Ukraine’s Central Bank Says Revolut’s Account Closures Stem From a Lack of Local Licensing
Revolut announced the closure of accounts for Ukrainian residents after the National Bank of Ukraine reminded the fintech that operating without a local licence violates Ukrainian law. The NBU clarified that any firm offering financial services must secure a domestic licence and comply with national regulations. Revolut’s Lithuanian‑registered accounts will be shut within 60 days, though accounts for registered Ukrainian refugees in the EEA will stay active. The regulator left the door open for a licensed re‑entry, emphasizing a prompt review of any future application.
2025: Top Five AI Stories of the Year
FinTech Futures highlighted five pivotal AI developments in 2025: the UK FCA launched an AI sandbox with Nvidia to safely test financial‑service models, while UBS hired JP Morgan’s Daniele Magazzeni as chief AI officer to steer its enterprise‑wide strategy. Grasshopper partnered with...
🎙️ Ep 13: How Stablecoins Scaled Cross-Border Payments to $80B W/ Daniel Vogel (Bitso)
Bitso, the leading Latin American crypto platform, now handles over $80 billion in annualized transaction volume, with roughly 10 % of U.S.–Mexico remittances and the bulk coming from enterprise payment flows. CEO Daniel Vogel explains that stablecoins achieve scale not by cheapening...
FIS Agrees to Pay $210M Settlement
Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) agreed to a $210 million settlement with investors alleging misleading statements about its 2019 $35 billion Worldpay acquisition. The deal offers roughly 42 cents per damaged share, reduced to about 32 cents after legal fees and expenses. Executives, including...
Democratic AGs Sue Trump Administration over CFPB Funding
Nearly two dozen Democratic state attorneys general, led by New York AG Letitia James, have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding shutdown. Acting CFPB Director Russ Vought refused to request money from...
From Reactive to Predictive: The Future of Embedded Accounting
The fintech sector is shifting small‑business finance from reactive bookkeeping to embedded accounting, where the ledger lives inside everyday banking apps. By linking real‑time transaction data with accounting platforms, solutions like the Xero‑Bluevine partnership give owners a unified dashboard and...
Banxware Co-Founder and COO Fabian Heiß to Depart
Banxware’s co‑founder and COO Fabian Heiß announced he will leave the Berlin‑based embedded lending provider at month‑end. Heiß, who helped scale the firm to serve more than 40 digital marketplaces and achieve 100% year‑over‑year loan‑origination growth, also led the integration...
Fed Report Stirs Debit Fee Debate
The Federal Reserve’s biennial report shows debit‑card interchange fees climbed 3.9% annually, reaching $34.12 billion in 2023. Merchants argue the fees are excessive and have urged the Fed to lower the statutory cap, which remains at the 2011 level of 21 cents...
CFPB Shifts on EWA Policy, Again
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an advisory opinion declaring that employer‑partnered earned wage access (EWA) products are not loans under the Truth in Lending Act, and formally rescinded its July 2024 proposed rule that would have treated them as credit....
Executive Shuffle: Fiserv, DailyPay and MoneyGram
Payments firms closed the year with a series of senior hires aimed at strengthening brand, philanthropy, investor relations, and finance functions. DailyPay appointed former eBay executive Caitlin Allen as chief brand and communications officer, while Visa promoted Najada Kumbuli to...
How Money Launderers Are Exploiting E-Commerce
Online retailers are becoming prime targets for sophisticated money‑laundering schemes that exploit refund processes, third‑party marketplace sellers, and cross‑border payment channels. Criminal networks use these digital pathways to shift illicit proceeds quickly, sidestepping traditional banking oversight. The rise of platform‑based...
The Top 10 Blogs of 2025
The Finanser’s 2025 roundup spotlights the year’s most‑read fintech and tech blogs, revealing a shift toward AI‑driven payments, corporate expansion, and crypto policy debates. Notable entries include Stripe’s GPT‑powered payment engine delivering a 15% conversion lift and 30% fraud reduction,...
Things Worth Reading: 23rd December 2025
Chris Skinner’s December 23 roundup highlights a wave of strategic moves across finance. The UK FCA launched a payments initiative to accelerate “Pay by Bank” adoption, while Mastercard forged Middle‑East alliances to push blockchain innovation. The list also spotlights 2025 fintech...
PayPal Is Coming to Africa (TWIF - Africa 12/22)
PayPal announced its launch in Africa, signaling a major shift for digital payments on the continent. This week’s roundup also highlighted $150 million in fintech deals, a $205 million venture fund underscoring continued investor confidence, and Paystack’s revival after a $160 k regulatory...
J.P. Morgan Payments’ Matthew McCown to Speak at FinAi Banking Summit
Matthew McCown, executive director of data and analytics at J.P. Morgan Payments, will appear on the FinAi Banking Summit’s panel “AI strategy at scale: Lessons from global banks” on March 3, 2026 in Denver. He will discuss how major banks...
How TruStage Ventures Built Connective Tissue Between Fintechs and Credit Unions
TruStage Ventures, the corporate venture arm of $5.5 billion insurer TruStage, has deployed $400 million into 50 fintech startups since 2016 and brokered more than 3,000 partnerships between those firms and U.S. credit unions, which serve roughly 140 million members. The fund’s hands‑on...
The Financial Evolution of 2025: AI, Crypto, and Regional Banking
In 2025 artificial intelligence transitioned from a back‑office utility to a strategic decision‑making partner across the banking sector. Crypto assets rebounded, shedding much of the skepticism that plagued them in prior years and re‑establishing a foothold among institutional investors. Meanwhile,...
A Quick Review of #fintech 2025
FinTech funding worldwide slipped 6% year‑over‑year in Q1‑Q3 2025, with deal count falling 27% to 2,654. Average deal size rose to $24.5 million, highlighting a shift toward larger, later‑stage rounds. While Europe’s funding plunged 42% and the United States saw a...
Things Worth Reading: 22nd December 2025
Chris Skinner’s "Things worth reading" roundup for December 22, 2025 curates seven high‑impact stories shaping finance. It highlights the Bank of England’s split decision to cut rates, British banks’ race to deploy agentic AI and the regulatory alarms it raises, and a...
The What the FinTech? Podcast | Season Six’s Jailed Buzzwords
Season six of the What the FinTech? podcast introduced its “Fintech Jail” segment, where guests either lock away overused fintech buzzwords or free previously incarcerated terms. Across 25 episodes, words such as “Cloud,” “Cheques,” and “Blockchain” were jailed, while “Agile,”...
OnePay Becomes Infrastructure for Agent-Led Commerce
OnePay, Walmart's digital banking platform, announced its entry into Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) as a credential provider, shifting from traditional payments to infrastructure for AI‑driven, agent‑led commerce. Unlike Mastercard, PayPal and American Express, which supply payment rails, OnePay will...
FinTech Futures: Top Five News Stories of the Week – 19 December 2025
FinTech Futures highlighted five pivotal stories this week. PayPal applied for a Utah‑chartered industrial bank to expand small‑business lending, while Monzo secured a full European banking licence and bought mortgage fintech Habito. The UK regulator fined Nationwide Building Society £44 million...
Revolut Targets High-Net-Worth Clients in Potential Blackstone Partnership
Revolut is in early talks with private‑equity giant Blackstone to embed the firm’s investment funds into a forthcoming private‑banking suite. The partnership would mark Revolut’s pivot from a mass‑market fintech to a wealth‑management platform targeting high‑net‑worth individuals. For Blackstone, the...
What the FinTech? | S.6 Episode 25 | 2025 in Review and Predictions for 2026
The "What the FinTech?" podcast’s Season 6, Episode 25 recaps 2025’s most impactful financial‑services developments and outlines key forecasts for 2026. Hosts Dave Wallace and Dharmesh Mistry highlight AI‑driven credit models, the rapid expansion of open‑banking APIs, tighter crypto regulation, and the...
Digital Identity versus Privacy
The post outlines a shift toward privacy‑first behavior as consumers curb personal data sharing and adopt tools like encrypted messaging, VPNs, and tracker‑blocking browsers. Device manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung, and Google are responding by integrating on‑device processing, stricter app...
The Arguments for and Against Digital Identification
Fintech commentator Chris Skinner outlines the growing push for digital identity systems, citing government initiatives in the UK, the US mobile driver’s licence, and Apple’s Wallet ID. He contrasts these programs with public resistance rooted in privacy fears, especially around...
Things Worth Reading: 19th December 2025
Chris Skinner’s December 19 2025 roundup curates six fintech stories that illustrate the sector’s evolving landscape. Highlights include Citi’s perspective on funding trends, Aspire’s acquisition of global licences, the emergence of fintech‑driven gambling platforms, HSBC’s £55 million physical‑branch refurbishment, and the Bank of...
AI-Driven Personalization ‘No Longer Optional’
Udi Ziv, CEO of Personetics, explains that AI-driven personalization has become essential for banks and credit unions seeking growth and retention, as customers now expect the same seamless digital experiences offered by other apps. He highlights the shift from competing...
Stablecoins and Strategy
The episode examines how stablecoins fit into long‑term strategic thinking, using China’s CCP and its recent policy discussions as a case study. It highlights the view that stablecoins are a gateway to a tokenised capital‑market ecosystem where settlement can be...
How FIS Is Helping Financial Institutions Evolve Loyalty Beyond Rewards
At its Emerald 2025 conference, FIS outlined a new loyalty playbook for banks, urging a shift from chasing share of wallet to capturing share of mind first. The firm promotes "embedded loyalty," weaving rewards and engagement directly into the customer...
Simplifying Small Business Finances: Inside U.S. Bank’s Award-Winning Approach
U.S. Bank was named Tearsheet’s Best Bank for SMBs, recognizing its Business Essentials suite that unifies checking, payments, payroll, and spend controls into a single digital platform. The bank’s data shows growing adoption of these tools, with small‑business owners consolidating...
Deutsche Bank Brings Wero to the Mainstream in Germany
Deutsche Bank has launched the full‑functionality Wero digital payments app for retail customers of both Deutsche Bank and Postbank, adding real‑time e‑commerce payments across Europe. The rollout expands the European Payments Initiative (EPI) flagship wallet into Germany’s largest banking market,...
A Great Example of a Terrible UX (#Barclays)
Barclays recently altered its online login flow, forcing users to choose between mobile access and a PINsentry card reader, which many customers mistake for their usual mobile PINsentry method. The ambiguous labeling leads to repeated access failures, wasted time, and...
Things Worth Reading: 18th December 2025
Chris Skinner’s "Things worth reading" roundup highlights the most consequential fintech stories of December 2025, from the sector’s biggest headlines and a surge in UK hiring to a landmark industry‑communication report. The list also spotlights credit‑debit innovation, the AI compliance...
Bank of London Product Head: “Clients Don’t Want to Wait for Cutoff Times” On-Chain
Charlotte Bullock, Head of Product at The Bank of London, highlighted the bank’s focus on rapid experimentation and short approval cycles, contrasting it with the slower, layered processes of large corporates. The bank is embedding AI assistants directly into its...
Payments on the Move: Three Ways Checkout Is Changing
Generation Alpha grows up in a cashless world, pushing merchants to reinvent the checkout experience. Three trends are reshaping payments: software‑based solutions such as SoftPOS and SmartPOS, integrated payments through ISV partnerships, and AI‑driven conversational commerce. SoftPOS turns any smartphone...
Why B2B Payments Are Becoming the Next Acquirer Battleground
Mastercard is urging payment acquirers to shift focus from consumer‑centric models to B2B card acceptance, highlighting an estimated $80 trillion addressable opportunity in accounts payable and receivable. It argues that commercial‑card economics now outpace legacy B2B2C margins, especially as acceptance moves...
PayPal’s US Banking Ambition Signals a Strategic Shift
PayPal has filed applications with the Utah Department of Financial Institutions and the FDIC to launch PayPal Bank, marking its first attempt to obtain a U.S. banking charter. The move would shift the company from a pure payments platform to...
Things Worth Reading: 17th December 2025
Chris Skinner’s daily reading roundup spotlights a sweeping set of financial‑sector developments. It highlights the European Central Bank’s ambitious banking‑rules overhaul and a forward‑looking analysis of how central banks should steer through the uncertainty of 2026. The list also captures fintech’s...
Monzo Board Reportedly Pushed Out CEO Anil over IPO Timing
Monzo’s board asked chief executive TS Anil to step down amid a dispute over the timing of the bank’s initial public offering. Anil favored an earlier IPO and hinted at leaving post‑listing, while directors wanted more time to expand internationally...
Sequence Raises $20m to Build a CFO Revenue Platform Amid B2B Fintech Boom
Sequence, a London‑New York fintech startup, closed a $20 million round led by 645 Ventures with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and other backers. The capital will fuel its AI‑driven revenue platform that automates billing, contract processing and invoice issuance for finance teams....
Italy’s Card Business: An EU Leader in Volume – and Growth
Italy has solidified its position as the EU’s leading card market by volume and growth. In 2023 Italians spent an average €4,159 per person on card payments, an 8.8% increase since 2019, while debit card transactions reached 6.7 billion, up 20.3%...
Sei Partners With Xiaomi for a Pre-Installed Mobile Stablecoin Payment App
The episode highlights Sei's partnership with Xiaomi to pre‑install a stablecoin payment app on millions of devices outside China and the US, signaling a major push for mainstream crypto adoption. It also covers broader fintech news, including BBVA's rollout of...
Monzo Board Pushed CEO Out After IPO Dispute, Reports Say
Monzo’s board has asked CEO TS Anil to step down after months of friction over the company’s IPO timetable. Anil advocated an earlier public listing, while several directors preferred delaying to expand overseas and improve valuation. The board has installed...
“MENA’s Digital Banking Challenge Isn’t Demand; It’s the Restrictive Infrastructure,” Jas Shah at FMLS:25
Fintech strategist Jas Shah highlighted that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s digital banking slowdown stems from restrictive payments infrastructure rather than lack of consumer demand. Banks are racing to upgrade legacy internet‑banking platforms to mobile‑first experiences to...
U.S. Bank’s Prageeth Sandakalum to Speak at FinAi Banking Summit
U.S. Bank’s Vice President and Principal Product Manager for Digital, Data and AI, Prageeth Sandakalum, will join a panel at the FinAi Banking Summit in Denver to discuss "AI strategy at scale: Lessons from global banks." The conversation will focus...
Closing the Gap Between Trust and Proof
The 2024 collapse of Synapse left $85 million in consumer deposits frozen, exposing the fragility of pooled For‑Benefit‑Of (FBO) accounts. The incident highlighted how legacy account structures cannot keep pace with today’s multi‑party, B2B money flows. Virtual Account Management (VAM) is...
Banks Reclaim Commercial Lending Through Technology and Strategic Partnerships
Traditional banks are accelerating technology investments and forging strategic partnerships to reclaim commercial lending from fast‑growing private‑credit markets and AI‑driven fintech rivals. They are shifting resources toward complex loan products, adopting originate‑to‑distribute models, and deploying unified platforms that span front‑...
Goldman Sachs Moves Into Predictable Growth with Innovator Acquisition
Goldman Sachs announced on Dec. 1 that it will acquire Innovator Capital Management, adding 159 defined‑outcome ETFs and roughly $28 billion in assets under management. The acquisition gives Goldman a foothold in the fast‑growing buffered‑ETF niche, which uses options to limit downside...
“Regulators Are Being Asked to Slow Down the Pace”: Muinmos Founder on AI and ESMA Guidance
At the Finance Magnates London Summit, Muinmos founder Remonda Z. Kirketerp Møller warned that financial firms are rushing AI into compliance without grasping its operational and regulatory ramifications. She distinguished true AI from mere automation, emphasizing that ultimate decision‑making must...