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
LG CNS demonstrated an AI agentic payment system that uses deposit tokens, as part of the Bank of Korea’s Project Han River wholesale CBDC trials. The demo featured virtual personas acting as content creators and buyers, autonomously negotiating and settling payments with tokenized deposits. The trial builds on a previous phase that saw 80,000 participants use the tokens for online and brick‑and‑mortar retail. Seven leading Korean banks partnered with LG CNS to develop the platform.
The House Financial Services Committee approved a community‑bank tailoring bill in a 33‑21 vote, proposing to index more than three dozen regulatory thresholds to nominal GDP. By tying thresholds to economic growth rather than inflation, the legislation would exempt many...
Binance is revisiting tokenized stock trading after shutting down its 2021 service under regulatory pressure. The exchange plans to offer blockchain‑based fractional shares that track real‑time prices, leveraging recent launches of regulated stablecoin‑settled contracts. Competitors such as OKX, NYSE, Nasdaq...
Payoneer India Pvt Ltd received in‑principle authorization from the Reserve Bank of India to operate as a cross‑border payment aggregator (PA‑CB). The licence enables the fintech to facilitate both inbound and outward transactions for Indian importers and exporters. The approval...
Binance co‑founder Changpeng Zhao told CNBC he expects Bitcoin to break its traditional four‑year cycle this year, driven by increasingly crypto‑friendly policies in the United States and abroad. He forecast a "supercycle" that could push BTC to new all‑time highs,...
Equifax released its third‑quarter 2025 Market Pulse Index, which rose to 61.6 – a 0.35% quarterly increase and a modest 0.14% gain year‑over‑year. The index shows the first quarterly improvement for consumers with VantageScore 4.0 below 580, whose score jumped over...
TRM Labs highlights crypto exchange‑traded products (ETPs) as a fast‑growing bridge between traditional markets and digital assets. The SEC’s approval of spot Bitcoin ETPs in early 2024, followed by Ethereum versions in 2025, unlocked regulatory confidence and real‑time pricing for...
The episode highlights FedNow’s rapid expansion to 1,600 participating institutions, driving a 460% YoY rise in daily transactions to nearly 30,000 and a total transaction value of $853.4 billion, with average payments soaring to $101,435. It contrasts FedNow’s broader network reach...
French prosecutors and the National Cyber Unit have opened a preliminary investigation into a data breach at Waltio, a cryptocurrency tax platform that exposed personal information of roughly 50,000 users, most of them in France. The hacker group Shiny Hunters...
The FDIC has conditionally approved industrial loan company (ILC) charters for Ford Credit Bank and GM Financial Bank, allowing the automakers to launch deposit‑insured banks in Utah. Both banks will focus on auto lending, drawing funding from retail savings accounts...
The UK is emerging as a global leader in combating cryptocurrency‑enabled fraud, with Chainalysis reporting $14 billion in worldwide losses in 2025 and UK fraud accounting for over 40 % of reported crimes. Crypto‑related investment scams surged to more than 17,000 incidents...
Apple is confronting a £1.5 billion class‑action lawsuit in the United Kingdom alleging that its Apple Pay mobile‑wallet imposes hidden fees that banks have shifted onto roughly 50 million consumers. The claim, brought by financial campaigner James Daley, accuses Apple of stifling competition...
Banks posted record top‑line earnings, yet mortgage‑servicing‑rights (MSR) valuations slipped, eroding mortgage‑banking revenue. US Bank saw an $11 million MSR valuation drop, driving a 27.8% quarterly revenue decline to $130 million. JPMorgan Chase’s net servicing revenue fell $43 million despite a modest MSR...
The American Fintech Council (AFC) has released a report warning state regulators against expanding mandatory lending registries to cover earned‑wage‑access (EWA) services. The council argues that existing registries, designed for high‑interest short‑term loans, are ill‑suited for EWA and would force...
Grayscale has submitted a Form S‑1 registration to launch a spot exchange‑traded fund tracking Binance’s BNB token, under the ticker GBNB. The fund would list on Nasdaq pending a 19b‑4 filing and SEC approval, and it excludes staking to sidestep...
Affirm Holdings announced it has filed applications with Nevada regulators and the FDIC to launch a Nevada‑chartered industrial loan company, dubbed Affirm Bank. The move aims to give the buy‑now‑pay‑later firm a banking platform to introduce new financial products beyond...
Affirm Holdings has filed applications with Nevada’s Financial Institutions Division and the FDIC to obtain a state charter for an industrial loan company, dubbed "Affirm Bank." The move aims to expand its buy‑now‑pay‑later (BNPL) offerings and diversify beyond merchant‑only financing....
Verifone is tackling the biggest friction in omnichannel commerce—consumer identity—by unifying identification, loyalty and payment into a single transaction flow. The company highlights that while digital shoppers can be recognized with cookies and device fingerprints, in‑store shoppers remain anonymous until...
A useful reality check on AI and the economy. In early 2025, AI capex and consumer spending added roughly the same amount to net-new GDP. That’s striking, given that consumer spending still makes up about 70% of total GDP. But for growth...
Asset servicing, once a back‑office function, is now a strategic priority for banks as AI, blockchain and a generational wealth shift reshape the industry. BNY Mellon highlights the rise of a hybrid workforce, deploying over 100 digital employees to automate...
Digital game economies have evolved from niche curiosities into high‑margin revenue engines, attracting billions in institutional capital. Developers now embed sophisticated scarcity and trade systems that mirror physical markets, while blockchain technology adds true ownership and cross‑game liquidity. Adult gamers,...
LAZ‑FXAI, the new initiative of independent advisory firm LAZ‑FXAI, blends decades of financial expertise with advanced AI to improve decision‑making. Guided by CEO Peter Orszag and academic economist Professor Ronald Temple, the program injects macroeconomic research into its models. AI...
EbankIT has appointed Jerry Reese as Senior Solutions Engineer for North America, bolstering its technical leadership as the firm expands across the United States and Canada. Reese will partner with banks and credit unions to design API‑first, omnichannel digital banking...
Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick remains bullish on ether despite a 12% weekly decline, citing a surge in network activity after the December Fusaka upgrade. Transaction volumes have reached new all‑time highs, suggesting the upgrade is effectively easing previous bottlenecks. Corporate...
The episode highlights how small businesses now view invoicing as a core part of their payments experience and why banks are uniquely positioned to capture this market. Ian Benton explains that effective invoicing tools—ranging from simple payment requests linked to...
Conversation intelligence, powered by AI and natural language processing, analyzes customer interactions across voice, text, and chat channels to surface sentiment, intent, and behavioral patterns. Marketers leverage these real‑time insights to personalize messaging, fine‑tune campaigns, and align sales and marketing...
UBS is evaluating a crypto trading service for its ultra‑high‑net‑worth private‑banking clients, initially offering Bitcoin and Ether in Switzerland. The bank is vetting technology partners while already running tokenized fund pilots on Ethereum and a permissioned ledger settlement trial. A...
Tinaba, backed by Banca Profilo, has extended its partnership with Alipay+ to enable Chinese‑mainland digital payments directly from the Tinaba app. Italian users can now pay in euros at more than 80 million merchants by scanning a QR code, without installing...
Iliad Solutions, a global leader in payments testing, has relocated its UK headquarters to 1 City Square in Leeds. The move follows recent contract wins with major worldwide payments firms and reflects rapid expansion of its UK team. The Grade A...
NerdWallet Canada’s Harris Poll reveals that 2025 holiday shoppers spent an average of $828 on gifts, $120 more than the $708 they expected in October. Only 7% attribute the overspend to poor planning, while 43% point to inflation as the primary...
OnePay, the Walmart‑backed fintech, has teamed up with Rakuten’s Card‑Linked Offer Network to embed merchant cashback offers directly within its app. The integration delivers automatic, card‑linked rewards at the point of sale, eliminating the need for coupons or manual redemption....
Restaking allows validators to pledge already‑staked ETH a second time, promising higher yields by reusing the same collateral across multiple protocols. In practice, each additional layer multiplies slashing risk and concentrates power among a handful of large operators, with $21 billion...
PTSECR launched a customer‑support outsourcing agency aimed at digital‑first companies in e‑commerce, SaaS, fintech, and other tech sectors. The service offers 24/7, omnichannel support—including chat, email, phone, and social media—delivered by globally distributed agents trained on each client’s brand and...
OnlyFans creators in Australia must treat platform earnings as assessable income, subject to income tax, GST and BAS obligations. Because revenue streams are diverse and often foreign‑denominated, a specialist accountant familiar with digital‑creator tax rules is essential. Such professionals can...
Rachit Yadav, CEO of Orpheus Financial, outlines the five most common financial mistakes that UAE entrepreneurs make—weak cash‑flow management, treating reports as mere compliance tools, mixing personal and business funds, neglecting petty‑cash tracking, and attempting DIY finance. He explains how...
Percipience, an insurtech data and analytics provider, announced it has achieved SOC 2 Type I compliance, confirming that its security, availability, and confidentiality controls are properly designed. The audit, conducted by an independent firm, validated the company’s policies on access management, change...
In what it calls “inconvenient truths” Pitchbook lays out five very real problems with stablecoins. The first of the two most critical is that stablecoins consistently overstate their advantages, particularly in nations with fast and free payments, including the US (FedNow),...
Crypto things you might have missed: -Bank lobby pushes stablecoin yield ban -Claim free XRP via @krakenfx -Grayscale files for BNB ETF -New Bitwise BTC & precious metals ETF -ADA founder slams political crypto donations -Kansas crypto reserve JOIN THE 10:30 AM LIVESTREAM
Fintech platforms Gr4vy and Ecommpay announced a partnership that delivers a single‑integration solution for global payments. The joint offering merges Gr4vy’s payment orchestration layer with Ecommpay’s extensive acquiring network, giving merchants access to over 200 payment methods in more than...
Any VC types want to opine on how this plays out for Brex employees / common shareholders?
NEW: 🚨 The American Bankers Association is pushing to block yield-bearing stablecoins, warning they could drain bank deposits. Source: Cryptopolitan https://t.co/Owa8Up6OAO
Flatpay’s CEO Sander Janca‑Jensen champions a disciplined "no" culture, refusing many opportunities to keep the Danish payment unicorn focused. The company hit unicorn status last year after a $170 million round that valued it at $1.7 billion, and now serves about 70,000...
As tokenization catches on, @kkirkbos says a philosophical question arises: Where do intermediaries go? Listen below 👇 https://t.co/1jdrPJOMEK
[New Episode] Why Marketing Data Fails in Banking and How to Fix It. With Preston Carroll and Eddie Tu of @FM_Direct. Watch the latest episode: https://t.co/ZqirpHta6S https://t.co/IusElPW1cE
Fintech giant Revolut has scrapped its plan to acquire a U.S. bank, opting instead to seek a de novo banking license from the OCC. The move follows internal assessments that an acquisition would be slower, more complex, and would force the...
U.S. bitcoin exchange‑traded funds recorded a net outflow of $1.22 billion over the four‑day week ending Thursday, the largest since November 2025. The withdrawals, driven by $479.7 million on Tuesday and $708.7 million on Wednesday, coincided with a 5 % slide in Bitcoin, which...
Corpay’s new research of 150 UK CFOs uncovers an "automation deficit" – while 99% plan to automate finance by 2025, fragmented legacy systems stall progress. Integration challenges top the list, cited by 47% of respondents, followed by resistance to change...
Fintech firms face mounting obstacles that impede growth in an increasingly crowded digital arena. Tight regulatory regimes, persistent cash‑flow constraints for SME clients, and fierce competition for talent and technology stack integration are among the primary culprits. Recent moves—Qonto’s credit‑card...
I've just released my weekly wrap-up. 1️⃣ Risks to get ready to tackle, according to the WEF 2️⃣ Where did customers spend money on mobile app last year? 3️⃣ The state of AI investment worldwide 👉 https://t.co/5QeUE7tAmk — fgtrends
Binance has filed a Markets in Crypto‑Assets Regulation (MiCA) licence application with Greece’s Hellenic Capital Market Commission as EU compliance deadlines approach. The exchange, the world’s largest crypto‑trading platform, seeks early authorisation to operate across the bloc before the June 30, 2025...
