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Archive · October 28, 2026

October 28, 2026.
Five payments stories that matter.

The 5-minute briefing for payments professionals who need to know what happened, what it means, and what to do about it — before their 9am.

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The Lead

Story 01

Visa Takes Stablecoin Prefunding Commercial as Settlement Tops $25 Billion Annualized

On its October 27, 2026 earnings call, Visa reported stablecoin settlement above a $25 billion annualized run rate, ten times the prior-year level. Visa Direct’s stablecoin prefunding and cross-border service moved from pilot into commercial production, extending the service to commercial payout and remittance use. Visa supports five stablecoins across 10 blockchains. The $25 billion figure measures the annualized settlement pace at the reporting date, not realized annual volume or Visa Direct’s broader payment volume.

Source: PYMNTS
Also Worth Knowing
№02

Ripple Announces Final Trust-Bank Approval and Expands RLUSD Distribution

Ripple announced final OCC approval on October 26, 2026 to establish a national trust bank for fiduciary digital-asset custody, RLUSD reserve management and collateral-trustee services. The charter does not permit deposit-taking or commercial lending, and approval is distinct from the bank beginning operations. On October 27, Ripple also expanded its BNY relationship and announced RLUSD availability on Robinhood Chain and Bitstamp. Access through the Robinhood app remains planned for later in 2026, rather than part of the current rollout.

Source: Banking Dive
№03

PayPal’s Third-Quarter BNPL and Venmo Growth Outpace Branded Checkout

For the third quarter of 2026, PayPal reported BNPL payment volume growth of 25% and Pay with Venmo volume growth of 43%, both compared with the third quarter of 2025. Global online branded checkout volume grew 1% year over year on a currency-neutral basis. Total payment volume reached $487.1 billion, up 6% year over year. Alongside those results, PayPal disclosed more than 2,000 headcount reductions and targeted at least $1.5 billion in gross annualized savings over two to three years, with substantial reinvestment planned in areas including merchant-specific checkout improvements and earlier BNPL presentation.

Source: PYMNTS
№04

Stripe Adds Free, Instant Transfers Between Eligible Business Accounts

Businesses can use Stripe’s new “stripe pay” plug-in to find recipients by Stripe profile handle and initiate instant B2B transfers through the Dashboard or command-line interface. Stripe announced the service on October 27, 2026 and says it charges no transfer fee. Senders need a funded financial account, while recipients need a financial account linked to their Stripe profile. Those account requirements limit the service to eligible businesses rather than allowing payments to any supplier; the transfer-fee claim does not establish that every funding method or related account service is free.

Source: PYMNTS
№05

SoFi Reaches 17.1 Million Members as Existing Customers Add Products

Existing members opened more than half of SoFi’s new products during the third quarter of 2026. At quarter-end, membership reached 17.1 million, up 35% year over year, while total products reached 26.7 million, up 44%. SoFi reported $1.385 billion in GAAP net revenue for the quarter, a 44% year-over-year increase, and $241 million in net income. Fee-based revenue represented 42% of total revenue. The existing-member share of new product openings provides a direct measure of cross-selling, separate from growth in the customer base.

Source: PYMNTS
The Long Memory
“In 1958, the American Bankers Association adopted the E-13B magnetic-ink character recognition standard for checks. Its character set contains ten digits and four control symbols—not a full alphabet. Readers magnetize the printed characters and identify their magnetic signals, allowing them to read information even when other printing or marks overlap it. MICR emerged from banking-industry development during the 1950s, not a documented 1950 U.S. Treasury rollout. Source: “Magnetic ink character recognition,” history and E-13B sections — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_ink_character_recognition

Filed under: Payments History · The Long Memory

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