Tag: Visa

Visa, Mastercard, Circle, and JPMorgan have ignited a high-stakes sprint to convert dollar-backed tokens into mainstream payment rails. Stablecoins already settle about 7 % more value on-chain than the two card networks combined, and blue-chip giants are now laying the pipes. The prize is near-frictionless money; the risks are regulatory salvos and a squeeze on interchange margins.

Mastercard is positioning itself as a leader in bridging traditional finance with digital assets through a comprehensive stablecoin strategy. By developing end-to-end infrastructure and forging key partnerships, the company aims to make stablecoins as usable as fiat currency for consumers and merchants – a move with significant implications for global payments.

EFRI, now an officially recognized Qualified Entity under Directive (EU) 2020/1828, has launched its first direct strike in a new phase of its campaign against financial crime enablers. On April 4, 2025, EFRI submitted identical letters to both VISA and MasterCard, accusing them of enabling mass fraud through negligence, systemic failures, and blind tolerance toward high-risk acquirers like Payvision B.V.

The UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is intensifying its oversight of Visa and Mastercard, aiming to reduce their overwhelming market dominance and address the issue of soaring merchant fees. With both companies controlling 95% of card transactions in the UK, their recent 30% fee hike, unaccompanied by any service improvements, has prompted a regulatory crackdown aimed at restoring transparency and fairness in the market.

Payment processor BlueSnap, its former CEO Ralph Dangelmaier, and SVP Terry Monteith agreed to a $10 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for its role in processing payments for companies engaged in deceptive and fraudulent practices. The settlement mandates significant financial restitution aimed at compensating consumers and a strict prohibition against processing payments for certain high-risk clients.

Research by STRG_F and Y-Kollektiv comprehensively unveils the unsettling realities of the German-run ChampLife scheme. This scheme sinisterly capitalizes on pushing women onto OnlyFans, exploiting them in a disturbingly orchestrated manner. Touted to offer self-discipline and success coaching, ChampLife insidiously entangles its male members in practices of female domination and exploitation, echoing the notorious ideologies of the globally infamous misogynist Andrew Tate.

The U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase is under pressure in its home market USA. Not only the crypto crash in 2022 but, above all, the legal dispute with the influential U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is putting pressure on the company. Now, the European market, which will be regulated by MiCA in 2024, is increasingly on Coinbase radar. It plans to cooperate with the Austrian crypto player Bitpanda in the European market.

Cyprus-based high-risk payment processor Payabl has become the latest addition to the Visa Direct Preferred Partner Program, PaymentExpert reports. The membership will provide Payabl access to Visa’s tools to improve real-time payment solutions. There is an intense discussion on Twitter about the payment processor specializing in porn and gambling and its founders, Ruediger Trautmann and Dietmar Knoechelmann. The company recorded a 182% YoY growth with its high-risk merchants.

In a recent interview by attorney Lauren Tabaksblat, one of the two Brown Rudnick partners leading the case against Visa and the Pornhub operator MindGeek warned Mastercard and Discover that they would be sued as well. In a landslide ruling last week, a U.S. judge said that Visa may have helped Pornhub “monetize child porn.” Since then, Visa and the credit card companies have not been able to escape criticism. They would knowingly and willingly support illegal activities like child porn with their payment services.

It is a cold case now but still not resolved! Between 2018 and 2020, FinTelegram exposed that a group of Israeli payment processors controlled by Eyal Nachum and his partner Tamir Zoltovsky facilitated binary options and broker scams big style. They worked with entities in Montenegro or the Marshall Islands and with the regulated e-Money Institutions Bruc Bond (previously Moneta International) and International FinTech. In April 2020, the Bank of Lithuania revoked Bruc Bond's EMI license; consequently, the group vanished from Europe, but their scam-facilitating activities remain to be investigated.

FinTelegram has always argued that payment processors are liable for their clients' crimes if they knowingly and wilfully facilitate them. A U.S.judge ruled Friday that Visa helped Pornhub “monetize child porn” a decision that could have long-lasting implications for credit card networks and payment processors. The court denied Visa’s motion to be dismissed from a lawsuit against Pornhub operator MindGeek. The ruling states that there was enough evidence to show Visa knowingly facilitated the crime by providing tools to complete the crime” of distributing child pornography.

Anne Boden, founder and CEO of the Goldman Sachs-backed UK FinTech Starling Bank has doubled down on criticisms of crypto, calling digital currencies a threat to the safety of payment infrastructure. Cryptocurrencies are a threat to the safety of our payment schemes and very dangerous, she said at the Money 20/20 fintech conference in Amsterdam. Starling Bank offers fee-free checking accounts and loans through an app. The firm was last privately valued at $3.1 billion and counts the likes of Goldman and Fidelity as investors.