KIAN JACKSON

It’s May 2026, and if you’re a fintech founder or executive, the "plumbing" of the global financial system just became the most exciting thing in your boardroom. For decades, the way money moved across borders was a bit like sending a postcard: you dropped it in the mail, hoped the intermediaries didn't lose it, and waited three to five days for a "delivered" status. But right now, we are witnessing a "Great Settlement Showdown." The lines between legacy finance (TradFi) and

If you feel like the fintech world is moving at breakneck speed, you’re not alone. Just when we finally got our heads around stablecoin settlement and real-time payment rails, the goalposts have shifted again. This week, Alipay: the giant that essentially invented the modern mobile wallet: dropped a bombshell that is set to redefine how we think about "users" in the payments ecosystem. They’ve launched the world’s first AI Wallet and a developer-facing platform called Token P

For decades, the Point of Sale (POS) terminal was the neglected piece of hardware sitting on the counter, a "dumb" pipe designed to move money from a customer’s card to a merchant’s bank account. It was a utility, like electricity or plumbing. You noticed it only when it stopped working. Fast forward to 2026, and the script has flipped entirely. If you’re still looking at your POS as just a way to take payments, you’re missing the biggest shift in retail technology since the

If you’ve been following the fintech space for more than five minutes, you’ve probably heard the buzz about "agentic workflows." We’ve spent the last two years talking about AI that can write code, AI that can draft emails, and AI that can hallucinate a legal brief with terrifying confidence. But until recently, there was a glaring, multi-billion-dollar hole in the narrative: AI agents couldn’t actually buy anything. That changed on May 8, 2026. Visa, the titan of global paym

If you’ve been following the fintech space for a while, you’ve probably developed a healthy amount of "crypto fatigue." For years, we were promised a revolution that felt more like a rollercoaster of speculative bubbles and "to the moon" tweets. But while the hype-machine was busy elsewhere, the actual plumbing of global finance was being quietly rebuilt. It’s now May 2026, and the conversation has shifted. We’re no longer talking about whether digital assets have value; we’r

If you’d told a payments executive five years ago that the world’s biggest card networks would be fighting over blockchain infrastructure, they probably would’ve laughed you out of the boardroom. Fast forward to May 2026, and the laughter has stopped. It’s been replaced by the sound of billion-dollar wire transfers. The headline act? Mastercard’s massive $1.8 billion acquisition of BVNK. But this isn't just one company making a speculative play. We are witnessing a fundamenta

Hey Kian! Here is the deep dive into the RBA’s new "Draft Vision" for A2A payments. This is a massive shift for the Australian landscape: it’s essentially the roadmap for how we move from the "real-time" era of the NPP into the "programmable" era of tokenized assets. It’s perfect for the expert positioning we’re going for. The Australian payments landscape is standing at a historical crossroads. For the last decade, the narrative has been dominated by the rollout and success

We have reached the endgame for the most significant piece of financial legislation in the digital age. As of May 2, 2026, the Australian and global fintech sectors are holding their collective breath. The CLARITY Act (Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act) is no longer just a draft gathering dust on a Senate desk; it is the centrepiece of a high-stakes "Yield War" that will determine how money moves for the next decade. The next fortnight is critical. With the Senate Banking C

For over a decade, the gig economy has operated on a fundamental paradox. You can order a hot meal across a city and have it delivered to your door in thirty minutes, yet the person who delivered it and the merchant who cooked it often have to wait up to seven days to see that money hit their bank account. In a world of instant gratification, the "pipes" of global finance have remained stubbornly slow. Traditional banking rails: built on decades-old technology: are plagued by

In the world of retail and fintech, we often talk about "disruption" as a digital-first phenomenon. We look at neo-banks, decentralized finance, or AI-driven payment gateways. But sometimes, the most radical disruption happens in the most physical, traditional sectors imaginable. Enter Adrian Portelli, the founder of LMCT+, who is currently turning the Australian fuel industry on its head. With the launch of his first "discounted" petrol station in Preston, Melbourne, Portell

It’s April 2026, and the "future of work" in fintech isn’t a future anymore: it’s the current reality. If you’re sitting in a Payment Operations (PayOps) team today, the landscape looks fundamentally different than it did even 18 months ago. We aren’t just talking about better spreadsheets or "smarter" macros. We’re talking about a structural shift where AI is no longer a tool; it’s a team member. The headline might sound like clickbait, but the math is starting to back it up

For the last couple of years, the world has been obsessed with what AI can say . We’ve marvelled at its ability to draft emails, write code, and hallucinate a legal brief or two. But in 2026, the conversation has fundamentally shifted. We’re no longer interested in what AI can say; we’re focused on what AI can do . And "doing" things in a capitalist society requires one specific capability: the ability to pay. The era of the "Agentic Economy" is officially here, and it is eat

For a long time, payments were viewed as the "plumbing" of a business: essential, usually hidden, and only noticed when something leaked. If you were a fintech founder or a digital merchant, your goal was simple: find a provider that was cheap, reliable, and stayed out of the way. You looked at processing fees, negotiated your basis points, and moved on to the "real" product work. But in 2026, the landscape has shifted. We are currently witnessing what industry experts call T

For years, the narrative in fintech was "disruption." It was the agile, crypto-native startups versus the "legacy" giants. But if 2026 has taught us anything, it’s that the giants aren't just watching from the sidelines: they’re buying the field. Mastercard’s recent acquisition of BVNK , a powerhouse in stablecoin infrastructure, for a staggering $1.8 billion ($1.5 billion upfront with $300 million in performance-based contingencies), is more than just a headline. It is a de

Australia’s payment landscape just got a massive jolt. If you’ve spent any time in a local cafe lately, you’ve likely felt the sting of the "tap and go" tax, that pesky 1.5% or 50-cent surcharge added to your morning flat white. Well, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has finally called time on the surcharge culture. But while the headlines are screaming about cheaper coffee, the real story for fintech founders and executives is buried much deeper in the RBA’s recent policy

Before we dive into the massive legislative shifts coming out of Washington, we need to talk about something happening right in your pocket. Dwayne Gefferie recently dropped some truth bombs on LinkedIn about the slow demise of the traditional co-branded credit card. You know the ones: the airline card that gives you miles you never use, or the department store card that offers 10% off a pair of jeans once a year. The reality? These legacy models are losing their edge, and th

For decades, the co-branded credit card was the undisputed king of the wallet. Whether it was the shiny Qantas Frequent Flyer plastic, a Marriott Bonvoy card for the jet-setters, or the classic fuel card that saved you 4 cents a litre at the pump, these partnerships were the ultimate "win-win." Banks got loyal spenders, brands got data and customer "stickiness," and consumers got a free flight to Bali every few years. But fast forward to 2026, and the landscape looks fundamen

In the world of global payments, there is a fundamental structural flaw that keeps merchant treasurers and fintech founders up at night. It’s a phenomenon we call the "Issuer Paradox." The paradox is simple, yet devastating: The party with the ultimate authority to approve or decline a transaction: the issuing bank: is simultaneously the party with the least amount of context about that transaction. Imagine a high-stakes court case where the judge is locked in a soundproof ro

For decades, the European payments landscape has been a paradox. It is one of the most sophisticated financial markets in the world, yet it remains almost entirely dependent on two American giants: Visa and Mastercard. Every time a consumer in Berlin buys a bratwurst or a shopper in Paris picks up a handbag, a small slice of that transaction makes its way across the Atlantic. This isn't just a matter of lost revenue; it's a matter of "strategic sovereignty." And in 2026, that

For over a decade, the merchant acquiring industry was defined by a race to the bottom. It was a game of basis points, high-volume processing, and commoditised services where the lowest price usually won the mandate. But as we navigate the landscape of 2026, that era is officially dead. Today, the "Big 8": JPMorgan, Adyen, Global Payments, Worldpay, Fiserv, Nexi, Worldline, and Getnet: are no longer just processors. They have transformed into ecosystem orchestrators. Drawing