Finextra

With three weeks to go until the first quarterly filing date for UK taxpayers, part of the new Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax rules, many are not ready for the change. On Friday 7th August those with a qualifying income over £50,000 will have to submit quarterly reports on their earnings and expenses digitally, either using software or bridging software. In total, it's reckoned that some 864,000 are required to comply, yet over half-a-million have yet to sign up.

The World Cup final is set: Spain versus Argentina, Sunday, at MetLife Stadium. And the ticket market for that single match is now telling two completely different stories at once.

Every institution now measures its models by "accuracy," and the number is almost always beside the point. In a domain built on probabilistic decisions — will this borrower default, is this transaction fraud, where will this rate sit next quarter — accuracy is not just a weak metric. It actively rewards the wrong behaviour. Start with the trap everyone has seen. A fraud model that approves everything is "99% accurate" the moment fraud is 1% of volume.

The milestone marks Pliant’s entry into one of the world’s largest commercial card markets and accelerates its global expansion strategy. Coastal, recognized for its disciplined and innovation-focused approach to banking-as-a-service, will serve as Pliant’s U.S. sponsor bank, enabling compliant market entry and long-term scalability. Through the partnership, Pliant is now positioned to support agent-based issuing structures and expand its footprint across the U.S. banking ecosystem.

FIS operates systems that clear payments, move money and run core banking for thousands of institutions worldwide. Protecting that code is critical to the stability of global financial infrastructure. At that scale, FIS applies the same standard to its own infrastructure security that it expects from the technology it delivers to clients. Through Project Glasswing, FIS is putting Mythos 5, Anthropic’s most advanced frontier model, to work as an additional layer within its security program.

President Donald Trump's media company is planning to charge traders for real-time access to Truth Social posts, possibly including his own. Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) says in a statement that it is launching Truth API, a "business-to-business data feed that provides licensed, real-time access to posts from the highest-ranking Truth Social accounts".

View From 77 At EBAday in Copenhagen, Simone Satan, Head of Digital Payments Solutions, BNY, and Axel Weiss, Head of Payments, DSGV joined FinextraTV to provide their insights into cross-border payments. Satan described the need for an experience that mirrors the ease of domestic payments, mentioning the development of tools like AI and APIs within this area, as well as defining how the role of correspondent banks has had to evolve.

On Wednesday, it emerged that fellow payments behemoth Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have submitted a bid at a 28% premium to PayPal's closing share price on Tuesday. The ‌offer, submitted earlier this month, is backed by about $50 billion in committed financing from banks, an anonymous source told Reuters. However, citing sources, Reuters now reports that PayPal's board is unconvinced by the size of the offer, its regulatory chances and the financing.

For years, the payments industry has focused on keeping fraudsters out with significant investments in stronger authentication and increasingly sophisticated fraud detection capabilities. These investments have made a real difference. Yet one of the fastest growing fraud challenges facing merchants today is no longer coming from stolen cards or compromised identities. It is coming from genuine customers.

The new scheme marks a decisive step forward in the modernisation of cross-border payments and contributes to achieving the objectives set out in the G20 roadmap to improve international transfers. For customers, this new model delivers an experience that is increasingly similar to that of an instant domestic payment. Funds can be credited to beneficiaries’ accounts in Spain for the full amount within approximately 25 seconds, at any time of the day, every day of the year.