Interview: Oliver Prill, CEO of London Fintech Unicorn Tide
Oliver Prill, the modest‑mannered CEO of London‑based fintech Tide, highlighted the company’s milestone of reaching two million business customers in under a decade. Tide generated £190 million (≈$242 million) in revenue in 2024 but posted a £26 million (≈$33 million) loss, while its UK arm serves 900,000 firms—about 15% of the market—and has extended credit exceeding £1.75 billion (≈$2.22 billion). The firm recently secured a $120 million round led by TPG, valuing Tide at $1.5 billion, and is pushing into Germany, France and India, where it now has 1.1 million users. Prill says an IPO is not imminent, with AI‑driven product upgrades and international scaling taking priority.
"Frustration With Uncertainty, Cost": FMA Chief Barrass on the Sandbox That Produced One Launch
New Zealand's Financial Markets Authority released a 15‑page report on its fintech sandbox pilot, which began in December 2024 with 24 applicants but admitted only six firms. Only one participant, Easy Crypto subsidiary ECDD Holdings, launched a product – the...
Google Pay Adds Faster Checkout Tools for Android Apps
Google Pay has added dynamic callbacks to its Android native app SDK, enabling developers to pull stored payment and address data from Google Wallet and update shipping, tax, and total price information without closing the checkout sheet. The feature mirrors...
AI Agents Settle $73M in Machine‑to‑Machine Payments, USDC Handles 98% of Transactions
AI agents have settled more than $73 million across 176 million transactions in the past year, driven by stablecoin‑based rails. USDC accounts for 98.6% of the volume, while major tech and finance firms pour billions into the emerging payment stack.
Agentic Commerce May Force New Focus on False Declines
Agentic AI is moving from recommendation and fraud‑prevention roles to actually initiating purchases on behalf of consumers. As these autonomous agents place orders, merchants and issuers must shift focus from merely blocking bad activity to confidently recognizing legitimate transactions. PYMNTS...
Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco Selected for AfCFTA Digital Identity and DPI Rollout
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat has selected Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria to pilot the Africa Digital Access and Public Infrastructure for Trade (ADAPT) program. ADAPT will build shared digital rails for identity, payments and trusted data exchange,...
InComm, Zip Partnership Brings Buy Now, Pay Later to Gift Cards
Zip, the Australian‑based fintech, has partnered with Atlanta‑headquartered InComm Payments to embed Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) functionality into the gift‑card market. The integration lets eligible U.S. consumers select and finance gift cards directly within the Zip app, choosing installment...
High-Risk Payment Gateway With Instant Approval
NexaPay.one eliminates the weeks‑long underwriting process for high‑risk merchants by settling card payments directly into a crypto wallet. The platform accepts Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay and converts each transaction to USDC, USDT or Bitcoin in under a minute, requiring...
Even JPMorgan Payments Feels Pressure to Compete with Fintechs
JPMorgan Payments, the United States’ largest credit‑card issuer and merchant acquirer, moves roughly $12 trillion in transactions each day, peaking at $15‑$16 trillion. Facing new payment rails like blockchain and stablecoins, the unit is reshaping its technology approach to mirror nimble fintechs....
Fed Proposes Direct Settlement Access for Crypto Firms, Capping Balances at $1 B
The Federal Reserve announced a proposal to let qualified crypto‑native firms settle payments directly on Fedwire, FedNow, and other Fed services, imposing a hard $1 billion balance limit. The move follows Kraken’s limited‑purpose master account and a Trump‑signed executive order urging...
Executive Interview Series: Holli Targan, TSG Strategic Advisor
In a candid interview, payments veteran Holli Targan reflects on four decades of industry change, noting the surge of electronic payments while legacy card and ACH networks still dominate transaction volume. She highlights progress for women in fintech, yet points...
Philippines Moves Toward Stronger Biometric Security as OTP Risks Mount
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is moving to server‑side biometric authentication and will phase out SMS and email one‑time passwords (OTPs) for high‑risk transactions by June 2026. The shift responds to a surge in AI‑driven fraud, with 70,000 fraud complaints...
Plaid Targets ACH Payment Risk with New Guaranteed Settlement Solution
Plaid has introduced Plaid Guaranteed Payments, a new service that eliminates settlement risk for ACH transactions by assuming losses on failed payments. The solution leverages Plaid's AI‑driven Signal and Protect platforms to deliver millisecond‑fast approval decisions, achieving approval rates as...
Stablecoins Are Hard to Spend. This Startup Wants to Make It Easy.
Rach Finance, founded by Keji Pius and CTO Martins Chigoziem in January 2026, offers a non‑custodial payment gateway that lets African merchants accept USDT and USDC and settle instantly in local currencies. The startup has already processed about $250,000 across...
PayPal Shock Rattles Wall Street as Consumers Grow More Careful With Money
PayPal warned that its high‑margin branded checkout grew only 2% last quarter, triggering an 8% share drop and intensifying concerns over a broader consumer‑spending slowdown. The payments giant’s stock is down roughly 40% year‑to‑date and 80% from its pandemic peak...
Offa Partners with Knowledge Bank to Boost Broker Reach
Offa, a UK‑based Islamic property‑finance fintech, has partnered with Knowledge Bank to list its Sharia‑compliant finance criteria on the platform, making halal solutions easier for brokers to locate. Offa, the country’s first halal bridge‑finance provider, recently launched a paperless Home...
FDIC Insurance Remains Bank Edge as Stablecoins Expand
"What is going to differentiate a traditional bank from a nonbank permitted payment stablecoin issuer? We're getting to that point" Katherine on what's left that separates the two under the Genius Act "FDIC insurance. There's definitely going to be a sector of...
Instant Push-to-Card Payouts Now Available via IncreaseDev
Enterprise banking API provider @IncreaseDev, founded by early @Stripe engineer @darraghbuckley, just launched Push-to-Card transfers — to instantly send payouts to eligible Mastercard or Visa cards, 24/7 📲 Use cases: insurance claims, legal settlements, refunds, disbursements. Key features: • Funds delivered in seconds,...
Mastercard and Yellow Card Launch Stablecoin Payments Across Africa
Mastercard has teamed up with pan‑African crypto exchange Yellow Card to roll out stablecoin‑based payment options in more than 20 African countries. The partnership aims to simplify cross‑border transactions for freelancers, exporters and diaspora users, while sparking a competitive push...
UK Experts Argue Need for Tokenization Composability, Not a Replication of Legacy
Two UK asset‑management veterans, Stephen Whyman and Dr. Ian Hunt, released a paper urging the industry to move beyond merely digitising existing products. They argue that tokenisation should focus on composability, using a universal framework rather than bespoke smart contracts...
AI Platforms Give Financial Advice With Little Oversight, Robinhood Lawyer Warns
Robinhood’s chief legal officer, Daniel Gallagher, warned that generative‑AI platforms such as Anthropic’s Claude are already capable of giving personalized investment advice and even placing trades, yet they operate outside the SEC and FINRA supervisory regime. He highlighted the regulatory...
HELOC, HOA Lien Monitoring, AI, Developer Platform Tools; Webinars and Training
Elevated mortgage rates are throttling labor mobility, with 56% of workers turning down relocations and reshaping expectations around generational wealth. Builder sentiment has rebounded to pre‑war levels and pending home sales posted their strongest April reading since 2023, yet new‑home...
Fintech Fraud Prevention in 2026: How AI and Regulation Are Fighting Financial Crime
Financial crime losses surged to $579.4 billion in 2025, with 67% of banks and fintechs reporting higher fraud rates. AI that powers modern detection is now also being weaponized, enabling deepfake‑driven vishing, synthetic identities, and model‑evasion attacks. Regulatory pressure is intensifying...
The Impact of Reverse Factoring on MSMEs: Firm-Level Evidence From Mexico
A new study of Mexican micro, small and medium enterprises shows that adopting reverse factoring—a supply‑chain financing tool where buyers guarantee invoices—significantly lifts firm sales. The sales boost comes mainly from adding new customers rather than expanding existing orders. Benefits...
New Details Emerge About Pepkor’s Bank Launch Plans
South African discount retailer Pepkor Holdings aims to launch its own bank in April 2027, targeting 1.8 million primary banking customers within five years. The bank will leverage Pepkor’s network of over 6,500 stores and its existing financial‑services footprint of 22 million...
UK Fintech Hiring Set to Rise Driven by Payments Infrastructure
UK fintech hiring is projected to increase up to 14% in 2026, driven by demand for payments‑infrastructure roles. A Morgan McKinley and Vacancysoft labour‑market report says hiring focus will shift from neobanks to payments providers, engineering and IT positions. The sector...
Wednesday’s XRP Ledger Upgrade to Switch on Institutional Lending
The XRP Ledger will roll out software version 3.1.3 on May 27, 2026, after unanimous approval from all dUNL validators. The upgrade completes the bookkeeping framework for on‑chain asset vaults and activates the ledger’s native lending protocol. By enabling secure...
Hyperliquid Launches Fully Collateralized Prediction Markets, Challenging Polymarket
It's getting interesting: @HyperliquidX just expanded into prediction markets, taking aim at @Polymarket. HIP-4 now supports offchain event contracts — think Fed rate decisions, inflation data — settled by Hyperliquid's own validators instead of UMA's external oracle. Fully collateralized Yes/No contracts. Max loss...
Catena Labs Raises $30M and Secures OCC Approval to Pursue National Trust Bank Charter for AI Agents
Catena Labs, founded by Circle co‑founder Sean Neville, closed a $30 million Series A led by Acrew Capital and a16z crypto and received Office of the Comptroller of the Currency approval to seek a national trust bank charter. The funding and regulatory...
XRP at $1.37: Valuation, Institutional Use, and Investor Outlook
XRP is priced at $1.37, a 62% drop from its July 2025 high of $3.65, giving it an $84 billion market cap. While Ripple’s network counts over 300 financial institutions, only about 40% use XRP for settlement, limiting direct buying pressure....
The Mid Market Tech Gap with David Robinson, Founder of Stratos Development Group | Episode 489
In this episode, host Greg Myers talks with David Robinson, founder of Stratos Development Group, about the underserved "mid‑market" segment that sits between large consulting firms and small boutique shops. Robinson explains how Stratos positions itself as a software‑focused managed...
Marqeta’s European Expansion and Other Digital Transactions News Briefs From 5/26/26
U.S. card‑issuing platform Marqeta announced it is now offering account opening and money‑movement capabilities across 30 additional European countries through a partnership with Banking Circle. Canadian rent‑payment specialist Yardi is adding rent‑splitting and reporting features to its RentCafe portal via...
OpenAI and Plaid Take Another Shot at Personal Finance
OpenAI has integrated Plaid’s banking connectivity into ChatGPT, allowing the chatbot to access users’ bank accounts and deliver personal finance management (PFM) advice. The feature is currently limited to ChatGPT users and is not yet exposed via a public API....
ICE ETF Hub Secures Regulatory Approval to Expand Operations in Europe and Australia
Intercontinental Exchange's ICE ETF Hub has secured regulatory approval to expand its order receipt and transmission services into Europe and Australia. The approval adds the Netherlands and a passport covering 29 European jurisdictions, plus an Australian Market License, bringing the...
The Battle Over Fed Master Accounts
The Federal Reserve’s master‑account system, long reserved for traditional banks, is facing a regulatory overhaul as fintech and crypto firms push for direct access. President Trump’s May 19 executive order compels regulators to review and potentially loosen rules, while proposals...
Building the Trust Layer for Agentic Payments with AP2 and Verifiable Intent
Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) and Mastercard’s Verifiable Intent (VI) are being added to the FIDO Alliance to create a shared trust layer for AI‑driven, autonomous payments. AP2 defines cryptographically signed mandates that capture user‑approved checkout and payment constraints, while...
Vodacom M-Pesa Announces Partnership with PayPal
Vodacom Tanzania’s M‑Pesa platform is now directly integrated with PayPal through the M‑Pesa Super App, allowing users to move money between the two services. The link enables Tanzanian freelancers, gig‑economy workers and other digital service providers to send, receive and...
Catena Files for National Trust Bank Charter, Secures $30m in Series A Funding
Catena, an AI‑agent‑focused fintech, closed a $30 million Series A round, bringing its total capital to $48 million after a $18 million raise in 2025. The round was co‑led by Acrew Capital and a16z crypto, with participation from Breyer Capital, General Catalyst, QED, Oak...
EU Pushes Ahead with Digital Euro, Critics Warn of Hidden Capital Controls
The European Union is accelerating its digital euro project, targeting the rollout of digital wallets by the end of 2029 with a €3,000 (≈$3,250) balance limit. Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel defended the design, but analysts warn the centralised CBDC could...
SoFi Acquires Peach to Expand Lending Infrastructure in a Strategic Consolidation
SoFi announced the acquisition of Peach, a fintech infrastructure firm that builds end‑to‑end lending platforms, with financial terms undisclosed. The deal folds Peach into SoFi Technology Solutions, broadening SoFi's capabilities in processing, core banking, payments, and risk management.
Smartcomply Expands to the UK with Africa-Focused Compliance Platform
Smartcomply, a Nigerian compliance and cybersecurity startup, is expanding into the United Kingdom with its AI‑powered AML, KYC and fraud‑detection platform Adhere. The service, built for African financial systems, already monitors over $1 billion in monthly transaction volume across more than...
Alipay Pushes Deeper Into AI Commerce With New Payment Infrastructure
Alipay unveiled an AI‑native payment infrastructure, branding it the world’s first “AI Wallet” and a new service called “Token Pay.” The platform, aimed at AI agents and developers, has already attracted over 100 million users and processed roughly 300 million transactions since...
Slice Reports Profitability in First Full Year as Bank; Revenue Jumps 2.3X in FY26
Slice, the AI‑native digital bank from India, posted its first full‑year profit in FY26, reporting revenue of roughly $169 million— a 132% jump from the prior year. Net income swung from a $26 million loss to a $5.8 million profit, while Q4 alone...
CFA Institute Urges Legal Clarity on Tokenised Markets
The CFA Institute called for clearer legal and regulatory frameworks to enable the UK’s tokenised wholesale markets to scale. While the FCA and Bank of England have released a joint roadmap promoting distributed‑ledger technology for assets like shares and bonds,...
After NBFC Approval, MobiKwik Gets RBI Nod for Offline Payment Aggregator Business
Mobikwik Systems Ltd has received in‑principle RBI approval for a Payment Aggregator‑Physical (PA‑P) licence, clearing the way to expand its offline merchant payments network. The fintech, which already serves 4.9 million merchants through UPI QR, Soundbox and EDC devices, aims for...
Pine Labs To Launch Infra For Stablecoin-Backed Prepaid Cards In Global Markets
Pine Labs announced it will build infrastructure for stablecoin‑backed prepaid cards that can be issued by banks worldwide, enabling peer‑to‑peer, merchant and bulk‑remittance payments. The move follows a profitable Q4 FY26, where the fintech posted a net profit of ₹59.4 cr...
TransFi Names Victor Lucena As LATAM CEO Amid $19.2M Funding Expansion
TransFi has named Victor Lucena as its new chief executive officer for Latin America, leveraging his decade of experience at Worldpay, PayU, Rapyd and Thunes. The appointment supports TransFi’s push into the region’s cross‑border payments market, which it values at $34.6 billion...
The Fed’s Future in Bank Regulation Looks Like Potemkin “Independence”
On May 19, the Trump Administration issued an executive order aimed at accelerating fintech innovation, defining fintech broadly to encompass crypto, blockchain and other digital services. The order obligates the CFPB, SEC, FDIC, OCC and other agencies to review and...
Monzo Spends Heavily on ‘Refer a Friend’ Rewards to Boost Market Share
Monzo has launched an aggressive refer‑a‑friend program, committing more than £10 million to cash and reward incentives for existing customers who bring in new users. The bank hopes the campaign will lift its active‑user base by roughly 15 percent and capture additional...
Kaspi's Near-Monopoly, Strong Growth, Cheap Valuation Drive Bullish Outlook
The bull case for Kaspi: - Near-monopoly for payments in Kazakhstan - Earnings CAGR of 15-20% historically - New Turkish banking license - Trades at 6x P/E with a 10% dividend yield - Sees Ukraine conflict resolution as a catalyst https://t.co/2LqzsBEdAf