Debt Settlement Firm One Payment Plan Offers Financial Literacy Guidance and Connects Clients with Qualified Debt Relief Partners
One Payment Plan, a Delaware‑based comparison platform, helps U.S. consumers navigate the crowded debt‑relief market by educating them on options and linking them to vetted partners. The service evaluates individual financial profiles—debt amount, income, goals—to recommend settlement, management or consolidation programs. By prioritizing transparency and compliance, the platform seeks to eliminate confusion and protect users from predatory providers. CEO Elias Ervill emphasizes that informed consumers experience relief even before enrolling in a program.
Inter Accounting Advisory Enters the Fray as Brokerage Firms Feel the Full Weight of Regulatory Crackdown
Regulators are intensifying audits of brokerage firms, targeting client‑fund segregation, trade execution and custodial practices. The crackdown has led to surprise examinations and heightened enforcement risk, including fines, account freezes or shutdowns. Inter Accounting Advisory has emerged as a go‑to...
KAST Launches Earn Vaults Combining Stablecoin Yield with Institutional-Grade Risk Management
KAST has introduced Earn Vaults, a new suite of stablecoin yield products that combine high‑interest returns with institutional‑grade risk controls. The vaults support USDC, USDT and DAI, offering up to 12% annual percentage yield while employing audited smart contracts and...
SEB Analysts Say 2026 Marks Shift From Virtual to Physical AI
SEB analysts forecast that 2026 will mark a decisive shift from purely virtual AI to AI embedded in physical capital goods such as autonomous vehicles, drones and humanoid robots. The steep drop in AI usage costs in 2025 has broadened...
Kast Introduces Stablecoin Yield Prroduct
Global fintech platform KAST has launched KAST Earn Vaults, a stablecoin yield product that lets users earn 5‑9% APY on USDC and USDT. The vaults are powered by Gauntlet, which provides institutional‑grade risk management and automatically reallocates capital across Base,...
Brian Kent: Driving Healthcare Growth Through IDR Expertise
Healthcare providers are grappling with the No Surprises Act’s Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) process, which determines out‑of‑network payments. Former attorney Brian Kent has built a consultancy that applies legal‑grade analytical rigor to select high‑value cases, prepare defensible arbitration submissions, and...
PSA Prepares Issuing Support for Wero in Austria and Germany
PSA Payment Services Austria GmbH is rolling out issuing support services for the Wero digital wallet across Austrian and German banks. The move establishes the technical and operational framework needed for banks to connect to Wero, a real‑time, account‑based payment...
FCA Seeks Feedback on Further Rules for Cryptoasset Firms
The FCA has launched a consultation on extending its Consumer Duty and related conduct standards to crypto‑asset firms, marking the final phase of its crypto regulatory roadmap. The proposals cover redress, dispute resolution, conduct of business rules, credit usage, staff...
Fourthline Appoints Fleur De Roos as Chief Operating Officer
Fourthline, a European AI‑powered identity verification and RegTech provider, announced the promotion of Fleur de Roos to chief operating officer, effective immediately. De Roos, who joined as general counsel in 2022, brings a background in corporate law, financial services, and...
Metaplanet Raises 2026 Outlook as Bitcoin Write-Down Tops $680M
Tokyo‑listed Metaplanet lifted its 2025 revenue outlook to ¥8.905 bn ($58 m) and raised operating income to $40 m, but still expects a $632 m ordinary loss due to a $680‑$700 m non‑cash Bitcoin impairment. The impairment reflects year‑end price drops in its Bitcoin holdings,...
How Payment Processing Works
The article breaks down payment processing into its core components, detailing the six key players—from cardholder to acquiring bank—and the four-stage transaction flow of authorization, authentication, clearing, and settlement. It explains the distinct roles of acquirers, processors, and gateways, then...
Why Voice-Based Scams Are a Growing Threat to Banks
Phone‑based scams have moved from a niche consumer problem to a material risk for banks, with U.S. consumers losing over $12.5 billion in 2024, many through voice attacks. Fraudsters exploit the inherent trust of human speech and caller‑ID spoofing to impersonate...
Payments for Retail: How Membership-Style Saves Money
Retailers are squeezed by rising costs and thin margins, and payment‑processing fees are a hidden drain on profitability. Traditional tiered, flat‑rate, or interchange‑plus models tie fees directly to sales volume, penalising growth. Membership‑based pricing swaps per‑transaction markups for a predictable...
Michael Allain Joins Red Oak as Chief Revenue Officer
Red Oak, a compliance connectivity platform for financial services, has appointed Michael Allain as chief revenue officer to drive scalable revenue growth and operational excellence. Allain arrives with over 30 years of B2B sales experience, including two decades in highly...
Digital Wallets vs Traditional Payments: Which Drives Faster Checkouts?
UK payment habits in 2026 show digital wallets now used by 57% of adults, overtaking cash for everyday purchases. Contactless and mobile payments account for over half of in‑store card transactions, delivering faster checkout through biometric and tokenised authentication. Traditional...
Finby Signs up for Wero
Finby, a European payment service provider and acquirer, has entered a partnership with the European Payments Initiative (EPI) to support its upcoming pan‑European digital wallet, Wero. The wallet already counts more than 48 million users and aims to enable fast, secure...
STAMP Raises €4M in Funding
Fintech company STAMP announced a €4 million funding round led by Dozen, with participation from EBISU Digital and FC Barcelona’s Barça Innovation Hub, including footballer Thibaut Courtois as an investor. The capital will accelerate the firm’s expansion across Europe, enhance its...
Barclays and FactSet Enter a Multiyear Strategic Agreement
Barclays announced a multiyear strategic agreement with FactSet to deepen its market‑data capabilities. FactSet will supply Barclays with its full suite of analytics, data, and technology solutions, enabling more data‑driven products for the bank’s global clients. The partnership also places...
ResiQuant and Skyway Team up for Smarter Catastrophe Underwriting
Skyway Underwriters has partnered with ResiQuant to modernize underwriting of Florida’s coastal wind risk, deploying ResiQuant’s structural risk intelligence across its apartment and assisted‑living programs. The integration blends automated workflows with engineering‑level data, enabling building‑specific risk scores while maintaining underwriting...
Nexi Joins Agentic Commerce Alliance
Nexi Group announced its membership in the Agentic Commerce Alliance, a global initiative focused on establishing open standards for autonomous, AI‑driven commerce. The alliance aims to create vendor‑neutral protocols that enable agents to operate securely and interoperably across platforms. Nexi...
Iplicit Appoints VP Finance
Iplicit, the UK‑focused cloud accounting SaaS, has promoted Andy Jackson to Vice President of Finance after two years as Financial Controller. Jackson brings 27 years of finance leadership, including extensive fast‑growth SaaS experience, to support CFO Rob Steele as the...
Mea Platform Partners with Moonrock to Power AI-Led MGA Operations
mea Platform and Moonrock Insurance have partnered to embed mea Operations, an AI‑first operating platform, across Moonrock’s MGA business. The integration will automate core workflows—including submission intake, data ingestion, claims handling and finance—enabling faster, more consistent processing. By replacing legacy...
Crypto Crime Hits Record Levels as Nation-States Dodge Sanctions
Chainalysis reports illicit crypto transactions reached $154 billion in 2025, a 160% jump from the prior year. The surge stems largely from nation‑state actors, especially Russia, leveraging a ruble‑backed stablecoin (A7A5) to bypass sanctions. Stablecoins now represent roughly 60% of illicit...
The Rise of Digital Assets: A Conversation with Yoni Assia
In a Fintech Times podcast recorded at Abu Dhabi Finance Week, eToro co‑founder and CEO Yoni Assa discusses the broker’s transformation from a traditional‑finance pioneer to a leading digital‑assets platform. He outlines how eToro expanded its offering to more than...
South Korea’s Coinone Weighs Stake Sale Amid Coinbase Speculation
Coinone, South Korea's third‑largest crypto exchange, is preparing to sell the 53.4% stake held by Chairman Cha Myung‑hoon, while game‑developer Com2uS may offload its 38.4% holding at a loss. The exchange confirmed talks with both domestic financial institutions and overseas...
Japan Plans Framework that Could Permit Crypto ETFs by 2028: Nikkei
Japan’s Financial Services Agency is drafting rule changes that could allow cryptocurrency exchange‑traded funds as early as 2028. The proposed framework would let crypto assets count as eligible ETF holdings and include stronger investor‑protection measures. Major financial groups such as...
Mobility Fintech GoCab Closes $45m Funding to Expand Drive-To-Own Model
GoCab, a London‑based mobility fintech, closed $45 million in funding – $15 million seed equity and $30 million debt – led by E3 Capital and Janngo VC. The company provides a drive‑to‑own vehicle financing model for gig‑economy drivers and offers add‑on BNPL products,...
NEO PAY and Wio Bank Join Forces to Streamline SME Financing in the UAE
UAE payment provider NEO PAY has teamed up with digital bank Wio Bank PJSC to launch a point‑of‑sale (PoS) lending product for small and medium‑sized enterprises. The solution taps real‑time sales data from merchants’ PoS terminals to deliver fast working‑capital...
ClearScore Enters Mortgage Market with Acquisition of Acre Platforms
ClearScore, the UK fintech known for free credit‑score checks, announced its entry into the residential mortgage market by acquiring Acre Platforms. The undisclosed deal equips ClearScore with Acre’s underwriting engine and cloud‑native loan‑origination system, enabling instant mortgage offers after a...
Consensys Pushes for Balanced Cybersecurity Rules in FTC’s Nomad Case
Consensys submitted a comment letter to the FTC urging technology‑agnostic security standards in the agency’s settlement with Nomad Capital Labs over the 2022 $190 million bridge hack. The firm warns that prescriptive measures such as mandatory circuit‑breaker mechanisms could clash with...
Tapping Into Your Home Equity: What You Need to Know Before Taking the Plunge
Home equity loans and HELOCs let homeowners borrow against the difference between market value and mortgage balance, often at rates lower than unsecured credit. Lenders typically allow borrowing up to 80‑85% of available equity, with credit scores influencing terms. These...
Things Worth Reading: 26th January 2026
The Bank of England publicly acknowledged its inflation forecasting errors, while European regulators flagged systemic risk in life insurers and encouraged banks to re‑engage with Wall Street. In the fintech arena, Titan received a second SEC penalty for exaggerated crypto...
US Authorities Recover Billions in Bitcoin (BTC) Allegedly Linked to Fraud Scheme, 9/11 Families and Other Victims Seek the Funds
U.S. authorities have taken control of more than 127,000 Bitcoin, valued at over $11.4 billion, in what officials describe as one of the largest crypto forfeitures ever. The coins originated from a mining operation run by Iran‑linked LuBian.com, which allegedly helped...
AWS Releases Updated PCI PIN Compliance Report for Payment Cryptography
Amazon Web Services has released an updated PCI PIN compliance package for its Payment Cryptography service, confirming a recent third‑party audit with zero findings. The package includes a PCI PIN Attestation of Compliance and a Responsibility Summary that outlines customer obligations. The...
PulseChain: A Scalable, Low-Cost Blockchain Built for DeFi and Web3
PulseChain launched as a full Ethereum system‑state fork, replicating every wallet, token and smart contract while switching to a Proof‑of‑Stake consensus. The layer‑1 network offers sub‑second block times and transaction fees measured in fractions of a cent, delivering a scalable,...
Majority of Institutional Investors Say Bitcoin Is Undervalued: Coinbase
Coinbase’s Q1 2026 report reveals that 71% of surveyed institutional investors view Bitcoin as undervalued, citing a price range of $85,000‑$95,000. Bitcoin is trading near $87,600, more than 30% below its October all‑time high of $126,080. Eighty percent of institutions said...
SEC Closes Chapter on Gemini Earn Dispute with Permanent Dismissal Following Complete User Repayments
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission permanently dismissed its lawsuit against Gemini Trust Company after the crypto exchange and its partner Genesis returned roughly $3 billion in assets to more than 200,000 Earn users. The dismissal, filed with prejudice, follows a...
Uber and DoorDash Lose Bid to Quash NYC Tipping Law
Uber and DoorDash lost a federal bid to block New York City’s new tipping law, which forces delivery apps to present a tip option and a suggested minimum of 10% at checkout. U.S. District Judge George Daniels rejected the companies’...
26M+ Scammed By Fake QR Codes: NordVPN
NordVPN research finds more than 26 million people may have been lured to malicious sites via fake QR codes. Scammers embed these codes in “brushing” packages, a tactic that now delivers 26 % of all malicious links. Seventy‑three percent of Americans admit...
DXC Technology and Ripple Join Forces to Enable Digital Asset Integration in Banking
DXC Technology announced a strategic partnership with Ripple to embed blockchain‑based digital‑asset custody and payment capabilities into its Hogan core‑banking system. The integration lets banks manage stablecoins, tokenized assets, and cross‑border transfers without replacing legacy infrastructure. Ripple’s Payments and Custody...
Bitcoin, Clarity Act, FTC & NYSE: Web3 Thoughts of the Week
Bitcoin fell below the $94,000 threshold, testing support around $88,000 as geopolitical tensions and tariff news weigh on digital assets. The NYSE announced plans for 24/7 trading and on‑chain settlement, aiming to bridge liquidity gaps for real‑world assets. Meanwhile, the...
Experian, Credit Builders Alliance Partner to Improve Access for Underserved Consumers
Experian and the Credit Builders Alliance (CBA) released a study showing that adding a CBA tradeline propels 70% of previously unscored borrowers into prime or near‑prime credit within a year, far outpacing the 48% rate for the broader unscored population....
Solana’s New Phase Is ‘Much More About Finance,’ Says Backpack CEO Armani Ferrante
Solana’s ecosystem is pivoting from meme‑driven hype to a sober focus on financial infrastructure, according to Backpack CEO Armani Ferrante. Over the past year the network has emphasized high‑throughput on‑chain trading, market structure and settlement rather than NFTs or gaming....
US Private Credit Market Expands Significantly in Early 2026, Report Reveals
PitchBook reports that US private credit assets under management are set to top $2 trillion in early 2026, driven by a steady decline in default rates and solid middle‑market earnings. Fourth‑quarter 2025 earnings rose 3.1 % thanks to strong consumer‑goods and technology...
Here's What Fed's Highly Anticipated Rate Decision This Week Means for Bitcoin and the Dollar
The Federal Reserve is expected to keep its policy rate steady at 3.5%‑3.75% this week, marking a pause after three consecutive quarter‑point cuts. Traders will watch Jerome Powell’s language to determine whether the pause is hawkish, which could bolster the...
Top Crypto SEO & AI Search Agencies for Web3 Projects
The article outlines the shift in crypto SEO from traditional rankings to AI‑driven visibility, highlighting agencies that specialize in Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and LLM‑friendly content. It profiles eight firms, with Victoria Olsina’s consultancy leading in...
The Rise of RWA: How Mey Real Bridges Wall Street Tech with High-Yield Real Estate
Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization is booming, with the market reaching $36 billion by late 2025—a 2,200% increase since 2020. Research projects the sector could expand to $30 trillion by 2034, while tokenized real‑estate alone may hit $3 trillion by 2030. Mey Real...
Bridging the Gap: The Ultimate Guide to Instant Crypto Liquidity and How to Transfer Bitcoin to PayPal, Bank, and Western...
ExchangeInstant positions itself as a one‑stop solution for instant crypto liquidity, enabling users to convert Bitcoin, USDT, Ethereum and other assets directly into PayPal, bank accounts, or cash‑pickup services such as Western Union and MoneyGram. The platform emphasizes speed—often delivering...
Quantum Tech in Banking and Fintech: The Next Big Thing
Quantum technology is transitioning from theory to proof‑of‑concept within finance, with banks and fintech firms launching pilots in portfolio optimisation, fraud detection, and quantum‑secure communications. Quantum computing's ability to solve large‑scale optimisation and accelerate Monte Carlo simulations promises faster risk...
How the Ultra-Wealthy Are Using Bitcoin to Fund Their Yacht Upgrades and Cannes Trips
Ultra‑wealthy crypto investors are turning to decentralized finance platforms such as Aave, Morpho and Uniswap to obtain short‑term credit without liquidating their Bitcoin or Ether holdings. Cometh, a French DeFi‑for‑businesses firm that recently secured a MiCA licence, structures these loans...