Binance Launches Perpetual Futures for Pre-IPO Market Exposure, Starting with SpaceX
Binance announced the launch of pre‑IPO perpetual futures, starting with a contract tied to the anticipated valuation of SpaceX. The SPCXUSDT contract settles in USDT and lets traders speculate on a private company’s price before its public listing. Binance frames the product as part of its broader push to become a financial super‑app that merges crypto infrastructure with traditional market events. The offering expands access to pre‑IPO price discovery, a space historically reserved for institutional investors.
Wise Under Belgian Investigation Over €500 Million in Suspicious Transactions
Wise, the London‑listed cross‑border payment firm, is under investigation by Belgian prosecutors over roughly €500 million (about $540 million) in transactions flagged for fraud, corruption and drug‑trafficking ties across more than 30 European nations. The probe centers on possible anti‑money‑laundering (AML) non‑compliance,...
Anchor Launches Nigeria’s First Fintech MCP Server – Bringing AI-Native API Infrastructure to the Developer Ecosystem
Anchor has launched Africa’s first AI‑native fintech Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server, enabling real‑time, machine‑readable access to its full API documentation. The service eliminates the “hallucination” problem where AI coding assistants generate incorrect integration code based on outdated specs. Developers...
UPI Gets New Safety Checks: What Users Should Know
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is adding new safety checks that surface verified beneficiary details more prominently before a payment is authorised. The enhancements include extra verification prompts for high‑value or first‑time payees, aiming to curb accidental transfers and fraud....
.png?width=1280&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Mocse Credit Union Selects Narmi One for Digital Banking Upgrade
US‑based Mocse Credit Union has chosen Narmi’s flagship platform, Narmi One, to overhaul its digital banking infrastructure. The credit union, founded in 1959, now serves about 30,000 members and holds roughly $427 million in assets. Narmi One will enable stronger member...
Tokenization of Money
In this episode of the Bankers Bookshelf, co‑editors Michael Salmani and Salim Yadzici discuss their new book *Tokenization of Money: From Fiat Currencies to Stablecoins*, outlining why tokenized money matters and how it’s reshaping payments. They explain that tokenization—wrapping money...
Nigerian POS Agents Set for Showdown with Verve and Interswitch
Nigeria’s Association of Point of Sale Service Providers has warned it will stop processing Verve card transactions unless the Central Bank and competition regulators intervene over alleged anti‑competitive exclusivity by Verve and its parent Interswitch. The CBN recently extended the...
Citi Predicts the Tokenized Securities Market Will Grow to $5.5 Trillion by 2030
Citigroup’s new report projects the tokenized securities market to expand from today’s $17 billion to $5.5 trillion by 2030, with a bullish scenario of $8.2 trillion. The growth is driven by major market infrastructures such as DTCC, Nasdaq and the NYSE embedding tokenization,...
Money 20/20 2026 Preview: Boost Security and Accelerate Liquidity Across Global Financial Networks
Money20/20 Europe in Amsterdam will spotlight AI‑driven autonomous commerce, stablecoin‑based liquidity and the upcoming PSD3 regulatory framework. Mastercard, Santander and PayOS demonstrated Europe’s first fully autonomous end‑to‑end payment, while AU10TIX warned that AI‑generated identity fraud now appears in roughly one...
Regulatory Readiness Under Pressure as Banks Accelerate AI Adoption
Artificial intelligence is spreading through banks faster than regulators can keep pace, with adoption rates more than double those of supervisory bodies. A Cambridge Centre study of 350 banks, fintechs, AI vendors and 130 regulators across 151 countries found only...
Robinhood Launches AI Agents for Automated Trading and Credit Card Purchases
Robinhood unveiled Agentic Trading and an Agentic Credit Card on May 27, 2026, giving its 27 million customers AI‑driven bots that can execute stock trades and shop with a virtual credit card. The beta, limited to equities, marks the first mainstream retail brokerage...
Aave Seeks Community Backing to Launch V4 on Circle’s Arc Blockchain
Aave has opened a “Temp Check” on its governance portal asking the community to vote on making the protocol a core lending app on Circle’s Arc blockchain. The move targets institutional liquidity ahead of Arc’s mainnet launch slated for summer...
Fintech Firms Grew Four Times Faster than Traditional Banks in 2025
Fintech firms grew four times faster than traditional banks in 2025, posting a 22% average revenue increase and reaching half a trillion dollars in global revenue, according to BCG’s Global Fintech Report 2026. Europe led the surge with 24% growth,...
Court Holds Payment Processor in Contempt for Violating FTC Order
The Federal Trade Commission secured a $6.5 million civil contempt sanction after a Nevada federal judge found a payment‑processing company and its executives in contempt of a 2015 court order. The court determined the firm facilitated fraud by processing transactions for...
Fact of the Week – 6/1/2026
Juniper Research projects global cross‑border payments to reach about $63 trillion by 2030, driven by booming B2B trade, e‑commerce and remittances. The forecast highlights a rapid shift from fragmented correspondent‑bank chains to faster, digital payment rails. Stablecoin‑based settlement is expected to...
Fireblocks, Robinhood, MetaMask Lead Launch of Open Transaction Layer for Crypto
Fireblocks, Robinhood and MetaMask announced the creation of an Open Transaction Layer (OTL) together with more than 24 other crypto firms. The open, interoperable protocol aims to streamline transaction processing, reduce latency and lower costs for users across exchanges, wallets...
AI in Finance and Banking May 31, 2026
AI is rapidly reshaping banking as OpenAI grants Japanese banks access to its GPT‑5.5 model for cyber‑defense, while Plaid rolls out in‑house AI tools and a guaranteed‑payment service that instantly settles ACH transfers for over 500 million accounts. Real‑time risk platforms...
Azora Capital Invests $73 M for 5.44% Stake in Virtu Financial
Azora Capital disclosed a new $73.26 million investment in Virtu Financial, acquiring 1,880,990 shares that represent a 5.44% share of its reportable U.S. equity assets under management. The move underscores growing investor interest in the technology that powers modern electronic payments...
China's PBOC Plans UnionPay‑Style Clearinghouse for Digital Yuan, Boosting E‑CNY Infrastructure
The People’s Bank of China announced on May 30 it will build a national clearinghouse modeled on UnionPay to process e‑CNY transactions. The move follows $2.47 trillion in cumulative digital‑yuan activity and expands the network to 22 banks, signaling a shift...
Best Crypto Payment Processor in 2026
The 2026 guide identifies fiat‑to‑crypto processors as the decisive evolution in crypto payments, where customers pay with standard cards and merchants receive USDC, USDT, or Bitcoin. NexaPay.one emerges as the top-ranked solution, offering Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay acceptance, zero‑KYC...
AI‑Native Banking OS Shifts Focus From Accounts to Customers
The End of Account-Centric Banking: Jouk Pleiter on Backbase's AI-Native Banking OS See the full episode here: 👉 https://t.co/cYBd83keTh What does an AI-native bank actually look like? Jouk Pleiter, founder and CEO of Backbase, argues that adding AI to a fragmented banking...
BridgeTower and Chainlink Deploy Tokenization Platform for $11 B Arizona Asset
BridgeTower announced a live production rollout with Chainlink that tokenizes over $11 billion of securities tied to the DOM X Arizona copper‑gold project. The end‑to‑end system uses Chainlink’s full stack—CCIP, Proof of Reserve, NAVLink and the Chainlink Runtime Environment—to meet institutional...
Nomura’s Laser Digital Gets Conditional OCC Approval for U.S. National Trust Bank
Laser Digital, the digital‑asset arm of Japan’s Nomura Group, received conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a de novo national trust bank. The bank will be a wholly‑owned subsidiary that can offer multi‑asset...
India's EPFO 3.0 to Enable UPI Withdrawals, ATM Access and ₹5 Lakh Auto‑Settlement
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) announced EPFO 3.0, a digital overhaul that will let more than 70 million members pull provident‑fund money through UPI, access cash at ATMs and enjoy automatic claim settlement up to ₹5 lakh (≈$6,000). The reforms aim to...
Replit Teams with Visa to Embed Payment and Identity Layer for AI Agents on Vibe
Replit announced a strategic partnership with Visa that integrates Visa Intelligent Commerce and a cryptographic identity layer directly into its Vibe low‑code platform. The collaboration, backed by an undisclosed Visa investment, gives developers native payment building blocks for AI agents,...
Mint Explainer: Why Are Quick Commerce Giants Betting Big on Digital Wallets?
Swiggy Instamart has rolled out a feature that lets shoppers top up their Swiggy Money wallet to cover any shortfall in the minimum order value required for free delivery. The change eliminates the need to add extra items merely to...
SoFi Becomes First US National Bank to Embed Stablecoin in Consumer App
SoFi Technologies rolled out SoFiUSD, a dollar‑pegged stablecoin issued by its national‑bank charter, directly inside its consumer banking app. The token, live on Ethereum and Solana, quickly topped $100 million in market cap and lifted SOFI shares by roughly 5‑7%.
How a Nigerian Startup Became an Fintech Unicorn
Moniepoint, founded in 2015 as TeamApt, pivoted to agency‑banking in 2018 and now powers Nigeria’s payments ecosystem. The fintech processes about $22 billion in transactions each month, handling over 1 billion payments and more than 80% of the country’s POS volume. It...
FDIC Board Approves AML and Sanctions Rule for Stablecoin Issuers Under GENIUS Act
The FDIC board approved a proposed rule on May 22, 2026 that imposes Bank Secrecy Act and Office of Foreign Assets Control compliance on stablecoin issuers operating as subsidiaries of insured state non‑member banks and savings associations. The move integrates...
Analysts Recommend Visa, Mastercard, Amex as Stablecoin‑Era Buys, Warn PayPal
Analysts at The Motley Fool argue that the rise of dollar‑pegged stablecoins threatens PayPal’s business model but leaves Visa, Mastercard and American Express largely insulated. They recommend buying the three credit‑card giants and avoiding PayPal stock, citing modest price gains...
Paxos Secures First SEC‑Registered Crypto Clearing Agency Status
Paxos has become the first company approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to act as a clearing and settlement agency for crypto assets. The approval, granted in December, positions the firm to launch full commercial operations by March...
Fidelity Expands Institutional Crypto Services, Setting Stage for Crypto Derivatives
Fidelity International has enlarged its digital‑asset platform, adding Bitcoin and Ethereum custody, trading and research for institutional clients and integrating crypto exposure into retirement plans. The move, driven by CEO Abigail Johnson, positions the firm to launch crypto‑linked futures and...
SoFi Vs. Nu Holdings: Diverging Paths for 2026's Top Digital‑Banking Stocks
SoFi Technologies and Nu Holdings are the two most‑watched digital‑banking stocks for 2026. SoFi posted $3.6 billion in FY 2025 revenue with a 13% net margin but negative free cash flow, while Nu generated $16.3 billion, an 18% net margin and $3.5 billion in...
Coinstar, TabaPay, and Evolve Bank Launch Cash-to-Card Service at 10,000+ U.S. Kiosks
Coinstar has expanded its Transfer to Account service through a partnership with TabaPay and Evolve Bank & Trust, allowing cash and coin deposits at more than 10,000 U.S. kiosks to be sent instantly to any eligible debit card. The move...
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/best-money-transfer-apps-5180183-final-d2821f3b79904b8db8beea1d3fbef394.png)
Best Money Transfer Apps for June 2026
Investopedia’s June 2026 roundup ranks the top money‑transfer apps after analyzing over 200 data points across fees, speed, limits, currency coverage and user satisfaction. Venmo earns the Best Overall title for free, instant domestic peer‑to‑peer transfers, while Wise is crowned Best...
Senator Elizabeth Warren Demands Answers From Bilt Over Housing Payment Issues
Senator Elizabeth Warren has sent a formal letter to Bilt Rewards CEO Ankur Jain demanding answers after a series of payment disruptions tied to the company’s switch from Wells Fargo to new banking partners, including Evolve Bank & Trust. Customers reported...
TrueLayer Acquires Dutch Fintech In3, Adds Credit to Pay‑by‑Bank Network
TrueLayer announced the acquisition of Dutch fintech In3, giving its Pay‑by‑Bank network the ability to offer credit alongside debit at checkout. The move makes TrueLayer the only European Pay‑by‑Bank platform with both payment options, aiming to capture a larger share...
Kiwibank Deploys Open Banking Across All Channels in New Zealand
Kiwibank announced today that it will make open‑banking APIs available on every customer‑facing channel, from its mobile app to physical branches. The rollout marks the first full‑scale deployment of API‑driven services by a major New Zealand bank, aiming to accelerate...
How Chime Beat All Banks at Account Growth
The episode explains how Chime outpaced major banks in new checking account openings by eliminating long‑standing banking frictions such as fees, slow payroll processing, and cumbersome onboarding. Host highlights Chime’s three‑part flywheel—operational simplification, making the account the primary payroll hub,...
Visa: One Of The Best Businesses In The World Trading At A Reasonable Price
Visa processed 257.5 billion transactions in fiscal 2025, generating $13.9 trillion in payment volume, a 7% increase year‑over‑year. Mastercard reported $10.6 trillion in volume, up 8% and maintaining a larger share of international transactions. Visa’s international volume accounted for 55.6% of its total,...
Finance Teams Overloaded: AI Turns Tasks Into Workflows
spent the day at fintech week and left with the same feeling i keep having lately: finance teams are getting pulled into everything. banking, payments, compliance, treasury, invoicing, reconciliation, data movement, investor conversations, customer contracts, and now ai workflows sitting on top...
ECB Unveils Digital Euro Roadmap Targeting 2029 Issuance
The European Central Bank released a sweeping payments strategy that places a digital euro at the core of a tokenized settlement overhaul, targeting a pilot launch in mid‑2027 and full issuance by 2029. The plan introduces the Pontes wholesale settlement...
Nium, Circle Link USDC Settlement to Local Payouts in 190 Countries
Nium and Circle announced a partnership that connects Circle's USDC settlement network to Nium's local payout infrastructure in more than 190 countries. The deal gives financial institutions access to 100 currencies and leverages Circle's $8.3 bn annualised transaction volume, promising faster,...
As Cross-Border Payments Become Infrastructure, What Happens Next?
Cross‑border payments are evolving from a costly, fragmented service into a standardized infrastructure. PYMNTS Intelligence and Mastercard report that 57% of U.S. SMBs source overseas, with 43% citing faster settlement as their top priority and 27% considering a provider switch....
Bank of America, U.S. Bank and Finastra Launch Platform to End Patchwork Payments
Bank of America, U.S. Bank and fintech provider Finastra announced a collaborative platform that will replace legacy, fragmented payment infrastructure with a unified, real‑time solution. The initiative targets corporate clients demanding faster, embedded payments and promises to meet deterministic reliability...
Fiserv Turns to Devin AI to Speed Core Banking Upgrades
Finserv has partnered with Cognition to integrate Devin, an autonomous AI software engineer, into its core banking platform. Devin can plan, write, test, and deploy code across complex codebases, dramatically shortening release cycles for bank clients. The initiative aims to...
Airwallex Challenges Legacy Software With New Billing Solution
Airwallex has launched Airwallex Billing, a flexible invoicing, subscription and usage‑based billing suite integrated into its global payments platform. The solution supports digital invoices in over 160 payment methods, settlement in more than 20 currencies and automated reconciliation. It targets...
LPL Moving Commonwealth Advisors Off Advisor360° Tech Platform
LPL Financial announced it will migrate the 2,900 advisors acquired from Commonwealth Financial Network off the proprietary Advisor360° workstation onto LPL’s ClientWorks platform. The existing Advisor360 contract expires Monday, after which LPL has no obligation to maintain the service. The...
SEC's Atkins Touts Coordination with CFTC
SEC Chair Paul Atkins announced a new era of coordination with the CFTC, unveiling a joint "Project Crypto" to clarify which digital assets are securities. He also introduced an "innovation exemption" for tokenized listed securities and a proposal to replace...
Another State Grapples with Debit Fee Surcharges
Louisiana lawmakers have passed a bill that would allow the state attorney general to levy civil penalties of up to $500 per violation against merchants who add surcharges to debit card purchases. The measure also mandates a toll‑free hotline and...