Payment Expert’s Fintech Unwrapped delivers the latest and developing news that has shaped the sector over the course of the week.
This week, agentic commerce took centre stage as both Visa and American Express unveiled new AI-driven payment capabilities, while infrastructure investment continued across blockchain and embedded finance.
Elsewhere, ClearBank posted another year of profitability, Wise reported strong growth ahead of its US listing, and fintech challengers Adyen and Zeller expanded their reach through partnerships and international growth.
Wise sees volumes surge as customer growth and diversification drive momentum
Wise reported strong growth in its latest trading update, with cross-border volumes rising 26% year-on-year to £49.4bn in Q4 FY26, as the company continues to scale its global payments network.
The fintech also saw active customers increase 22% to 11.3 million in the quarter, while total customer holdings climbed 37% to £29.4bn, reflecting deeper engagement with its account and multi-product offering. Underlying income grew 24% to £435.3m, supported by rising adoption of Wise accounts, alongside a 29% increase in card and other revenues.
The firm’s business segment continued to expand, with active business customers up 26% and volumes increasing 35%, highlighting growing demand from SMEs for cross-border payment solutions.
Despite the strong growth, Wise’s cross-border take rate edged down to 0.51%, reflecting its ongoing strategy to balance pricing with long-term expansion. The update also comes as Wise prepares for a dual listing in the US, expected in May 2026, a move aimed at increasing visibility in its largest growth market and accessing deeper capital pools.
CEO Kristo Käärmann emphasised the company’s ambition to become “the network for the world’s money”, pointing to continued investment in infrastructure and product expansion as key drivers of future growth
American Express doubles down on agentic commerce
American Express has unveiled a new Agentic Commerce Experiences (ACE) Developer Kit, alongside what it claims is an industry-first protection framework for AI-driven transactions, as the payments giant positions itself for the next phase of commerce.
The developer kit is designed to enable intent-driven transactions via AI agents, allowing approved agents to complete purchases on behalf of Card Members while maintaining visibility, authentication and control across the transaction lifecycle. Built on Amex’s closed-loop network, the framework introduces several core capabilities, including agent verification, tokenised payment credentials and “intent intelligence” to ensure that purchases accurately reflect customer authorisation.
Alongside the launch, the company also introduced Amex Agent Purchase Protection, a new safeguard that will cover eligible transactions made by registered AI agents in cases of error — a move aimed at tackling one of the biggest barriers to adoption in agentic payments: trust.
Luke Gebb, EVP and Head of Global Innovation at American Express, said the shift towards AI-powered commerce will require the same standards of security and reliability customers expect today. “As commerce becomes more agent-powered, trust becomes the defining factor,” he said.
ClearBank posts third year of profitability as revenue climbs 32%
ClearBank has reported its third consecutive year of profitability, underpinned by strong growth in fee-based income and rising demand for embedded banking services. The UK clearing bank revealed normalised revenue rose 32% to £117.7m in FY 2025, while pretax profit increased 53% to £12.2m, marking another year of sustained financial momentum.
At a Group level, revenue climbed 34% to £121.6m, driven largely by transaction volumes and a continued shift towards recurring fee income. Growth was fuelled by increased platform usage, with ClearBank processing 262 million payments in 2025, up from 167 million the year prior, while customer balances surged 65% to £17.8bn.
The firm also expanded its client base to 279, adding 61 new partners over the year, alongside scaling its European operations in its first full year post-licensing. Embedded banking remained a core growth driver, with ClearBank deepening relationships with partners such as Revolut and Coinbase, while also entering the corporate space through a new partnership with PayCaptain.
Despite continued profitability in the UK, the Group recorded a pretax loss of £16.7m overall, reflecting ongoing investment into its European expansion and platform capabilities.
Mark Fairless, Group CEO, highlighted that the company is prioritising long-term growth, noting that investments made throughout 2025 are expected to support further expansion in the year ahead.
Visa deepens blockchain push with Tempo validator node launch
Visa has taken a further step into blockchain infrastructure, announcing the launch of its own validator node on the Tempo network as it looks to play a more active role in onchain payments. By joining Tempo as an anchor validator, Visa will directly participate in transaction validation and network security, marking a shift from experimentation to operating core blockchain infrastructure in-house.
The Tempo network, a Layer-1 blockchain designed for agentic commerce and real-time payments, counts Visa among its first external validators alongside Stripe and Zodia Custody, signalling growing institutional involvement in next-generation payment rails.
Visa stated that running its own validator node enables it to apply its expertise in reliability and scalability directly within blockchain ecosystems, while supporting the development of stablecoin-based payment systems.
Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto at Visa, noted that the move builds on years of blockchain investment, positioning the company closer to the core of emerging payment infrastructure.
“We’ve spent years building our expertise in blockchain, and now we’re expanding that work by running critical blockchain infrastructure ourselves,” he said. “We’re extending Visa’s commitment to reliability, security, and trust into blockchain networks – supporting the development of stablecoin payment systems that meet the high operating standards our clients and partners expect.”
Adyen streamlines supplier payments with virtual card rollout
Adyen has expanded its partnership with travel platform lastminute.com by introducing virtual card issuing for supplier payments, as it looks to simplify backend payment flows and improve operational efficiency.
The integration enables lastminute.com to issue Visa-branded prepaid virtual cards to pay airlines, hotels and other suppliers, replacing more manual and fragmented processes. Following the rollout, supplier payouts have been accelerated by up to two to three days, while reconciliation times have been reduced by 5%, highlighting the efficiency gains from a more unified payment infrastructure.
The move also allows lastminute.com to generate cards in multiple currencies almost instantly, helping to optimise foreign exchange costs and streamline cross-border transactions.
By consolidating both pay-ins and pay-outs within Adyen’s platform, the travel company has reduced operational complexity and improved visibility over payment flows.
Zeller enters UK market with push to undercut legacy payment providers
Australian fintech Zeller has launched its all-in-one payments solution in the UK, marking its first major international expansion as it targets one of the world’s largest SME payments markets.
The company reported strong early traction, with more than 100 businesses signing up during its pre-launch phase, signalling demand for alternatives to traditional payment providers. Zeller is positioning itself as a lower-cost option for merchants, claiming its offering could help UK businesses save up to 35% on card processing fees, in a market where transaction costs have historically remained relatively high.
The fintech has already built significant scale in Australia, supporting over 100,000 businesses and estimating it will save merchants nearly $22m in fees this financial year, driven by its bundled payments, accounts and card solutions.
Its UK expansion also comes amid growing scrutiny of payment costs, with Zeller highlighting inefficiencies in legacy infrastructure and lengthy onboarding processes as key pain points for small businesses.
CEO Ben Pfisterer said: “The UK is one of the world’s most advanced fintech markets and home to millions of small businesses that are vital to the economy. But despite progress being made, payments are still dominated by legacy providers offering unreliable, outdated, and costly hardware, paired with lengthy and time-consuming sign-up processes. UK merchants have been underserved for too long.”
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