Know What's Happening in FinTech
Know What's Happening in FinTech
FinTech Pulse
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EMAIL DIGESTS
Daily
Every morning
Weekly
Tuesday recap
The Bay Area’s Clipper 2.0 fare‑payment upgrade, overseen by Cubic Transportation Systems under a $461 million contract, continues to suffer prolonged outages and glitches. Since its Dec. 10 launch, only about 1.3 million of the roughly 15 million cards have been migrated, and Cubic has logged ten major incidents totaling more than 33 hours of downtime. Agencies face rising operating costs, with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission proposing an extra $3.4 million to keep the legacy system running and $7.6 million for expanded call‑center staff. A full bulk migration is not expected until at least late May, pushing the complete transition into the next fiscal year.
Mike Cagney is dismantling the $74 trillion DTCC monopoly. Why wait for incumbents to innovate when you can just build a better, cheaper, and more transparent financial stack yourself? (0:00) Why hasn't the $74T DTCC been tokenized? (0:18) Why won't stocks trade...
Transak announced today that its regulated payments infrastructure now supports a direct fiat on‑ramp to the Canton Network, letting users and institutions purchase Canton Coin via credit cards, bank transfers and local payment rails. The move removes a key friction...
Mastercard is deepening its foray into stablecoin infrastructure, highlighted by a proposed acquisition of BVNK, a firm that provides fiat‑on‑ramp services for digital assets. The move aligns with the company’s broader strategy to embed its trust‑centric network into emerging payment...
SOFI is down 🔻53% since November. Meanwhile, membership growth has shown no sign of slowing down.
The Payments Association released a white paper warning that authorized push payment (APP) fraud now largely originates on digital platforms such as Meta’s Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. It cites that roughly two‑thirds of APP fraud cases in early 2025 began...
Nexi and PayPal have expanded their partnership beyond Italy, embedding PayPal’s ecosystem directly into Nexi’s merchant platform across Europe. The rollout will initially cover Italy, the Nordics and Poland, giving merchants a single point of connection for digital payments and...
China is accelerating reforms to its Cross‑Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) to position it as a viable alternative to Western‑dominated payment networks. The first major rule change since 2018 expands CIPS beyond renminbi‑only clearing, adding multicurrency settlement and broader foreign‑payment...
Monzo is leaving the US. ~50 layoffs, accounts wind down by June. This is the pattern now. N26 left in 2022. Revolut's US push has stalled. The thesis that a better mobile bank can simply be exported into the US market...
Elavon and Liberis have extended their partnership to Canada, launching Quick Capital – a revenue‑based financing product embedded directly in the Elavon merchant portal. The solution targets more than 202,000 Canadian small‑to‑medium businesses, offering fast, flexible funding with minimal paperwork...
Irish MEP Barry Andrews has publicly urged Stripe co‑founders John and Patrick Collison to enable payments for UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese outside the United States, despite U.S. sanctions against her. The sanctions, imposed by the Trump administration after Albanese...
Solana’s ecosystem now hosts $6.6 billion in DeFi TVL and $15.2 billion in stablecoins, while its DEXes processed $3.4 billion in February 2026. Yet the token sits 70% below its January 2025 peak, raising questions about its suitability as a long‑term wealth‑building asset.
Aave v4 launched on Ethereum, replacing a single‑pool model with a hub‑and‑spoke architecture that isolates liquidity from individual market risk. The upgrade introduces three initial hubs—Core, Prime, and Plus—each capable of issuing credit lines to bespoke spokes with custom collateral...
Apple Wallet has integrated USDC payments through Apple Pay merchant APIs, positioning its ecosystem for stablecoin adoption. PayPal is scaling its proprietary PYUSD stablecoin, now available in roughly 70 markets worldwide. Both firms are competing on fee structures, user experience,...
A new profile highlights ten women shaping West African fintech, from Visa’s SVP Aminata Kane steering a $1 billion investment to PiggyVest COO Odunayo Eweniyi growing a platform with 4.5 million users. Leaders such as Kemi Okunsanya at Hydrogen have processed roughly...
Variance, a San Francisco AI risk‑compliance startup, closed a $21.5 million Series A led by Ten Eleven Ventures, bringing its total funding to $26 million. The round will fund expansion of its agentic AI platform that automates KYC/KYB investigations, delivering auditable decisions in...
The article contends that local e‑invoicing compliance is merely a baseline for multinational firms, while standardized platforms are essential for scalable growth. Managing dozens of local vendors inflates fees, multiplies contracts, and creates disparate data formats, especially as EU initiatives...
The Pan‑African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) launched in January 2022 to slash the cost and delay of intra‑African payments by routing transactions in local currencies. Four years on it is live in 19 countries, linking over 160 commercial banks...
Mastercard is pivoting from traditional payment rails to AI‑driven, agentic payments, aiming to become the orchestration layer that links intent with transaction. The company has piloted fully authenticated AI transactions in India, completed a live end‑to‑end AI purchase in South...
Goldman Sachs reduced its price target for Coinbase (COIN) to $235, down from $270, while keeping a Buy rating. The downgrade stems from mounting regulatory scrutiny over stablecoin yield products, a key driver of Coinbase’s newer, higher‑margin revenue streams. The...
Shojin Financial Services Limited, an FCA‑regulated crowdfunding platform that financed property‑development loans, entered administration on 23 March 2026. Joint Administrators Simon Carvill‑Biggs and Ian Corfield of FRP Trading Advisory were appointed to manage the process. The FCA is working with the administrators to safeguard...
Flagstar Bank and technology partner Mphasis have completed the first phase of a multi‑year, $1 billion modernization program, consolidating six legacy data centers into two next‑generation facilities and migrating hundreds of applications with zero downtime. The milestone positions Flagstar to accelerate...
Valinor, founded by former Blackstone private‑credit investors Connor Dougherty and Lily Yarborough, closed a $25 million seed round led by Castle Island Ventures. The funding will accelerate the startup’s plan to use blockchain smart contracts for private‑credit loans, a move that could...
Trade40 introduced a new multi‑asset trading platform that lets retail investors trade forex, equities, commodities and more from a single interface. The service emphasizes real‑time execution, integrated analytics and tiered support to attract both beginners and seasoned traders.
AI‑driven debt intelligence platform 9fin has become a unicorn after closing a $170 million (≈£128.8 million) Series C round, pushing its valuation to $1.3 billion. The funding, led by HarbourVest and joined by CPP Investment Board and other investors, will fund AI enhancements, dataset...
Solana is positioning itself as a high‑throughput blockchain alternative to Ethereum, boasting over 25,000 transactions per second and fees that are a fraction of a cent. The network’s cryptographic clock eliminates ordering disputes, enabling a multi‑lane processing model. Major financial...
Chainalysis is adding customizable natural‑language AI agents to its Reactor platform, letting users build investigative workflows through plain‑English prompts. The agents draw on roughly ten million prior investigations, providing audit trails and evidentiary standards without requiring coding expertise. The feature...
U.S. Bank will assume issuance of Amazon’s Business and Business Prime credit cards, with Mastercard serving as the network provider, replacing American Express. The move opens a cross‑sell channel to Amazon’s roughly 1.9 million U.S. small‑business sellers and adds to U.S. Bank’s existing base of...
Corastone is a blockchain‑based platform that links general partners, wealth managers, and fund administrators to automate private‑market transactions. Backed by institutional investors such as KKR, Apollo, CAIS, Fidelity and Future Standard, the firm aims to replace PDFs and spreadsheets with...
Visa announced a partnership with Pinwheel to embed an enhanced subscription manager directly into banking apps, giving cardholders a consolidated view of recurring charges, alternative payment options, and one‑click cancellation. The rollout begins this summer for North American issuers, with...
Hybrid finance blends traditional financial infrastructure with blockchain‑based settlement, tokenisation and stablecoin layers, creating a unified ecosystem rather than a replacement. Major institutions such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and Visa are already deploying tokenised assets and stablecoin pilots, while stablecoin...
Settlement cycles are accelerating worldwide, with the U.S. shifting equities to T+1 in 2024 and other regions targeting similar timelines by 2027. Blockchain‑enabled atomic settlement promises instant finality, already driving over $1.8 trillion in stablecoin transfers. Yet, the removal of settlement...
Ant Digital Unveils Full-Stack AGI Architecture at IDC Question: Can fintech giants compete with hyperscalers on full-stack AI? Ant Digital positioning with complete vertical integration: → proprietary foundation models (Ling-1T trillion params) → finance-grade agent platform (Agentar-Fin-R1) → specialized infrastructure (ZOLOZ...
Generative AI is moving fast into financial services, but model management, explainability, and governance are still catching up. The teams at Nationwide and Cardiff shared this funded PhD with me, and I wanted to share it with my network. The...
Barcelona‑based Brickken, a tokenisation infrastructure provider for financial institutions, closed a €3 million (≈$3.3 million) pre‑Series A round. The round attracted strategic European investors, including Dedagroup founder Marco Podini and venture firm GRX. Brickken’s platform enables banks, asset managers and issuers to tokenise equity,...
many banks are building sleek digital experiences on top of broken core systems. That’s a recipe for failure, not transformation. Watch the full episode now: https://t.co/BQNDlxuwMR https://t.co/zpEHfYUGzi
“ROGER exists to re-establish what banking should look like for the military community: stable, modern, transparent, and designed around service members’ realities" - https://t.co/YrpJ4hBrFZ featured today in https://t.co/xUPIH1zqKM! https://t.co/koyDa67vBl
ChangeNOW, a nine‑year‑old non‑custodial crypto exchange, has launched its regional headquarters in Dubai’s Convention Tower at the Dubai World Trade Centre. The move signals a shift from a purely digital service model to a physical presence aimed at deepening ties...
Monzo is calling it quits in the US, per emails the company has sent to customers: https://t.co/O6zV63RcXB
There are 4 agentic commerce models for Banks, Fintechs, and Insurance. You can play on several fronts. Start the foundational work. Where will you be discoverable? 🎥 Agentic Commerce: 4 Models for Banks & Fintechs (10min full video )https://t.co/aeoEeYpOBM https://t.co/miAd0gAxJp
Pepkor Holdings, Africa’s largest clothing and mobile phone retailer, has hired Merwe Scholtz to lead a new banking division, aiming to launch an independent lender by 2027 and possibly as early as next year. The initiative will add deposit services...
Money should be better. Even within stablecoins, where the #1 product advantage is interoperability, it's still difficult to move seamlessly fiat stables or even stable stable. I'm glad that @SamBroner and @AdamZuck13 are working on this at @bettermoney_co. https://t.co/uMN0vHxZ7n
JUST IN: Ripple partners with Convera to enable financial institutions to send and receive faster, more reliable cross-border payments using stablecoins
Stripe, now valued at roughly $159 billion after a 74% jump from the prior year, is reportedly in early‑stage talks to acquire PayPal. The potential deal would give Stripe immediate access to PayPal’s 439 million active consumer and merchant accounts and its...
Technology can circumvent outdated rules quickly. If we don’t adapt, we leave markets and citizens exposed to risk. https://t.co/8CPvJQAThZ
Tradeify 3.0 dropping with new rewards & platforms 👀 Platform updates often mean better conditions for traders. Curious to see how these changes stack up against other firms. Check the full comparison at https://t.co/pKoy2KH6Y5 to see where they rank now...
Embedded finance is merging financial services with digital platforms, unlocking new revenue streams for software providers and expanding credit access for SMEs and underserved consumers. Bain & Company projects the U.S. market to exceed $51 billion in revenue and $7 trillion in...
The playing field is shifting. Smaller banks and credit unions now have access to the same innovation through solution providers and fintech partners. That changes everything. https://t.co/cBR5eKzmzK
Swift has moved its blockchain‑based shared ledger from planning to full‑scale development, creating a minimum viable product that will pilot live tokenized deposits in 2026. The platform extends Swift’s existing payment standards with an open‑source, EVM‑compatible layer built on Hyperledger...
Lentra has named Rajesh Kumar Rathanchand as its new chief executive officer, succeeding his tenure as managing director and CEO of TransUnion CIBIL. Rathanchand brings more than three decades of experience in retail credit, risk management and analytics, previously leading...
