Upfront, a financial operations platform for MENA SMEs, has partnered with Mastercard to expand digital payment options for smaller businesses. The collaboration will add Mastercard commercial card capabilities to Upfront's platform, sitting alongside existing accounts receivable, accounts payable and cash flow management services. The new feature will allow eligible SME customers to access approved financing through a commercial card, which can be used for supplier bills and operating expenses. The companies said the card-based payments will provide SMEs with greater flexibility in managing working capital and improved visibility over business spending. The initial rollout will focus on Upfront's SME customers in the UAE. Any broader expansion will depend on programme structure, regulatory requirements and market readiness.

Mastercard, Flybits and Rogers establish benchmark for secure, consumer-controlled agentic commerce in Canada. September 21, 2026 Industry collaboration uses Mastercard Agent Pay to help advance safeguards for responsible agentic commerce Mastercard, Flybits and Rogers Bank today announced Canada's first successful deployment of a landmark agentic commerce transaction involving an AI-powered commerce platform, card issuer and payments network, demonstrating how AI-powered shopping experiences can prioritize consumer control, transparency and security. As AI becomes increasingly capable of acting and transacting on behalf of consumers, the collaboration is helping identify the safeguards, governance principles and industry standards needed to support trusted adoption in Canada. The milestone builds on Mastercard's global Agent Pay framework for trusted, interoperable and secure agentic commerce. By bringing together financial institutions, merchants and technology partners, Mastercard is helping establish the standards and infrastructure needed for AI-powered commerce to scale responsibly. "Agentic commerce represents one of the most significant shifts in the future of commerce and payments," said Craig Reiff, Senior Vice President, Core Payments, Mastercard, Canada. "As AI becomes increasingly capable of acting on behalf of consumers, trust will determine how quickly these experiences scale. Mastercard is helping establish the standards and infrastructure for secure, transparent and consumer-controlled commerce in Canada." As part of the initiative, a Flybits-powered AI assistant acted on instructions set by a Rogers Red credit card cardholder to identify an eligible product within the specified budget and complete the purchase using Mastercard Agent Pay. The transaction demonstrated how AI agents can act on behalf of consumers within clearly defined parameters, including validated consumer instructions and predefined spending limits, while providing insights into the controls and safeguards needed to support the next generation of commerce. It also showed how AI-powered assistants can deliver personalized recommendations and help consumers understand how and why those recommendations are made. New Mastercard research reinforces why consumer control matters to Canadians embracing AI-powered shopping experiences: * 41% are open to using AI assistants to help them shop online * 53% of those with positive feelings toward AI shopping assistants are open to AI-assisted purchasing within pre-set preferences and budget limits "We are always looking for innovative ways to enhance the customer experience and deliver value to Canadians," said Nick Bednarz, CEO, Rogers Bank. "This collaboration shows how AI technology can simplify commerce while preserving the security, transparency and control consumers expect from their payment experiences." Flybits provided the agentic intelligence and explainability layer through its platform behind the experience, demonstrating how AI-powered assistants can deliver personalized recommendations while helping consumers understand how and why those recommendations are made. In future phases, Flybits plans to incorporate Mastercard Insight Tokens, a secure and governed way for AI agents to access and apply permissioned insights, aimed at delivering a more personalized and dynamic experiences with consumer consent. "For consumers to embrace AI-powered commerce, the experience must be transparent, fast and personalized," said Dr. Hossein Rahnama, Founder and CEO of Flybits and the Edward Rogers Sr. Chair in AI and Human Creativity at TMU. "By combining contextual intelligence with auditable AI, we are building a new generation of digital commerce experiences that enable consumers to make more informed decisions with greater confidence, clarity and access to relevant choices." Together, Mastercard, Flybits and Rogers Bank are working on helping translate agentic commerce from an emerging concept into a trusted consumer experience, with control, transparency and security built into how it evolves. *Canadian consumer research, conducted in August 2026, was completed among n = 2,000 Canadian adults, exploring how Canadians think about supporting small businesses and what drives their purchase decisions. About Mastercard (NYSE: MA). Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we're building a resilient economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential. About rogers communications inc. Rogers is Canada's communications, sports and entertainment company, and its shares are publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RCI.A and RCI.B) and on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: RCI). For more information, please visit rogers.com or about.rogers.com/investor-relations. Insert about Flybits. Flybits is a technology company and a global leader in contextual and personalized AI. Grounded in proven science and built for enterprise scale, Flybits focuses on building native AI capabilities for financial institutions. By turning deep computational AI into highly relevant, secure software, Flybits enables financial institutions to deliver auditable and personalized AI experiences in mission critical and regulated digital channels.