Author Archives: Pmtclaw

PIX Update

Posted on by
Reply

My last blog on PIX was 2022, so it is time for an update. When Brazil’s Central Bank (BCB) launched PIX in November 2020, the stated goal was simple: kill cash. Four years later, mission accomplished and then some. PIX has evolved from a peer-to-peer transfer tool into something far more consequential: a domestic debit scheme that challenges the card networks (debit).

The June 2026 launch of Pix Automático marks the inflection point. Brazil now has a government-mandated recurring payment rail that bypasses Visa and Mastercard entirely for subscriptions and utility billing. The BCB’s own PIX Statistics dashboard shows the trajectory:

  • 79.7 billion transactions in 2025—a 26% year-over-year increase
  • BRL 35.3 trillion (~$6.3 trillion USD) in value moved
  • 93% of Brazilian adults now use PIX
  • For the first time, Person-to-Business (P2B) transactions surpassed P2P, now representing over 44% of total volume
Continue reading →

ZelleUSD — A Private Coin

Posted on by
1

Builds on: Stablecoins: A New Model of Trust | JPMorgan, Citi and TCH: Tokenized Deposits ON Chain | Open Banking, Open Payments and Trust Networks

Early Warning announced this week that Zelle is going international, starting with India — the world’s largest remittance destination. Alongside this, they unveiled ZelleUSD (ZLUSD), which they’re calling a “proprietary U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin.” Cue the analyst notes about banks “finally getting into stablecoin.”

I’m already laughing… this is Banks BEATING Stableocin and Remittance Providers at their own game with a closed network. This Is Not a competitor to USDC, and you can’t buy it on Coinbase, so Don’t Get Confused.

Continue reading →

Proposed Stablecoin KYC Rule

Posted on by
Reply

The Fed/FinCEN and OFAC just revealed their proposed Stablecoin KYC rule and consistent with the GENIUS Act it entails bank-level KYC requirements for Stablecoin Issuers (see blog: No more Stablecoin “rewards”). This combined with the 303-page FinCEN/OFAC rule on transaction monitoring and secondary uses places substantial compliance burdens on Stablecoin issuers. So much that it is said the hottest job in Fintech is in Stablecoin compliance.

You need to be logged in to view the rest of the content. Please . Not a Member? Join Us

Agentic Data Battle: Intent

Posted on by
Reply

Paid Content

Key Friction Point in Agent (M2M) Transactions. Example of why real agentic transactions are 2-3 yrs away. We have a new party in a transaction that everyone needs to trust: the agent. Mastercard/Google Verifiable Intent is a LONG WAY from satisfying the need. It’s a self-attestation (see the Technical Addendum at the end of the Blog).

My prior blogs have focused extensively on the trust challenge in agentic commerce: authenticating the consumer and the agent (the actor). As I discussed in EMVCo and DPCs, financial institutions must verify and authenticate the four pillars of a transaction: the User, the Instrument, the Actor (Agent), and the Action (Payment). Today, I want to dive deeper into the fourth pillar—the Action—and the emerging battle over intent data.

A New Party to the Transaction

For decades, payment transactions have involved a familiar cast: the consumer, the merchant, the issuer, and the network. Each party has well-defined roles, risk allocation, and data flows governed by established rule sets. Agentic commerce introduces a new party: the Agent.

You need to be logged in to view the rest of the content. Please . Not a Member? Join Us

Can Processors Win a Role in Agentic?

Posted on by
Reply

Member only content

Adyen’s stock is down over 40% this year. Investors aren’t just punishing one company; they’re repricing the entire processor category as agentic commerce threatens to restructure who controls economics and merchant relationships. The market sees what I’ve been writing about for 18 months: processors are at risk of becoming dumb pipes.

Yesterday, Adyen announced Adyen Agentic a suite of modular APIs encompassing Agentic Feed (product/inventory), Agentic Cart (checkout orchestration), and Agentic Payments (authentication, fraud, tokenization). The positioning is explicit: a “universal translator” that lets merchants integrate once and participate across every agent platform, protocol, and payment method.

You need to be logged in to view the rest of the content. Please . Not a Member? Join Us

Google Ads in the Agentic Era: Merchant Center Becomes the Center

Posted on by
Reply

Great article in Search Engine Journal surrounding the shift in Google Ads: the product feed is no longer just a catalog. It’s becoming THE primary bidding signal.

This shift matters for payments strategists because it reveals how Google is positioning itself as the orchestration layer for agentic commerce. The advertising infrastructure and the commerce infrastructure are converging, and Merchant Center is the “last mile” integration point to merchant data from store level product inventory, to pricing, to SKU level purchase feeds (for measurement).

Continue reading →

Augustus Protocol & Emerging Settlement Standards: The Crypto Clearing Bank Arrives

Posted on by
Reply

In May 2026, Augustus (formerly Ivy) received conditional OCC approval to establish the first “AI-era clearing bank” a federally chartered national bank built on a stablecoin-native core designed for 24/7 programmable clearing. The announcement has drawn attention for its ambition: replacing legacy correspondent banking infrastructure with always-on, machine-initiated settlement. But beneath the compelling narrative lies a more nuanced reality about the structure of U.S. financial settlement and the commercial dynamics that govern it.

Continue reading →

Merchant Litigation Settlement – Good News for V/MA

Posted on by
Reply

For anyone who has followed payments industry equities or competitive dynamics over the past two decades, yesterday’s ruling from Judge Brian Cogan felt like a long-exhaled breath. After 21 years of litigation, multiple failed settlement attempts, and a high-profile 2024 rejection, the Visa/Mastercard merchant interchange lawsuit finally has a path forward. Judge Cogan granted preliminary approval of the amended settlement on June 9, 2026 — and on balance, this is good news for the networks, for merchants, and for the broader ecosystem.

You need to be logged in to view the rest of the content. Please . Not a Member? Join Us

Stablecoin Strategy – Visa and Mastercard Are Taking Very Different Roads

Posted on by
Reply

The two dominant card networks are both committed to stablecoins. Both see digital assets as a meaningful component of their long-term growth story. Both have articulated clear strategies to their investors. But the roads they are taking could not be more different and the implications for how value-added services grow, who captures the upside, and how fast innovation moves are significant.

Mastercard is buying the infrastructure. Visa is building a network and enabling shared investment.

You need to be logged in to view the rest of the content. Please . Not a Member? Join Us

JPMorgan, Citi and TCH: Tokenized Deposits ON Chain

Posted on by
Reply

Builds on: 101 Update: CBDCs, Stablecoins and Tokenized Deposits | Stablecoins: A New Model of Trust | Stablecoin Scenarios

The WSJ reported yesterday that JPMorgan, Citigroup, and TCH (a consortium of the largest US banks) are planning a shared tokenized deposit system. For anyone who has been following this space, this is not a surprise. It is a confirmation. I’ve been writing about this trajectory for years. The question was never whether banks would adopt blockchain infrastructure. The question was always how and the commercial construct that governs operation. Now we know. 

Continue reading →