Analysis and commentary on payments regulation, emerging technology and market developments across GCC, MENA and Europe.
Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol, Mastercard's Agent Pay and Stripe's Machine Payments Protocol represent the opening moves in what will become a fundamental restructuring of how authorisation works. We examine the implications for processors, issuers and merchants.
Read InsightPolitical agreement on PSD3 was reached in late 2025. National transposition is now under way, with full application expected mid-to-late 2027. We break down the material changes from PSD2, the new PSR provisions and what financial institutions should be doing now to prepare.
Read InsightThe EU Instant Payments Regulation has created the infrastructure. Open banking has created the access layer. The question for merchants and acquirers is where account-to-account payments genuinely improve the economics, and where cards remain the better option.
Read InsightThe ECB completed its technical preparatory work on a digital euro in late 2025. With the enabling regulation expected in 2026, payment service providers operating in the eurozone need to understand the distribution model, holding limits and the commercial implications of acting as an intermediary.
Read InsightHigh-risk AI system requirements under the EU AI Act apply from August 2026. For payment and credit providers using AI in fraud detection, credit scoring or customer risk assessment, the conformity assessment and documentation requirements are more demanding than most compliance teams have planned for.
Read InsightThe ECB's planned DvP pilot connecting trading platforms and TARGET services in Q3 2026 marks a significant step towards tokenised settlement becoming operational infrastructure. We examine the timeline, the interoperability challenges and the commercial implications for financial market participants.
Read InsightB2B payments remain slow, opaque and manual compared to consumer rails. We examine the specific fintech tools, open banking APIs, virtual IBANs, automated reconciliation, and instant credit transfers, that are delivering measurable reductions in payment cost and working capital drag for businesses across the GCC and Europe.
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