The payments landscape keeps moving fast. This roundup covers payments, digital banking, and fintech developments across Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific. Updates are selected for strategic significance and practical consumer relevance. Find out more about a Swiss neobank quietly climbing the leaderboard, Mercado Pago deepening its grip on Brazilian businesses, a consumer protection warning reshaping how Brits think about open banking, a crypto gateway going mainstream on WordPress, and Bolt Group making a calculated bet on Australia’s P2P market.
Yuh Is Now the Leading Local Neobank in Switzerland
Switzerland’s neobanking market has crossed 1 million users, and a clear local winner is emerging. Yuh, the mobile bank now fully owned by Swissquote after its PostFinance joint venture dissolved in mid-2025, has climbed to an estimated 424,000 customers as of early 2026, up from 399,000 at year-end 2025. That puts it ahead of every locally rooted competitor: Neon sits at 251,000 users, Zak at around 83,000, and Alpian at just over 31,000.
Only Revolut, with its global scale, ranks higher in Switzerland overall. But Revolut is a different beast — a multinational operating at a continental scale. Among apps built for and by the Swiss market, Yuh has no real peer right now.
What’s driving the momentum? A combination of Swiss regulatory trust, TWINT integration (Yuh was the first neobank to offer it), and a product mix that bundles everyday payments, savings, and simple investing into one app. Analysts at the Institute for Financial Services Zug believe Yuh’s customer base could reach 500,000 by year-end if current growth rates hold. The Swiss neobank market still has room to run: fewer than 2% of Swiss residents currently use a digital bank as their primary account.
Mercado Pago Moves Deeper into Brazilian Business Banking
Mercado Pago has formally entered the business banking segment in Brazil with the launch of its Conta PJ — a dedicated legal entity account aimed at SMEs, freelancers, and entrepreneurs.
The account consolidates sales receipts, Pix transfers, supplier payments, credit access, and cash flow reporting under one roof, directly integrated with the Mercado Livre marketplace ecosystem. For sellers already transacting on the platform, the pitch is compelling: no switching costs, no new onboarding friction, and credit underwriting based on two decades of transactional history rather than traditional credit scores.
Brazil remains Mercado Libre’s largest market, representing more than half of the total group revenue. The company has committed R$57 billion in investment for 2026 (roughly $11 billion), with Mercado Pago’s credit and banking expansion as a central pillar. The opportunity is real: Brazil’s poupança savings accounts hold an estimated $180 billion, paying well below benchmark rates, and Mercado Pago is actively competing for that liquidity with daily-yield accounts. The Conta PJ is the business-facing equivalent of that same strategy.
UK’s “Pay by Bank” Boom Comes With a Consumer Protection Warning
More than 30 million “pay by bank” transactions were processed across the UK in January 2026 alone, according to the Open Banking industry body. The channel is growing, but Money Saving Expert has issued a sharp warning that millions of shoppers may not understand what they’re giving up when they click it.
Pay by bank operates as an instant bank transfer, bypassing card networks entirely. It’s faster and cheaper for merchants, which is why it’s increasingly surfacing at checkouts on Amazon, eBay, and similar platforms. The problem is that it strips away protections that card payments carry by default, specifically Section 75 coverage under the Consumer Credit Act, which makes card issuers jointly liable for purchases between £100 and £30,000, and chargeback rights that apply to debit card transactions.
If a retailer goes bust, delivers nothing, or sends a defective product, a “pay by bank” customer has no automatic right to a refund through their bank. The MSE team’s advice is direct: for high-value purchases, stick to card payments. The warning lands at a critical moment when open banking volumes are rising, regulatory consumer protection frameworks haven’t fully caught up, and many shoppers are adopting the method without understanding the trade-off.
Peymo Brings Crypto Payments to WooCommerce Merchants
London-based Peymo has secured approval on the WordPress Plugin Directory, giving WooCommerce merchants worldwide one-click access to a crypto payment gateway. The plugin slots into existing checkout flows without infrastructure changes, supporting settlements in either cryptocurrency or fiat currency.
The addressable market is significant: WooCommerce powers a substantial share of global e-commerce, and over 580 million people currently hold cryptocurrency — a pool that remains largely untapped by mainstream online merchants. Peymo’s pitch is specifically about reducing the technical and operational friction that has kept most merchants on the sidelines of crypto acceptance.
The company is also introducing a referral layer: app users who refer a WooCommerce merchant earn a share of transaction revenue once that merchant goes live. A forthcoming update will allow customers to pay without holding a Peymo wallet, broadening reach without sacrificing the platform’s lower-fee structure for registered users. Shopify and Wix integrations are in development, with the WordPress launch serving as the proof-of-concept phase.
Bolt Group Acquires Beem, Australia’s Beloved P2P Payments App
Australian fintech Bolt Group has acquired Beem, formerly Beem It, from payments infrastructure operator Australian Payments Plus (AP+) for an undisclosed fee. Beem has accumulated more than 3 million downloads since its 2018 launch and processed over $6 billion in transactions, maintaining a 4.9-star App Store rating throughout.
For AP+, the sale is a deliberate refocus. The organisation runs Australia’s critical payment rails: eftpos, the New Payments Platform, ConnectID, and BPAY, and has decided consumer-facing apps sit outside that core mandate. Beem goes to a buyer with the appetite to build on top of it rather than maintain it.
Bolt Group, founded in 2020, plans to evolve Beem into what it describes as a “true everyday money app” — layering in savings accounts, multi-currency capabilities, and investing alongside existing payments functionality. The ambition mirrors what Revolut built in Europe: a payments app as a beachhead, then an aggressive expansion into the full financial wallet. The transition is expected to be completed by the end of June 2026, with no immediate changes for existing users.
