Know What's Happening in Banking
Know What's Happening in Banking
Klarna secures $2B facility and $1.7B risk transfer to boost lending
Klarna announced a $2 billion forward‑flow facility with Elliott Investment Management that will back up to $17 billion of U.S. loan originations over three years. On April 1 it completed a €1.7 billion Significant Risk Transfer led by Värde Partners, freeing capital for further growth.
Also developing:
Affirm is pivoting its buy‑now‑pay‑later offering toward affluent, high‑credit consumers by expanding 0% interest promotions. The company says interest‑free loans drive an 80% probability of repeat usage and currently account for about 16% of its transaction volume, with 80% of that volume coming from prime and super‑prime borrowers. By targeting these users, Affirm hopes to improve retention and capture higher‑margin merchant interchange fees. The move reflects a broader industry trend of diversifying beyond short‑term, lower‑credit BNPL products.
Earned‑wage access (EWA) is gaining traction as hourly workers demand daily pay to bridge cash‑flow gaps between biweekly checks. Executives often view the concept as risky, yet the reality of paycheck‑to‑paycheck living drives demand for instant wage disbursement. Recent growth...
In this unannounced Friday Focus live session, the host reviews the rapid decline of paper checks in the UK and globally, the Bank of England's plan to extend CHAPS settlement hours, and the Swedish central bank's advice to keep cash...
Fintech firms navigate a fragmented regulatory maze, with the United States hosting multiple agencies—from the OCC to FinCEN—each overseeing a slice of the financial pie. The United Kingdom relies on a twin‑peaks system where the PRA ensures solvency and the...
Alchemy Pay announced it secured a money‑transmitter license in Delaware, marking its 15th U.S. state approval. Strike also received both a BitLicense and a money‑transmitter license from New York, expanding its regulated crypto services. Meanwhile, Cinnaholic returned to Square’s point‑of‑sale...
Visa has invested €10 billion in payment security and now blocks over 150 million fraudulent transactions each year. While e‑commerce fraud rates in Europe are falling, fraudsters have turned to AI‑generated social engineering, making scams five times more likely to succeed. Retailers...
The article pits India’s Digital Rupee against the EU’s Digital Euro, evaluating which central bank digital currency (CBDC) best serves commercial users. It notes the Digital Rupee’s near‑real‑time settlement, open‑source APIs, and early integration with Indian e‑commerce giants, while the...
India’s central bank has continued its digital rupee (E₹) pilot, but a retail rollout on e‑commerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart remains unrealised. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has onboarded a handful of banks, fintechs and select merchants...
The European Central Bank entered the current preparation phase for a digital euro in November 2025, concentrating on technical readiness, market engagement, and legislative support. A controlled pilot with real‑world transactions is slated for mid‑2027, with a potential first issuance targeted...
FinTech Global interviewed Thomas Dijohn, senior vice‑president Asia‑Pacific at dacadoo, about linking health metrics to financial services. He argued that physically and mentally healthy individuals represent higher‑earning, lower‑risk customers, making health data a valuable segmentation tool for banks. dacadoo provides...
Russia is drafting separate legislation for stablecoins, highlighting their "colossal potential" for cross‑border payments amid sanctions. The Bank of Russia proposes allowing banks and brokerages to operate crypto exchanges under existing licenses, with a simplified notification process and a 1%...
Finastra has launched OperatorAssist, an AI‑driven add‑on for its Global PAYplus and Payments To Go platforms that automates payment exception handling. The tool analyses payment errors, suggests fixes and guides users through resolution steps, aiming to cut manual investigation time...
Lloyds Banking Group announced its Technology Strategy 3.0, targeting hundreds of millions of pounds in technology cost reductions by 2028. The plan calls for retiring legacy applications, automating compliance checks, expanding in‑house data capabilities and selling more anonymised customer data to...
Deutsche Bank has appointed Gerald Podobnik as Co‑Head of its Corporate Bank, effective immediately, replacing Ole Matthiessen. Podobnik will share global leadership with Michael Diederich and join the Group Management Committee, reporting to Fabrizio Campelli. He brings 23 years at the bank, most recently serving...
SpareBank 1, Norway’s leading mobile‑banking provider, has teamed up with Tieto Banktech to build a data‑driven digital mortgage platform. The multi‑year partnership will embed a dynamic, self‑service loan application into SpareBank 1’s mobile app, leveraging AI and real‑time data to...
Paysafe announced a strategic partnership with payment‑orchestration provider Spreedly, integrating its gateway as an acquirer on Spreedly’s Open Payment Platform. The collaboration instantly enables card‑present and card‑not‑present transactions for merchants in Europe, North America and other regions, leveraging Spreedly’s connections...
3S Money announced the launch of French‑issued IBAN accounts, allowing European customers to hold and transact in euros locally. The fintech also opened a new office in Paris, staffed with a team focused on regulatory compliance and business development. These...
The Federal Reserve’s FedNow service now powers FEMA’s disaster‑relief payouts, moving funds from days or weeks to seconds. Transaction limits have been raised to $10 million, enabling large‑scale disbursements directly to states, municipalities and households. This capability is part of a...
Mobile payments are rapidly reshaping retail checkout, driven by consumer demand for speed and the pandemic‑induced shift to contactless transactions. Retailers report higher customer satisfaction, shorter transaction times, and lower processing costs as they adopt smartphone‑based wallets and biometric authentication....
PhonePe has launched biometric authentication for UPI payments, allowing users to approve transactions up to Rs 5,000 with a fingerprint or facial scan. The feature leverages the smartphone’s Secure Enclave, keeping biometric data on‑device and adding a hardware‑grade security layer. A...
Network International announced two strategic deals to deepen its footprint in North Africa. In Libya, it partnered with Al Seraj Islamic Bank to deliver an end‑to‑end digital payments platform, Visa sponsorship and prepaid issuing capabilities. In Egypt, the firm enabled...
India's benchmark indices deepened losses on Friday, with the BSE Sensex slipping 603 points to 79,412 and the Nifty 50 dropping 168 points to 24,597. Banking and financial‑services stocks led the decline, as the Nifty Bank fell 763 points, testing...
Somalia’s banking sector has rebounded over the past decade, quadrupling assets to $1.8 billion and expanding deposits to $1.43 billion, yet it remains highly fragmented with 13 small, under‑capitalised banks. Most institutions are privately owned, Sharia‑compliant and concentrated in urban centres, leaving...
Chris Skinner’s webinar frames finance’s evolution as three technology revolutions: mainframe‑driven automation (Finance 1.0), digital transformation driven by cloud, APIs and platforms (Finance 2.0), and today’s shift to intelligent ecosystems powered by AI, generative models, and emerging quantum and blockchain capabilities. He...
An upcoming webinar on 15 April 2026 will examine how agentic AI is reshaping banking. It will showcase use cases such as real‑time fraud prevention, predictive credit‑risk analytics, and back‑office automation, while addressing ethical, privacy, and regulatory concerns. Speakers will...
Visa has appointed senior vice president Leonardo J. Collado as general manager of Pismo, effective April 1. Collado, who oversees value‑added services for Latin America and the Caribbean, brings 25 years of payments experience to the role. The move follows...
It's hard for me to describe how different things are than they were a week ago. I'm moving into more of a player coach role, and in the last 7 days, my team of PMs have been: - creating a "Cash...
Look at the pattern: • Stripe adds USDC support • Coinbase builds Base L2 • Ethereum upgrades for scalability They're not competing for retail users anymore They're competing for autonomous agents that will process trillions in microtransactions The machine economy is the endgame
GCC banks have shown resilience as the region endures fresh hostilities between Israel, the United States and Iran. Central Bank of the UAE reported banking assets above AED 5.42 trillion with a 17 % capital adequacy ratio and 146.6 % liquidity coverage ratio, both...
Forget old banking playbooks. The future is not about branches or products. It is about building tech-first solutions that scale globally. https://t.co/5GhOAJ3m8S
The UAE Central Bank just built the world's first sovereign financial cloud — AI for AML, fraud, CBDC, zero-trust access, quantum-resistant encryption. Sovereign compute is now a national infrastructure decision, not a vendor one. World's First Sovereign Cloud System for Finance...
Agency mortgage market showed tepid activity in February, with rate‑refinance volumes remaining sluggish. GSE credit‑risk‑transfer (CRT) issuance fell to its lowest level since 2013, while overall loan originations modestly increased across most product lines. Delinquency rates at large servicers rose...
NEW: Kazakhstan’s central bank is set to invest up to $350M from its reserves into the crypto sector. The strategy targets crypto-linked equities and funds, not direct purchases of digital assets. The program could start in April or May. https://t.co/RlEGwWKYzs
Same asset, same rights, same outcome: The complex undertaking of interoperability in transacting and settling with #DigitalAssets across distributed ledgers. 🆕White Paper by @The_DTCC, @Clearstream, @EuroclearGroup, @BCG: https://t.co/WMoLfjd8GT #DLT #blockchain #securities https://t.co/94oTorfiKP
Glen Herrick, a senior advisor and former CFO, resigned from MVB Financial’s board after just 14 months, publicly criticizing the bank’s executive‑compensation structure and lack of focus on recurring earnings. His departure is one of only four outspoken director resignations...
#FlashbackFriday In 2020, I argued that tokenisation would remake markets, with public and private money becoming digital assets on shared rails. We seem to be edging that way. https://t.co/Hx9fOy0aBT Yesterday’s future. Progress optional.
Swedish central bank urges public to horde cash in case of payments disruption https://t.co/ckNfNUQsve "The Riskbank is currently working on improving the possibility of making offline payments by card to strengthen resilience." https://t.co/yLYmWsDoh0
The Federal Reserve is considering rule changes that would remove the requirement for banks to deduct mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) from regulatory capital and tie mortgage risk weights to loan‑to‑value ratios. The aim is to make mortgage lending more attractive...
Update on the Fed’s Balance Sheet and its Reserve Management Purchases. Adding T-bills, shedding MBS, Treasury note & bond balances on ice, SRF unused https://t.co/M947SfSoUP https://t.co/c3uHc5VmGA
Total PITI costs surged for housing and in a QM lending environment that was set to crush sales. I had a price model limit for 2020-2024: if we didn't surpass 23% during those five years, we would be okay; we...
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Chase is promoting a limited‑time 175,000‑point sign‑up bonus for the IHG Rewards Premier Card, triggered by $5,000 of spend within the first three months. The card carries a $99 annual fee and delivers 26x points on IHG hotel purchases, 5x...
Fannie Mae: Get use to these mortgage rates Fannie Mae's forecast for the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate: Q3 2026 --> 6.0% Q4 2026 --> 6.0% Q1 2027 --> 6.0% Q2 2027 --> 6.0% Q3 2027 --> 6.0% Q4 2027 --> 6.0%
A ‘Bloomberg Terminal’ for espionage? In this episode of DEX in the City, hosts @TuongvyLe12, @kkirkbos & Jessi Brooks discuss: ⚠️ Whether prediction markets are becoming a national security concern 👀 Whether alleged programmatic Bitcoin sales by Jane Street qualify as market manipulation ❕️...
European fintech is entering a phase where the underlying structure matters more than the story. For most of the past decade, consumer challengers defined the category. Neobanks like Monzo and Revolut proved that better interfaces could acquire millions of users quickly. But...
giving ai agents specific cards that can be locked per merchant and have spending caps is an obvious payment solution. probably more obvious than stablecoins which have a ton of payment adoptions. @lithic is probably the only fintech platform company...
OpenAI is eons behind here, esp for financial modeling. Think they were in early on Rogo which may help (probably good acquisition opportunity tbh) but Anthropic has been crushing and Mistral is doing well with EU banks (mainly because of...
Given this situation, millions of Americans could afford and even need to move, but they stay in homes they no longer want because they do not want to lose their low mortgage rates. Yet each quarter, people have given up...
Complex Systems this week is a tiny experiment: I did a read of a work-in-progress essay rather than the finished version with author's commentary. It's about secondary authentication/authorization, particularly for payments.
"I found that the majority of #debanking cases stem from governmental pressure." @EconWithNick Yep. That's how it works
“I have had hundreds of conversations with institutions. Only once I’ve been asked about Solana” @dannyryan
