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LATEST · ACROSS THE SITE

BANKING UK

Inside Monzo’s S-1: the revenue breakdown the bulls and the bears both missed.

The neobank's IPO filing quietly splits its 2025 revenue into three streams that tell very different stories about the next two years. Fintechly walked the numbers with four buy-side analysts.

BY PRIYA ANAND · SCOOP

BANKING AFRICA

Flutterwave lines up Cairo and Casablanca as its first post-IPO neobank expansions.

A filing with Nigeria's Central Bank and two consultancy briefs seen by Fintechly point to a 2026 African consumer-banking push the market had not priced in.

BY AMARA OKAFOR · NEWS

BANKING US

Chase is running a private stablecoin-wallet pilot with its top ten treasury clients.

Two sources briefed on the programme describe a USDC-settled account that closes same-day for cross-border corporate payments. The bank won't confirm it exists. The settlement memos do.

BY MARCUS CHEN · SCOOP

BANKING US

Mercury quietly launches a premium business card — and the pricing is aggressive.

The SMB-banking platform is undercutting Ramp and Brex on cashback for software spend. Its goal is not the fee margin. It is the switching cost.

BY HELENA MARQUES · NEWS

BANKING EU

Solaris is recovering, and the European BaaS market has quietly consolidated behind it.

Eighteen months after the supervisory crisis that nearly ended the company, the German BaaS platform is signing enterprise clients again. The question is what that means for Griffin, Modulr and the rest of the field.

BY FELIX VANDENBERG · ANALYSIS

BANKING EU

Revolut clears the last EU banking-licence hurdle — French rollout starts next week.

The ECB has signed off on Revolut's passporting from Lithuania. Product parity with the UK app is promised by Q3.

BY LéA BERTRAND · NEWS

BANKING US

Apple Card’s second-year delinquency data is worse than Goldman ever admitted.

A set of securitisation filings from the card's successor issuer let us reconstruct the cohort performance for the first time. The trend-line is steep — and it is not over.

BY RACHEL TAN · ANALYSIS

BANKING LATAM

Why Nubank’s Mexico deposits are growing faster than Brazil ever did.

The world's largest digital bank has cracked a market that has defeated every other neobank. Three structural features of the Mexican banking system explain the acceleration.

BY MARCUS CHEN · EXPLAINER

PAYMENTS GLOBAL

The card networks’ quiet pivot: how Visa and Mastercard plan to charge for AI agents that pay.

Two internal pricing memos seen by Fintechly suggest the schemes are preparing a separate, higher take-rate for transactions initiated by autonomous software agents — and a small group of large platforms have already been briefed.

BY MARCUS CHEN · SCOOP

PAYMENTS LATAM

Latin America is where the next billion contactless payments will happen — and Visa knows it.

Three years after Pix forced Brazil to leapfrog the card rails, Visa is quietly running the largest contactless rollout in its history across Mexico, Colombia and Peru. The numbers are starting to tell.

BY HELENA MARQUES · ANALYSIS

PAYMENTS US

Apple Pay’s second act: how Tap-to-Pay quietly became a small-business operating system.

Three years in, Apple’s contactless-acceptance feature is no longer a curiosity. It is the way most American small businesses now take card — and a route into a market Square spent a decade defending.

BY RACHEL TAN · ANALYSIS

PAYMENTS EU

Adyen opens an SDK for AI agents — and quietly raises take-rates.

The Dutch payments giant has shipped a developer toolkit that lets autonomous agents pay through its rails — with a per-transaction premium that nobody on the call quite wanted to discuss.

BY MARCUS CHEN · NEWS

PAYMENTS US

Stripe quietly opens Bridge stablecoin rails to its top 200 platforms.

Six months after the $1.1B acquisition, Stripe’s biggest customers can now settle in USDC at cost — a move that re-prices every cross-border B2B payment Stripe touches.

BY MARCUS CHEN · SCOOP

PAYMENTS UK

FCA finalises permanent open-banking framework — VRPs go mainstream in Q3.

After three years of consultations, the UK regulator has set the rules of the road for variable recurring payments. The retail rollout begins in July.

BY PRIYA ANAND · NEWS

PAYMENTS LATAM

Why every central bank in Latin America is now trying to copy Pix.

From Mexico’s CoDi to Colombia’s Bre-B, instant-payment rails modelled on Brazil’s success are arriving across the region. Some are working. Most are not. Here’s why.

BY HELENA MARQUES · EXPLAINER

PAYMENTS ASIA

South-East Asia’s QR rails are about to interoperate — and the banks are nervous.

Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines have agreed to a single QR standard for cross-border retail payments. The five-country rollout begins next month.

BY KENJI MORI · NEWS

PAYMENTS EU

The European merchant-acquiring margin is collapsing. Three charts that explain why.

Take-rates on European card volume have fallen by 28 per cent in five years. The acquirers that survive the next two will be the ones that have already become something else.

BY FELIX VANDENBERG · ANALYSIS

INFRASTRUCTURE GLOBAL

Why every neobank is suddenly building its own ledger — again.

After a decade of off-the-shelf core banking, the most ambitious neobanks are quietly bringing their ledgers back in-house. The reasons are not what you would expect.

BY RACHEL TAN · ANALYSIS

INFRASTRUCTURE UK

Thought Machine signs first-of-its-kind AWS deal for sovereign cloud cores.

An exclusive arrangement that will let regulated banks in three jurisdictions deploy Vault Core inside dedicated AWS regions — and quietly box in two of Thought Machine’s European competitors.

BY FELIX VANDENBERG · SCOOP

INFRASTRUCTURE US

Money movement is becoming a feature. That is bad news for fintechs that built a company around it.

When Stripe, Adyen and AWS all ship the same five primitives, the standalone payment-orchestration layer stops being a business. A look at who is repositioning, and who is in trouble.

BY MARCUS CHEN · ANALYSIS

INFRASTRUCTURE ASIA

BharatCore lands four new licensed banks — and overtakes Mambu in South Asia.

The two-year-old Bangalore core-banking firm has signed four scheduled-bank conversions in the last quarter, including the largest neo-cooperative in Tamil Nadu.

BY PRIYA ANAND · NEWS

INFRASTRUCTURE GLOBAL

Ledger-as-a-service, explained — and why every serious fintech now needs one.

What a real double-entry ledger actually does, why your payments stack is not one, and how to think about buying versus building the most important primitive in fintech.

BY RACHEL TAN · EXPLAINER

INFRASTRUCTURE UK

Form3 acquires Modulr in £640M all-stock deal — creating Europe’s largest payments-infra group.

The combination gives the merged entity rails into FPS, SEPA Instant, FedNow and SWIFT gpi from a single API — and a real shot at unseating GPS in the European acquirer market.

BY HELENA MARQUES · NEWS

INFRASTRUCTURE US

FedNow has quietly tipped past 4% of US RTGS volume. The 10% line changes everything.

Two years in, the Fed’s instant-payments rail has crossed the threshold where bank treasurers can no longer ignore it. We look at what the next 18 months actually look like.

BY MARCUS CHEN · ANALYSIS

INFRASTRUCTURE EU

BNP Paribas quietly licences its open-banking stack to three regional banks.

Inside the white-label deal that sees one of Europe’s largest banks become a fintech infrastructure vendor — and an early proof point for the bank-as-platform thesis.

BY LéA BERTRAND · SCOOP

CAPITAL MARKETS UK

Inside Monzo’s S-1: $1.6B revenue, 12% take-rate on premium, and the chart no neobank wanted to publish.

Fintechly has obtained a near-final draft of Monzo’s registration statement ahead of its expected May filing. The numbers are stronger than the market expected — and the cohort chart is the most interesting page in the document.

BY FELIX VANDENBERG · SCOOP

CAPITAL MARKETS EU

Index Ventures closes $2.3B fund, half earmarked for European fintech infra.

The largest European fintech vehicle since 2022 is now in market. Inside the LP base, the named partners leading the fintech sleeve, and the three sub-sectors the fund is openly hunting.

BY FELIX VANDENBERG · NEWS

CAPITAL MARKETS EU

Klarna runs a quiet $300M secondary tender at $7.6B — half last year’s mark.

Two sources familiar with the process tell Fintechly the BNPL group offered employees and early investors a partial liquidity window — at a price that confirms what the public comparables already suggested.

BY MARCUS CHEN · SCOOP

CAPITAL MARKETS US

Ramp closes $200M Series F at $22.5B — Founders Fund and Khosla lead.

The corporate-card and spend-management firm is now the highest-valued private fintech in the United States outside Stripe — and is on the cusp of crossing $1B in net revenue.

BY MARCUS CHEN · NEWS

CAPITAL MARKETS GLOBAL

The fintech IPO window is open — but only six companies are credibly through it.

Bankers are pitching, founders are scrubbing data rooms, and the market is finally listening. We look at the shortlist that actually matters between now and Q1 2027.

BY HELENA MARQUES · ANALYSIS

CAPITAL MARKETS MENA

Sovereigns are quietly becoming the largest LPs in fintech. The implications are not just financial.

Mubadala, PIF, Temasek and ADIA are now anchor LPs in seven of the ten largest fintech-focused funds raised since 2024. What it means for who gets funded — and where they get told to set up.

BY LéA BERTRAND · ANALYSIS

CAPITAL MARKETS US

Stripe’s tender lifts mark to $91B — quietly above the 2021 high.

The latest employee-liquidity round has closed at a 19% premium to last year’s mark, putting the payments company within reach of its peak private valuation without an IPO in sight.

BY MARCUS CHEN · NEWS

CAPITAL MARKETS UK

Wise has quietly bought back 4% of its float — and the chart explains why.

The cross-border payments group is doing what every mature fintech eventually does: returning capital. We look at the buyback math and what it implies for the rest of the listed neobank cohort.

BY FELIX VANDENBERG · EXPLAINER

CRYPTO & STABLECOINS EU

Circle’s EURC supply triples in eight weeks as MiCA settlement flows arrive.

The first wave of MiCA-licensed corporate users has begun routing real settlement volume through EURC. Three banks named in our reporting have now made it the default for euro-denominated B2B settlement.

BY LéA BERTRAND · SCOOP

CRYPTO & STABLECOINS GLOBAL

The stablecoin market is now three camps — and only one of them looks like a winner.

Reserve-token issuers, bank consortium coins, and tokenised-deposit networks. We map the volumes, the regulatory posture, and the strategic logic of each camp — and the one that is quietly running away with B2B share.

BY FELIX VANDENBERG · ANALYSIS

CRYPTO & STABLECOINS US

BlackRock’s tokenised T-bill fund crosses $4B AUM — outpacing every public crypto ETF launched this year.

BUIDL is now larger than every spot-Ethereum ETF combined, and is being used as on-chain collateral by four of the largest crypto-prime brokers. The on-chain capital market has, quietly, arrived.

BY MARCUS CHEN · NEWS

CRYPTO & STABLECOINS ASIA

Three Japanese banks are quietly minting yen stablecoins — and the FSA is letting them.

Mizuho, MUFG and SMBC are independently piloting tokenised-deposit JPY units inside the FSA’s revised Payment Services Act. Inside the rulings, the rails, and what it means for cross-border yen.

BY KENJI MORI · SCOOP

CRYPTO & STABLECOINS GLOBAL

What a stablecoin actually is in 2026 — and why the answer matters more than ever.

The word now covers four meaningfully different financial instruments. Confusing them is the most common mistake in fintech reporting. Here is the field guide.

BY RACHEL TAN · EXPLAINER

CRYPTO & STABLECOINS EU

European exchanges fully delist USDT as MiCA enforcement bites.

The last EU-licensed venue carrying Tether pairs delisted on Tuesday. Inside the move, the volume that walked, and the only stablecoin that meaningfully picked it up.

BY LéA BERTRAND · NEWS

CRYPTO & STABLECOINS MENA

Dubai’s VARA grants the world’s first standalone tokenised-RWA licence.

A purpose-built regulatory category for real-world-asset issuers — and the first three names to receive it. The race for the GCC’s on-chain capital market has a new fastest mover.

BY FELIX VANDENBERG · NEWS

CRYPTO & STABLECOINS LATAM

Stablecoin merchant acceptance in LATAM is now cheaper than card. By a lot.

We modelled the unit economics of stablecoin acceptance versus card across Mexico, Brazil and Colombia. The result is the most uncomfortable chart we have published this year.

BY HELENA MARQUES · ANALYSIS

REGULATION UK

FCA finalises permanent open-banking framework — VRPs go mainstream in Q3.

After three years of consultation, the UK regulator has set the rules of the road for variable recurring payments. The retail rollout begins in July; here is what changes for merchants, banks and PISPs.

BY PRIYA ANAND · NEWS

REGULATION EU

The MiCA loophole everyone is using — and the ESMA paper that may close it.

A drafting choice in MiCA’s distribution provisions has let three large issuers passport from a small jurisdiction without local presence. ESMA staff are now circulating a Level 3 clarification.

BY LéA BERTRAND · SCOOP

REGULATION US

CFPB Section 1033 finalised — and the small print is harder on big banks than expected.

The personal financial data rights rule is now law of the land. We read every page so you don’t have to, and pull out the four provisions that change the competitive balance.

BY MARCUS CHEN · NEWS

REGULATION EU

What the EU AI Act actually means for credit decisioning, KYC and underwriting.

Eighteen months in, the practical compliance picture is clearer. We map every High-Risk Annex III obligation to a fintech use case, and flag the four where the regulator is already asking questions.

BY LéA BERTRAND · ANALYSIS

REGULATION US

OCC publishes long-awaited stablecoin guidance — banks can issue and custody.

The interpretive letter clears the way for federally chartered banks to mint payment stablecoins on their own balance sheet. Three of the largest US banks have already begun internal pilots.

BY MARCUS CHEN · NEWS

REGULATION UK

Six months of mandatory APP fraud reimbursement — the chart that has the PSR worried.

Reimbursement is up. So is total reported fraud. Inside the unintended consequence the regulator did not expect, and the consultation that is already in draft.

BY PRIYA ANAND · ANALYSIS

REGULATION ASIA

MAS opens five-year review of Singapore’s digital bank licences.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore wants public input on whether the four licensees have delivered the financial-inclusion outcomes the framework was designed for. Submissions close in August.

BY MEI-LIN CHO · NEWS

REGULATION ASIA

India’s new cross-border payments licence, explained — and why eight fintechs have already applied.

The RBI’s in-principle authorisation regime for cross-border payments aggregators is the most-coveted licence in Asian fintech right now. Here is exactly what it permits, and what it does not.

BY PRIYA ANAND · EXPLAINER

INTERVIEWS UK

Inside the quiet rewiring of cross-border money.

Stablecoins moved $27.6 trillion last year — more than Visa and Mastercard combined. The CEO of payments-infrastructure firm Conduit on how the plumbing of global finance is being rebuilt in plain sight.

INTERVIEW

INTERVIEWS EU

The CFO is becoming a software developer. Spektral is building for that.

A profile of the German treasury infrastructure company that quietly signed three of the four largest European corporates in the last six months.

INTERVIEW

INTERVIEWS ASIA

Why Japan is, finally, the most interesting fintech market in Asia.

On the regulator that quietly opened the doors, the demographic forcing function nobody is talking about, and what European founders keep getting wrong about Tokyo.

INTERVIEW

INTERVIEWS EU

The Iberian merchant stack that took on Adyen — and is winning.

How a four-year-old payments company built a 60-strong sales team across Spain and Portugal and now processes more in-person volume than any local bank.

INTERVIEW

INTERVIEWS US

The new fintech LPs are sovereign, family, and nothing like Sand Hill.

On the end of the consensus capital stack and what comes next for the founders raising in 2026.

INTERVIEW

INTERVIEWS EU

Inside the data-centre arms race reshaping European banking.

The technical leader behind one of the fastest-growing BaaS providers on why every serious European bank is now a data-centre operator.

INTERVIEW

INTERVIEWS EU

How Swiss private banks ended up running the most boring — and biggest — crypto desks in Europe.

A conversation about regulation as moat, MiCA as accelerant, and why the wealthiest families in Europe quietly hold more stablecoins than anyone wants to admit.

INTERVIEW

INTERVIEWS EU

The MiCA conversations nobody is having out loud.

What policy-makers got right, what they got wrong, and what comes after the dust of the first eighteen months.

INTERVIEW

EXPLAINER GLOBAL

What is a neobank, and how do they actually make money?

A plain-English guide to the business model of digital-only banks — from interchange and net interest margin to the real drivers most explainers miss.

BY HELENA MARQUES · BANKING

EXPLAINER GLOBAL

What is a stablecoin? A 2026 reference for finance professionals.

The architecture, the reserves, the regulation and the real-world flows — written for people who need the whole picture, not the marketing version.

BY RACHEL TAN · CRYPTO

COMPARISON GLOBAL

Stripe vs Adyen: a 2026 comparison for enterprise payments buyers.

Take-rates, acceptance, routing, orchestration, and the real reasons Fortune 500 merchants are now running both in parallel.

BY MARCUS CHEN · PAYMENTS

GUIDE GLOBAL

A buyer’s guide to payments orchestration platforms in 2026.

Everything a head of payments needs to evaluate an orchestration layer — from smart routing and retries to tokenisation and the vendor lock-in trap.

BY MARCUS CHEN · PAYMENTS

EXPLAINER GLOBAL

Open banking vs open finance: what’s actually different in 2026?

Jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction breakdown of PSD2, PSD3, FDX, Brazil's Open Finance, and why the UK, EU and US are now on three different roadmaps.

BY PRIYA RAMAN · POLICY

COMPARISON GLOBAL

Bank charter vs banking-as-a-service: which route in 2026?

The trade-offs in capital, compliance, speed and unit economics between chartering a bank, partnering with one, or standing up a sponsor bank of your own.

BY LéA BERTRAND · BANKING

REFERENCE GLOBAL

The 2026 fintech due-diligence checklist for investors & acquirers.

47 questions across unit economics, compliance, technology, and moat — the sheet Fintechly editorial uses to stress-test every Series B and above.

BY FELIX VANDENBERG · CAPITAL

GUIDE GLOBAL

How modern fintechs approach KYC, KYB and sanctions screening.

A practical guide to the control stack that the top fintechs run — from identity providers to watchlist vendors — and what the supervisors actually look for.

BY PRIYA RAMAN · COMPLIANCE