The Weekly Wrap: all you need to know by Friday COB | Feb 20th

By Puja Sharma

The Weekly Wrap is published every Friday and recaps the week’s main stories and deals, as well as upcoming events and announcements for Prime subscribers only.

The Big Story

Canada- and US-focused payments platform Zūm Rails has become an official payments facilitator through its collaboration with Fiserv, enabling businesses to embed credit card acceptance directly within their platforms across both markets.

The development allows companies using Zūm Rails to integrate customised card payment experiences into their existing digital environments, avoiding third-party hosted checkouts that can disrupt user journeys. The capability forms the final component of the firm’s broader strategy to offer a unified payments infrastructure spanning multiple rails and geographies.

Early adopters include Questrade, which is using the functionality to accept card payments for educational content, and Zolo, which is applying it to property-related transactions. The move comes as card payments continue to dominate North American commerce, accounting for roughly 23% of transactions in the United States and 33% in Canada. However, many businesses rely on external processors that offer limited customisation and require redirect-based payment flows, factors that can increase friction and cart abandonment while adding operational costs.

By operating as a payments facilitator, Zūm Rails enables merchants to launch card acceptance through a single integration while maintaining control over the checkout design, pricing structure and reconciliation processes. The platform also provides a consolidated operational view across payment types, including ACH, Interac, EFT, real-time payment networks, and debit schemes, alongside open banking data aggregation.

Deals of the week

• Ericsson, Mastercard team up to scale global money movement
• BridgeWise buys Context to expand AI investment platform
• Axis Bank and IndiGo launch co-branded travel credit cards
• Fasset expands into Pakistan with HRL alliance
• Otto Money secures $1.3m to scale AI-based wealth advisory
• IDfy raises $53m to scale global RegTech expansion
• Temenos powers core banking upgrade at Bank of Beirut UK
• Bankjoy expands credit union, community bank footprint
• Caption selects Mangopay to power investor payments
• Levl raises $7m to scale cross-border payments platform

Be on the lookout for

The Cedar-IBSi Building a Future-Ready Bank Summit in Bahrain on 1st April 2026 will convene leading bankers, regulators, and technology innovators to explore the transformation of financial services in the digital era. Positioned at the crossroads of innovation and regulation, Bahrain has emerged as a dynamic FinTech hub in the GCC, making it the ideal setting for this forward-looking dialogue. The summit will focus on critical themes such as open banking, digital infrastructure modernisation, SME financing, and financial inclusion, while highlighting opportunities in embedded finance and cashless economies.

With mobile wallets and digital payments rapidly reshaping customer expectations, participants will gain insights into strategies for enhancing engagement, monetising transaction flows, and extending services to underserved communities. The event will feature keynote sessions, panel discussions, and networking opportunities with senior executives and thought leaders, offering practical frameworks for building resilient, agile, and customer-centric banks. By fostering collaboration between financial institutions, policymakers, and technology providers, the summit underscores Bahrain’s role as a catalyst for innovation-driven growth and sets the stage for a future-ready banking ecosystem across the Middle East.