The Six Tech Trends Banks Need on Their Radar for 2026
Banks face mounting regulatory, economic and consumer pressures as digital expectations rise, and their technology choices will dictate future competitiveness. nCino outlines six 2026 tech trends, from AI‑driven mobile banking that acts as a personal financial command centre to AI‑powered verification that slashes loan processing time. The focus shifts from blanket AI deployments to precise, value‑adding applications such as conversational interfaces and continuous monitoring. Enterprise‑grade background agents are moving from pilots to production, enabling real‑time decision making across the institution.
Global Alliance Emphasizes Operational Resilience and Verification Practices in Digital Account Management
Global Alliance announced enhanced operational safeguards for its digital platform, including multi‑factor authentication (MFA) for logins and sensitive actions. The firm now requires verification checkpoints before adding external withdrawal destinations, tightening outbound transaction controls. Real‑time data backups and DDoS mitigation...
Razorpay and NPCI Bring Agentic Payments to Claude at India AI Impact Summit
Razorpay and India’s National Payments Corporation (NPCI) have partnered with Anthropic’s Claude to launch Agentic Payments, a pilot that lets users complete purchases from Zomato, Swiggy and Zepto directly within a conversational AI interface. The solution combines Razorpay’s UPI‑based Reserve...
Discover Network Shows How Sharing Data Can Turn the Tide on Fraud
Fraud is evolving into a fast‑moving, AI‑driven threat across e‑commerce, payments and identity, outpacing traditional, institution‑by‑institution defenses. Discover Network argues that sharing data through a consortium enables real‑time signal aggregation, tokenization and enhanced decisioning to spot patterns no single bank...
Middle-Market Confidence Splits in 2026 as Tariffs and Supply Chains Weigh on High-Uncertainty Firms
The 2026 Certainty Project surveyed CFOs of U.S. middle‑market firms (revenues $100 M‑$1 B) and found overall uncertainty stable, but a sharp split between goods and services sectors. Tariff policy shifts and supply‑chain exposure pushed high‑uncertainty among goods producers up 27% year‑over‑year,...
Everyone Has a Side Hustle Now. Not Everyone Has the Same Reason.
The Wage to Wallet Index reveals that roughly 60 million hourly workers earning $50,000 or less are turning to side work, with one in five performing regular gigs. While overall job‑security sentiment is rising, financial confidence is splitting: higher‑income salaried professionals...
Divest Launches V3, Expands Beyond Crypto-to-Cash to Build a Smarter Way to Move Money Across Africa
Divest, a Nigerian fintech known for crypto‑to‑cash services, has unveiled Divest V3, an integrated platform that combines fiat Money Exchange with its existing crypto conversion engine. The dual‑experience design lets users move cash and digital assets through a single interface,...
Remitly Names Former Santander Exec Sebastian Gunningham as New CEO
Remitly announced that Sebastian Gunningham, a former senior executive at Santander, will take over as chief executive officer effective immediately. Gunningham previously led Santander’s consumer banking and digital transformation initiatives across Europe and Latin America. The appointment follows Remitly’s recent...
The CISO View of Fraud Risk Across the Retail Payment Ecosystem
In a Help Net Security interview, Paul Suarez, VP and CISO of Casey’s, explains that fuel‑payment hardware receives the same disciplined patching and modernization approach as other retail technology. He warns that QR‑code payment methods create fresh fraud opportunities, prompting...
Quick Fire 🔥 with Feranmi Ajetomobi
Feranmi Ajetomobi has spent a decade driving growth across Nigerian fintech, consumer goods, and web3 ventures, from Cowrywise’s savings habits to Flutterwave’s rapid scaling. He leverages behavioral psychology, community‑led tactics, and data‑driven nudges to turn dormant users into active transactors....
Google Threat Intelligence Report Highlights Growing Adversarial Exploitation of AI
Google’s Threat Intelligence Group released a new report detailing how adversarial AI is increasingly weaponized against enterprises. The study highlights a surge in model‑extraction attacks, where threat actors query commercial LLMs like Gemini to create compact replicas, and documents AI‑enhanced...
Progcap Nearly Doubles Revenue to Rs 268 Cr in FY25; Nears Breakeven
Progcap, the Tiger Global‑backed fintech, nearly doubled its FY25 revenue to Rs 268 crore, a 93% jump from the prior year. The firm slashed its net loss by 87% to Rs 6 crore and posted a positive EBITDA of Rs 75 crore, delivering a 28% margin....
Banking’s Crisis of Meaning: When Purpose Disappears
Dharmesh Mistry warns that AI‑driven automation is stripping banking jobs of their intrinsic purpose, turning roles into mere button‑pressing tasks. He argues that a superficial brand slogan like “better banking” won’t survive when machines already deliver superior products. Instead, banks...
Coin Center Highlights Decisive Shift in Congressional Debates Over Digital Assets Market Structure
Coin Center’s executive director Peter Van Valkenburgh says the Senate is now confronting the core issue of the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act – whether developers of non‑custodial blockchain infrastructure will receive legal protection under the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act....
Things Worth Reading: 20th February 2026
Chris Skinner’s roundup highlights a wave of fintech activity on February 20, 2026. Forbes lists the 50 hottest fintech startups, while Santander signals a push to scale its global investment bank. Regulatory pressure mounts as the ECB sanctions JPMorgan for capital‑misreporting, and...
Global Payments' Turnaround Gets Off on the Right Foot
Global Payments reported fourth‑quarter net revenue of $2.3 billion, a 6 % year‑over‑year increase, while net income fell to $217.5 million, missing consensus forecasts. The results sparked a 13 % surge in the stock as the company completed its Worldpay acquisition and announced a...
Stablecoins Expand in Payments, Yet Most Activity Remains Internal
The episode examines a McKinsey-Artemis Analytics report showing that while stablecoins process roughly $35 trillion a year, only about $390 billion is tied to real‑world payments, with most activity still internal to exchanges, custodians, and protocols. External payment use is growing fast,...
Exclusive: Eric Trump Calls Maldives Hotel First of Many Real Estate Tokenization Projects
World Liberty Financial announced the tokenization of loan revenue from the Trump International Hotel & Resort in the Maldives, marking the first project in a broader on‑chain real‑estate strategy. The initiative is being built with real‑estate developer DarGlobal and tokenization...
Etherfi, Scroll’s Top Fee-Generator, Leaves for Optimism
Etherfi, a decentralized neobank and crypto‑card issuer, announced it will migrate its Cash accounts, over 70,000 active cards and roughly 300,000 user accounts from Scroll to Optimism’s OP Mainnet. The move will shift about $160 million in total value locked and...
India Extends UPI One World Pilot for International Visitors at AI Impact Summit 2026: Does It Signal Global Rollout?
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has extended its UPI One World wallet service to international visitors attending the India AI Impact Summit 2026. The extension is a temporary, invitation‑only pilot that allows foreign delegates to make real‑time payments...
Metropolitan Commercial Bank Forges Partnership with Finzly
Metropolitan Commercial Bank (MCB) has partnered with Finzly to replace its legacy ACH mainframe with a cloud‑native, API‑first payment platform that consolidates ACH, wires and real‑time payments on a single system. The bank is the first to adopt Finzly’s unified...
Anchorage Digital Launches Regulated 'Stablecoin Solutions'
Anchorage Digital has introduced Stablecoin Solutions, a federally regulated service that lets banks settle USD transactions globally in near‑real time via blockchain. The offering bundles minting, redemption, custody, treasury and settlement under Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A., overseen by the OCC,...
Saving Banks From Technical Debt: How Atruvia Built Secure, Self-Service Infrastructure
Atruvia, the backbone of over 900 German cooperative banks, tackled massive technical debt by adopting HashiCorp Terraform and Vault. The shift to infrastructure‑as‑code slashed cluster provisioning from three months to two hours and cut network setup from weeks to minutes....
Jump Secures $80M to Expand AI for Financial Advisors
Jump secured $80 million in Series B funding, led by Insight Partners, to build an AI operating system for financial advisors. The round brings total capital to $105 million and reflects rapid adoption, with the platform now serving over 27,000 advisors and adding...
PayPal’s PYUSD Supply Crosses $4 Billion
PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin surpassed a $4 billion market capitalization, cementing its status among the largest digital dollars. On Arbitrum One, PYUSD’s circulating supply rose to roughly $256 million, making it the fourth‑largest stablecoin on the layer‑2 network. The surge is linked to...
Visa to Buy Prisma in Argentina
Visa announced it will reacquire Argentina’s Prisma Medios de Pago and Newpay from Advent International, bringing the payment processors back under its control. The acquisition, expected to close by the end of March, restores Visa’s card‑issuer processing, real‑time payments, ATM...
Lightkeeper Rolls Out AI-Powered ‘Beacon’ to Deliver Verifiable Portfolio Insights
Lightkeeper has introduced Beacon, an AI‑enabled feature that lets hedge funds and asset managers ask plain‑English questions about their portfolios. The tool pulls answers from Lightkeeper’s validated, institutional‑grade data rather than unverified sources, preserving transparency and auditability. Beacon connects client...
Remitly Co-Founder CEO Exits
Remitly announced that former Santander executive Sebastian J. Gunningham will replace co‑founder Matt Oppenheimer as chief executive effective Thursday. Oppenheimer, who led the company for nearly 15 years, will move to board chair and focus on strategic initiatives. The leadership...
Remitly Hires Santander Alum as Its Next CEO
Remitly announced Sebastian Gunningham, a former Santander Consumer Finance chair with executive experience at Amazon, Apple and Oracle, will become its chief executive on Thursday. Co‑founder Matt Oppenheimer will transition to board chair as the company reported a strong 2025...
Criminals Outpacing Banks as Firms Struggle with AI Defence, Report Warns
A new State of Financial Crime 2026 report from ComplyAdvantage reveals that financial institutions are falling behind AI‑enabled criminal networks. Over 600 senior compliance leaders reported 99% detection weaknesses, with only 33% employing AI for core AML functions and manual...
Toast Courts Fast-Food Restaurants
Toast, the Boston‑based restaurant point‑of‑sale provider, announced it will launch a drive‑thru product aimed at quick‑service restaurants later this year. The move marks a strategic shift from its traditional focus on casual‑dining chains such as Applebee’s and Potbelly. In 2025...
Clip’s Tap to Pay and Other Digital Transactions News Briefs From 2/19/26
Clip, the Mexico‑based payments‑tech firm, introduced tap‑to‑pay for Android devices, extending the functionality of its recently launched Clip Total 3 POS. In parallel, Wirex rolled out Stablecoin Push‑to‑Card using Visa Direct, while Justt announced an AI‑driven chargeback solution for franchise networks....
CTrader Admin 9.9 Released with Email Tracking and New Workspace App
Spotware Systems released cTrader Admin 9.9, the latest broker‑focused upgrade to its cTrader operational suite. The version adds email tracking in session reports, a new Workspace Settings app that consolidates export, chat and notification preferences, and a collapsible main menu that...
How AI Upgrades Enterprise Treasury Management
Enterprises are shifting treasury management from error‑prone spreadsheets to AI‑driven automated pipelines. Infosys’ Ashish Kumar and IBS FinTech CEO CM Grover highlight that real‑time data integration with ERP, trading platforms, and banks is essential for AI to add value....
Klarna Delivers $1bn Quarter but Shareholder Returns Take Beating
Klarna posted a record fourth‑quarter revenue of just under $1 billion, a 38% year‑on‑year rise, while gross merchandise volume hit $38.7 billion, up 32%. Active customers grew to 118 million, and the firm continued its push to become a full‑service bank. Despite the...
Agentic Finance Platform Stacks Raises £17m
Fintech startup Stacks announced a £17 million ($23 million) Series A round, led by Lightspeed Ventures and joined by EQT Ventures, General Catalyst and S16VC. The company, which emerged from stealth after an £8.9 million seed, offers an AI‑ready data layer that consolidates fragmented...
Exclusive: Plaid CTO Talks AI Strategy, New Foundational Model to Power Next Phase of ‘Intelligent Finance’
Plaid announced a new transactional foundational AI model, built in‑house from its de‑identified financial data, to power what it calls “intelligent finance.” CTO Will Robinson said the model moves Plaid beyond open‑finance connectivity toward smarter, personalized transaction insights and tighter...
Open Banking’s Paywall Era – and What It Means for Banks, Fintechs, and Policy in 2026
J.P. Morgan now handles nearly two billion API requests each month, but only about 13% stem from direct customer‑initiated actions. Historically, open‑banking data flowed freely, enabling budgeting apps, lending tools and countless fintech services. In 2025 the bank began negotiating paid...
KYA Now
The episode explores the emerging "Know Your Agent" (KYA) paradigm, arguing that the next bottleneck in the agentic economy is identity rather than intelligence. Drawing on insights from Sean Neville of Circle and recent industry reports, the host explains how...
Agility in the Face of Compliance and Risk
In an interview, Mohan Paranthaman and Karthik Iyengar of We Build Products argue that compliance agility, not sheer technology scale, is the true differentiator for banks and fintechs. They cite their experience at Citi, Shopify and other institutions to show how small,...
Digital Payments Rivalry: Paytm Leans on Merchant Edge as PhonePe Scales Volume, Say Brokerages
PhonePe dominates UPI transaction volume with a 51% market share, while Paytm commands only 6% but leads merchant‑payment monetisation. Paytm’s merchant device network and loan services generate higher margins—about 9 basis points versus PhonePe’s 4—resulting in ₹38.6 billion revenue and ₹2.8 billion...
ClearBank Appoints Ex-Uber Exec to Oversee European Expansion
ClearBank has appointed former Uber payments chief Tristan Kirchner as its European CEO to accelerate the bank’s cross‑border growth. The fintech already holds an EU banking licence and serves more than 30 clients across multiple markets. Kirchner will oversee the...
From Convenience to Crime: How Payment Apps Stand to Reshape Business Fraud
Businesses of all sizes are embracing peer‑to‑peer payment apps such as Venmo, Zelle and Cash App to streamline vendor payments and employee reimbursements. The convenience has sparked a surge in fraud, with New York regulators reporting more than $390 million in losses...
DBS Pilots System that Lets AI Agents Make Payments for Customers
DBS Bank, in partnership with Visa, has launched a pilot that enables AI agents to complete payments on behalf of customers using tokenised card credentials. The trial, dubbed Visa Intelligent Commerce, has already processed real‑world transactions such as food and...
How Do You Fund Your Own LLC?
Launching an LLC begins with a clear picture of how much capital is required, often starting with personal savings or bootstrapping. Entrepreneurs then evaluate external sources such as SBA‑backed loans, grants, and alternative platforms like crowdfunding or credit cards. Adding...
Bank of Ireland UK Fined for Late Security System Implementation
The UK arm of Bank of Ireland was fined £3.78 million by the Payments Systems Regulator for a 14‑month delay in deploying the Confirmation of Payee (CoP) system. The lapse left 1.14 million new payees and roughly £7 million in payments without fraud‑prevention...
ISDA’s Amy Hong: ‘North Star’ Is Safe and Efficient Markets
ISDA’s new board chair Amy Hong reaffirmed the association’s 40‑year mission to keep derivatives markets safe and efficient, while charting a 2026 agenda focused on technology and regulatory alignment. She highlighted the continued push to finalize Basel III trading‑book rules and...
Paytently Strengthens Regulatory Compliance and Fraud Defence with SEON Partnership
Paytently, a Malta‑licensed payment institution, announced a partnership with fraud‑prevention specialist SEON to embed the latter’s command‑centre technology into its orchestration platform. The integration brings real‑time AML screening, risk scoring, device intelligence and centralized case management to the core of...
Shahbandr and Tabby Partner to Bring BNPL to 20,000 Online Stores
Shahbandr, a Saudi e‑commerce enablement platform, has teamed up with fintech app Tabby to embed its Buy‑Now‑Pay‑Later solution across the network. The integration will cover more than 20,000 online stores in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, allowing shoppers to split purchases...
Sport, Trade and Visa
Visa Consulting & Analytics reports that the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan boosted overseas Visa cardholder visits by more than 60%, with U.S. travelers up 160% year‑on‑year. European visitors, especially from Germany, also surged, driving average spends of €297, €267...