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 gives Plata the resources to accelerate its AI‑driven credit platform and expand regionally. The deal highlights the rapid scaling of Mexico’s digital banking sector.
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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...
Figure Technology Solutions Expands RWA Tokenization with Auto Loans on Hastra Platform
Figure Technology Solutions announced that its Hastra platform will now tokenize auto loans, adding the first consumer‑credit asset class beyond mortgage‑backed securities. The rollout begins on the Solana blockchain with an Ethereum‑compatible version expected in June, expanding access for DeFi...
![[Expired] Spruce Money (Fintech) $100 Referral Bonus](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://www.doctorofcredit.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/spruce-money-100-referral-bonus-1.png)
[Expired] Spruce Money (Fintech) $100 Referral Bonus
Spruce Money, the fintech arm of H&R Block, is running a $100 referral bonus for both the referrer and the new account holder, with a maximum of five referrals per user. To qualify, the new customer must open an account by...
RACE Alliance Forms Blockchain Framework for Real‑Estate Asset Management
RACE Ecosystem, Lynd Labs and RealAssets Technologies and Labs announced a strategic partnership to build a blockchain‑based infrastructure for the full lifecycle of real‑world assets. The alliance will deliver a self‑custody wallet, Layer‑2 blockchain and programmable governance tools aimed at...
Stablecoins vs Tokenized Deposits: How New Rules Shape U.S. Payments
Brookings' latest analysis contrasts payment stablecoins, governed by the 2025 GENIUS Act, with tokenized bank deposits that sit inside the traditional banking framework. The piece highlights divergent backing, insurance and regulatory oversight, underscoring how each model could reshape U.S. payments.
Sunbound Hits $1B+ Payment Volume, Launches Sunbound.ai AI Revenue OS for Senior Living
Sunbound announced the launch of Sunbound.ai, an AI‑first Revenue Operating System for senior‑living operators, after tripling its annual payment volume to more than $1 billion. The rollout coincides with a Series A close and five senior‑level hires, underscoring the company’s push...
NEXTBank Launches PayFi/AgentFI AI Suite After 5‑Month Sandbox Test
NEXTBank announced the commercial rollout of three AI‑driven products—NEXTRouter, NEXTShot and NEXTClaw—after a five‑month sandbox phase. The launch expands its PayFi and AgentFI digital matrix, positioning the firm as a Web4.0 infrastructure provider for AI agents and human users alike.
Ohio Regulator Signals $5M Penalty Against Prediction Markets Platform Kalshi for Unlicensed Operations
Ohio’s Casino Control Commission has issued Kalshi a notice of intent to levy a $5 million fine for operating unlicensed sports‑related binary contracts. The regulator argues the contracts constitute illegal sports betting, while Kalshi maintains they are CFTC‑approved financial products. A...
'AI Is Our Friend': Bank CEOs Weigh the Tech's Risks, Rewards
Bank CEOs across the major U.S. lenders are publicly embracing artificial intelligence while flagging cyber‑risk concerns. Morgan Stanley’s Ted Pick highlighted the use of Anthropic’s Claude Mythos beta, and Citi announced it will unveil a detailed AI roadmap at its May 7...
Visa Extends Its On-Chain Ambitions
Visa is deepening its blockchain footprint by expanding its partnership with Taiwan‑based OwlTing Group and launching a validator node on the Tempo blockchain. The Visa Direct app will integrate with OwlPay, enabling USDC transactions, gift‑card purchases and cross‑border remittances. By...
Wealthsimple Partners with Elon Musk’s X for Direct Stock Trading via Social Media
Wealthsimple announced a pilot integration with Elon Musk’s X that turns any stock ticker or Cashtag in a post into a direct link to the Wealthsimple app, allowing users to place trades with a single tap. Existing Canadian users are...
Zuora Collections Launches in Europe with Germany Data Center for In-Region Data and AI-Driven Workflows
Zuora has launched its AI‑powered Collections product for European customers, supported by a new data center in Germany that stores all data within the EU. The platform automates outreach, risk scoring, and cash‑flow forecasting by linking billing, revenue and collections...
Finance Teams Embrace Agentic AI, Yielding 3.5× ROI
44% of finance teams will use agentic ai in 2026. that is a 600%+ increase from the prior year, per wolters kluwer. gartner forecasts 40% of enterprise apps will embed ai agents by 2026. up from less than 5% in 2025. per...
Cross-Border Payments: Balancing AML and Financial Inclusion
Swedish regulators and police have issued new AML/CFT guidance targeting cross‑border payment service providers. The guidance stresses robust customer due diligence, risk indicators and ongoing monitoring while warning against blanket high‑risk labeling of remittance services. It reflects Sweden’s cash‑free transition,...
Fireblocks Launches Stablecoin Yield Product via Aave, Morpho
Fireblocks has launched Earn, an on‑chain lending feature that lets its more than 2,400 institutional clients earn yield on stablecoins via DeFi giants Aave and Morpho. The product integrates directly into Fireblocks’ existing infrastructure, including its treasury solution, and is...
Five Payment Fraud Trends Reshaping Financial Crime
Tieto Banktech warns that payment fraud is evolving from a purely technical issue to a human‑centred threat. Between 2024 and 2025, social‑manipulation attacks surged 33%, with fraudsters cultivating relationships over days before striking. AI‑driven deepfakes, polished fake e‑commerce sites, and...
Kraken Co-CEO Confirms IPO Filing
Kraken’s co‑CEO Arjun Sethi confirmed the firm filed a confidential IPO registration, only to pause the process last month as crypto markets weakened. The company’s valuation has slumped 33.5% since November, falling to roughly $13.3 billion from $20 billion. Bitcoin’s price dropped...
Square Yards and RBIH Digitise 100 Million Indian Property Records
Square Yards, India’s largest integrated real‑estate platform, announced it has digitised more than 100 million property registration records and signed a Platform Service Provider Agreement with the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub. The partnership will deliver e‑valuation and title‑search services through RBIH’s...
Finovate Spring 2026 Showcases Five Fintechs Tackling Bank Risk, Compliance and Governance
Finovate Spring 2026 featured five fintech companies—CRIF, Rulebase, Winnow, The Electronic Guardian and a fifth unnamed firm—offering banks automated tools for credit risk, compliance testing, regulatory guidance and secure data storage. Their platforms promise faster decision‑making, reduced audit risk and...
QuasarEdge Prices $100 Million SPAC IPO, Set to List on NYSE
QuasarEdge Acquisition Corp priced its initial public offering at $100 million, selling 10 million units at $10 each. The blank‑check firm will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on April 15 under the ticker QREDU, with the offering slated to close on...
CZ Blasts Biden Admin’s Crypto Crackdown, Cites Trump Pardon and $2 B Binance Exposure
Binance co‑founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) told Fox Business that the Biden administration’s “hostile environment” forced him into prison and a 2023 exit from Binance. In his new memoir, he reiterates the criticism, noting a $2 billion stablecoin holding tied to Trump‑linked...
Top 4 Open-Loop Commercial Prepaid Loads
Javelin Strategy & Research’s 2026 State of the Industry report shows that U.S. open‑loop commercial prepaid cards processed $232 billion in loads in 2025, led by government programs ($98 B) followed by HSA/FSA accounts ($78 B). The market, once a niche spend‑control tool,...
Piero Cipollone: Sparking the Transformation of Finance: Tokenisation and the Role of Central Banks
In a Harvard‑Law‑School keynote, ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone argued that tokenisation and distributed‑ledger technology (DLT) represent a general‑purpose innovation capable of reshaping the entire financial architecture. He highlighted the historic constancy of intermediation costs—about 2% of assets—and suggested...
JPMorgan Revenue Rises on Payments, Card Income
JPMorgan Chase reported a strong first‑quarter performance, driven by a 12% jump in payments‑services revenue to $5.1 billion and a 9% rise in credit‑and‑debit card transaction volume. The commercial banking division benefited from higher corporate deposit balances and increased fee income,...
REPAY Issues Statement on Veradace Partners’ Letter and Reiterates Commitment to KUBRA Acquisition
Repay Holdings issued a formal response to a letter from activist investor Veradace Partners, reaffirming its commitment to acquire KUBRA. The board highlighted that the transaction will expand Repay’s bill‑payment capabilities, deepen recurring non‑discretionary payment flows, and broaden enterprise client...
Acumatica Acquires CoreChain Technologies to Offer Embedded Supply Chain Financing
Acumatica announced the acquisition of CoreChain Technologies, though financial terms remain undisclosed. The deal embeds CoreChain’s blockchain‑based B2B payment and supply‑chain financing capabilities directly into Acumatica Cloud ERP. CoreChain, which has processed more than $1 billion in B2B transactions, offers a...
Pharos - Institutional RWA Rails by Alipay's Team
Pharos is a new Layer‑1 blockchain built by former Ant Group and Alipay engineers to tokenise real‑world assets with compliance baked into the protocol. The chain is EVM‑compatible, uses parallel execution for high‑frequency settlement, and includes ZK‑KYC/AML modules at the...
Iarnród Éireann Travelers Can Now Pay with PayPal
Iarnród Éireann has integrated PayPal into its website and mobile app, allowing travelers to buy rail tickets using PayPal balances or linked funding sources. The move serves the operator’s 55 million annual passengers and targets both domestic and international customers. PayPal...
76% of U.S. Companies Were Subjected to Fraud in 2025
The Association for Financial Professionals’ 2026 Payments Fraud and Control Survey found that 76% of U.S. companies experienced attempted or actual fraud in 2025, a slight dip from 79% in 2024 but still alarmingly high. Check fraud topped the list,...
MILITARY STAR Card Now Offers Uniform Line of Credit to Sailors
Starting April 23, 2026, active‑duty and reserve Sailors with a MILITARY STAR® Card will automatically receive a $1,000 uniform line of credit, determined by DEERS eligibility rather than credit score. The credit provides zero‑percent financing for 12 months on each...
New On‑Chain Layer Delivers 8‑12% Passive USDC Yield
So many new building blocks required to get here onchain. You can do this strategy with active management (in a limited fashion onchain), but no passive options, so we had to first rebuild an issuance / settlement layer (ftUSD), that...
Pagaya's AI Lending Grows; Bull Case Still Viable
Pagaya stock has been crushed, but the bull case isn't dead. Their AI lending network is still scaling with big partners. The goal? Reach profitability as macro headwinds ease. High-risk, high-reward bet. Fintech
Ondo, Clearstream, and 360X Partner to Bring Tokenized Securities Into Regulated Market Infrastructure
Ondo Finance, Clearstream and 360X have launched a partnership that brings tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs onto the regulated Deutsche Börse Group trading venue 360X. The first ten tokenized securities—covering giants like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft—are live on public blockchains such...
Banking's Future: Digital and Physical Must Coexist
The future of banking is not digital or physical. It is both working together. In this episode, I break down insights from the latest Digital Banking Report on why branches still matter. Watch the full episode now: https://t.co/Lg9jRpKff4 https://t.co/y04HeW940x
Jump Predicts Radical Shift in Market Microstructure
Jump - one of the largest trading firms in the world - coming out with a bold statement about the future of market microstructure
Trade Republic Axes Customer Service Chatbots, Replaces Them with over 1,000 Humans
Germany’s fintech unicorn Trade Republic, now valued at about $13.5 billion, is scrapping its AI‑driven chatbots and hiring over 1,000 human agents to handle customer inquiries. The company is spending a double‑digit‑million‑euro sum—roughly $10‑12 million—to build new infrastructure and train staff to...
YC Remains Top Fintech Investor Despite Deal Decline
YC Once Again Tops Ranks Of Most Active Fintech Investors In Q1 Even As Deal Count Drops https://t.co/zmmPsTQOdx via @crunchbasenews
Fireblocks Earn Adds Aave as Primary Yield Source
Aave is now available as the primary yield source for Fireblocks Earn, accessible to all Fireblocks users.
Hadrius Launches AI‑Native Compliance Platform, Redefining Legal Risk Management
Hadrius announced an AI‑native compliance infrastructure that rebuilds the compliance stack from the ground up. The platform, aimed at registered investment advisers and broker‑dealers, promises fewer false positives and faster manual‑review cycles. The launch marks a shift from retrofitting AI...
I2c to Serve as Official Payment Processing Partner of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
i2c Inc. announced it will serve as the Official Payment Processing Partner and full‑season associate sponsor of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s No. 15 INDYCAR entry in 2026, debuting at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. The fintech’s logo will appear on...
Serial Entrepreneur Martin Ringlein Raises $7.2 Million for Agree.com Digital‑agreement Platform
Martin Ringlein, the founder behind nclud and nvite, launched Agree.com and closed a $7.2 million seed round. The platform bundles contract drafting, electronic signatures and payment processing, aiming to cut friction for startups and enterprises alike.
Bank7 Posts 16% Q1 Profit Rise, Highlights Single‑Digit Loan Growth and Stable NIM
Bank7 Corp. posted a 16% jump in first‑quarter net income to $12.01 million, while its loan portfolio grew 11.9% year‑over‑year. Management emphasized modest single‑digit loan growth, a stable core net interest margin and a strong capital position.
AI‑Driven Compliance Tools Redefine Crypto Regulation Landscape
Regulators worldwide are accelerating anti‑money‑laundering scrutiny, prompting crypto exchanges, DeFi protocols, wallets, bridges and DAOs to adopt AI‑driven compliance systems. The shift turns on‑chain surveillance into a live, algorithmic gatekeeper that decides which transactions pass and which are flagged.
Aussie Fintech Unicorn Zeller to Take on UK Market
Australian fintech unicorn Zeller, valued at $1 bn after a 2022 funding round, announced its first overseas expansion by launching in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2020, Zeller offers an integrated business‑payment and financial‑management platform that has quickly attracted millions of...
Brix Raises $5.5M to Support the Tokenisation of Emerging Market Assets
Brix, a fintech platform that brings emerging‑market assets on‑chain, closed a $5.5 million funding round featuring Circle Ventures, ConsenSys, and other Web3 investors. The company will tokenise real‑world securities such as stocks, funds and bonds, starting with a Turkish lira‑denominated money‑market...
InvoiceCloud Taps AI for Billing and Other Digital Transactions News Briefs From 4/15/26
InvoiceCloud unveiled its AI‑driven Billing Experience, promising end‑to‑end automation for invoicing and payments. Meanwhile, Zelle granted scholarships to ten MBA candidates at historically Black colleges, and Venmo broadened its Stash rewards with a 5% cash‑back perk at select merchants. The...
In Defiance of the Prognosticators, ISOs Are Thriving Again
Independent sales organizations (ISOs) once predicted to disappear are experiencing a resurgence as modern point‑of‑sale (POS) systems grow in complexity. Rather than selling terminals door‑to‑door, ISOs now provide consultative, vertical‑focused services, partnering with POS platforms and training sales teams on...
Navigating the Global Payments Frontier - an Interview with Fastspring's Christopher Bunk
FastSpring’s new Chief Product & Technology Officer Christopher Bunk explains how the company’s merchant‑of‑record (MoR) platform abstracts tax, compliance, fraud and currency handling for game studios. He argues that as AI‑driven development accelerates global launches, the operational complexity of selling...
Canadians Are Open to AI Financial Services, What Does that Mean for Advisors?
A recent Accenture survey of 1,000 Canadians shows strong openness to AI‑driven financial assistance, with 63% willing to use an AI assistant in banking apps and 60% open to AI tools outside their primary bank. While 78% of respondents want...