Broker’s Call: Paytm (Outperform)
Haitong International initiates coverage of One 97 Communication (Paytm) with an Outperform rating and a target price of ₹1,410 (≈ $17), above the current market price of ₹1,106.85 (≈ $13.5). The broker highlights Paytm’s leadership in retail digital payments and its aggressive push to digitise SME merchants, which is boosting revenue and improving the mix of higher‑margin MDR‑linked instruments. Paytm’s merchant‑lending moat and operating leverage are expected to lift core‑EBITDA margin to 17% and drive a four‑fold increase in core‑EBITDA and PAT by FY 28. Risks include regulatory scrutiny across its multiple financial‑service segments and potential credit‑market stress.
95% of UK SMEs Turn to AI to Tackle Hidden Payment Losses
UK small‑and‑medium enterprises are bleeding roughly $202,000 per year each from failed payments, abandoned checkouts and churn, creating a hidden revenue gap worth hundreds of millions across the economy. Research by Access PaySuite of 250 finance leaders shows 3.4% of...
Visa’s Neat Deal and Other Digital Transactions News Briefs From 4/13/26
Visa has teamed with insurance‑tech firm Neat to let European cardholders file digital claims, expanding its value‑added services. Repay Holdings defended its $372 million purchase of Kubra Data Transfer after investor Veradace Partners called the deal misguided. Klarna announced support for...
Recruitment Finance Specialist Expands Funding Offer with New Appointment
Flo Group, a UK specialist in back‑office services, software and finance for recruitment agencies, has appointed Tom O’Dell as commercial director. The hire follows a drawdown of an £8 million (≈$10 million) funding facility that expands the firm’s invoice‑finance capacity. Flo now...
The Fintech Landscape of Brazil in 2026
Brazil’s fintech ecosystem has matured into one of the world’s most sophisticated emerging‑market financial systems, driven by public‑policy initiatives and a surge of private‑sector innovation. The Central Bank’s Pix platform now handles over 6 billion transactions a month, moving roughly $550 billion...
Robinhood Takes a Curated Approach to Prediction Markets, Avoiding High-Risk Contracts
Robinhood is deliberately narrowing its prediction‑market catalog, opting to exclude high‑risk contracts such as "mention markets" that could be exploited for insider information. The platform now works exclusively with CFTC‑regulated exchanges like Kalshi and ForecastEx, keeping its offerings confined to...
GoCardless Sees Revenue Boost, Undertook 2025 Restructure
GoCardless reported a year‑on‑year revenue increase to £155.5 million (≈$194 million) for FY 2025, driven by new customers, renewals and the Nuapay acquisition. The fintech doubled its processed payments volume to £79.2 billion (≈$99 billion) and narrowed losses to £25.5 million (≈$31.9 million), posting its first adjusted...
OPay Named Nigeria’s Most Trusted Digital Financial Company at 2026 ISO Awards
OPay was named the Most Trusted Quality Mobile Money and Digital Financial Services Company of the Year at the 2026 ISO World Corporate Brand of the Year Awards in Lagos. The accolade was based on a 4.6 online referrer rating...
Wise Set to Downgrade London Listing This Quarter
Wise confirmed it will move its primary listing from London to Nasdaq on May 11, completing the transition this quarter. The fintech cites greater U.S. visibility, deeper capital pools, and a more liquid market as key benefits. In Q4, transaction volume...
Duplo and Ozow Announce Strategic Partnership
Duplo and South Africa’s leading payment gateway Ozow have forged a strategic partnership to integrate Ozow’s instant EFT payment rails with Duplo’s end‑to‑end financial operating system. The combined solution lets merchants automatically match payments to invoices, reconcile accounts and manage...
India’s UPI Turns 10 Approaching 1 Trillion Transactions
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) celebrated its tenth anniversary on April 11, 2026, marking a decade of rapid adoption. The platform is now on track to surpass one trillion cumulative transactions, a milestone that underscores its scale. UPI processes payments at roughly...
6 Risk Controls Fintechs Should Use in Trading Apps
The European Union is rolling out a new digital border system that replaces traditional passport stamps with biometric verification, aiming to streamline cross‑border travel. While the technology promises faster, paper‑less processing, the rollout has been hampered by long queues and...
Nu Holdings: Doubling Down Despite U.S. Expansion Concerns
Nu Holdings (NU) continues to pursue aggressive growth in Latin America, leveraging its founder‑led, digital‑first model that delivers 45% FX‑neutral revenue growth and a 33% return on equity. The bank’s unit economics remain strong, with low‑cost customer acquisition and prudent...
B2PRIME Group Awarded FX Solution Provider at WealthBriefing 2026
B2PRIME Group was named the FX Solution Provider at the WealthBriefing European Awards 2026, an accolade decided by an independent panel of wealth‑management experts. The award highlights the firm’s innovative foreign‑exchange liquidity platform and its operational excellence over the past...
Cashfree Payments Appoints Sameer Gandhi as CFO
Cashfree Payments has named Sameer Gandhi as its chief financial officer, tapping more than two decades of experience from Visa India, Vodafone, and ING. Gandhi will steer the firm’s financial strategy toward higher operational efficiency and stronger revenue planning as...
Money20/20 Asia Unveils the Intersection Stage: The Epicenter Where TradFi and DeFi Converge
Money20/20 Asia introduced the Intersection Stage, a dedicated arena where traditional finance firms and decentralized finance projects can showcase joint solutions. The platform features live demos, panel discussions, and a sandbox for real‑time tokenisation, cross‑border payments and regulatory pilots. HSBC...
Round Raises $6M to Automate the Finance Workflows that Still Require a Human to Press a Button
London fintech Round announced a $6 million seed round led by Alstin Capital, with participation from Backed VC, Love Ventures, and several angel investors including Indeed co‑founder Paul Forster. The funding backs the launch of two new products—a natural‑language Agentic Workflow Builder and an...
Fintech Landscape in the Caribbean: The Bahamas in 2026
In 2026 the Bahamas, a $15 billion economy of just over 400,000 people, has cemented its reputation as a Caribbean fintech pioneer. The Central Bank’s Sand Dollar, the world’s first retail CBDC, has expanded into government payments, retail transactions and financial‑inclusion...
Payments Firm Wise Heads to New York With £181 Billion Year Behind It
Wise reported a 26% jump in Q4 FY2026 cross‑border volumes to £49.4 billion (about $63 billion) and a 25% rise for the full year to £181.7 billion (≈$233 billion). Active customers grew 22% to 11.3 million and underlying income rose 24% to £435.3 million (≈$557 million). The...
India Unveils New Security Standards for Its Digital Payments System to Drive Global Adoption
India’s Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has rolled out new security norms covering biometric authentication, QR‑code payments, and digital‑currency handling. The guidelines aim to curb fraud, improve interoperability, and build consumer confidence in the country’s fast‑growing fintech ecosystem. BIS consulted...
UK Fintech Wise to Downgrade London Listing This Quarter
Wise confirmed it will move its primary listing from London to the United States this quarter, publishing its next‑year results in dollars. The fintech reported a 26% jump in cross‑border volumes to roughly $63.5 bn and a 22% rise in active...
Neo4j CTO Highlights Graph Technology as Foundation for Reliable AI
Neo4j CTO Philip Rathle told Fintech Times that graph technology is becoming the backbone for reliable generative AI in finance. He highlighted how knowledge graphs complement large language models by providing deterministic, auditable facts, reducing hallucinations in regulated banking environments....
Flutterwave Secures Nigerian Banking License to Capture Multi-Trillion Naira Market
Flutterwave has secured a full Nigerian banking licence, allowing it to hold deposits and settle payments without a sponsoring bank. The move gives the fintech direct access to Nigeria’s clearing system, a market where digital transactions move trillions of naira...
EML Payments Slashes FY26 EBITDA Guidance by 20% on Implementation Delays and Weak Trading
EML Payments trimmed its FY26 underlying EBITDA outlook by roughly 20%, now forecasting $31‑33 million USD (previously $38‑40 million USD). The downgrade stems from delayed program go‑lives and weaker‑than‑expected trading in its northern‑hemisphere operations. Despite the revenue shortfall, the company says operating...
HKMA Grants HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial Stablecoin Licences
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has issued stablecoin issuer licences to HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial under the city’s Stablecoins Ordinance, with the authorisations taking effect on April 10. These licences allow the two firms to create and distribute regulated digital...
GCash, Visa, Mastercard Eye PH Fare System Concession
The Philippine Department of Transportation is preparing a concession for a nationwide Automated Fare Collection System (PAFCS) and has received interest from 24 firms, including GCash, Visa and Mastercard. The concession will cover development, operation and maintenance of a fully...
Australian Payments Plus Continues "Operating Model Harmonisation"
Australian Payments Plus (AP+) has consolidated its IT, risk and customer service functions onto a single ServiceNow instance, creating a unified digital front door for its three core businesses—BPAY Group, eftpos and NPP Australia. The move merged previously separate ServiceNow...
White House Tells Banks to Use Anthropic to Spot Vulnerabilities
The White House is urging the nation’s largest banks to deploy Anthropic’s Mythos AI model for cybersecurity vulnerability detection. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley have begun internal trials after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and...
Over 80% of Bitcoin ETF Assets Hit Coinbase Custody Choke Point with $74B at Risk
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs now hold roughly $91.7 billion, with about $77 billion (84%) custodied by Coinbase. Even a stricter count that excludes multi‑custodian funds leaves over $74 billion, or 81%, under Coinbase’s control. The exchange’s recent OCC conditional approval for a national...
Bitcoin Price Holds $70K as Institutions Buy and Pepeto Presale Fills
Bitcoin is hovering around $70,900 after Cantor Fitzgerald announced a $2 billion institutional lending program, bolstering the asset’s floor. ETF inflows have topped $38 billion, pushing the total market cap of Bitcoin to roughly $1.4 trillion. Meanwhile, the Pepeto token presale sold out...
European Central Bank (ECB) Research Study Examines Distinct Profiles of Crypto Holders and Users in the Euro Area
The European Central Bank released a working paper analyzing crypto adoption across the euro area, based on a 2022 survey of 39,500 adults in 17 countries. It identifies two distinct groups: typical crypto owners who are younger, educated, higher‑income investors,...
NetSuite Rolls Out AI Updates to Help Finance Teams Automate with Control
At its SuiteConnect London event, Oracle NetSuite unveiled major upgrades to its AI Connector Service, aimed at giving finance teams tighter control while automating tasks. The new AI Connector Service Companion includes a curated library of more than 100 finance‑specific...
Banks, Corporates in Europe ‘Actively Selecting Partners’ for Stablecoin Push
European banks and corporates are moving from study to implementation of stablecoins, selecting infrastructure partners after the EU’s MiCA regulation created a unified framework. Board‑level approved projects include ClearBank Europe’s MiCA licence, the ING‑led Qivalis euro stablecoin, and Societe Generale’s cross‑border...
Bolivia’s Fintech Landscape in 2026
In 2026 Bolivia’s fintech sector is moving from obscurity to early growth as inflation, foreign‑currency shortages and liquidity constraints push consumers toward digital solutions. The government is negotiating roughly $9 billion in multilateral loans that tie infrastructure upgrades to financial‑inclusion projects,...
Finix Review: Is The Platform Worth The Switch From Stripe?
Finix is positioning itself as a viable alternative to Stripe by leveraging a $75 million Series C round that brings total funding to $208 million and reporting a four‑fold revenue increase in 2024. The platform processes 432 million transactions daily across the United States...
Commodity Traders Are Getting Debanked Due to Iran War, Pushing Them to Rely on Stablecoins
Commodity traders in Europe are being "debanked" as banks pull back from Iran‑linked transactions due to heightened compliance risk. To replace traditional rails, traders are increasingly using stablecoins, especially Tether's USDT, for cross‑border settlement. Haycen, a trade‑finance‑focused stablecoin issuer, is...
Tron’s Justin Sun Slams Trump-Backed WLFI for Treating Users as ‘Personal ATM’ After $75 Million DeFi Loan
Tron founder Justin Sun has severed ties with Trump‑backed World Liberty Financial (WLFI) after the firm deposited 5 billion WLFI tokens (≈$395 million) on DeFi lender Dolomite and borrowed roughly $75 million in stablecoins. The loan drove Dolomite’s USD‑1 pool to 100 % utilization,...
African Economies Explore Stable Coins Option for Cross-Border Settlement
African nations are evaluating stablecoins as a cross‑border payment tool to offset chronic hard‑currency shortages, a trend highlighted by Visa’s regional manager. The digital assets, backed by reserve currencies, promise to preserve foreign‑exchange reserves while facilitating trade. Kenya’s recent credit‑based...
These Cofounders Quit Corporate Jobs, Took on $100K in Credit Card Debt, and Slept in a Denny’s—Now Their $1.2B Company...
Esusu, a fintech platform that reports on‑time rent payments to credit bureaus, was launched by co‑founders Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goel after they quit stable corporate jobs, racked up $100,000 in credit‑card debt and even slept in a Denny’s. Their...
Event Bets Pose a Problem for Wall Street Firms Looking to Trade
Prediction‑market platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi are experiencing a surge, with weekly wagering volumes now running into the billions of dollars. The boom covers a wide range of events, from sports outcomes to speculative religious forecasts. While a few...
US Down to 'Last Chance' To Pass CLARITY Act Before 2030: Lummis
U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis warned that the CLARITY Act—legislation aimed at giving the crypto sector clear regulatory oversight—faces its final window for passage before a de‑facto deadline in 2030. The push comes amid concerns that the November midterm elections could...
3 Different Fintech Giants: Turnaround, Stability, or Risky Bet?
The payments sector continues its rapid expansion, but three leading fintech firms are charting very different courses. Fiserv (FISV) trades near an eight‑year low despite generating $5.8 billion of operating cash flow, positioning it as a contrarian turnaround play. Global Payments...
Eliminate the Black Box: How Gradient Labs Is Architecting Safe Agentic AI for Banking
Gradient Labs is building transparent, auditable AI agents for banks, addressing the industry’s fear of opaque large‑language models. By logging decision traces and binding LLMs to narrow tasks, the firm creates an audit trail that satisfies regulators. It also benchmarks...
Swiss Stock Exchange SIX, Snowflake Partner to Simplify Access to Financial Data
Switzerland’s SIX stock exchange has teamed up with Snowflake to deliver its regulatory, reference and pricing data directly within Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud. The integration uses Snowflake’s zero‑copy data sharing, letting clients query SIX data without moving or duplicating it....
UK Sole Traders Are Leveraging AI for Tax Filing and Preparation, Report Reveals
Starling Bank’s latest survey of 1,000 UK sole traders shows a rapid shift toward AI for tax and accounting help. About 26% have already consulted AI on the new Making Tax Digital rules, while 20% use it regularly for broader...
The Finanser’s Week: 6th April – 12th April 2026
Research from RedCompass Labs shows that 44% of global banks are off‑track for the ISO 20022 migration deadline in November 2026, a hard stop on legacy SWIFT messaging. The weekly roundup also highlights Jamie Dimon’s cautionary shareholder letter, a critique of the...
The Making Of A Lending Tech Unicorn
KreditBee became India’s 128th unicorn after a $280 million Series E round valued it at $1.5 billion, marking the country’s second unicorn of 2026. The raise was oversubscribed despite a 26% YoY drop in overall startup funding, underscoring investor confidence in data‑driven, digital...
Latin America's Central Banks Establish Digital Payments Used By Hundreds of Millions
Latin America’s central banks have rolled out instant‑payment platforms that now serve hundreds of millions, highlighted by Brazil’s Pix reaching 175 million users. Argentina and Costa Rica have followed suit with their own digital systems, leveraging a clean‑slate infrastructure free of...
UR and Ant Group’s TopNod Partner to Bring Onchain Assets to Everyday Spending
UR, a composable infrastructure provider, has teamed with TopNod, Ant Group’s non‑custodial wallet, to issue a co‑branded Mastercard. The card, supervised by Switzerland’s FINMA and issued by SR Saphirstein AG, lets users convert and spend over 20 digital assets directly...
Judge Pauses Arizona's Prosecution of Kalshi, Bars Arizona From Regulating Prediction Markets
A U.S. District Judge in Arizona temporarily blocked the state from enforcing its gambling laws against prediction‑market operator Kalshi, halting a criminal arraignment. The ruling follows a lawsuit by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which argued that Kalshi’s event contracts...