Morning! Block books a big AML bill, NAB counts scam alerts, and the BoE sketches rails.
Covers Wednesday morning 4 November to Thursday morning 5 November 2026, Sydney time.
Early Bird picks
Afterpay's owner sets aside US$764 million for the DOJ. Block has agreed in principle to settle a US anti-money laundering probe into Cash App, in the same filing as a record-margin quarter.
The Bank of England maps the UK's next payment rails. It wants a modular, thin-core system with phased migration, and a blueprint handed to industry in spring 2027.
Another company card built for AI agents gets funded. Berlin's Pliant raised US$80 million to expand card issuing and spend controls that agents can use.
Regulators checked: RBA, ASIC, AUSTRAC, APRA, ACCC, Treasury, AusPayNet. No payments releases this window.
Regulation & Policy
Nothing notable this window. Wattlebird checked and went back to sleep.
Schemes & Networks
Nothing notable this window. Wattlebird checked and went back to sleep.
Issuing & Acquiring
Block sets aside US$764 million to settle a US money-laundering probe
Block, which owns Afterpay and Square, disclosed in its quarterly filing on 3 November (US time) that it has agreed in principle to pay US$764 million (US$964 million less a US$200 million credit for earlier settlements) to resolve a Justice Department investigation into Cash App's anti-money laundering program, with a criminal charge deferred for three years; the deal is not final and Block has accrued the full amount. The same day it reported third-quarter gross profit of US$3.24 billion, up 22%, Square gross payment volume of US$76.4 billion, up 14% (its fastest growth since early 2023), and raised its 2026 outlook.
Worth knowing: a weak AML program in a fast-growing payments app is exactly the kind of thing AUSTRAC chases here, and the bill is bigger than Block's whole quarterly profit of US$566 million. The call also showed where Afterpay is heading: BNPL inside Cash App Card is now a key growth engine, and post-purchase Afterpay originations more than tripled year on year. Investors shrugged off the settlement, with Block's ASX-listed shares closing up 6.3% on Wednesday.
Marqeta volume grows 29%, revenue grows 8%
Card issuing platform Marqeta reported third-quarter total processing volume of US$126 billion on 3 November (US time), up 29%, with net revenue of US$176 million, up 8%, and gross profit of US$122 million, up 7%. It guided to net revenue growth of 3% to 5% in the fourth quarter.
Worth knowing: volume running at nearly four times the pace of revenue is a sign that each dollar processed is earning less, a common pattern as big programs scale and negotiate harder. Australian fintechs running card programs on issuer processors should expect that pricing pressure to show up in contract renewals.
NAB FY26: 2.5 million scam alerts and a cloud card switch
NAB released its FY26 results on 5 November, with cash earnings of $6.1 billion, down 13%, or flat excluding a large software write-down. Its results pack says about 2.5 million real-time scam alerts led customers to abandon more than $403 million in payments, NPP flows now run on a cloud-based payments engine, and 30% of card payments go through a new cloud transaction switch.
Worth knowing: NAB reports interventions, not a scam loss trend, so it doesn't line up neatly with Westpac's 23% fall. The full payments read-out is in our special update.
Digital Wallets
Nothing notable this window. Wattlebird checked and went back to sleep.
New Products & Features
Pliant raises US$80 million for B2B payments that AI agents can use
Berlin-based Pliant raised a US$80 million Series C on 4 November, led by Seaya Nova and Speedinvest, to expand its commercial card issuing, payment accounts, FX and spend management for businesses and AI agents in the US and Canada before entering more markets. Third-party agents can connect to the platform through the Model Context Protocol, and the round follows a US$40 million Series B in April 2025.
Worth knowing: this is the second agent-ready company card in a week, after Sunrate's launch on Tuesday, so the pattern is clear: business spend is where agents get a card first, because spend limits and approval rules already exist there. The investor line worth remembering is that whoever lets agents move money has to be licensed, auditable and liable. Australian corporate card issuers should expect procurement teams to start asking for MCP connections.
Read: PYMNTS
International
Bank of England sets the path to new UK payment rails
The Bank of England published its response to the Retail Payments Infrastructure Board consultation on 4 November, drawing on 121 responses, and proposed a single modular system with a relatively thin core, a common ISO 20022 baseline, settlement through its RTGS service and a phased migration rather than a "big bang" switch. Shared services such as fraud prevention, directories and alias lookups are still open questions, and the blueprint is due to be handed to an industry-led delivery company in spring 2027.
Worth knowing: this is the UK replacing Faster Payments and Bacs, and the debates will sound familiar here: what sits in the shared core, who runs payee checks and fraud data, and how to move off old batch systems without breaking anything. Australia is having the same arguments as it plans to retire BECS and move volume to NPP. The note that consumer protection for account-to-account payments is still unsettled is worth watching too.
Read: Bank of England
People moves
Nothing notable this window. Wattlebird checked and went back to sleep.
On our radar
RBA Retail Payments statistics for September, due Monday 9 November at 11.30am · Block's AI tools event on 10 November · The RBA Payments System Board meeting on 19 November
Drafted by Wattlebird, Wattle Wire's AI research desk, and checked by an editor. Not financial advice. Summaries paraphrase the linked sources.