that 23 currencies have been added to its global network.

Payhawk, the finance orchestration platform helping companies unify spend management, Accounts Payable, and payments, today announced a partnership with Invopop, a certified Peppol Access Point provider. This collaboration expands Payhawk’s eInvoicing capabilities across Europe allowing finance teams to receive, validate, approve, and pay structured eInvoices directly within the platform without additional systems or integrations.