FAB Partners with Presight and Microsoft to Accelerate Enterprise AI Innovation
First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) hosted a virtual AI Agentathon in partnership with Presight and Microsoft to fast‑track enterprise AI solutions. Four cross‑functional teams combined bank staff with Microsoft and Presight experts to design concepts that address decision‑making, operational efficiency and client experience. The event culminated in presentations evaluated on impact, feasibility and alignment with FAB’s strategic priorities. FAB positions the sprint as a bridge from isolated pilots to scalable, deployment‑ready AI across the organization.
Morph Predicts Stablecoins Will Capture 10% of Global Cross-Border Payments by 2030
Morph’s new State of Stablecoins report shows the sector’s market cap has surged to $312 billion, a 60‑fold rise since 2020, and annual transaction volume now tops $33 trillion—exceeding Visa’s $15.7 trillion and Mastercard’s $9.8 trillion combined. Business‑to‑business payments dominate, reaching $226 billion and climbing...
FinTech Wales Hits 200-Member Milestone Amidst Surge in Global Inward Investment
FinTech Wales, the not‑for‑profit fintech hub founded in 2019, announced it has reached 200 members. The new cohort includes home‑grown AI, data and payments startups such as Oxyile, Valart and CalonAI, as well as foreign firms like France’s Lideflow, Mauritius’s...
Automated Audits Can Slash M&A Fraud Risks
Acquirers face "buyer beware" fraud when target companies inflate revenue, mis‑capitalize expenses, and hide true financial results, often leading to EBITDA overstatements of up to five points. In the highlighted case, the M&A team completed due diligence, handed off the...
Argentina’s Fintech Landscape in 2026
Argentina’s fintech sector is booming as persistent inflation and currency volatility push consumers and businesses toward digital finance. The market, worth about $1.13 billion in 2024, is projected to exceed $4.2 billion by 2033, with digital banking adoption surpassing 60 percent of the...
Dubai VARA Introduces Regulatory Framework for Virtual Asset Derivatives Trading
Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) has launched Version 2.1 of its Exchange Services Rulebook, a purpose‑built framework that brings virtual‑asset derivatives under enforceable regulation. The rules apply immediately to all VARA‑licensed virtual‑asset service providers (VASPs) and require explicit authorisation plus...
Fintech Americas 2026 Wraps up in Miami with a Call for ‘AI with a Soul’
Fintech Americas 2026 concluded in Miami, gathering over 1,800 fintech leaders, 200 speakers and 100 innovators from more than 25 countries. The three‑day Money20/20‑affiliated event centered on the provocative theme “The 4th Dimension: AI with a Soul,” urging the industry...
Lloyds Banking Group and University of Glasgow Launch Four-Year Agentic AI Research Programme
Lloyds Banking Group and the University of Glasgow have launched a four‑year research partnership to examine how agentic AI coding tools can augment software and data engineering in a large‑scale enterprise. The programme will run quarterly experiments with engineers in...
Hawk Launches Agentic AI Tool to Overhaul Costly AML Investigations
Hawk has launched the AML Investigative Agent, an agentic AI platform that automates the most labor‑intensive steps of anti‑money‑laundering investigations. The solution overlays existing case‑management systems, offering deep AML typology expertise, extensive data coverage, and regulator‑grade explainability. Built with human‑in‑the‑loop...
XBTO Secures $217M to Scale Institutional Digital Asset Infrastructure
XBTO Global Limited has secured $217 million in committed capital, earmarked for scaling its institutional digital‑asset platform and broader expansion. The funding includes a strategic minority‑equity partnership with ValueLabs, which will embed its Agentic AI capabilities into XBTO’s technology stack. XBTO...
Generali Hong Kong Automates Health Claims with CoverGo’s AI Agent
Generali Hong Kong has teamed with insurtech platform CoverGo to launch an Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) AI Agent that automates health‑insurance claim handling. The solution ingests claim forms, medical reports, invoices and receipts, converting unstructured files into structured, decision‑ready data...
Murex and Quant Partner to Embed Digital Assets Into Core Capital Markets Infrastructure
Financial‑technology firm Murex has partnered with programmable‑money platform Quant to embed Quant’s Flow and Overledger infrastructure into its MX.3 capital‑markets system. The integration brings institutional‑grade tokenized‑asset issuance, settlement and post‑trade processing into existing trading, risk and collateral workflows. By providing...
BHIM App Introduces Biometric Authentication for UPI Payments up to ₹5,000
NPCI’s BHIM Payments App now lets users approve UPI transactions with fingerprint or facial recognition, capping biometric approvals at ₹5,000 (about $60). The feature is available on both iOS and Android, aiming to replace manual PIN entry for everyday payments...
Circle and Sasai Fintech Collaborate to Expand Access to USDC Across Africa
Circle Internet Group, the issuer of USDC, has struck a strategic partnership with Sasai Fintech, a unit of Cassava Technologies, to accelerate stablecoin adoption across Africa. The collaboration will integrate Circle’s full‑stack USDC platform into Sasai’s existing payment corridors, mobile...
Visa Direct Partners with Moonrise by Lunar to Unlock Real-Time Payments Across the Nordics
Visa Direct has teamed up with Moonrise, the Banking‑as‑a‑Service platform built by Nordic challenger bank Lunar, to tap local payment rails in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The partnership adds virtual accounts, domestic clearing, pay‑ins and pay‑outs to Visa’s global API,...
Wirex and Utorg Partner to Bring Seamless Crypto-to-Card Spending to 2M+ Global Users
Wirex, a full‑stack crypto card issuer, has partnered with fintech platform Utorg to embed its Banking‑as‑a‑Service (BaaS) stack into Utorg’s ecosystem. The integration gives Utorg’s 2 million users in over 190 countries access to non‑custodial virtual and physical debit cards, EUR/USD...
Yellow Network Bypasses Centralised Exchanges to Solve Liquidity Fragmentation
Yellow Network co‑founder Alexis Sirkia launched the $YELLOW token on the company’s own infrastructure, sidestepping the traditional multi‑exchange token generation event. The platform introduces a Layer‑3 trustless clearing layer that uses state channels for off‑chain trading and on‑chain settlement, aiming...
Corporate Bitcoin Adoption Is Growing. Custody Governance Hasn’t Caught Up
Corporate Bitcoin adoption is moving beyond price volatility and regulatory debates toward a critical focus on custody governance. CFOs and treasury leaders are realizing that control of private keys, not merely where assets are stored, determines risk exposure. Traditional custodial...
Low-Code Open Banking: Why the Talent Gap Is Really an Implementation Gap
Open banking is expanding rapidly, with the UK now supporting over 17 million active user connections and delivering roughly £8.3 billion (about $10.5 billion) in transaction value. Irfan Ahmed of BPC argues that the real bottleneck is not regulatory compliance or talent scarcity,...
Midnight Network Goes Live as Privacy-Focused Blockchain Moves Into Mainnet Phase
Midnight, a privacy‑focused blockchain using zero‑knowledge cryptography, has entered its mainnet phase with a phased public rollout. The network’s hybrid ledger architecture separates public and private data, allowing sensitive financial and identity information to be processed without exposure. Founder Charles...
London Fintech Ecosystem Solidifies Through Rigorous Recognition Framework
The Fintech Awards London has cemented its role as the UK’s most rigorous fintech recognition platform, using a three‑day, face‑to‑face due‑diligence process rather than automated scoring. Since its 2022 launch, the awards have spotlighted winners such as Zopa, Allica Bank,...
Fintech and Wider Digital Overview of the Kingdom of Bhutan 2026
By 2026 Bhutan has moved from early digital adoption to embedding fintech within a broader economic redesign led by the Royal Monetary Authority. The central bank’s Fintech Bhutan programme underpins a growing digital payment ecosystem, including the Bhutan Financial Switch,...
AI ‘Machine Customer’ Secures Home Loan in Under 10 Minutes in New Cloudcase Demo
Cloudcase, an Australian‑origin digital origination platform, demonstrated an AI assistant completing a full home‑loan application for two borrowers in under ten minutes. The AI handled document verification, identity checks, eligibility assessment and final submission without any human‑filled forms. The workflow,...
RAKBANK and Network International Complete Strategic Merchant Acquiring Transaction in the UAE
RAKBANK and Network International have finalized their strategic merchant‑acquiring transaction after securing Central Bank of UAE approval. Network International will now deliver its payment‑processing platform and value‑added services to RAKBANK’s SME and corporate customers. The partnership supports the UAE’s Digital...
MobiFone Digital Payments Launches to Build Vietnam’s Next-Generation Payment Infrastructure
MobiFone Digital Payments (MDP), a joint‑stock company backed by MobiFone Telecommunications, received a State Bank of Vietnam license on November 27, 2025 to offer financial switching, electronic clearing, payment gateway and collection services. The launch aims to build Vietnam’s fourth‑generation...
Cashflows Partners with BDIA to Overhaul Legacy Payments in the UK Dental Sector
Cashflows, a UK‑based fintech payment platform, has announced a strategic partnership with the British Dental Industry Association (BDIA) to replace outdated merchant services used by dental practices. The collaboration delivers a purpose‑built payment suite that addresses complex billing, patient‑prefixed payment...
Meta Acquisition of Moltbook Signals Shift to Agentic Commerce Infrastructure
Meta has acquired Moltbook and folded its agent‑to‑agent directory into Meta Superintelligence Labs, signaling a pivot from experimental autonomous buying to a core commerce infrastructure. The integration eliminates traditional human‑behavior signals at checkout, replacing them with "agentic telemetry" that validates...
Lean Technologies Secures Saudi Arabia’s First Open Banking License From SAMA
Lean Technologies has become the first firm granted a Major Payment Institution license by Saudi Arabia’s central bank, SAMA, to operate open‑banking services. The license transitions the kingdom’s open‑banking framework from a regulatory sandbox to a fully licensed commercial environment....
Behind the Idea: Lorum
Lorum, founded by fintech veteran George Davis, is a specialist correspondent institution that offers a single‑API gateway to global payment rails, settlement and treasury services while keeping client funds on a 100% reserved basis. The firm deliberately avoids lending or...
Bitget Wallet Brings Stablecoin Payouts to Bangladesh’s bKash and Nagad
Bitget Wallet has launched its Bank Transfer feature in Bangladesh, enabling users to convert USDT and USDC into Bangladeshi taka and push the funds directly to mobile money platforms bKash and Nagad. The service taps a mobile‑first ecosystem that now...
ThriveCart Launches Card-Linked Installments to Unlock $3.3Trillion in Unused Credit
ThriveCart unveiled ThrivePay Installments, a card‑linked financing option that places an authorization hold on a shopper’s existing credit‑card limit and splits payments over three, six or twelve months. The model targets high‑ticket digital products, offering merchants up‑front liquidity on sales...
A Generational Investment Window: Taranis Capital Highlights the GCC as the New Epicentre for Tech and Biotech
Taranus Capital, a DFSA‑regulated Dubai firm, says the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has entered a generational investment window for data centres, biotechnology and disruptive technologies. The firm cites sovereign balance sheets, Vision 2030‑style diversification plans and a policy‑driven ecosystem as the...
The UK’s Payments Overhaul Will Be Won or Lost in the Build
The UK is moving from strategic planning to the practical build of its National Payments Vision, launching the Payments Forward Plan to define how the new retail payments infrastructure will be assembled. The article highlights that execution decisions—such as system...
Paymentology Brings in Visa Veteran Peter Theunis to Accelerate Global Growth
Paymentology has appointed payments veteran Peter Theunis as principal advisor to accelerate its global expansion. Theunis, formerly Visa’s country manager for Belgium and Luxembourg, brings deep experience launching neobanks, modernising legacy banks, and building fintech ecosystems. His background spans card...
SGB Net Bridges Legacy and Digital Finance Through Real-Time Settlement
SGB has launched SGB Net, a real‑time settlement platform that links traditional banking infrastructure with digital‑asset ecosystems through SWIFT and stablecoin integration. The service processes roughly $2 billion in monthly volume and is growing at a 50% month‑on‑month rate. Backed by...
Mexico’s Cash Culture Faces Infrastructure Shift as BNPL Scales
Mexico’s payment landscape is shifting as buy‑now‑pay‑later (BNPL) moves from a niche offering to core infrastructure. With 52% of the population unbanked and 79% of purchases still made in cash, Kueski’s BNPL platform has issued roughly 40 million loans, leveraging AI‑driven...
The Caucasus: Armenia’s Fintech and Digital Ecosystem in 2026
Armenia’s fintech sector has moved from an emerging niche to a structured ecosystem, leveraging a decade of government‑backed digital‑economy investments and a talent‑rich labor pool. By 2025 startup activity rose 22.8% and total funding reached roughly $164 million, while the banking...
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...
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...
Ripple Redefines Enterprise Payments with Unified Stablecoin Platform and Global Adoption
Ripple announced a major upgrade to its Ripple Payments platform, delivering a unified solution that moves both fiat and stablecoins across traditional and digital rails. The expansion incorporates the Palisade custody suite and Rail virtual‑account technology, enabling end‑to‑end collection, exchange,...
Payaza CEO: Infrastructure Directness Is the Ultimate Moat
Payaza has become the only Visa‑certified payment processor headquartered in Sub‑Saharan Africa, choosing to bypass traditional aggregators and secure direct access to card schemes. This infrastructure‑first strategy cuts intermediary fees, improves margins and enables reinvestment in product development. The firm...
Wise Appoints Former ICE CFO Scott Hill to Board of Directors as Cross-Border Ambitions Grow
Wise has appointed former Intercontinental Exchange CFO Scott Hill as an independent non‑executive director. Hill brings 14 years as ICE CFO and prior leadership roles at IBM, CS Disco, and Cardlytics. Wise aims to leverage his public‑company and U.S. market...
Littlepay, Google, and Go-Ahead Launch Global First for Prepaid Transit Passes in Digital Wallets
Littlepay, Google and the Go‑Ahead Group have launched the world’s first prepaid transit passes that can be bought and used directly from Google Wallet on Brighton & Hove Buses. The solution uses Littlepay’s Card As Authority to Travel (CAATT) model,...
Innovate Finance Warns Bank of England Proposals Could Kill the GBP Stablecoin and Risk ‘Dollarisation’
In a submission to the House of Lords, Innovate Finance warned that the Bank of England’s draft rules would effectively prevent the launch of a GBP‑denominated stablecoin. The proposal includes strict user‑holding limits, a requirement that 40 % of backing assets...
Weaker Dollar and Diversification Drive Global Investors Toward Emerging Markets, Says Finnfund
Global investors are rapidly shifting capital into emerging markets as a weaker U.S. dollar and a push for diversification away from the United States drive demand. Over the past twelve months the MSCI Emerging Markets Index has surged 47%, far...
ACI Worldwide Unifies Global Payments with Cloud-Native ACI Connetic for Cards
ACI Worldwide has introduced ACI Connetic for Cards, a cloud‑native suite that consolidates card issuing, acquiring, and ATM/self‑service functions into a single modular platform. The solution embeds real‑time AI‑driven fraud intelligence and supports the full transaction lifecycle for the 300 billion...
ANNA Money Secures HMRC Making Tax Digital Approval, Launches Free Auto Accountant Tool
ANNA Money has received HMRC certification as a Making Tax Digital (MTD) software provider for Income Tax, allowing its users to file quarterly returns directly through the platform. The fintech also launched Auto Accountant, a free AI‑driven tool that prepares...
UWE Bristol and FinTech West Partner to Bridge the Fintech Talent Gap in the South West
University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) has entered a strategic partnership with FinTech West to close the fintech talent gap in the South West. The collaboration will see FinTech West co‑design UWE’s MSc FinTech programme, linking students to...
FinTech Australia Launches New Data Horizons Summit to Spotlight Real-World Open Banking Impact
FinTech Australia announced the inaugural Data Horizons Summit, a one‑day event on 8 May 2026 in Sydney. The summit builds on its successful Consumer Data Right and Net Zero gatherings, highlighting that more than one million Australians now use open‑banking...
In Profile: Cumbuca CEO Daniel Ruhman
Cumbuca, led by CEO Daniel Ruhman, provides a licensed proxy that lets global fintechs tap Brazil's regulated payments ecosystem without building their own licences. The platform connects clients directly to infrastructure such as Pix and open‑finance while handling compliance, allowing...