Addicts Say Kalshi and Polymarket Mirror Sports Betting Risks
Two self‑excluded gambling addicts— a 21‑year‑old soccer coach and a tax accountant—relapsed on prediction‑market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket, saying the experience felt identical to sports betting. Clinicians and lawmakers are now debating whether these binary‑option markets should be regulated as gambling or as securities.
Mercury Gets Conditional OCC Nod to Launch Its Own National Bank
Fintech firm Mercury secured conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to pursue a national bank charter, entering the “bank organisation phase.” The move positions Mercury to offer Zelle integration, expanded loans and faster payments while...
Cartier Heir Sentenced to 8 Years for $470 M Crypto Laundering Scheme
Maximilien de Hoop Cartier, a French‑Argentine descendant of the Cartier jewelry dynasty, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison for running an unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange that laundered more than $470 million in drug‑trafficking proceeds. The case highlights law‑enforcement’s expanding focus...
Thomas Cook India Forex Card Expands to 28 Currencies
Thomas Cook India announced that its prepaid forex card now supports 28 currencies, adding 16 new ones such as the Chinese Yuan, Vietnamese Dong and South African Rand. The expanded offering, available on both Visa and Mastercard, lets users load...
Indonesia Launches Digital Innovation Centre and Hackathon to Develop 800 Tech Talent Teams
Bank Indonesia unveiled the Pusat Inovasi Digital Indonesia (PIDI) Digdaya x Hackathon on 30 April 2026, selecting 800 teams from more than 2,000 proposals to fast‑track digital talent development toward the country’s 2045 economy goals. The programme blends foundational, advanced and capstone training, and...
Sardine and Modulr Unite on Real-Time Fraud Detection
Sardine has partnered with payments‑automation platform Modulr to embed AI‑driven fraud and anti‑money‑laundering tools into Modulr’s real‑time payment flows. The integration will sit inside Modulr’s Risk & Compliance Hub, covering card and instant‑payment rails across use cases such as payroll,...
XO Market Bets on User-Generated Prediction Markets to Rival Polymarket and Kalshi
XO Market, backed by a $6 million seed round from 20VC, Coinbase Ventures and others, launched its mainnet beta in November and has already processed more than $150 million in trading volume. The platform differentiates itself by allowing users to create and...
Mastercard and Wells Fargo Target the Friction Slowing B2B Cards
Mastercard and Wells Fargo executives say the $80 trillion B2B payments market is at an inflection point as buyers demand more control and suppliers seek faster, lower‑cost settlements. They argue that virtual cards can deliver straight‑through processing, reducing manual invoice handling and...
Boost Says B2B Payments Need Answers, Not More Data
Boost Payment Solutions’ CTO Rinku Sharma told PYMNTS that B2B payments firms must move from hoarding data to extracting actionable answers. The company is building an analytical layer that turns transaction signals into real‑time intelligence, enabling faster decisions, smarter interchange...
Why The Anchorage CEO Wants 3,999 Crypto Bank Competitors
Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley told PYMNTS he wants Anchorage to serve as the crypto‑banking infrastructure for 3,999 of the roughly 4,000 U.S. commercial banks. Rather than defending a monopoly, the firm is adopting an AWS‑style model, offering regulated custody,...
Travel Checkout Has Become the New Departure Gate
Travel companies are moving the checkout experience to the center of the booking flow by embedding digital wallets and other finance tools. A PYMNTS Intelligence and Marqeta survey of 30 U.S. firms shows 93% now offer at least one embedded...
US Real-Time Payments Hit High-Growth Phase as Use Cases Multiply
The United States is entering a high‑growth phase for real‑time payments, with projected transaction volumes of 8 billion by 2026 and nearly 13.9 billion by 2028, a CAGR above 30%. Adoption is moving beyond peer‑to‑peer transfers to bill payments, refunds, payroll, gig...
Global Study Reveals Biggest Risks of AI in Finance Sector
A new Cambridge Judge Business School study finds data privacy and AI hallucinations are the top risks facing financial services, with 80% of regulators flagging privacy concerns and 70% warning about unreliable outputs. While 80% of firms have adopted AI...
Impact+ Heads to FinovateSpring to Spotlight Early-Stage Fintech Innovation
FinovateSpring will host Impact+, a new session on May 4 that gives eight early‑stage fintech founders four‑minute pitch slots before investors, banks and industry leaders. The event opens with a keynote from Stripe’s Asya Bradley and follows with a panel and...
Revolut Opens First Physical Store In Barcelona
Revolut announced the opening of its first physical storefront in Barcelona, located on the prestigious Passeig de Gràcia. The 1,200‑square‑foot space offers cash withdrawals, crypto kiosks, and on‑site financial advisors, blending digital banking with a tangible customer experience. The launch...
Tokenized Collateral Could Unlock $500B Annual Interest Savings
Tokenized collateral is coming, and no less than the NASDAQ is trumpeting the half trillion dollars in annual interest saving from mobilizing idle collateral. In NASDAQ’s survey of 203 global market participants, 52% of global financial institutions expect to actively manage...
Hilton Surveying Possible Honors Debit Card With American Express For US
Hilton is testing interest in a US co‑branded debit card issued by American Express, mirroring its UK partnership with Currensea. The survey asks members how travel rewards, category preferences, and Amex backing would influence usage. Debit cards offer lower merchant...
FM Academy Grows with Three New Training Courses for Businesses
Finance Magnates Academy (FM Academy) is expanding its learning platform with three new fintech courses aimed at businesses, HR teams, and industry newcomers. The "Foundations" bundle includes a fundamentals overview, a deep dive into brokerage models, and a career‑building module,...
Banks Must Lead AI Agent Identity Standards
Amir makes a good point. Banks need to be at the table in debates over AI agent identification https://t.co/A5aUTxNI3q "Managing identity, authorization, fraud risk and liability is of paramount importance for agentic commerce to be adopted broadly." https://t.co/DgsELATQrB
ION Launches XTP for Event Contracts
ION Group has launched XTP for Event Contracts, an automated real‑time platform that creates, resolves and settles event‑based derivatives around the clock. The solution, already trusted by major futures commission merchants for exchange‑traded and cleared OTC products, now supports prediction‑market...
AI Doesn’t Fix Broken Risk Systems; It Exposes Them: SEON’s Tamas Kadar
Across the Asia‑Pacific region AI is already embedded in fraud prevention and AML, yet many firms still rely on siloed onboarding, monitoring and investigation tools. SEON co‑founder Tamas Kadar warns that AI merely exposes weak data, fragmented processes and unclear...
Tamara Taps Lean Technologies’ Open Banking to Boost Credit Approvals by 32%
Tamara, Saudi Arabia's leading buy‑now‑pay‑later platform, has teamed up with Lean Technologies to tap the firm’s Open Banking data. The integration gives Tamara real‑time insight into borrowers' income and cash flow, enabling more accurate risk assessment. As a result, overall...
April 2026: Top Five New Launch Stories of the Month
April 2026 saw a wave of fintech rollouts, from NatWest’s new venture‑banking arm to TikTok’s Visa‑backed Creator Card for UK livestream earners. Monzo entered the EU market with a free‑account launch in Ireland, while cross‑border paytech Latitude emerged from stealth...
Regulatory Update: This Is What We’ve Been Training For
Leda Glyptis reflects on a half‑day European payments regulatory briefing, noting that two decades of consistent regulatory pressure have pushed banks toward greater transparency, accountability and resilience. While regulators increasingly target the entire payments ecosystem—from schemes to telcos—industry responses remain...
Hong Kong Sets November 2026 Start for Uncertificated Securities Market Regime
Hong Kong announced that the uncertificated securities market (USM) regime will commence on 16 November 2026, activating key provisions of the 2021 amendment ordinance. The framework eliminates paper share certificates, allowing digital evidence and transfer of ownership for prescribed securities. Six subsidiary...
TRON's Usage Surge Positions It as Global Payments Backbone
Growth on TRON is driven by usage. More active addresses, more transactions, and more stablecoin activity point in the same direction: TRON is becoming core infrastructure for global payments.
The AI-Quantum Shadow: Sci-Fi Warnings for Finance Before Q-Day Arrives
The article warns that generative AI and deep‑fake technology are already enabling large‑scale synthetic‑identity fraud in finance, with a single BEC case draining $25.6 million and AI‑facilitated losses nearing $893 million in 2025. Cheap cloud resources let attackers create millions of convincing...
Addovation and Snowfox Bring AI-Driven Invoice Automation Into IFS Finance Workflows
Addovation has partnered with Snowfox to embed an AI‑driven invoice automation platform directly into IFS Finance environments. The solution claims to automate more than 90% of invoice coding without requiring system redesign or large implementation projects. By learning from historical...
SoFi Survey Shows 55% of Investors Holding More Cash and 31% Favoring Individual Stocks in 2026
SoFi’s 2026 diversification survey of 843 investors finds 55% of respondents holding extra cash, 31% opting for individual stocks over ETFs, and a near‑doubling of robo‑advisor usage versus human advisors. The data signals a pivot toward self‑directed investing and a...
Customers Bank CEO Sam Sidhu Deploys AI Voice on Earnings Call, Raising Leadership Ethics Questions
Customers Bank chief executive Sam Sidhu disclosed that an AI‑generated replica of his voice delivered part of the bank's latest earnings call. The move, intended to showcase the firm’s AI capabilities, ignited immediate discussion about transparency, accountability and the evolving...
Visa Pushes Stablecoins and 'Agentic Commerce' As Next Growth Engine
Visa CEO Ryan McInerney announced that stablecoins and blockchain are "significant opportunities" and unveiled the company's focus on "agentic commerce," a AI‑driven model where software agents execute micro‑transactions. The move aims to turn Visa into a hyperscaler of payments, expanding its...
Retailers Challenge $200 B Visa‑Mastercard Swipe‑Fee Settlement
Retail groups including Walmart have asked U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan to reject a proposed $200 billion antitrust settlement with Visa and Mastercard. The deal would shave 0.1 percentage points off interchange fees for five years, but merchants argue it limits their...
Nigeria Rolls Out $92 Billion Offshore Crypto Oversight Framework
Nigeria's government released a White Paper outlining a $92 billion offshore crypto oversight framework, seeking to bring the country's fast‑growing virtual‑asset market under formal regulation. The plan promises tighter supervision, broader tax collection and greater investor confidence, while critics warn enforcement...
Symbiotic and Midas Deploy Instant Liquidity Platform for Tokenized Assets
Symbiotic and Midas announced an instant‑liquidity product that settles tokenized asset redemptions on‑chain in a single transaction without pre‑funded inventory. Built on Symbiotic Core V2 and integrated into Midas’ Open Liquidity Architecture, the solution targets assets such as Fasanara’s mGLOBAL...
Roundtable Opens Public Consultation on Draft Vision for Account-to-Account Payments in Australia
The Account‑to‑Account Payments Roundtable, made up of AusPayNet, Australian Payments Plus, the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Commonwealth Treasury, released a draft vision for Australia’s A2A payments system and opened a public consultation that runs until 22 May. The vision...
Expanding Infrastructure for the Age of AI Commerce: Ant International Connects Over 150 Million Merchants With More Than 2 Billion...
Ant International revealed that its platform now links over 150 million merchants with more than 2 billion consumer accounts, making it the world’s largest cross‑border payment network. The company supports 300+ payment methods in 220+ markets, handling roughly 20 million transactions daily. New...
Amazon, Meta Join Fight to End Google Pay, PhonePe Dominance in India
Amazon Pay, Meta’s WhatsApp, CRED, MobiKwik and Flipkart’s Super.money will meet India’s National Payments Corporation to challenge the dominance of Walmart‑owned PhonePe and Google Pay on the UPI network. PhonePe and Google Pay together handled about 80% of the 22.6 billion...
A Look Back at the 2025 Finovate Awards
Finovate’s 2025 Awards highlighted a diverse set of fintech innovators across more than 25 categories, with winners ranging from anti‑fraud AI to digital banking. Oscilar took Best Anti‑Fraud/AML for its no‑code AI Risk Decisioning platform, while Zindigi‑JS Bank earned Best...
Airwallex Founder Jack Zhang Is Offering $100,000 to AI Startup Founders Under 25
Airwallex co‑founder Jack Zhang announced Latitude 37, a program that will award $100,000 in equity‑free capital to ten Australian AI startup founders under 25 each year. The initiative also provides participants with Airwallex’s global fintech network, mentorship, and immersion trips to...
Michigan AG Challenges Kalshi's Preemption Defense, Demands State Court Remand
Borrowing a line from MA federal judge Richard Stearns (who remanded Kalshi back to state court in MA), Michigan AG @DanaNessel asserts that Kalshi's "plain vanilla" preemption defense is insufficient to establish "complete preemption," seeks similar state court remand in...
Opus Technologies Names Milind Kukday Chief Engineering & Delivery Officer to Drive AI‑Led Execution
Opus Technologies announced the appointment of Milind Kukday as Chief Engineering & Delivery Officer, tasking him with scaling AI‑augmented delivery across its banking, payments and fintech portfolio. The move signals a strategic push to embed opus.AI into core engineering practices...
Conquest Planning Hires CRO, COO, CMO to Accelerate U.S. Expansion
Conquest Planning announced three senior go‑to‑market hires—Rob Crnkovic as CRO, Kristen Winther as COO and Karen Budell as CMO—to power its U.S. growth strategy. The moves follow the platform’s recent milestone of more than two million financial plans created, underscoring rising demand for...
OnePay Teams with Stripe-Backed Tempo to Deploy Stablecoin Payouts for Millions
OnePay announced a partnership with Tempo, the payments‑first Layer‑1 blockchain incubated by Stripe and Paradigm, to launch stablecoin‑powered payouts and instant account‑funding for its Banking product. The collaboration includes OnePay running a validator on Tempo, positioning the fintech to offer...
NYSE Arca Names XRP in Revised Crypto Trust Rules, Expanding Eligible Asset List
NYSE Arca, the NYSE’s listed‑products unit, filed a rule amendment with the SEC that lists XRP alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana as an example of an eligible asset for crypto commodity trusts. The proposal mandates that at least 85% of...
Brics to Push for Intra-Currency Payments as ‘Immunity’ Against Western Clout
BRICS is evaluating a digital payments framework that would settle cross‑border transactions in member currencies, aiming to reduce reliance on the US‑dollar‑centric SWIFT system and mitigate sanctions risk. The proposal, spearheaded by India’s central bank, will be discussed at a...
Mastercard Inc (MA) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Mastercard reported Q1 2026 net revenue up 15% year‑over‑year on a non‑GAAP, currency‑neutral basis, propelled by a 22% surge in value‑added services. Operating income rose 17% and earnings per share reached $4.76, aided by $3.6 billion of share repurchases. Transaction volumes grew...
Visa Launches Agentic Ready Payments Programme in HK-
Visa has introduced its Agentic Ready payments programme in Hong Kong, targeting the emerging market of AI‑driven, agent‑initiated commerce. The first phase focuses on issuer readiness, offering a production‑grade environment for banks to test token, identity, and risk controls. An inaugural...
Sam Altman Fills in for GDB at Stripe Sessions
Looks like @gdb couldn’t make it, so @sama just took the stage at @stripe sessions https://t.co/Xif3MuwTtx
Net Backyard Introduces Cost‑Based Token Pricing Layer
just visited the new @netbackyard office and 🥹🥹🥹 if you haven’t read it yet, they’re building a financial layer (accounting, billing, payments) to price tokens based on infrastructure cost, model efficiency, and execution conditions 👇 https://t.co/vEEcSgiCux
OKX's APP: Open, No Lock‑In, Unlimited Integration
The thing I care about most in APP from @OKX is that it's open. - No vendor lock-in. - Any team can build a compliant implementation. - Any builder can integrate the Payment SDK. - No permission required. https://t.co/xk1NstVATr