Payment Expert’s Fintech Unwrapped delivers the latest and developing news that has shaped the sector over the course of the week.
This week, Ripple has continued its expansion by acquiring a licence in Luxembourg to offer its payment services across Europe.
Also this week, PayPal and Deutsche Bank extended a long-standing partnership, Checkout.com has become a bank in the US, and open banking celebrates eight years since launching in the UK.
Ripple secures EMI licence in Luxembourg
Ripple received preliminary authorisation on January 14 from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) for an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence.
Once fully approved, the EMI licence will enable Ripple to offer regulated payment services, such as its RLUSD stablecoin for settlements and Ripple Payments for cross-border transactions, across Europe Economic Area (EEA) countries.
This follows Ripple’s recent EMI licence approval in the UK on January 9 to provide its e-money and cryptoasset staking services.
While the EMI licence secured in Luxembourg will enable the crypto company to offer payments in Europe, it will not be able to offer its crypto trading and staking service in the region as it has not yet secured a Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) operating licence.
However, CoinDesk reported on January 15 it is aiming to secure a MiCA compliant crypto-asset service provider licence “in the coming months”.
PayPal expands Deutsche Bank partnership across the globe
PayPal and Deutsche Bank expanded their decade-long partnership on January 13 to scale the digital payment providers range of services in Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific.
Under the agreement, Deutsche Bank will support merchant settlement, payouts, and withdrawals and collection solutions for PayPal in the US. Deutsche Bank will support PayPal by annually processing payments in Europe and Asia-Pacific.
“By combining PayPal’s global reach with Deutsche Bank’s expertise in Cash Management and Merchant Solutions, we are adding more resiliency and diversification to our platform. With this expansion we will be able to grow the commerce solutions we deliver to our customers worldwide,” said Kausik Rajgopal, EVP for Strategy, Partnerships and Corporate Development at PayPal.
Checkout.com becomes a US bank?
Checkout.com announced on January 12 it had received approval in the US to operate as a Merchant Acquirer Limited Purpose Bank (MALPB).
Receiving its national trust charter licence from the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, Checkout.com will now be able to gain access to the US card network and deliver faster acceptance rates for merchants in the country.
“This milestone paves the way for a new era of payment performance”, said Jordan Reynolds, MALPB CEO and Head of North American Banking at Checkout.com. “Our focus is now on scaling our infrastructure and building up talent in Atlanta and the US to meet the rigorous conditions of our approval.”
Worldline connects its payment network to agentic commerce
Worldline launched its dedicated agentic commerce service, Model Context Protocol (MCP), on January 15 to connect AI agents to its global payment system.
MCP will act as a bridge between large language models and APIs, enabling AI agents to initiate payments actions in the users’ preferred language. For merchants, the MCP server supports agent-initiated actions such as payment creation, refunds, status checks, and payment captures.
“Agentic commerce will unlock new waves of innovation, helping merchants deliver better customer experiences. Our investments in this area position Worldline to capture a growing global market for AI-powered transactions, delivering secure, scalable infrastructure that empowers merchants and developers to innovate with confidence,” said Stijn Gasthuys, Head of Global Commerce at Worldline.
Open Banking celebrates its 8th anniversary in UK
Open Banking Limited (OBL) celebrated the eight-year anniversary of the arrival of Open Banking to the UK banking system on January 13.
OBL outlined since launching in January 2018, open banking has produced more than 16.5 million user connections, supported 145 authorised third-party providers, delivered services used daily by consumers, small businesses and public bodies. Open banking-enabled solutions have also contributed over £4bn to the UK economy.
“In just eight years, OBL has helped build an ecosystem that people and businesses across the UK now use as part of everyday financial life, sometimes without even realising,” said Henk Van Hulle, OBL CEO.
“The UK has created something genuinely world-leading; the priority now is to put the right long-term structures in place so that advantage is protected and can continue to grow to support as many businesses and consumers as possible to better engage with, and make the most of, their finances.
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