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:
American Express has launched a targeted Offer for Viator that awards a $25 statement credit when cardholders spend $200 or more in a single transaction. The credit can be applied up to two times, delivering a maximum of $50 back per account. The promotion is limited to purchases made in USD on Viator’s U.S. website or mobile app and expires on March 24, 2026. It does not apply to third‑party resellers or intermediary services.
The Bank of England will extend CHAPS operating hours, introducing a voluntary early‑morning settlement window that begins at 01:30 GMT instead of the current 06:00 start. The change takes effect in September 2027 and is designed to enable earlier sterling...
The IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS‑CI) unit relied on Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) filings for 94% of its FY25 probes, conducting over 3.9 million searches. BSA data linked to 89% of cases, directly originating 11.7% of investigations. Tax‑related fraud investigations uncovered $2.9 billion...
The article reviews evidence that central banks which pushed policy rates slightly below zero—most notably in the euro area, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Japan—generated additional economic stimulus without triggering major disruptions. Empirical observations show that corporate deposit and wholesale funding...
Aven’s 2026 offering blends a home‑equity‑backed revolving line of credit with a credit‑card interface, letting homeowners draw only what they need and pay interest on the outstanding balance. The fintech’s digital‑first application speeds pre‑qualification and eliminates many in‑person appraisals, positioning...
Bed Bath & Beyond plans to offer mortgages, HELOCs, renovation loans, and title services. They are also partnering with Figure Technologies to deliver digital home equity products to consumers. The move apparently advances its objective of becoming the "Everything Home Company."
JPMorgan Chase has launched a limited‑time mortgage rate promotion that applies to both home‑purchase and refinance loans. The program offers an automatic 0.25 percentage‑point discount, with rates potentially dropping from 5.50 % to 5.25 %, and is available until March 8 2026 with a 60‑day...
Bank holdings of residential mortgage‑backed securities (MBS) fell sharply in the fourth quarter, registering a net outflow of roughly $12.4 billion, the lowest level since early 2021. The decline was uneven, with large banks cutting positions more aggressively than regional lenders,...
Morningstar DBRS confirmed BBVA's long‑term issuer rating at A (high) and short‑term rating at R‑1 (middle), while shifting the trend on all long‑term ratings from Stable to Positive. The agency cited the bank’s resilient earnings, boosted by higher interest rates...
Home prices edged higher in the latest quarter, while Chase announced a modest rate discount to spur loan demand. Retail giant Bed Bath & Beyond entered the mortgage origination space, signaling non‑traditional players’ interest in housing finance. Bayview Capital began stocking GSE‑eligible loans...
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde highlighted the digital euro as a core part of her legacy, noting its progress from research to a live policy effort. The project is now in a "preparation phase" with technical design and pilot...
FIS is pivoting to its core card‑issuing business after selling Worldpay, aiming at banks that grow faster than the market. The company has launched its first agentic‑commerce platform, enabling AI‑driven purchases on behalf of consumers while bolstering fraud defenses. A...
Actual LOCKED mortgage rates hit the lowest point since August 2022, per Optimal Blue real-time data. The 30-year fixed fell to 5.945% yesterday for a conforming loan backed by Fannie/Freddie. FHA was 5.859% and VA an even lower 5.608%. Decent.
The SEC doesn't know how to regulate a company with no CEO The IRS doesn't know how to tax an entity with no address Banks don't know how to serve a business with no humans But crypto doesn't care Zero human companies will emerge...
MoonPay introduced MoonPay Agents, a non‑custodial, permissionless financial layer that lets AI agents control funded crypto wallets. Users complete a one‑time KYC and link a payment method, after which the AI can autonomously trade, swap and move funds. The service...
AI robots could outnumber human workers within a few decades, according to a former Citi executive. Humanoids are already on the market with a payback period of under 10 weeks compared to human labor. McKinsey expects its own workforce to reach parity...
Camunda introduced a Skyflow connector that tokenizes and de‑identifies PII/PHI within BPMN workflows. The connector forwards selected fields to Skyflow’s vault, replaces them with tokens, and permits controlled re‑identification only at approved steps. This approach shrinks the cleartext data footprint...
Last week, we published a report titled “How Is China Rewiring Its Trillion-Dollar Surplus?” in response to media reports that Chinese authorities have urged banks to curb their exposure to the US Treasury market. This regulatory signal is highly investment-relevant,...
A consortium of leading financial institutions executed the first cross‑border, intraday repurchase agreement using tokenized U.K. government bonds on the Canton Network. The trade featured the inaugural cross‑currency swap of tokenized gilts for tokenized deposits, with smart contracts encoding interest...
In this episode, Alex Dewison, Director of Digital Solutions at Global Payments, explains how e‑commerce payments have shifted from basic checkout pages to seamless, invisible experiences driven by speed, security, and digital wallets. He outlines the hallmarks of a best‑in‑class...
Citizens Bank’s Chief Information Officer Michael Ruttledge outlines how the institution’s "Next Gen Technology" initiative has driven a full migration of its legacy mainframe workloads to public cloud platforms Azure and AWS. Since joining in 2019, Ruttledge has overseen a...
The Africa Digital Banking Experience report shows mobile handsets have become the primary gateway to banking across the continent. With mobile penetration rising and smartphones becoming affordable, banks are shifting to mobile‑first strategies and redesigning products for handset users. While...
LMS, through its NPTN network, has entered the Bank of England’s Synchronisation Lab to pilot a synchronized settlement model for remortgages. The eight‑week test will run in a simulated Real‑Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) environment, splitting payments into earmark and settle...
AI‑driven “agentic commerce” is allowing autonomous systems to purchase goods and services on behalf of consumers. This shift challenges the long‑standing reliance on a consumer’s click as proof of intent, prompting Visa and Mastercard to test pilot programs for machine‑initiated...
Safaricom is piloting Shiriki Pay, a mini‑app inside the M‑PESA super app that lets a sponsor delegate up to two beneficiaries a monthly spending allowance drawn directly from the sponsor’s wallet. The feature caps usage, supports Buy Goods, Paybill, Pochi...
Big Canadian banks often send mortgage renewal forms just weeks before the due date, offering rates that can be two percentage points higher than competing offers. In a recent example, a borrower faced a 6.09% fixed rate versus a 4.04%...
The U.S. market‑structure bill’s permissibility section would formally allow banks and their holding companies to own and transact in digital assets, effectively expanding the range of activities deemed permissible under the National Bank Act. Critics argue that simply placing an...
UOB's CFO Leong Yung Chee said the bank's provisions for commercial‑real‑estate exposures in Greater China and the United States are more than adequate as bad‑debt formation slowed in Q4 2025. Problematic US CRE loans represent about 1% of the local...
KPMG International’s new report warns that banks and retailers must forge strategic partnerships to keep pace with rapid payment‑technology change. Survey data from 500 banks and 500 retailers shows 54 % of retailers consider payment modernization essential, yet only 45 % say...
Kenya’s Central Bank announced a consultancy to review the Central Bank Act and the Banking Act. The overhaul targets ambiguous provisions affecting digital banking, fintech regulation, consumer protection and cybersecurity. The current legal grey zone has delayed operating licences for...
The U.S. Government can’t operate without it. Global economy can’t function without it. And Wall Street can’t trade without it. Yet most people have no idea what BlackRock actually does. Here’s how BlackRock built a $10 trillion empire that quietly controls everything:
Payoneer is applied for an OCC National Trust Charter Head of Stablecoins Rob Morgan gave @TokenizedPod an exclusive interview: https://t.co/X8PzdyA5AB
A Visa‑PYMNTS Working Capital Index shows nearly 50% of Asia‑Pacific growth‑stage firms (revenues $50 M‑$1 B) lack usable working‑capital tools, citing mismatched product design. CFOs demand flexible, sector‑specific digital financing, especially virtual and commercial cards that act as short‑term funding sources. High‑performing...
Stripe’s annual letter is out: https://t.co/N0TpoPbs6T The biggest highlight is relatively consistent every year: the Internet economy is growing faster than the rest of the economy. This has compounded for enough years that it is essentially _the_ growth engine in places.
"The SEC innovation exemption may not translate into higher prices in the short term. But it gives investors CONFIDENCE. It says the industry is here for the long-term." https://t.co/FZZs6V5xGq
The UK overdraft market has collapsed from £18 bn to £2.7 bn, leaving a £15 bn funding gap for SMEs. With high‑street banks pulling back, many small firms now finance day‑to‑day cash flow through personal credit cards and director reimbursements – a practice...
"What's interesting about the Terra-Jane Street lawsuit: How much duty do market makers have to the platforms they work with to keep information confidential?" https://t.co/FZZs6V5xGq
"By making tokenized assets a native part of the chain, devs will make it native part of the applications on the Robinhood Chain" https://t.co/JXKHxOQebE
The Clearing House’s chief strategy officer, Sal Karakaplan, declared “trust” the 2026 word of the year for payments, arguing it is the functional prerequisite for new players, technologies, and flows to gain lasting adoption. He highlighted the RTP® network’s expansion—now reaching...
"We are making it easy for people to get access to tokenized stocks, so people can build with it." https://t.co/FZZs6V5xGq
"From a legal perspective is very helpful to have a testnet, so we can understand what the risks are and what we need to mitigate. " Robinhood Crypto's Deputy General Counsel Coy Garrison https://t.co/JXKHxOQebE
The 2025 Global Digital Shopping Index, commissioned by Visa Acceptance Solutions, found that 48% of shoppers used a mobile device for their most recent retail purchase, with usage exceeding 60% in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Mobile browsing frequency is...
UP NEXT, DEX in the City @kkirkbos and Jessi Brooks sit down with Coy Garrison and Seong Seog Lee to unpack Robinhood’s crypto approach, followed by Terra litigation and the SEC’s innovation exemption. 🔍 Come join us! https://t.co/JXKHxOQebE
🤯 WOW Meta just sent stablecoin RFPs to crypto infrastructure firms. Are 3 billion users are about to get stablecoin wallets? https://t.co/VVOC3pQp06
TRM Labs and Finray Technologies have integrated Finray’s XZiel compliance engine with TRM’s blockchain intelligence, creating a unified system for monitoring crypto and fiat transactions. The platform delivers real‑time risk alerts, automated case management and a detailed audit trail across...
Really enjoyed this conversation on robot money, zero human companies, and what will happen to Fintech in the AI era
If I walk into a traditional branch, it’s days for an application, days for adjudication, days for approval. Speed is no longer convenience. Speed is competitive advantage. And today, the advantage is shifting. https://t.co/qZdm6aFQq4
Marriott Bonvoy and Indonesia’s state‑owned Bank Mandiri have launched the Marriott Bonvoy Mandiri credit card, the hospitality brand’s first co‑branded card in Southeast Asia and its 35th worldwide. The product targets Indonesia’s fast‑growing travel segment, leveraging Mandiri’s digital reach and...
Traditional banks running core systems in basement servers cannot compete in a world built for autonomous, cloud-first finance. https://t.co/ygYrjWtotP
Commonwealth Bank of Australia announced the elimination of 300 positions, primarily within its technology division, as part of a broader workforce reshaping. The cuts coincide with a $90 million, three‑year upskilling initiative designed to ready staff for an AI‑driven shift over...
