A new Deutsche Bundesbank study, ‘The cost of payment methods in the retail sector accessible’, analyses both monetary costs – fees, charges, equipment and transport costs – and non-monetary costs – the time spent by retailers using payment instruments at the point of sale or for administrative expenses.

A Bank of Canada Staff Discussion Paper calculates the marginal cost of an electronic funds transfer (EFT) to be about C$0.55 per transaction ($0.4) and the total fixed cost of running an EFT to be C$83 million per year ($60.23 million).

G+D has bought the Payments & Banking Services business of Bank-Verlag, which processes 25% of card and internet payment transactions in Germany.

Currency Research (CR) hosted its annual Americas Cash Cycle Seminar earlier this month in Miami, returning to South Florida after an eight-year absence. The 2025 edition welcomed 214 delegates from 99 organisations – including 35 central and commercial banks – from 36 countries, making it the best-attended Americas Seminar in more than a decade, according to CR.

The South African payments processor PayInc, formerly BankservAfrica, now has South African Reserve Bank (SARB) as a 50% shareholder, alongside leading commercial banks – Absa, Access Bank, African Bank, Capitec, Citibank SA, FirstRand, Investec, Nedbank and Standard Bank.

A World Bank blog looks at fast payment systems (FPS) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) based on a new World Bank report that analyses data on FPS across 11 LAC countries. It found that the introduction of digital wallets has simplified the process and reduced the cost of transferring money in LAC. However, friction remains due to siloed payment infrastructures and uncompetitive markets.

Mastercard has held an ‘African Edge Summit’ to accelerate Africa’s digital payments. The event focused on building infrastructure, and interoperability with a focus on consumers and small businesses with representatives from banks, fintech companies, telcos, regulators and technology partners.

Meta has added a QR code-based payments option to the WhatsApp Business App in India, allowing small businesses to share QR codes in one tap so that customers can pay directly within WhatsApp using their preferred payment method.

In Brazil, hackers have gained access to funds worth BRL 800 million ($148 million), held in accounts at the Banco Central do Brasil (BCB). They achieved this by exploiting the valid credentials of an employee associated with the BCB’s instant payment network Pix. The implications and consequences of this incident have led to doubts about the cybersecurity of Brazil’s financial system.

A year ago, payments expert Jeremy Light started a substack called ‘Agenda: Payments’ with the aim of helping readers around the world keep track of national payment landscapes and payment themes. He has recently posted data on reader response to 50 articles written across nine broad categories, giving an indication of where their focus and interest lie.