Algeria’s Fintech Ecosystem in 2026 by Building Momentum
Algeria’s fintech ecosystem in 2026 remains modest, with roughly 30‑35 startups focused on payments, digital banking and crypto services. Recent policy moves, including the Fintech Strategy 2024‑2030 and the Bank of Algeria’s entry into the Pan‑African Payment and Settlement System, are laying a regulatory foundation. Flagship firms such as Banxy, DFA, ESREF Pay and super‑app Yassir illustrate growing entrepreneurial ambition. While still trailing regional leaders like Egypt and the UAE, the sector is gaining visibility and institutional support.
Senate Bill Protecting OFW Remittances Gets 3rd Reading Nod
The Philippine Senate approved Senate Bill No. 1917, the Overseas Filipino Workers’ Remittance Protection Act, on its third and final reading. The law mandates remittance providers to disclose fees and foreign‑exchange rates, and it caps unreasonable charges. It also introduces...
Visa Sees Check Fraud Spilling Into Faster Payment Scams
Visa warns that check fraud now accounts for roughly 30% of U.S. fraud losses in 2024, with checks being 31 times more likely to be fraudulent than real‑time transactions. Criminals are leveraging both traditional methods such as check washing and...
Optasia Posts R4.4bn Revenue on Maiden JSE Results
Optasia, the AI‑driven fintech, posted R4.4 billion revenue for 2025, a 76% year‑on‑year increase, surpassing its IPO guidance. Adjusted EBITDA rose 52% to R1.9 billion, delivering a 43.2% margin, while normalized net income grew 57% to R973 million. The company expanded its user...
StoneX Makes All Cash Proposal to Acquire CAB Payments
StoneX Group, the Nasdaq‑listed financial services firm behind FOREX.com and City Index, has submitted an all‑cash offer to acquire CAB Payments at 95 pence per share. The bid represents a 32% premium to CAB’s undisturbed price of 72 pence and...
UK Banks Surrender over a Third of Market to Fintechs
UK banks have lost at least a third of market share to fintechs - https://t.co/Rr47lI3LqE
PawaPay and Deriv Join Forces to Scale Mobile Money Deposits Across Africa
PawaPay has partnered with online trading platform Deriv to enable mobile‑money deposits in eight African countries, with plans to broaden coverage across the continent. The integration gives Deriv users a single, compliant connection to local mobile operators, allowing instant funding...
FATF Shifts Stablecoin Oversight to Secondary Markets, Expands Monitoring Beyond on- and Off-Ramps: Financial Action Task Force
On March 16, 2026, the Financial Action Task Force issued a report that expands stablecoin oversight to include secondary‑market transactions and peer‑to‑peer wallet activity. The new guidance requires issuers and virtual‑asset service providers to deploy advanced multi‑hop tracing tools and...
Yellow Launches Trading Platform, $YELLOW Token
Yellow announced the launch of its proprietary, non‑custodial cross‑chain trading platform, accompanied by the native $YELLOW utility token. The platform leverages state‑channel technology to execute orders off‑chain with instant peer‑to‑peer matching, while settlement occurs on‑chain for finality. Collateral is cryptographically...
UNIVERSAL TRADE CAPTURE (UTC) – REPORTING ENHANCEMENTS
DTCC’s National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC) is adding a Universal Trade Capture (UTC) reporting enhancement that delivers direct trade‑capture data tied to a firm’s MPID. The service is optional for full‑service NSCC members that clear or introduce broker‑dealers through another...
Qomply Expands Into Hong Kong as APAC Regulators Tighten Transaction Reporting Scrutiny
Qomply, a regulatory‑technology firm specializing in transaction reporting, has opened a new office in Hong Kong, extending its footprint in the Asia‑Pacific region. The expansion comes as Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong roll out extensive OTC derivatives reporting reforms, marking...
AI in Finance and Banking, March 15, 2026
The latest semi‑monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici surveys AI’s rapid penetration of finance, highlighting six research strands. It examines how large language models influence bargaining games, maps AI‑driven fiscal actions across 64 countries, and cites Anthropic’s warning that hedge‑fund...
Malaysia: New Risk Policy Ensures Digital Payment Resilience
Bank Negara Malaysia has issued a new Technology Risk Management Policy for payment service providers, consolidating existing tech‑related requirements into a single framework. The policy introduces a tiered, proportional approach that aligns security and resilience obligations with the size and...
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CRYPTO IN THE SKY: SAA Passengers Get Another Way to Pay for Flights — Bitcoin
South African Airways (SAA) has become the first major African carrier to embed Bitcoin payments directly into its booking platform, partnering with fintech Ozow and crypto‑bridge MoneyBadger. The checkout generates a Lightning Network QR code, instantly converting the digital asset...
BSP on Guard as Digital Banks Face Profit Strain
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reports that most of the six licensed digital banks are still unprofitable, with only Maya Bank and OF Bank posting net income. Despite early losses, the sector shows strong asset growth, with deposits reaching...
Register Now For Chase Freedom Flex 5x Points Categories Q2 2026 (Amazon!)
Chase has opened registration for the Q2 2026 bonus categories on its Freedom Flex credit card, allowing members to earn 5x points on Amazon, Chase Travel and Feeding America donations, each capped at $1,500 of spend. The travel category stacks with...
Robinhood Joins the High-Fee Premium Credit Card Race With an Invite-Only Platinum Offering
Robinhood has launched an invite‑only Platinum Credit Card priced at $695 per year, positioning it below the Amex Platinum ($895) and Chase Sapphire Reserve ($795) fees. The new card, issued by Coastal Community Bank, follows the 2024 Gold Card and...
Fintech Firm Uses Sports Sponsorship to Build CFO Trust
I keep seeing Airwallex's logo everywhere lately. McLaren F1 cars. Arsenal kits. Now the SF Giants jerseys. Had to look them up. Turns out they're a payments company worth $12B that most people have never heard of. And instead of running ads...
The State of Fintech, 2026
Fintech in 2026 is defined by a flood of AI tools such as Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude, creating a crowded analytical landscape. Facebook’s entry with the AI‑driven platform Manus signals a new wave of tech giants targeting financial services. An...
PXTrader 2.0 Merges Crypto, Trad Markets with 1:1000 Leverage
Macro: crypto and trad markets converge—PrimeXBT launches PXTrader 2.0. Key: crypto funding, TradingView, up to 1:1000 leverage. Risk: leverage magnifies losses. Trade: limit position size. — Viktor Kopylov, PhD, CFA. More insights: t.me/si14Kopylov
DeFi Primitives Power Nonstop AI Company Finance
Every DeFi primitive makes sense for AI companies: AMMs = instant liquidity for agent trades Lending = programmatic capital allocation Oracles = real-time data feeds Smart contracts = trustless execution It's the perfect financial stack for entities that never sleep
The Finanser’s Week: 9th March – 15th March 2026
The week’s highlights cover Coinbase’s x402 payment protocol, AWS’s banking‑on‑the‑cloud report, the U.S. Treasury’s smart‑regulation guidance for digital assets, the industry’s shift toward branchless, cashless banking, and the use of crypto to evade sanctions. x402 promises internet‑speed, open payments that...
Shift4 Payments: 7x FCF and 20%+ Growth
New writeup: Shift4 Payments: A Fintech Compounder Trading Like a Melting Ice Cube 7x free cash flow for a business compounding at 20%+ $FOUR Link in bio https://t.co/R6SWOw4hoQ
Digital Challengers Deliver Real‑time Offers; Incumbents Must Adapt
Digitally enabled challengers meet customers in real time with relevant offers. Traditional institutions must rethink how and where they show up. https://t.co/SiOwf3NiXx
Designing Salesforce Payment Workflows with QuickBooks and Stripe (Part: 2)
The second part of SimplySfdc’s guide tackles real‑world hurdles when linking Salesforce payment workflows with QuickBooks and Stripe. It outlines six common integration pain points—record matching, field‑mapping gaps, timestamp drift, API throttling, security misconfigurations, and unreliable Stripe webhooks. For each...
Oobit Appoints Katashe Group as Strategy, Research and Ecosystem Innovation Partner
Oobit, an open payments platform backed by Tether and Solana, has named Katashe Group as its strategy, research, and ecosystem‑innovation partner. The alliance will generate market insights and experience frameworks to help Asian Web 2 platforms integrate digital‑asset wallets with traditional...
Federal Court Allows Earned Wage Access Claims Under TILA and MLA to Proceed
On March 5, a U.S. District Court in Illinois denied a fintech’s motion to dismiss a class action alleging its earned‑wage‑access (EWA) product violates the Truth in Lending Act and the Military Lending Act. The court held that EWA advances can...
From Penalty to Parity: The SEC Rethinks Stablecoin Risk
The SEC, via Commissioner Hester Peirce, announced it will not object to broker‑dealers treating proprietary payment stablecoins as having a ready market and applying only a 2 % haircut under Rule 15c3‑1. This guidance, though non‑binding, aligns stablecoins with low‑risk cash equivalents...
From Mom’s Envelope System to Ramp’s EU Expansion
Here's what growing up in Lebanon taught me about B2B fintech: My mom used to send me to the corner store with cash folded in my pocket and a mental note of exactly what to buy and how much change...
Crypto Broker Bitpanda Bets on Banks and Tokenization to Expand Globally Ahead of IPO Plans
Bitpanda, the Vienna‑based crypto broker, reported €371 million in adjusted revenue for 2025, a 16% increase, and grew its user base to 7.4 million. The firm is preparing a Frankfurt IPO in early 2026, targeting a €4‑5 billion valuation. To fuel global expansion,...
PayPal Removes BillPay Services (Unsure Whether Temporary or Permanent)
PayPal has removed its Bill Pay feature for consumer accounts, with the change appearing to take effect on February 28, 2026. The discontinuation was noted by users and industry observers, though PayPal has not issued an official statement confirming whether...
Sky TVL Surges 38% in March
Sky, the successor to MakerDAO, saw its total value locked climb to $7.52 billion in March, a 38 % increase since the month’s start. The growth positions Sky as the fourth‑largest DeFi protocol by TVL, behind Aave, Lido and EigenCloud. Its sUSDS...
Tide Enters the Telecom Battleground with UK’s First Business Banking Mobile Plan
Tide, the UK‑based business‑banking platform valued at $1.5 billion, has teamed with telecom infrastructure firm Gigs to launch a native mobile plan powered by Vodafone’s 5G network. The service embeds a dedicated business phone number and eSIM directly into Tide’s all‑in‑one...
Back Digital Credit with BTC, Fund Dividends via Appreciation
A Simple Theory of Digital Credit: 1. Acquire a large pool of appreciating capital ($BTC). 2. Issue credit ($STRC) against that capital, overcollateralized by the equity base. 3. Monetize a portion of the appreciation—directly or via derivatives ($MSTR)—to fund the dividend.
John Lothian: Week in Review (March 9th – 13th, 2026)
The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has launched a Binary Order Entry API that represents a structural shift in how participants connect, moving performance‑critical paths to client‑side design rather than merely reducing latency. This change alters development skill requirements, certification processes, and...
Average SWIFT Transfer Time Revealed From 5,000 Payments
🌐💸 How long do SWIFT payments take? Insights from 5,000+ #payments. @Statrys: https://t.co/rKogdaVxWp #DigitalBanking #remittances https://t.co/S3og7b23fo
Streamline Your Transactions: Regional Finance Payment Online Made Easy
Regional finance payments are hampered by fragmented accounts‑receivable workflows, leading to missed revenue and cash‑flow strain. Embedding payment tools directly into existing ERP or invoicing systems enables instant payment links, real‑time visibility, and automated reconciliation. Companies that adopt diverse digital...
The Digital Economy’s Longest-Running Grudge Matches
The digital economy is rife with high‑profile rivalries that extend beyond market share into principles, fees, and brand prestige. In 2026, OpenAI and Anthropic are sparring for enterprise AI contracts, while Amazon secured a court order to block Perplexity’s shopping...
IOH, Safaricom Partner on AI, Mobile Financial Services
Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH) and Kenya's Safaricom have signed a partnership to co‑develop digital services, emphasizing artificial intelligence, mobile financial solutions, and network planning. The agreement leverages IOH’s push to embed AI across its telecom operations and Safaricom’s proven M‑Pay...
Stablecoins Could Form Backbone of Global Payments in 10 Years: Billionaire
Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller told Morgan Stanley that blockchain‑based stablecoins could become the core of the global payments system within the next ten to fifteen years. He highlighted their speed, lower cost, and productivity gains compared with legacy rails. The...
AIS Outlines Targets for Upcoming Clicx Bank
Advanced Info Service (AIS) together with Krungthai Bank and PTTOR will launch Clicx Bank, an AI‑driven virtual bank, in Thailand by June 2025. The venture, structured through Thai Trinity Holdings, targets up to 30% of the partners’ combined 60 million customers,...
Senate Passes Housing Bill Without CCCA Amendment
The Senate approved the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act on March 12 with an 89‑to‑10 vote, but the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) amendment was stripped from the final text. The CCCA, championed by Senators Roger Marshall and...
Circle‘s USDC Overtook Tether‘s USDT in Adjusted YTD Volume: Mizuho
Mizuho’s latest research shows Circle’s USDC surpassed Tether’s USDT in adjusted transaction volume for the first time since 2019, reaching about $2.2 trillion YTD versus $1.3 trillion for USDT. The bank raised Circle’s price target from $100 to $120, citing a 64%...
Institutional Crypto Lending: Hybrid Models Overcome DAO Slowdowns
I spoke with Maple's Sid Powell (@syrupsid ) and @PaulFrambot of Morpho about where institutional crypto lending is heading, why DAOs struggle to move fast, and what the DeFi mullet model really requires to work. Don’t miss it! Timestamps: 🏦 0:58 What makes...
From Garden Network to Open Gates: Building the Future
Fun story: I first signed up for Cash App in 2018 when colleagues quoted the old Cash App ads at me: "We aren't using the other apps anymore." Our network was a garden that drove hyper growth for a decade. Now, it's...
Miss This Warning and You Too Could Lose 99.9% in One Swap While Ethereum Bots Walk Away with the Rest
On March 12 a crypto trader swapped $50.43 million of Aave‑wrapped USDT for aEthAAVE through Aave’s swap interface, ignoring a slippage warning on a mobile device. The transaction returned only $36,100 worth of tokens, effectively losing about $49.96 million, or 99.9% of...
Bloomberg Terminal Spotlighted on 60 Minutes in 2017
#FlashbackFriday. April 23, 2017. The Bloomberg Terminal was prominently featured on 60 Minutes during a profile on Michael Bloomberg. (CBS) #FinTech https://t.co/8J3lFg5rcv
Bilt Users Report Unpaid Rents and Poor Support
Impacted Bilt users continue to complain about rent payments not being made to their landlords, difficulty accessing human customer support:
Cash App Shifts From Underbanked Aid to Gambling Gateway
cash app used to pride itself on helping the underbanked. now its... lets connect the underbanked to digital casinos i guess
Crypto Shifts Toward Virtual Cards, Fintech Takes Note
All of crypto is pivoting to virtual cards and it's so weird to me as a fintech guy. Like yeah. It's a virtual card?