Intelligence Briefing

[HIGH] EDX Markets (Citadel, Fidelity, Schwab, Sequoia) files for OCC charter — over 11 crypto firms seeking banking license in 83 days. PYMNTS

[HIGH] Hasbro discloses cyberattack to the SEC — recovery "may take weeks." Detected March 28, systems disconnected. PYMNTS

[HIGH] Mexico: Mandatory digital identity platform (PUI) effective today for banks and fintechs — real-time CURP + biometric verification. El Cronista México 🇲🇽

[HIGH] US criticizes PIX as anti-competitive in trade report — Central Bank "owns, operates, and regulates" the system simultaneously. Israel7000anos 🇧🇷

[HIGH] QRIS Indonesia-South Korea operational from today — 60.77M users, direct payments in local currency without exchange. Tempo.co 🇮🇩

[HIGH] RBA Australia: surcharge ban confirmed + tokenization roadmap + Visa/MC explore A2A. Three moves in one day. PayDay News 🇦🇺

[MEDIUM] TikTok seeks credit licenses in Brazil + Mercado Libre shuts down Mercado Coin, pivots to Meli Dólar (stablecoin). Hipther

[MEDIUM] Spain: cashless payments +41% in 2025. Second-highest growth in Europe. Pharmacies +113%, dentists +89%. Silicon.es 🇪🇸

[MEDIUM] FinTech R:Evolution 2026 in Paris: agentic AI and PSD3 as central themes. 1,500+ attendees. France: 1,000+ fintechs, 14 unicorns. Planet-Fintech 🇫🇷

[MEDIUM] Mastercard continues seeking to sell Nets RTP unit — $370M revenue, PE funds evaluating. Frees up capital for stablecoins. PYMNTS

[MEDIUM] Rule 1033 open banking US in limbo — litigation and CFPB reconsideration. Three possible scenarios. PYMNTS

[MEDIUM] Ripple launches first enterprise TMS with native digital assets — built on GTreasury acquisition ($1B). 72% of CFOs need crypto solutions. PYMNTS

[MEDIUM] FinCode (Lagos) opens fintech infrastructure after a decade in stealth — Songhai Exchange connects banks/fintechs to global networks via single API. TechCabal

[MEDIUM] SurgePay (Nigeria) secures Stellar funding — cross-border stablecoin payments at 3% (vs 8.9% average). Target: $100M volume by 2027. TechCabal

[MEDIUM] GSMA: Africa mobile money $1.43T in 2025 (+27% YoY). 347M active accounts. PAPSSCARD: first pan-African card scheme. WeeTracker

[MEDIUM] Singapore-Abu Dhabi alliance for RWA tokenization and cross-border payments in the MENA-Asia corridor. FSRA license 2026. Manila Times / PR Newswire

[MEDIUM] QRIS pushes to expand to ALL APEC economies — 39.3M merchants, 57M users, India and Saudi Arabia next. Thailand Business News

[MEDIUM] Binance Australia fined A$10M — AUSTRAC investigation open. 90,000 new entities under AML/CTF regime from July. PayDay News 🇦🇺

[MEDIUM] Banks and fintechs in LATAM: from confrontation to ecosystem. Banking penetration 39.1% → 69.7%. 1.5M non-bank correspondents. Expansión México 🇲🇽

[MEDIUM] Convera + Ripple: stablecoins to accelerate B2B cross-border payments. Crypto + corporate payments convergence. PYMNTS

[MEDIUM] CoinShares begins trading on Nasdaq — crypto asset manager expands US presence. PYMNTS

[MEDIUM] AI makes scams harder to detect: 72% of respondents confirm it according to global study. Fintech Global

[MEDIUM] PayPay completes $880M IPO on Nasdaq — 72M users, $2.3B revenue. Largest Japanese IPO in the US in a decade. SoftBank

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Gaining power:

• SWIFT: Fighting back with its own blockchain (Hyperledger Besu, 30+ banks). Not letting itself die against Kinexys/CIPS.
• QRIS: Operational with Korea, pushing full APEC. The most expansive A2A network in the world outside UPI.
• EDX/Wall Street: Citadel, Fidelity, Schwab — the world's largest institutions want a crypto charter. Legitimization is total.

Losing power:

• UPI: Massive outage on 2FA launch day. Reliability questioned at the worst possible time.
• PIX (US perception): US criticizes it as anti-competitive. Geopolitical pressure.

Attacking someone else's base:

• SWIFT blockchain attacks Kinexys (JP Morgan) and CIPS (China) space.
• QRIS-Korea attacks the remittance corridor dominated by Western Union and Wise.

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