Today's Banking Pulse
Mortgage refinance demand plunges 18% as rates climb to 6.65%
Refinance applications fell 18% week‑over‑week, dropping to 38% of total mortgage filings—the lowest share since June 2025. The average 30‑year fixed rate rose to 6.65%, while purchase‑loan volume edged down 0.4% and the average loan size hit $473,600.
Also developing:
By the numbers: OakNorth acquires Monite to boost business banking
Fibe Crosses Rs 1,200 Cr Revenue in FY25; Profit Spikes 13%
Fibe, the former EarlySalary, posted FY25 operating revenue of Rs 1,228 crore, a 49% increase from the prior year, while net profit rose 13% to Rs 114 crore. Interest on loans remained the dominant revenue stream, exceeding Rs 1,000 crore and representing over 80% of total income. The company’s finance costs surged 85% to Rs 691 crore, driven by higher loan write‑offs and guarantee losses, pushing its cost‑to‑revenue ratio to Rs 0.91 per rupee. A $35 million Series F round led by IFC adds to the $265 million raised to date, positioning Fibe for FY26 expansion.
IHG Premier Card 175K Points Limited Time Welcome Bonus: Worth Applying
Chase’s IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card now offers a limited‑time welcome bonus of 175,000 points after $5,000 spend in the first three months, a 35,000‑point increase over the prior offer. The $99 annual‑fee card grants instant Platinum elite status,...
MrBeast Acquires Teen Bank to Teach Gen Z Finance
MrBeast bought a teen banking app with 7M users. His goal: teach Gen Z how to build credit, save, and invest. He says nobody taught him money skills—so he's building the tools he never had. This isn't about YouTube views. It's about owning...
China’s Digital Yuan and the Fight for Southeast Asia’s Financial Infrastructure
China is accelerating the rollout of its interest‑bearing digital yuan (e‑CNY) across Southeast Asia, launching cross‑border pilots such as the China‑Laos settlement system and expanding access through commercial banks. The People’s Bank of China’s new management framework aims to turn...
Sponsor Bank 101: Everything Fintechs Need to Know Before Signing a Contract
In this episode, Lindsay Borgeson, President of Partner Banking at Core Bank, explains how her community bank built the CoreX Banking‑as‑a‑Service platform from the ground up, emphasizing a compliance‑first mindset, early regulator engagement, and careful tech‑partner selection. She highlights the...
Cambodia's Payment System Outsourced Abroad Threatens Sovereignty
🇰🇭#Cambodia's payment infrastructure: Outsourced to overseas vendors, platforms and foreign-owned banks. How to maintain the country's sovereignity?
New Zealand’s Housing Crash Restores Affordability
New Zealand’s housing market has entered a sharp correction, with the REINZ house‑price index falling 0.6% month‑on‑month and 16.2% from its early‑2022 peak, equating to a 30% real‑terms loss since 2019. Mortgage rates have dropped to pre‑pandemic levels after the...
Banks Are Starting to Price Liquidity by the Hour
Banks are moving from traditional overnight benchmarks to quoting liquidity rates on an hourly basis, reflecting tighter funding conditions and the rise of electronic trading platforms. The shift provides more granular price signals, allowing lenders to capture real‑time balance‑sheet pressures...
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The Bank of England is spearheading a sovereign payment system to challenge Visa and Mastercard’s dominance in the UK. A dedicated industry group will receive detailed infrastructure blueprints next year, outlining the technical and regulatory framework. The initiative aims to...
Mortgage Originator Maestro AI Announces $1.2M Pre-Seed
Maestro AI, an AI‑powered platform for mortgage origination, secured $1.2 million in pre‑seed funding led by New Stack Ventures, with participation from Family VC, ZFO, Roark’s Drift, and local angels. Founded by industry veteran David Rogove—who previously built and sold Wemlo...
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MONETARY POLICY: Sarb Proposes Major Reform — Ditching Prime Lending Rate for Repo Rate
The South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) has released a consultation paper proposing to scrap the prime lending rate (PLR) and use the repo rate, known as the SARB policy rate (SPR), as the benchmark for loan pricing. The PLR currently...
Philippine “Revolut” Maya Eyes Up to $1 Billion US Listing
Philippine fintech Maya, an all‑in‑one digital banking app, is eyeing a U.S. IPO that could raise up to $1 billion. The platform now serves 5.4 million customers and disbursed 68 billion pesos ($1.2 bn) in loans in 2024. Its filing comes amid a volatile...
Kinetic Treasury Arrives
J.P. Morgan’s Kinexys platform demonstrated kinetic treasury by instantly minting $40 million of stablecoins using a tokenized vacation‑home as collateral, freeing a semiconductor shipment for a Rotterdam logistics firm. The transaction bridged a retail client’s idle digital asset with an institutional...
MoonPay Deposits to Launch
MoonPay announced MoonPay Deposits, a cross‑chain funding solution that lets users top‑up applications directly from any crypto wallet, regardless of token or blockchain. The service automatically handles swapping, bridging, and routing, delivering the chosen asset to the destination wallet. It...
UK Bank Bosses Plan to Set up Visa and Mastercard Alternative Amid Trump Fears
UK bank leaders are convening to launch a sovereign payments network, DeliveryCo, as an alternative to Visa and Mastercard. The initiative, backed by City funders and the Bank of England, aims to mitigate risks from potential US political actions, such...
Andrew Baker Is New CIO of Capitec
Andrew Baker has been promoted from chief technology officer to chief information officer at Capitec, succeeding Wim de Bruyn who led the role since 2014. Baker joins the CIO post after four years driving Capitec’s migration to Amazon Web Services and...
AI Agents Drive Traffic Surge, Prompt New Security Controls
As AI Agents Take on Tasks in the Real World, New Risks Emerge By 2026, human website visits drop 20% while machine-initiated traffic surges 40%. Zero-click economy emerging where personal AI negotiates on your behalf. Banks must authenticate agents, not just...
Gensler's Rulebook Blocks BlackRock, Apollo From Crypto
"Under the Gensler era, there's no way BlackRock or Apollo would have come into the space. Even in the absence of the Clarity Act." -- @perkinscr97 https://t.co/mCyinRw3Uv
Japanese Fintech PayPay Looks Enter the U.S. Via a Visa Partnership And an IPO
Japanese fintech PayPay Corp. announced a U.S. market entry strategy that pairs a Visa partnership with an upcoming initial public offering. The collaboration will enable PayPay to bundle its Balance, Card and Bank services into a single Visa credential, expanding...
Future‑Ready Infrastructure Must Pivot With Market Shifts
Resilience today means being future ready. Can your infrastructure pivot as rates change, markets shift, or new competitors emerge? https://t.co/jCrVklXEuZ
RBI Eases On-Lending, Current A/C Rules in Final ECB Framework
The Reserve Bank of India released its final external commercial borrowing (ECB) framework, removing the mandatory "current account" condition for banks to become designated authorized dealers. While the RBI clarified that ECB proceeds may be used to purchase land and...
Cost of Credit for Builders & Developers at Its Lowest Since 2022
The NAHB’s AD&C Financing survey shows that in Q4 2025 the cost of credit for residential builders fell to its lowest level since 2022. Contract rates dropped across land acquisition, development, speculative and pre‑sold single‑family loans, and effective rates fell even...
Letters to the Editor Dated February 16, 2026
The Hindu BusinessLine letters highlight three regulatory concerns. First, they argue that the credit‑deposit ratio alone cannot gauge bank health and call for abolishing the Cash Reserve Ratio to improve deposit mobilisation amid RBI’s new risk‑based insurance premiums. Second, they...
RBI Issues Draft Norms for Reporting on Forex Derivative Transactions Involving Rupee
The Reserve Bank of India released draft norms requiring Authorised Dealer Category‑I banks to report all rupee‑denominated foreign‑exchange derivative transactions undertaken by their related parties worldwide. This follows earlier steps that mandated primary dealers and banks to disclose rupee interest‑rate...
Backbase and Plaid Partner to Power AI Banking
Backbase and Plaid have announced a partnership that embeds Plaid’s secure, real‑time financial data connectivity into Backbase’s AI‑powered Banking Platform. The joint solution tackles data fragmentation, streamlines onboarding, and delivers a 360‑degree view of customers’ financial health. It replaces fragile...
AI Threat: Controlling Institutional Knowledge Over Job Replacement
The real fear is not replacement. It’s ownership of knowledge. AI systems are capturing workflows, decisions and expertise that once lived inside employees’ heads. The strategic question is no longer who loses a job, but who controls the institutional intelligence being built....
Deutsche Pfandbriefbank's 2025 Results Hit by U.S. Exit Costs; Medium-Term Targets Delayed
Deutsche Pfandbriefbank posted a preliminary 2025 loss of €250 million before tax, primarily due to accelerated U.S. exit costs, high provisioning and fair‑value adjustments. Operating income fell to €422 million despite a 23% rise in new business volumes, while office‑focused commercial real‑estate...
Brokers to Approach RBI as Tighter Norms Squeeze Funding for Proprietary Desks
The Reserve Bank of India’s new capital‑market exposure framework, effective April 1 2026, mandates 100 percent collateral backing for all bank loans to brokerage firms and bars banks from financing proprietary trading desks. Brokers plan to petition the RBI for clarifications as the...
Digital Financial Systems and Trafficking-Related Risk
The episode examines how the rise of digital financial systems and AI-driven transaction monitoring intersect with human trafficking, highlighting the ways illicit funds are concealed within high‑volume, low‑value digital payments. It discusses the vulnerabilities of automated identity verification, synthetic identities,...
Hoot Host’s Launch and Other Digital Transactions News Briefs From 2/16/26
Digital payments and real‑estate markets saw notable shifts on Feb. 16, 2026. Hoot Host rolled out an expanded SaaS platform integrating PayPal, Square and Stripe, while cryptocurrency exchange OKX obtained a Malta Payment Institution license to extend stablecoin payment services across the...
Don’t Panic (yet): Reports Indicate that United Travel Bank May No Longer Trigger Airline Incidental Credits
United Travel Bank (UTB) has long been a workaround for credit‑card airline incidental credits, allowing travelers to deposit funds and receive fee reimbursements. Recent Reddit and Flyertalk posts suggest UTB stopped triggering these credits after February 5‑6 2026. Historically, similar reports have...
Invisible Wallets Enable Seamless Crypto Adoption for Fintechs
The "Invisible Wallet" Era Para @get_para launches API to make blockchain wallets "invisible" for fintechs. Translation: Users will move value on-chain without ever knowing they're "using crypto rails" Mass adoption actually happens through abstraction. A stablecoin story for now.🔗 https://t.co/Z04QtauE1A
Fed's Bowman Wants to Boost Banks' Share of Mortgage Market
Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman announced that the Fed will soon propose two mortgage‑related regulatory changes aimed at lowering banks' capital costs and encouraging greater bank participation in mortgage origination and servicing. The proposals could revise Basel...
Regulators Must Back Bank Innovation Faster Than Crypto Laws
For community banks to have a fighting chance, we must have regulator support of innovation. Even the smallest steps of progress are scrutinized as “novel”. VC Bowman’s efforts should help, but adoption of her new norm must be faster than...
MiFIR Schema 1.4.0 Rollout: Testing Clarity Still Pending – April Deadline Remains
ESMA’s MiFIR reporting page shows the test environment for schema v1.4.0 will open in February 2026, but exact dates remain unconfirmed. The new XML schema removes the separate FITRS quantitative reporting channel, shifting equity transparency calculations to transaction reporting data...
Why some Major Banks Are Bringing Embedded Finance In-House
Capital One is reshaping its business by bringing embedded finance capabilities in-house through two high‑profile acquisitions. The 2024 purchase of Discover gave the bank broader credit‑card reach, payment rails and consumer data, while the January 2026 acquisition of Brex adds...
RBI Approves Rajan Bajaj as MD and CEO of Slice
Fintech firm Slice announced that its founder Rajan Bajaj has been appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, with the appointment cleared by the board, shareholders and the Reserve Bank of India. Bajaj, who previously served as Executive Director, steered Slice...
Eaglestone Management: Experience Forged in Global Infrastructure Finance
Eaglestone Management’s leadership team combines deep project‑finance banking experience with hands‑on infrastructure execution. CEO Pedro Neto brings over 30 years and involvement in more than €50 billion of global projects across energy, transport and concessions. Managing Partner Nuno Gil adds 25...
FCA Exchanges Letters on Cooperation with India Regulator, IFSCA
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has signed an Exchange of Letters with India’s International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), the regulator for GIFT City. The pact commits both bodies to share regulatory knowledge and best‑practice insights, aiming to strengthen links...
ACH Volume Is Soaring. Here's How that Threatens Banks.
ACH network volume surged in 2025, reaching 35.2 billion payments worth $93 trillion, a 5 percent rise year‑over‑year. Person‑to‑person transfers grew 19.8 percent and business‑to‑business payments rose 9.9 percent, while check usage in B2B fell to 26 percent. Nacha has proposed lifting the same‑day ACH transaction...
Asset Finance Demand Steady as Renewables Rise
Allica Bank’s survey of more than 570 asset‑finance brokers shows demand holding steady, with 29% reporting higher application volumes in the second half of the year and 26% seeing no change. Renewables have broken into the top three sectors for...
Banks Can Offer Yield‑Bearing Stablecoins, Not Threats
🚨 INSIGHT White House crypto advisor Patrick Witt told Yahoo Finance that banks are fully allowed to offer yield-bearing stablecoin products just like crypto platforms, and that they shouldn’t treat them as a competitive threat. https://t.co/PWY4gUKlv0
Natwest Group CEO Touts Near-Term Agentic AI Workflow Future
NatWest Group CEO Paul Thwaite announced that the bank is shifting from basic chatbots to autonomous AI systems capable of executing complex banking workflows for customers. He expects many of the underlying components to be operational within the year. However,...
2026 Banking Trends Reveal a Dangerous Execution Gap
The episode dissects the widening execution gap in banking, highlighting how many institutions recognize digital and AI trends but struggle to implement them effectively. Experts discuss generative AI’s role in marketing, lending, and operational efficiency, while leaders from credit unions,...
Whistleblowing Quarterly Data 2025 Q4 – Financial Conduct Authority | FCA
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) released its Q4 2025 whistleblowing report, revealing a 12% rise in total disclosures compared with the previous quarter. The data shows 1,842 new reports, with fraud and market abuse accounting for 58% of cases. Of...
Binance Rolls Out Mastercard Crypto Card Across CIS
Binance has launched a Mastercard‑branded crypto debit card in the CIS region, allowing users to spend digital assets at any merchant that accepts Mastercard. The card supports instant conversion of major cryptocurrencies into fiat, with zero‑fee withdrawals and a 5%...
Strategies and Opportunities for Corporate Clients
In a recent interview, MUFG Managing Director Manoj S. Bhatia highlighted the bank’s focus on bespoke, empathetic relationships with corporate clients, driven by a decentralized, sector‑specialist approach. This model enables MUFG to stay nimble amid volatile market conditions and deliver...
Firms Report Improved Financial Performance Linked to Use of Embedded Finance
A new PYMNTS Intelligence study of 515 senior leaders shows embedded finance is now a strategic imperative for mid‑size and large firms. Nearly 90% of respondents prioritize strengthening customer and employee relationships, while 75% plan technology upgrades within the next...
Stablecoin Payments Show Up at Checkout Despite Crypto Markets Slump
Despite a broad crypto market downturn, stablecoin‑linked cards are gaining traction at U.S. checkout counters. Monthly payment flows through these cards have surpassed $1.5 billion, and annualized spend now tops $18 billion. The growth is driven by card networks embedding stablecoins as...
Rethinking SARs in the Fight Against Financial Crime
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) remain the cornerstone of global AML frameworks, yet many institutions misunderstand their purpose, treating them as accusations rather than suspicion flags. Regulatory pressure and soaring transaction volumes have driven firms to prioritize filing speed over narrative...