MoonPay Unveils Wallet Standard for AI Agents
MoonPay released the Open Wallet Standard (OWS), an MIT‑licensed open‑source specification that lets AI agents hold and sign crypto funds without ever exposing private keys. More than 15 leading firms—including PayPal, Ripple, Solana Foundation and Circle—contributed to the spec, which supports eight blockchain families via a single seed phrase. OWS introduces a zero‑exposure key model, a pre‑signing policy engine, and SDKs for Node.js, Python and LangChain. The standard fills the missing wallet layer in the rapidly evolving agentic payments stack, complementing protocols such as Coinbase’s x402 and Stripe’s Machine Payments Protocol.
DLocal Simplifies Global Commerce Through Unified API Strategy
Cross‑border payments specialist dLocal has launched a unified “One dLocal” platform that consolidates a single API, contract and technical integration for merchants entering emerging markets. The solution gives more than 700 enterprise clients, including Amazon, Microsoft and Zara, access to...
Taceo Network Enables ‘Private Shared State’ for Hosting Sensitive Parts of Workflow
Austrian startup Taceo has opened public access to its Taceo Network, a private execution layer that lets organizations run sensitive identity, biometric and payment logic on shared digital infrastructure without exposing raw data. The platform uses coSNARKs, a cryptographic tool...
The Big Biscuit Partners with TipHaus to Deliver Same-Day Tip Payouts and Modernize Team Member Pay Across 30 Locations
The Big Biscuit, a fast‑growing breakfast and lunch chain with 30 locations in the Midwest, has teamed up with TipHaus to offer same‑day digital tip payouts. The partnership leverages TipHaus’s Earned Tip Access® platform, allowing managers to verify shift data...
India Floats Plan for Converting Gift Cards Into Mutual Funds
India's securities regulator SEBI has unveiled a framework allowing gift‑card balances to be converted into mutual‑fund units. The scheme limits each transaction to 50,000 rupees (about $537) and requires funding through electronic transfers or the UPI network. By treating prepaid...
Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
Finovate’s weekly roundup highlights a wave of fintech innovations across payments, AI, and tokenized assets. European payments provider Mollie launched its Tap in‑person solution in the UK, while Splitit introduced Splitit Go to bring card‑linked installments to field sales. Agentic AI...
Warren Requests Information From MrBeast About Crypto and Children
Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a 12‑page letter to YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, seeking details on Beast Industries’ plans to expand into financial services, including cryptocurrency offerings for minors. The inquiry follows Beast’s acquisition of the Step banking app,...
One in Three Irish Are More Honest About Money with AI than Other People According to Bunq Survey
A bunq survey of 1,000 Irish consumers reveals that 36% feel more honest discussing money with AI than with people, and another 37% are equally candid. Nearly half (49%) have already used AI to guide personal finance decisions, and one‑third...
Clear Street Launches Digital Asset Trading
Clear Street has launched Clear Street Digital, enabling institutional clients to execute large‑scale OTC spot trades in major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and a broad range of altcoins and stablecoins. The new service leverages the firm’s existing clearing,...
13 Years on, Surcharging Remains Complex for Acquirers
Thirteen years after merchants gained permission to surcharge credit‑card transactions, the practice remains tangled in divergent rules from card networks and state regulators. Visa limits surcharges to 3% while Mastercard allows up to 4% but typically mirrors Visa’s cap, and...
A New Connection Lets PayPal Open Venmo to International Transfers
PayPal has linked its Venmo service with its global PayPal network, enabling Venmo users to send and receive money in 90 countries. The integration comes with a promotional waiver of international transfer fees through August 24, 2026. PayPal says the move...
QuSecure Deployment Cited as Real-World Precedent in SEC Post-Quantum Framework
The SEC’s Post‑Quantum Financial Infrastructure Framework (PQFIF) has highlighted the four‑month deployment of QuSecure’s QuProtect platform at Banco Sabadell, executed with Accenture, as the first real‑world implementation precedent for post‑quantum cryptography in banking. The case study demonstrates that large financial...
The Growing Data Battle Between Banks and Fintechs
JPMorgan Chase announced it will charge fintech firms for access to its customer data, upending a long‑standing practice of free data sharing that powered many digital‑banking services. The move reflects a broader shift as banks seek to monetize APIs and...
Nasdaq, Talos Partner on Tokenized Collateral Management
Nasdaq and digital‑asset platform Talos announced a partnership to link Talos’ infrastructure with Nasdaq’s Calypso and Trade Surveillance systems, creating an integrated solution for tokenized collateral management. The collaboration aims to unlock over $35 billion of capital currently tied up in...
TRACE ASI Launches Advanced Market Analysis Platform Powered by Artificial Intelligence
TRACE ASI unveiled an artificial‑intelligence‑powered market analysis platform that processes real‑time data to generate structured insights for investors. The system targets large‑cap, highly liquid equities traded on regulated exchanges, using machine‑learning models to interpret price trends, trading patterns, and sector...
Enhancing Payments Security Training and Intelligence to Combat Emerging Payments Fraud
Payments fraud surged 89% year‑over‑year, propelled by a 3.6‑fold rise in AI‑driven attacks such as deepfakes and impersonation. Criminals are exploiting executives' personal digital lives, using cloned voices and videos to bypass traditional controls. The report from Veriff stresses that...
The Slow Death of Interchange as a Standalone Growth Engine
Interchange fees have long been the backbone of fintech revenue, offering a low‑friction, volume‑driven income stream that scales with every card transaction. Recent filings from Block, PayPal and Shopify reveal a strategic pivot: interchange is now treated as baseline infrastructure...
Why AI Is Becoming Essential for Financial Services Call Centres
Financial institutions are deploying AI‑powered tools to augment call‑center agents, delivering real‑time information, response suggestions, and automation of routine tasks. This technology addresses the sector’s regulatory complexity and product personalization demands, enabling faster, more accurate, and tailored customer interactions. While...
Open Banking Is Growing in South Africa – but Not for Everyone
South Africa’s open‑banking ecosystem is expanding, driven by a market‑led approach that has enabled fintechs such as Yoco, Lulalend and MTN MoMo to reach new customers. A Reserve Bank working paper warns that this model favours middle‑aged, educated users and leaves...
Discovery Bank Drives Super App Ambition with AI, Integration
Discovery Bank is transforming its mobile platform into a "super app" that merges banking with health, insurance, investment and lifestyle services across the Discovery Group. AI underpins the experience, delivering a virtual financial assistant, real‑time fraud alerts and personalised nudges...
The UK Stablecoin Is Already Here – Scottish Banknotes
The UK government is eager to regulate stablecoins, but Scotland already operates a stable‑coin regime through its own banknotes. Issued by three commercial banks, Scottish notes circulate as legal currency backed by assets, and the Banking Act 2009’s definition allows them...
Zocks Targets Life Insurers with AI Workflow Automation
Zocks, an AI assistant originally built for financial advisors, is extending its workflow automation platform into the life‑insurance sector. The tool captures data during discovery meetings, auto‑generates notes, applications and fact‑finds, and processes PDFs, scans and photos in under a...
Chinese Consumers Can Now Use the Qwen App to Hail Rides and Pay with Alipay AI Pay
Alibaba’s Qwen app now lets Chinese users hail rides and pay through Alipay AI Pay, creating a single‑conversation commerce flow. The integration ties Qwen to ride‑hailing, food delivery and travel services, allowing price comparison, booking and payment without leaving the...
Santander’s Getnet Expands to Colombia, Strengthening Its Latin American Payments Network
Santander’s payments arm Getnet has launched its digital payments platform in Colombia, extending its pan‑Latin American network. The service offers a unified API‑based Single Entry Point that lets merchants connect once and operate across multiple markets, while also providing banking,...
Just Taps Sapiens to Modernise Retirement Operations
UK‑based financial services group Just has chosen Sapiens to power a new end‑to‑end life and pensions platform. The deployment will use Sapiens CoreSuite, DigitalSuite and DataSuite to boost scalability, integration speed and product‑to‑market timelines. The solution targets complex retirement products...
Choosing the Right Financial Products Starts with Behavior, Not Volume
Financial institutions are shifting from adding more products to aligning offerings with customer behavior. Research by FIS shows 47% of consumers want a single platform to manage all financial services, indicating demand for cohesion over variety. Studies of Gen Z and...
53% of Scam Victims Recover Money When They Tell Their Bank
A PYMNTS Intelligence study of 15,110 U.S. consumers finds 19% have fallen victim to a financial scam in the last five years. Nearly two‑thirds of those scams result in payments within 24 hours, highlighting the power of urgency. Victims who...
M-PESA Ethiopia Expands Into Tax Collection with Amhara Region Deal
M-PESA Ethiopia has signed an MoU with the Amhara Regional State Revenue Bureau, enabling the region’s 450,000+ taxpayers to settle taxes through the mobile money platform. The partnership makes Amhara the first Ethiopian region to integrate mobile payments into its...
Cape Town BNPL Start-Up Happy Pay Raises R86-Million in Seed Funding
Cape Town‑based BNPL startup Happy Pay closed a US$5 million (R86 million) seed round led by Partech, with participation from several local investors. The company, which counts more than 600,000 registered users, operates a merchant‑funded, ad‑subsidised payments network that places instalment options...
Razorpay Partners Sarvam to Power Voice-First Conversational Commerce
Razorpay has teamed up with Sarvam, a sovereign AI platform, to launch voice‑first conversational commerce in India. The collaboration blends Sarvam’s multilingual AI models with Razorpay’s payments infrastructure, enabling users to discover products, place orders and complete payments via natural...
Ghana Card Now Central to Fighting MoMo Fraud
Ghana announced a new policy that will block any Ghana Card linked to multiple mobile‑money (MoMo) fraud cases, effectively cutting offenders off from telecom services and public digital platforms. The move follows a surge in fraud, with the Bank of...
A Great List of Questions for a Bank’s Leadership
Chris Skinner proposes a comprehensive list of cryptocurrency questions that bank leaders should be able to answer. The list spans basics, blockchain technology, security, economics, regulation, use cases, future outlook, and critical thinking. By mastering at least one of these...
Digital Lending Marketplace Finfinity Raises $2.4 Mn in Seed Round
Finfinity, a Mumbai‑based digital lending marketplace, closed a $2.4 million seed round led by Mankind Pharma promoter’s family office, with participation from several angel investors and family offices. The capital will fund technology upgrades, new lender partnerships, distribution scaling, and brand‑building...
Money Isn’t Free. Here’s What to Know Before Downloading a Cashback App
Cashback apps promise shoppers a rebate on purchases, but the model relies on commissions from retailers and extensive data collection. ShopBack, the market leader with over 55 million users, was recently valued at A$1.4 billion, while banks such as Westpac and...
Cathay Pacific Expands Global Partnership with Adyen
Adyen announced the expansion of its direct acquiring solution for Cathay Pacific across six strategic markets—Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Japan and India. The partnership, which began in 2014, now serves as a core element of the airline’s...
Singapore: Simplifying AI Risk Management for Financial Services
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has finished phase two of Project MindForge, releasing an AI Risk Management Toolkit for the financial sector. The toolkit features an Operationalisation Handbook and real‑world case studies, guiding banks, insurers and fintech firms through governance,...
Mastercard Sets Out Five Core Principles to Defend Its Position in Europe’s Payments Sovereignty Debate
Mastercard has outlined five core principles to defend its role in Europe’s payments‑sovereignty debate, emphasizing stability, standards, security, seamlessness and success. The company highlighted processing €3 trillion in cardholder activity last year and announced a €250 million investment in new French data...
Performant Isn't a Word
A forum post titled “Performant isn’t a word” critiques the branding language used by Performant Healthcare, a U.S. provider of payment‑integrity solutions. The author highlights that the term “performant” is uncommon and may confuse stakeholders. The post also links to...
'Buy Now, Pay Later' Traps More Young Malaysians in Debt Cycle
Buy‑Now‑Pay‑Later (BNPL) services are rapidly expanding in Malaysia, with users jumping from 2.6 million in 2023 to 7.5 million in 2024. Young consumers, especially those under 30, account for roughly 40 % of BNPL transactions and many allocate over 60 % of their monthly...
Can SoFi Shares Thrive Through Maturity?
SoFi Technologies has evolved from a student‑loan refi platform into a full‑stack digital‑banking supermarket, now offering checking, savings, loans, mortgages, credit cards, trading and a proprietary stablecoin. The company posted $3.61 billion in 2025 revenue, a 35% YoY increase, with deposits...
Axis Bank Ties Up with Tesla to Offer Tailored EV Financing Solutions in India
Axis Bank has entered a strategic partnership with Tesla to become the automaker’s preferred financier in India. The collaboration offers fully digital auto‑loan products with ten‑year tenures and flexible repayment structures, aiming to simplify the purchase journey for premium electric‑vehicle...
The Finanser’s Week: 16th March – 22nd March 2026
The Finanser’s weekly roundup spotlights accelerating fintech trends, from AI‑driven digital identity tools that turn asset management into a voice‑assistant experience to the rapid rise of challenger banks in the UK. Bain & Co forecast challenger banks will own roughly...
HSBC Asks Victim of Credit Card Theft to Pay HK$126,580 Racked up by Criminals
HSBC has demanded that a Hong Kong mother repay more than HK$126,000 in charges incurred after thieves used her stolen credit card. The card was taken on November 15 and the victim reported the loss the following day, but the...
The Professional Ballerina and CEO Wonder Woman, Who Will Revolutionize Finance.
Ostium, founded by former ballerina‑turned‑CEO Kaledora Fontana Kiernan‑Linn, offers a blockchain‑based app that lets users trade stocks, commodities, currencies and crypto from a single digital wallet. The platform reports $29 million in revenue, 25 000 users and $45 billion in cumulative trading volume....
Brazil's Finance Minister Shelves Crypto Tax Policy Due to Election: Report
Brazil’s finance minister Dario Durigan has postponed the planned crypto‑tax consultation until after the October 2026 presidential election, pushing any formal rule‑making to 2027. The delay follows Brazil’s June 2025 shift to a 17.5% flat tax on cryptocurrency capital gains,...
Crypto Firm Rhino.fi Targets Stablecoin Spreads with 1:1 Conversion Product
Rhino.fi has introduced a “Stablecoin 1:1” product that guarantees a fixed one‑to‑one conversion rate for USD‑pegged stablecoins such as USDT and USDC across more than 25 blockchain networks. The service eliminates hidden spreads and routing inefficiencies, offering transparent fees for neobanks...
Figure Launches Figure Forge to Transform Illiquid Loans Into Tradable DeFi Collateral
Figure (NASDAQ: FIGR) launched Figure Forge, a service that converts blockchain‑native loans and other real‑world assets into uniform, infinitely divisible participation tokens. The tokens are immediately tradable on Figure’s Democratized Prime DeFi marketplace, supported by a self‑funded limit order book...
Kenya Seeks Public Comment on Draft Rules for Crypto Firms
Kenya has launched a public consultation on its draft Virtual Asset Service Providers Regulations for 2026, aiming to operationalise the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act of 2025. The proposals require crypto firms to obtain licences, disclose ownership, meet capital and...
How to Use RebatesMe to Earn Cash Back on Online Purchases — and Score a New Member Bonus
RebatesMe is a 12‑year‑old cash‑back portal that partners with over 10,000 online merchants, offering up to 40% cash back on purchases. The platform reports an average 5% return per order, translating to roughly $128 in annual savings for a typical...
CFTC Issues Update to Guide Crypto Integration in Derivatives Markets
The CFTC released FAQs on March 20, 2026 clarifying how registered firms can use cryptocurrency as collateral in futures, swaps and clearing activities. FCMs may accept qualified non‑security crypto—primarily Bitcoin, Ether and payment stablecoins—subject to haircuts, a three‑month limitation, and weekly WinJammer...