State Regulators Optimistic About Shift in Bank Supervision
State regulators welcomed the Federal Reserve’s new supervisory memo, which shifts routine bank examinations to state agencies and concentrates federal resources on material financial risks. The three‑page guidance pulls Fed examiners out of proactive oversight of subsidiaries, promising faster, more targeted reviews. While the change could streamline processes and lower compliance costs for community banks, officials caution that uneven state resources may create oversight gaps. Additionally, the reforms face uncertainty from political cycles that could reverse the collaborative framework.
Trading 212 Let UK Retail Trade Crypto ETNs without FCA Approval: FT
Trading 212, a major European investment platform, allowed UK retail customers to trade cryptocurrency‑linked exchange‑traded notes (ETNs) without the FCA’s required permission. The FCA lifted its 2021 ban on crypto ETNs in October 2025, but firms must obtain specific debenture...
Panic Selling Bitcoin on Coinbase Triggers a Binance Price Gap that Reveals a “Messy” Institutional Market Failure
Coinbase’s Bitcoin price slipped below Binance, pushing the Coinbase‑Binance premium into negative territory for the first time this year. The divergence coincided with more than $1.3 billion of net outflows from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, indicating waning institutional demand. Mechanical factors,...
Top Banking Features Every Startup Should Look For
Startups need banking partners that blend digital integration, competitive rates, and robust support. Modern banks now offer API‑driven connections to accounting and payroll tools, transparent fee structures, and real‑time financial insights. Advanced security features such as encryption and two‑factor authentication...
ECB Paves the Way for the Use of DLT-Based Assets as Eligible Collateral
The European Central Bank announced that, starting 30 March 2026, the Eurosystem will accept marketable assets issued by central securities depositories (CSDs) using distributed‑ledger‑technology (DLT) as eligible collateral for its credit operations. This marks the first formal recognition of tokenised securities as...
KuCoin Taps Former LSEG Exec Sabina Liu to Lead MiCA Expansion in Europe
KuCoin has appointed former London Stock Exchange Group executive Sabina Liu as Managing Director of its European unit, overseeing the exchange’s expansion under the EU’s Markets in Crypto‑Assets (MiCA) framework from Vienna. The move follows KuCoin’s recent acquisition of a...
How AI Is Redefining Property Valuation: The New Frontier for Smart Real Estate
In 2026 AI-powered platforms are replacing traditional, manual real‑estate appraisals with real‑time, data‑driven valuations. By ingesting millions of data points—including sentiment, foot traffic and satellite imagery—automated valuation models deliver predictive precision far beyond historic comps. The technology eliminates lag, reduces...
Introduction to Fund Recovery: HonestGuardPrime.com
HonestGuardPrime.com offers a structured fund‑recovery service for victims of online scams, guiding clients through each legal and documentation step. The company’s transparent, step‑by‑step approach is repeatedly highlighted in Trustpilot and other reviews for reducing client stress. Reviewers praise the firm’s...
Flagright Partners Vilja to Modernise AML on BaaS Cores
Flagright and Vilja Solutions have forged a strategic partnership to link Vilja’s cloud‑native BaaS core banking platform with Flagright’s AI‑driven real‑time AML monitoring. The integration will stream transaction data directly into Flagright’s investigation and reporting workflows, cutting integration complexity and...
Barclays Axpands Demo Directory for Startups
Barclays has launched the second phase of its Demo Directory, a digital platform that matches UK‑based startups with corporate investors and partners. The expansion widens eligibility to a broader range of sectors and adds new tools for pitch preparation, due‑diligence,...
Ozow and RelyComply Boost AML-Led Onboarding in SA
Ozow has partnered with RegTech firm RelyComply to embed AI‑driven AML verification into its merchant onboarding process across South Africa. The integration aims to flag high‑risk profiles—such as fake identities, mule accounts and fraudulent business registrations—earlier, speeding up approvals while...
Brazilian Financial Infrastructure Startup Lerian Raises R$30 Million in Seed Round
Lerian, a Brazilian open‑source financial‑infrastructure startup, closed a R$30 million seed round led by MAYA Capital, surpassing its original US$3 million target. The oversubscribed round follows a prior R$18 million raise that funded its core banking platform. The new capital will fuel AI‑driven...
Ant International Signs MoU with Indonesia's Artajasa Pembayaran Elektronis
Indonesia’s leading payment infrastructure firm Artajasa has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ant International, the global fintech arm of Alipay+. The partnership will integrate cross‑border payment capabilities, AI‑driven mobile solutions, and SME digitalisation tools into Artajasa’s extensive network of...
Loomis Pay to Deploy POS and Payments Services From Castles Technology
Loomis Pay announced a partnership with Castles Technology to deploy its POS and payment services on Castles' Android‑based terminals, including the portable S1F4 Pro, PINPAD S1P2 and unattended S1U2M4. The collaboration, developed with Finnish specialist Seitatech, delivered a full software...
Binq Integrates with Iwoca
Binq, the UK business marketplace, has integrated with fintech lender iwoca, leveraging open‑banking data to streamline credit decisions. The partnership offers the nation’s 5.5 million small‑and‑medium enterprises funding options from £1,000 up to £1,000,000. Borrowers benefit from a digital application process...
Institutional Real Estate Investment Platform GoCanopy Raises £2.1 Million
GoCanopy, an AI‑driven platform for institutional real‑estate investors, closed a €2.1 million seed round led by ISAI with participation from BNP Paribas Développement, Yellow and prominent angels. The solution consolidates fragmented deal, tenant and financial documents into a single searchable knowledge base, enhancing...
Techficient Expands InsurTech Stack with Forthright Launch
Techficient unveiled Forthright, an AI‑driven fraud detection platform for insurance carriers and distributors. The solution continuously monitors common fraudulent behaviors, enabling earlier intervention and stronger compliance controls. Forthright extends Techficient’s InsurTech suite, which already includes the Dynamic quoting engine that...
MoneyHash Aligns with Tap Payments
MoneyHash, a leading payment orchestration platform, announced a partnership with Tap Payments, integrating Tap’s gateway across nine MENA markets. The integration lets merchants route, monitor, and optimize payments through a single control layer while accessing Tap’s extensive local payment methods...
What Is the Outlook for Regulation in 2026?
Star Compliance’s 2025 Quarterly Executive Brief highlights a surge in regulatory expectations, especially around digital assets and the UK’s Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR). Market‑abuse supervision is tightening, with regulators expanding insider‑trading definitions to include shadow trading. The report...
Major Security Flaws Found in UK Retailer Websites
A recent Ethiack study of 1,722 European retailers uncovered that 19.7% of SSL certificates on UK retailer websites are invalid, expired, or misconfigured, exposing customer data to interception. Additionally, 19.6% of UK web servers reveal software type and version in...
Revolut Business Moves Into Revenue Operations with Recurring Billing Tool
Revolut Business has launched a native recurring billing tool that lets merchants automate subscription payments without paying for separate billing software. The feature is built into the existing Revolut Business platform, so users incur no additional subscription fees. It integrates...
Visa Urges Banks to Rethink Loyalty Beyond Credit Card Rewards
Visa is urging banks to move beyond credit‑card‑centric loyalty programs toward contextual, data‑driven rewards. Margin pressure on interchange fees and the proliferation of consumer loyalty accounts are forcing banks to seek new funding sources, such as merchant‑backed offers. Visa’s suite...
Fiserv and Affirm Expand Partnership to Bring Pay-Over-Time to Debit Cards
Fiserv and Affirm announced an expanded partnership that will embed Affirm’s pay‑over‑time (BNPL) solution into debit card programs. The integration will be available to thousands of U.S. banks, allowing debit cardholders to access installment financing at the point of sale....
CFOs Prepare for AI by Modernizing Payments
CFOs are accelerating payment modernization as AI becomes mainstream, according to Boost Payment Solutions founder Dean Leavitt. The COVID‑19 pandemic forced a rapid shift from checks and wires to digital platforms, boosting transaction volumes and highlighting the need for flexible,...
95% of Shoppers Research Influencer Picks Before Buying
A new PYMNTS Intelligence study of 3,196 U.S. consumers finds that influencers act more as discovery catalysts than direct sales drivers. While 56% of shoppers purchase an influencer‑recommended item at least once a year, 95% conduct additional research before checkout,...
OneBill and Linked2pay Partner to Streamline Billing and Payments for Merchants
OneBill and linked2pay announced a strategic integration that unifies billing and payment processing for merchants. The partnership embeds linked2pay’s gateway into OneBill’s cloud‑based revenue platform via real‑time APIs, supporting credit‑card, debit‑card and ACH transactions without separate systems. It promises faster...
Beginner’s Guide to RBI Floating Rate Savings Bonds: Features, Returns & Risks
RBI Floating Rate Savings Bonds are a government‑backed, seven‑year debt instrument that allows investors to earn semi‑annual interest that resets every six months based on the National Savings Certificate rate plus a 0.35 % spread. The minimum investment is ₹1,000 with...
“The US Is Still Our Core, Asia Is Where Growth Happens”: How Singapore Family Offices Balance Scale and Opportunity
Singapore’s family office sector is experiencing rapid growth, driven by an influx of first‑generation wealth since 2019. These offices allocate a sizable portion of portfolios to alternative assets—particularly private equity, private credit, and digital infrastructure—leveraging Singapore’s tax‑friendly fund regimes and...
ASIC Wins $9.3M Penalty Against BPS Financial over Misleading Qoin Wallet
Australia’s securities regulator ASIC secured a Federal Court order forcing BPS Financial to pay AU$14 million after finding the firm operated the Qoin Wallet without a licence and made misleading statements about its crypto token. The penalty includes a AU$1.3 million fine...
Australia's Corporate Regulator Flags Risks From Rapid Innovation in Digital Assets
Australia’s corporate regulator ASIC warned that rapid growth in digital assets and artificial intelligence is exposing consumers to unlicensed services. Its 2026 Key Issues Outlook highlighted regulatory gaps in crypto, payments and AI, urging the government to clarify whether these...
60% of Top US Banks Are Geared up for Bitcoin: River
River reports that 60% of the top 25 U.S. banks are either offering or planning Bitcoin‑related services such as trading, custody, or loans. JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup are among the three Big Four banks moving toward crypto offerings, while...
Digital Evidence in Trucking Accidents: What Fleet Technology Reveals After a Crash
Commercial trucks now generate continuous digital evidence through ELDs, dash cameras, and event data recorders, creating an objective timeline of speed, driver actions, and crash dynamics. Insurers and trucking firms can access this data immediately after an accident, while claimants...
Estateguru Investors Reportedly Earned €8.3M in Past Year
Estateguru’s investors collectively earned €8.3 million in the past year as the platform deployed €66 million across 283 Baltic real‑estate projects. The average return on repaid loans hit 8.9%, and 97% of funded amounts have been fully repaid or remain on schedule....
How Financial Institutions Strengthen SAR Readiness With Smarter Risk Practices
Financial institutions are intensifying their suspicious activity reporting (SAR) programs as fraud cycles accelerate and regulators tighten oversight. Strong SAR readiness hinges on real‑time data signals, skilled analysts, clear processes, and modern AML platforms that automate monitoring and case management....
Hyperliquid HIP-3 Open-Interest Hits $793M on Commodities Surge
Hyperliquid’s permissionless market‑creation framework HIP‑3 has pushed open interest to an all‑time high of roughly $790 million, up from $260 million a month earlier. The surge is driven by a commodities rally, especially gold breaking the $5,000 barrier and silver reaching new...
Bitwise to Launch Onchain Vaults via Moprho
Digital asset manager Bitwise has partnered with DeFi lending protocol Morpho to roll out non‑custodial on‑chain vaults, starting with a strategy that aims for a 6% annual percentage yield by allocating capital to over‑collateralized lending pools. The vaults are curated...
Bitcoin Job Listings Rise 6% in 2025, Led by Non-Technical Roles
Bitcoin‑focused job listings rose 6% in 2025, reaching 1,801 positions. Non‑technical roles now account for 74% of openings, up from 69% last year, with product managers leading demand. The United States remains the largest market, while Singapore’s postings surged 158%...
Thunes and UnionPay International Launch Instant Transfers to Mainland China
Thunes has partnered with UnionPay International to create a direct technical link that enables instant, pay‑to‑card transfers into mainland China. The integration routes funds in RMB straight to UnionPay debit cards across 79 major Chinese banks, delivering real‑time or within‑12‑hour...
Japanese Researchers Reduce Blockchain Delays in IoT Infrastructure
Japanese researchers at Chiba University introduced Dual Perigee, a lightweight peer‑selection algorithm that slashes IoT‑blockchain latency by roughly 48.5% versus the standard Ethereum approach and outperforms the earlier Perigee method by over 23%, all without extra computational overhead. Published in...
Stablecoin Market Fall Shows Flight to Gold, Not Bitcoin: Santiment
Santiment reported a $2.24 billion drop in the combined market cap of the top 12 stablecoins over the past ten days, indicating a notable outflow of capital from the crypto ecosystem. The analysis links this flight to heightened demand for traditional...
AI and Digital Finance Raise Financial Stability Implications - BIS
AI and digital finance, especially tokenisation, are reshaping financial services and raising systemic stability concerns, warned BIS chief representative Tao Zhang. Rapid AI‑driven trading can strain liquidity and heighten volatility, while tokenised platforms create complex inter‑dependencies across markets. Both rely...
Australian Digital Lender In1bank Shuts Down
Australian digital lender in1bank announced it will shut down, closing all customer accounts within weeks. The bank cited operational challenges and an inability to secure further funding. Customers have been urged to withdraw or transfer their balances promptly. The closure...
British Regulator Fines Bank of Scotland for Violating Sanctions Law
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation fined Bank of Scotland £160,000 for processing 24 payments linked to a Russian‑designated individual. The breach stemmed from a misspelled name that escaped the bank’s screening system and a manual review error that mis‑identified...
Secret Service Foils Card Skimmers
The U.S. Secret Service’s fraud‑prevention unit partnered with local law‑enforcement to locate and deactivate 411 illegal point‑of‑sale card‑skimming devices in 2025. Across 22 coordinated operations, agents inspected roughly 9,000 businesses and examined about 60,000 terminals, potentially averting $428.1 million in fraudulent...
Unseen Money 16—Synthetic Identity Fraud
In this episode, Paul Amery and guest Timur Yunusov dissect a bizarre DPD delivery of a non‑existent eBay purchase that led them to explore synthetic identity fraud—a scheme where criminals blend stolen personal data with fabricated details to create usable...
Valour Wins FCA Approval to Offer Bitcoin, Ether ETPs to UK Retail Investors
Valour, the UK arm of DeFi Technologies, received FCA approval to list Bitcoin and Ether staking exchange‑traded products (ETPs) on the London Stock Exchange for retail investors. The products, 1Valour Bitcoin Physical Staking and 1Valour Ethereum Physical Staking, began trading...
Equifax Offers Verified Employment and Income Data Alongside Credit Reports
Equifax launched Income Confirm, a service that bundles verified employment and income information with its traditional consumer credit reports. The product pulls data from The Work Number and the recently acquired Vault Verify, delivering details such as employee name, Social...
Float Raises $73 Million for Canada-Focused Working Capital Tools
Float Financial, a Canada‑based business finance platform, announced C$100 million (≈US$73 million) in new debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank, First Citizens and a tier‑1 Canadian bank. The facilities allow Float to continue offering up to 4 % interest on business accounts—the highest...
How Data Analytics Can Help You Construct A Financial Weather Map
The article introduces the concept of a financial weather map, using data analytics to turn static financial reports into dynamic, forward‑looking risk and opportunity visualizations. By blending historical records with real‑time inputs, organizations can spot early warning signals such as...
VanEck Expands Crypto ETF Lineup with Spot Avalanche Product
VanEck has launched VAVX, the first US‑listed spot Avalanche ETF, giving investors direct exposure to AVAX and potential staking yields. The fund trades under the ticker VAVX and waives sponsor fees on the initial $500 million of assets through Feb. 28, after...