Why Mastercard’s UAE launch marks the beginning of a structural shift in payments, governance, and market competition. A New Economic Actor Enters the Payments System The introduction of Mastercard’s Agent Pay in the UAE represents more than a milestone in payments innovation — it may be the first real example of autonomous machine actors participating […]

The payment industry enters 2026 in a phase of accelerated transformation. Consumer expectations are changing quickly, regulatory pressure is intensifying, and geopolitical tensions are reshaping global commerce. At the same time, AI, tokenisation, and embedded finance are moving from emerging concepts to industry standards. In this environment, payments are no longer a technical function in […]