Payments Weekly: Top 5 Stories You Might Have Missed

India’s Reserve Bank of India is now requiring fintech and payments firms to comply with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act on top of its existing guidelines, creating what many startups describe as a double compliance load. The two frameworks pull in different directions: the DPDP prioritises privacy and user consent, while the RBI’s rules focus on fraud prevention and financial stability. Getting clear consent from customers is proving especially difficult when third-party data sources are involved. With a May 2027 compliance deadline on the horizon, the industry is calling for more specific guidance to keep operations running smoothly.

Australian fintech Airwallex has launched a point-of-sale product that lets businesses accept in-person payments across multiple countries through a single platform, without onboarding a separate local acquirer for each market. The move puts the $8 billion company in direct competition with Stripe, Square, and Adyen on one of fintech’s last major battlegrounds. The product, now live in the UK, Europe, Hong Kong, and Singapore (with the US and Australia to follow), unifies online and in-store transactions, supports SoftPOS so platforms can embed payment acceptance without shipping hardware, and integrates with existing ERP and order management systems. Airwallex holds close to 90 regulatory licences across roughly 50 markets, processes $100 billion in annual volume, and generates around $1.3 billion in annualised revenue, growing at approximately 85% per year.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has sent Elon Musk a detailed letter raising concerns about X Money — the payments feature expected to be integrated into the X social media platform, warning that its potential stablecoin and crypto integrations could pose risks to the financial system and US national security. Warren questioned whether X Money would issue its own stablecoin under a carve-out in the GENIUS Act, which permits non-bank private companies to issue dollar-pegged tokens. She also raised concerns about the platform’s advertised 6% interest on deposits at a time when the Federal Funds Rate sits at 3.5–3.75%, and asked whether users understand that FDIC deposit insurance would not protect them if the platform failed. The letter signals potential Congressional resistance to Big Tech’s move into regulated financial services.

UK digital bank Monzo officially launched in Ireland on April 14, drawing on a 100,000-strong waitlist built before opening day. The bank, which already counts 15 million customers in the UK, is offering free current and savings accounts for individuals and businesses, with savings rates of up to 1.6% and a minimum deposit of just €1. Monzo is notably the first digital bank to secure a full banking licence from the Central Bank of Ireland; rival Revolut operates in Europe under a Lithuanian licence. The Dublin approval also grants passporting rights across the EU single market, positioning Ireland as Monzo’s springboard for broader European expansion — a pivot the company is doubling down on after pulling out of the US market earlier this year.

Cross-border payments platform dLocal has partnered with Italy’s National Exchange Company — an international money transfer operator serving more than 5 million customers across 90+ countries — to power remittance payouts across Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. Through a single integration, dLocal connects National Exchange to local payment rails in 18 markets, removing the need to manage separate local providers in each corridor. The partnership targets the real-world complexity of remittance delivery: instant Pix transfers in Brazil, mobile wallets in Ghana, bank deposits in Morocco. With the global remittance market projected to reach $270 billion by 2032, the pressure on operators to deliver fast and reliable payouts at scale, especially in underserved emerging-market corridors, has never been greater.