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Despite its well-established instant payment systems, research indicates that instant payments in South Africa still lack interoperability and inclusivity – gaps that could create targeted opportunities for payment service providers.

The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) letter to the prime minister highlights its 2025 progress, along with its 2026 priorities for payments, including variable recurring payments (VRPs), contactless reform, open finance and GBP-backed stablecoins.

Converging digital asset frameworks across Africa are set to strengthen the region’s appeal to payments firms that favour consistent, enforceable regulation.

The investigation by a coalition of seven Democratic state attorneys general (AGs) is scrutinising buy now, pay later (BNPL) providers, seeking answers to questions on consumer protection.

New Zealand’s open banking regulations have come into force, activating mandatory data sharing and payment initiation rules under the Customer and Product Data (CPD) Act 2025. The regulations came into effect on December 1, 2025, imposing customer and product data sharing obligations on the country’s four largest banks: ANZ; ASB; BNZ; and Westpac.

The EU Directive on Administrative Cooperation ( Directive 2011/16/EU) governs tax cooperation between member states, with DAC8 referring to the eighth amendment of the directive. DAC8 is focused on improving tax transparency and closing any gaps, particularly with respect to crypto-assets. DAC8 was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on October 24, 2023. EU member states have been provided with the transposition deadline of December 31, 2025, with the application deadline being January 1, 2026.

By inviting payment service providers (PSPs) to participate in a 12-month trial to assess the operational readiness of the digital euro, the authority is giving them insight into its functionality and the chance to influence its further development.

The regulator’s finding that only limited friction exists between new artificial intelligence (AI) obligations and established banking and payments rules paves the way for coordinated oversight as implementation begins.

EU accession pressure is one of the key drivers of the initiative, as the country seeks to position itself as a credible, well-regulated market, although some commentators have expressed concerns about the adequacy of privacy protections.

The Financial Conduct Authority expects firms operating in the UK to give customers a clear understanding of the total cost of sending money overseas, including FX mark ups, fixed and variable fees and any deductions that may occur along the transfer chain. This playbook gives organisations a structured way to review, strengthen and evidence their approach to international payment pricing transparency.