Circle CEO Sees ‘Tremendous Opportunity’ for Yuan Stablecoin Despite China Curbs
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire told Reuters that a yuan‑backed stablecoin could be issued within three to five years, presenting a “tremendous opportunity” for China to export its currency. He contrasted this prospect with Beijing’s recent crackdown that declares offshore issuance of yuan‑pegged tokens illegal, aiming to protect financial stability and promote the e‑CNY. Meanwhile, Circle’s US‑dollar stablecoin USDC grew 72% year‑on‑year to $75.3 billion, underscoring the dominance of digital dollars in the global market. The divergence highlights a growing geopolitical split over the future of tokenised cross‑border payments.
Eurobites: Iliad's Digital Payments Unit Enters Italian Market
Iliad’s Stancer unit has launched in Italy, offering a home‑grown payments platform for small and midsized enterprises that supports both e‑commerce and tap‑to‑pay transactions. The service keeps all data in Iliad’s European data centres, guaranteeing GDPR compliance. At the same...
AgriFi Brings Agricultural Real-World Assets On-Chain with $AGF on Polygon
AgriFi has launched the $AGF ERC‑20 token on Polygon to bring real‑world agricultural assets onto a public blockchain. The platform tokenizes farmland, offers passive staking with 5%‑18% APY, shares harvest revenue, and provides governance rights. IoT‑enabled farm monitoring feeds transparent...
Why the SEC Just Gave Self Custody Crypto Apps 5 Years to Get Traditional Broker Licenses
On April 13, the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets issued a staff statement defining “Covered User Interface” providers. The guidance lets self‑custodial crypto apps operate without broker‑dealer registration if they avoid execution, custody, financing and discretionary routing. Providers must...
Blockchain Value Will Skyrocket via Stablecoins and Agent Users
If Metcalfe’s Law is the best way to value blockchains, which I believe it is, then the two variables that matter are value transacted per user and total users. They compound. The key future drivers: Value transacted per user will come from...
Access and Accountability: The Trade-Offs in Data-Driven Lending
Egypt’s Commercial International Bank (CIB) is integrating alternative data—utility bills, telecom payments and recurring transfers—into its underwriting to broaden credit access while tightening risk assessment. The bank argues that real‑time transaction patterns give a dynamic view of borrower stability, enabling...
Africa’s Corporate Banking Push Hits Integration Headaches
Egypt’s Commercial International Bank (CIB) has rolled out a new mobile app for SME clients that bundles payments, cash‑management and credit visibility, while expanding API‑based connectivity for corporate treasury systems. The move reflects a continent‑wide push by African banks to...
DTCC Teams with Amazon to Cloud‑Migrate Core Clearing Systems by 2030
Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC) announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services to move its core clearing, settlement and risk‑management systems to the cloud by the end of the decade. The phased migration aims to modernize the backbone of...
Bank of America Rolls Out CashPro Upgrades to Drive 20% B2B Payments Growth
Bank of America announced a suite of upgrades to its CashPro B2B payments platform, aiming to sustain a 20% usage increase after processing $1.2 trillion in 2025. The enhancements add AI‑driven analytics, biometric login and a new digital identity verification flow,...
$1.5 Quadrillion in Stablecoins by 2035, and Most People Still Think Crypto Is Just Bitcoin
Chainalysis, the blockchain analytics firm trusted by law‑enforcement agencies, projects stablecoin transaction volume could reach $1.5 quadrillion by 2035. The forecast builds on a 2025 baseline of $28 trillion in adjusted volume and a 133% compound annual growth rate since 2023. Two...
Coinbase's Volatile Revenue Vs. PayPal's Steady Margins Highlight Divergent FinTech Models
Coinbase reported a -37% net‑income margin for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2025, while PayPal posted a 17% margin for the same period. The contrast reveals crypto‑exchange volatility versus the steadier earnings of a traditional payments firm, a gap that investors are...
Yuh Leads Swiss Neobanks, Yet Only 1% Primary Users
Swiss Neobanks: Yuh Overtakes Almost Everyone Yuh reaches 400K customers (4.5 yrs post-launch), overtakes Neon (250K, launched 2019). 100% owned by Swissquote. Revolut unclear; counts all who completed KYC (1M+ claimed), but actual active users likely much lower per Swiss Payment...
Monavate Integrates Sumsub for KYC Compliance
Monavate has integrated Sumsub’s identity‑verification engine into its MonavateOne platform, allowing programme managers to run full KYC checks without separate infrastructure. The live integration, currently covering the UK and the European Economic Area, offers document validation for over 220 countries,...
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Nedbank, Mastercard Boost Digital Payments in Southern Africa
South African lender Nedbank Group has signed a ten‑year commercial agreement with global payments network Mastercard to upgrade digital payment capabilities across six Southern African markets. The partnership will leverage Mastercard’s technology stack to deliver faster, more secure transactions for...
Tech Has Simplified Direct Indexing, and That's Not the Only Reason Financial Advisers Should Make the Leap
Advances in technology have removed many of the operational hurdles that once limited direct indexing, giving financial advisers a viable alternative to traditional ETFs and mutual funds. Pooled vehicles suffer from opaque holdings, hidden overlap, limited tax‑loss harvesting, portfolio drift,...
Why Financial Advisers Will Benefit as Google Shakes Up Financial Research
Google has launched an AI‑driven Finance platform that offers free, natural‑language access to delayed market data, challenging the premium research services of Bloomberg and FactSet. In response, Bloomberg introduced BloombergGPT and expanded AI‑generated news and document analysis, while FactSet rolled...
Personal Conviction Outpaces Institutional Policy as Crypto Matures
The 2026 Crypto Intelligence Report, based on over 5,000 finance professionals across eight markets, finds a widening gap between personal crypto investments and institutional policy. While 25% view crypto as high‑risk, that perception falls to 10% among those who hold...
UniCredit Takes €4m Stake in BlockInvest
UniCredit has invested €4 million (about $4.3 million) for a roughly 16% stake in BlockInvest, a blockchain‑infrastructure firm. The deal builds on earlier joint projects, including Italy’s first digital minibond and a tokenised structured note. BlockInvest’s platform aims to become a European...
Bas Ter Weel: Resilient Payments - Cash, Card, Connected
In its 2026‑2028 payment strategy, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) emphasizes a resilient, secure and inclusive payments ecosystem. The plan keeps cash as a fallback—Dutch households hold about €70 per adult and €30 per child (≈$77/$33) for three‑day digital outages—while cutting...
South Korea to Pilot Tokenized Deposits for Government Spending
South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance announced a pilot that will use tokenized deposits—digital representations of bank deposits on blockchain—to fund government operational expenses, beginning in Sejong City. The sandbox will enforce predefined timing and usage limits, with a...
Issuers Face a New Reality as Credit Goes Real Time
Issuers are confronting a shift toward real‑time credit, where consumers expect financing to adapt instantly at the point of need. Stephen Bowe of Paymentology warns that rising credit demand can mask legacy technology shortcomings that impede flexible, transaction‑driven products. Traditional...
AI May Run Payments but Humans Still Own the Risk
Artificial intelligence is increasingly embedded in payments, boosting fraud detection, transaction speed and data handling. WEX’s Chief Risk and Compliance Officer Annie Drew argues that the real test now is governance—embedding oversight, explainability and accountability from day one. While AI...
Payments Alone No Longer Cut It for Small Businesses
Synchrony is debuting a three‑part interview series, “Small Business. Big Advantage,” to show how flexible payment options, modern credit tools, and data‑driven decisioning can fuel growth for small‑to‑medium enterprises. Each episode pairs a Synchrony executive with a merchant leader to...
Insights From DBS on Being a Trusted, AI-Enabled Bank with a Heart
DBS Chief Operating Officer highlights the bank’s rapid shift to generative AI, noting that more than 70% of staff now rely on the in‑house DBS‑GPT for daily tasks. A decade‑long data and AI foundation enabled the bank to re‑engineer processes,...
Dubai Becomes World’s First Jurisdiction to Codify Virtual Asset Issuance With New VARA Guidance
Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) has released detailed Guidance on its Virtual Assets Issuance Rulebook, making the emirate the first jurisdiction worldwide to codify how digital assets are created, disclosed, and distributed under a licensed framework. The Guidance outlines...
Confirmo Secures Dual-Licensing in Ireland Ahead of Strict MiCA Deadline
Confirmo, a stablecoin‑first payment platform, has secured a Payment Institution licence from the Central Bank of Ireland, adding to its existing MiCA authorisation as a Crypto‑Asset Service Provider. The dual authorisation enables Confirmo Limited to process regulated stablecoin payments across...
Huawei Cloud Launches Token Service in Asia Pacific
Huawei Cloud announced the launch of its Model‑as‑a‑Service (MaaS) platform across five Asia‑Pacific regions, extending its AI Compute Service footprint. The offering supports six open‑source models—including the state‑of‑the‑art GLM‑5—for intelligent Q&A and AI coding, with one‑click deployment and full lifecycle...
Citi and Endowus Expand Partnership with Credit Card Offering
Citi Hong Kong and digital wealth platform Endowus have launched a joint credit‑card promotion, offering eligible Endowus clients a HK$4,000 (≈ $512) cash reward when they obtain a new Citi Prestige Card. The initiative builds on Citi Ventures’ 2023 investment in...
Vaults or Non‑Custodial Smart Contracts Are Pooling Deposits Into Yield‑Generating Strategies : Analysis
Coin Metrics reports that on‑chain vaults, powered by the ERC‑4626 token standard, have become core infrastructure for automated yield generation. These non‑custodial smart contracts pool user deposits and allocate them across lending, staking, tokenized real‑world assets, and delta‑neutral strategies. Stablecoin...
Bloomberg Unveils ASKB Roadmap for Clients to Augment Their Investment Process with Agentic AI
Bloomberg announced a 2026 roadmap for its ASKB conversational AI, now in beta, to embed agentic AI across the Terminal’s investment workflow. The plan adds enterprise‑grade integrations with Portfolio & Risk Analytics, Research Management Solutions, alternative‑data feeds and expert‑network content,...
Aspire Receives Hong Kong Securities and Asset Management Licences
Aspire’s subsidiary AFT HK Treasury Limited received Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission Type 1, 4 and 9 licences, authorising securities dealing, advisory and asset‑management activities. The approvals clear the path for launching Aspire Yield in Hong Kong, a cash‑optimization product that lets businesses earn...
Basware Rolls Out First AI Agent Certification for Finance Teams
Basware announced the launch of an AI‑certified learning experience for accounts‑payable professionals, the first curriculum that teaches finance teams to manage AI agents as digital teammates. The program targets AP clerks, invoice controllers and finance leaders, positioning Basware at the...
Payhawk Study Finds 45% of Finance AI Leaders Lack Basic Governance Rules
Payhawk’s new research reveals that 45% of finance executives who rate their firms as AI leaders do not have minimum governance rules in place. Only 26% meet all five operational requirements for routine AI use, highlighting a gap between AI...
AI in Finance and Banking, April 15, 2026
Wall Street banks announced a combined 5,000 layoffs in Q1 2026 even as they reported record earnings, underscoring a shift toward AI‑driven efficiency. OpenAI’s acquihire of Hiro Finance brings advanced financial‑reasoning models into its vertical AI suite, while Oracle Financial...
Circle Introduces Solution to Enable Frequent Stablecoin USDC Payouts Across Blockchains
Circle unveiled a new cross‑chain payout architecture that lets platforms pay USDC recipients instantly on any blockchain while settling the net amount later through a single CCTP burn. The model introduces trusted fulfillers who hold USDC on destination chains, eliminating...
Alibaba Enters Pakistan Finance Market with BNPL
Alibaba’s subsidiary Coco Tech Pakistan has received a non‑banking financial institution license from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, clearing the way to launch a Buy‑Now‑Pay‑Later (BNPL) service. The move extends Alibaba’s foothold in the country beyond its Daraz e‑commerce platform...
INTERVIEW: The Steppe Challenger
Freedom Holding Corp, led by founder Timur Turlov, is leveraging its Nasdaq‑listed brokerage and a rapidly expanding super‑app to push beyond Kazakhstan into Europe and the United States. The app now serves 5.2 million users—about a quarter of Kazakhstan’s population—and has...
Exclusive: Treasury and Regulator to Hold Crunch Talks with UK Fintech Unicorns
Top UK fintech unicorns, including Monzo, Revolut and Oaknorth, will meet Treasury minister Lucy Rigby and FCA chief Nikhil Rathi during fintech week. The Innovate Finance Unicorn Council aims to turn regulatory rhetoric into concrete reforms, especially around deregulation and...
Scotiabank Deploys 'Scotia Intelligence' AI Platform Across Entire Bank
Scotiabank has introduced Scotia Intelligence, a bank‑wide artificial‑intelligence framework that consolidates internal tools, data, and governance. The platform already powers more than 40% of contact‑centre queries and processes about 90% of commercial‑bank emails, cutting manual work by 70%. The rollout...
NectarFi Secures $170K Pre‑Seed to Launch Unified Crypto Finance Platform
NectarFi announced a $170,000 pre‑seed funding round and the public launch of its unified financial platform, aiming to eliminate the fragmented app experience that crypto users face. The startup hopes to bring banking‑level convenience and credit‑building to digital‑asset holders.
5 Questions Every CEO Should Ask About Their Payment Performance
Merchants lose up to $118.5 billion each year due to failed transactions, not fraud. CEOs are urged to treat payments as a strategic asset rather than a back‑office function. The article poses five essential questions—growth impact, control versus PSP, global readiness,...
Swiss Exchange SIX Chooses Chainlink as Institutional Data Standard
Excited about the continued rollout of top institutional data on-chain via Chainlink; @sixgroup, the exchange of Switzerland has adopted @chainlink as the data standard it is using to get critical market data on-chain: https://t.co/GpQP6dnYnJ. Chainlink is the global leader powering DeFi...
Digital Euro Promises More Privacy Than Bitcoin
Who are the euro crypto bros? https://t.co/9SPxAXZwvO Drug dealers will find the digital euro "significantly better privacy than bitcoin, as there is no permanent blockchain to explore; arguably it’s even slightly better than cash as the digital tokens can’t be tested...
SoFi Becomes One of Few U.S. Banks Offering 24/7 FedNow Send and Receive
SoFi, N.A. activated 24/7 bilateral FedNow® Service transfers on April 13, 2026, allowing members to send and receive instant payments any time, including weekends and holidays. The capability, built on Galileo Financial Technologies’ direct FedNow connection, puts SoFi among a...
Lawsuit Claims Stake and Coinbase Enabled NY Underage Gambling
New lawsuit alleges that sweepstakes casino giant Stake and its co-founders facilitated underage gambling in NY and that Coinbase’s fiat-to-crypto services "served as a primary and foreseeable onramp for New York users—including minors—to fund Stake’s unlawful gambling." https://t.co/3P2VQTN6Gn
ABF-Deal-Digest:-Funding-Circle-Renews-FlexiPay-Agreement
Funding Circle announced the renewal of its FlexiPay agreement, extending the partnership that enables streamlined financing for small‑business borrowers. The renewed deal continues to leverage FlexiPay's embedded credit infrastructure, allowing Funding Circle to offer faster loan approvals and flexible repayment...
Lovable Launches Built-In Payments, Letting Vibe Coders Accept Subscriptions and One-Time Payments without Leaving the Platform
Lovable introduced Lovable Payments on April 13, adding native monetization tools directly into its low‑code platform. Builders can connect Stripe, Paddle, or Shopify to process subscriptions, one‑time purchases, and handle VAT across more than 200 countries. Paddle serves as the...
Arc and Stablecoins Pave Way to Fix FX Payments
Nice piece. We can actually fix FX and cross border payments. Arc and stables leading the way.
Plata Hits $5 Billion Valuation in Bicycle Capital-Led Funding
Plata raised $405 million in a Series C round, pushing its valuation to $5 billion—the largest for a private financial services firm in Latin America. The round was led by Bicycle Capital and included investors Kora, Qatar Investment Authority and BTG Pactual. The funding...
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This New SoFi Offer Turns a $50 Deposit Into a Shot at $1,000
SoFi is rolling out a "Bank Shot Bonus" that lets new customers win cash prizes ranging from $5 to $1,000 after opening a checking and savings account and depositing at least $50. The promotion runs through April 30 and is limited...