🗞 Key News of the Week: main developments covered from October 5–10

🗞 Key News of the Week: main developments covered from October 5–10

🇧🇷 Brazil’s betting ban became an election issue. Members of Lula’s campaign reportedly believe it hurt his first-round performance. That remains a political assessment. For operators and payment partners, the immediate concerns include disrupted operations, player refunds and uncertainty over the market’s future.

🇵🇪 Peru ordered another 50 unlicensed platforms blocked, bringing the total to 86, with a target of 157. Enforcement also covers the removal of games and payment instruments from unauthorized sites. Regulators are targeting the transaction chain alongside access to websites.

🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan advanced proposed restrictions on binary-options gambling. A parliamentary committee backed a bill covering advertising, website access and related financial and virtual-asset transactions. Organizers could face three to eight years in prison. These remain proposed measures.

🇲🇹 Malta’s revised VAT and gaming-tax frameworks took effect on October 1. The gaming-tax reform applies to qualifying services offered to players in Malta and consolidates gaming tax and the device levy into one structure. VAT rules clarify the treatment of certain gaming services and eligible input-tax recovery. October returns are due November 20.

🇩🇴 The Dominican Republic introduced a new gambling framework under Law 86-26. It includes five-year licences for lottery outlets, while Quico Tabar has been appointed interim head of the DGJA. The country is moving into implementation of its new regulatory structure.

🇪🇺 Bizum, Bancomat, Wero, MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay are building the European Network for Payments. Its founders already serve a combined 130 million users across 13 countries. The planned shared infrastructure will connect national apps for cross-border account-to-account payments, with merchant payments also on the roadmap.

🇮🇳🇦🇪 PhonePe received in-principle UAE approval for two payment licences, covering retail payment services and card schemes, and stored-value facilities. It plans to explore support for domestic rails Aani and Jaywan. Final regulatory approval is still required.

✨ Stripe plans to expand its stablecoin card programmes to more than 100 countries by year-end. Paymentscan estimates that stablecoin card spending reached $1.2 billion in September, roughly three times the level a year earlier. Everyday purchases are becoming a growing use case.

🇨🇳 China’s stablecoins are emerging as a parallel payment network. Chainalysis estimates at least $176 billion in crypto activity during July 2025–June 2026, with domestic P2P accounting for 59.1%. Stablecoin holdings turned over 33.2 times annually, suggesting their use as working capital for payments.

💳 Latin America’s underbanked customers remain a commercial opportunity. The channel’s review highlighted wallets and cash-to-digital services such as OXXO. Local payment habits, familiarity and trust affect whether acquired customers can complete a deposit.

📝 BCG highlighted AI’s growing role in transaction banking. Agents could increasingly manage payment routing, liquidity and risk within defined rules. BCG reports document-analysis accuracy above 85% among early trade-finance adopters, while stressing the need for clear permissions, accountability and compliance.

#news #digest

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