Cash Only. Worldpay's Outage Hits Pubs Mid-Match in England
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
During England’s World Cup match against Ghana, a major Worldpay outage knocked out card payment systems across pubs and shops nationwide in England, forcing thousands of businesses back to cash-only chaos at the worst possible moment.
Queues at ATMs, pints left unpoured, and merchants watching revenue walk out the door.
Worldpay attributed the fault to a third-party power problem rather than any failure of its own platforms.
It was a brutal reminder that in 2026, payments infrastructure is as critical as the power grid, and just as fragile.
For a sector that promises instant, frictionless money movement, "sorry, cash only" is a headline no one in FinTech wants to see.
On the subject of football: I'll have my eyes glued to two matches today. Curaçao take on the Ivory Coast in what should be a cracking clash, and the Netherlands are pushing to top their group. Let's go! 🇨🇼🇳🇱
Everything in FinTech moves markets and money, right below. See you tomorrow. 👇
Cheers,
#FINTECHREPORT
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FINTECH NEWS
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INSIGHTS
📰 The hidden AI revolution happening inside payments. Irene Skrynova, CEO of Global Payments at Unlimit, explains that AI’s biggest impact in payments is happening behind the scenes through approval optimization, smart routing, fraud detection, and real-time transaction decisioning. Read the full article here
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇮🇸 Iceland joins TIPS for instant payments. This will allow payments in Icelandic króna to be settled instantly in central bank money as of 2028. The Icelandic króna will be the fifth currency available for settling retail payments instantly using the Eurosystem’s TARGET Services.
🇫🇷 Worldline brings Click to Pay to recurring payments. This new capability enables digital-first businesses to scale subscription payments seamlessly across markets, while increasing conversion, reducing involuntary churn, and protecting recurring revenue.
🇬🇧 Worldpay outage leaves pubs and shops scrambling for cash during England match. The outage disrupted contactless payments across parts of the UK before services were restored, highlighting the growing dependence of consumers and businesses on digital payment infrastructure.
🇸🇬 Wise launches Young Explorer debit card in Singapore. The card is available to personal account holders, regardless of citizenship, and can be ordered for up to five children through a parent's Wise account. Each card carries the child's name and links to a dedicated balance managed within the parent's account.
🇺🇸 Mosta launches MainUSD, a stablecoin for instant cross-border settlement. Customers can convert incoming funds or supported crypto assets into MainUSD, hold balances in a stable settlement asset, and move funds globally through fiat or stablecoin rails.
🇧🇷 Nord Security has partnered with EBANX to offer Pix Automático in Brazil. Just six months after launch, the recurring payment method accounts for 28% of Nord Security’s payment volume in the country, while delivering approval rates that outperform credit cards and expanding access to consumers who prefer Pix over traditional payment methods.
🇨🇭 Yellow Card has secured AML affiliation in Switzerland as a supervised financial intermediary, giving institutional and corporate clients a regulated gateway to access its stablecoin payment infrastructure. The move strengthens Yellow Card’s global regulatory footprint and supports cross-border capital flows.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇲🇦 Morocco is unlikely to allow entry to UK digital bank Revolut, with the country’s central bank stating that existing banking services already meet local needs. While Revolut remains interested in the market, it has not submitted a formal banking licence application and plans to revisit expansion opportunities.
🇬🇧 Starling Bank launches romance scam detection feature. The scam intelligence AI agent is part of Starling Assistant, launched by the bank in March 2026, which lets customers use voice or natural language to ask questions about their money and plan actions like transfers and budgeting.
🇪🇬 MNT-Halan is reportedly preparing an IPO of its Egyptian business on the Cairo exchange, potentially as soon as this year. The FinTech is said to be working with Citigroup and EFG Hermes as it explores a public listing amid growing investor interest in Egypt’s FinTech sector.
FEATURED NEWS
➡️ Maple Finance has launched a new Transparency Dashboard, giving users a real-time view of key protocol metrics, including AUM, treasury performance, yields, and capital flows across its lending products. Explore it here
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🇬🇧 Kraken parent secures British Virgin Islands license. The license enables Payward, the parent company of Kraken, to offer regulated digital asset services in the jurisdiction and expands Kraken’s global regulatory footprint as the BVI continues to position itself as a hub for digital assets and tokenized finance.
🇧🇷 Blockchain.com announces expansion into Brazil, launching seamless institutional payments infrastructure. The new infrastructure enables Brazilian businesses to move and settle funds internationally with fewer constraints than traditional banking systems.
🇬🇧 Coins.ph selects Clear Junction to support European payment corridors. Through its partnership with Clear Junction, Coins.ph is enhancing its ability to support collections, disbursements, treasury operations, and local payment access for corporate and financial institution clients operating across Europe.
PARTNERSHIPS
🇪🇸 Mastercard and Wealnest join forces to boost wealth management with Open Finance. Thanks to this integration, Open Finance technology will allow Wealnest clients to group and synchronize their balances and financial information from different entities in a single digital environment.
🇸🇪 Swedish challenger Nordiska partners with Finastra to bolster payments and settlement processes. Through this partnership, Nordiska will gain direct access to the global Swift network and Sweden's central payment systems, including Riksbank's real-time settlement system - RIX RTGS - with RIX INST for instant payments to follow.
🇮🇹 MyPOS partners with Bancomat to expand payment acceptance for SMEs in Italy. Under the agreement, all merchants using myPOS payment devices will be able to accept payments through the Bancomat network, while Bancomat Pay acceptance for online stores is expected to be introduced in the near future.
🇳🇱 Van Lanschot Kempen becomes Principal Member of EPI. Through this partnership, the wealth manager will introduce Wero, a European digital payment solution, to its clients via the Van Lanschot Kempen digital banking environment, with rollout planned for late 2026.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
🇺🇸 AppsFlyer raises $1B from Moloco, Google, Meta, and Unity. The investment highlights the growing importance of independent measurement infrastructure as AI increasingly automates advertising, campaign optimization, and media buying.
🇸🇬 TurboFlow raises $6 million seed led by Pantera Capital to bring institutional trading infrastructure to everyday users. The funding will support TurboFlow's mission to democratize access to sophisticated trading products by combining perpetual contracts and prediction markets within a single high-performance platform.
🇨🇦 Anchorbase raises $2 million. The new funding will support continued product development, deeper integrations with systems of record, expanded customer support, and go-to-market growth across North America. Read more
🇺🇸 Allium raises $40M series B led by Amplify Partners. The funding will support the company’s mission to help institutions analyze and operationalize blockchain data as stablecoins, on-chain payments, and tokenized assets continue to scale across global finance.
🇳🇬 Daya raises 2.4$ millon pre-seed to power stablecoin payment for African cross-border trade. Daya plans to use the funding for product development, corridor expansion, licensing, compliance infrastructure, and partnerships with local and global financial institutions.
🇺🇸 Caplight raises $16m series A led by BlackRock and Fin Capital to power the next era of private markets. The funding will support Caplight’s expansion in private market data, secondary market intelligence, and AI-driven workflows as demand grows for greater transparency across venture and private capital markets.
🇬🇧 equipal raises €18.84M led by Altum Capital Management to grow its team and expand business equipment lending capacity. This new funding is intended to support team expansion and increase the company's lending capacity for its point-of-sale financing solutions.
🌎 Taktile secures $110m in Goldman Sachs-led series C to power AI transformation in financial institutions. Taktile will use the capital to further enhance its AI solutions for complex banking and insurance use cases and expand its global footprint across the US, EMEA, and LATAM.
🇺🇸 Trovy raises $15M for home equity-backed card. The company aims to provide consumers with cheaper alternatives to traditional credit cards and personal loans by making home equity a more flexible borrowing source. Continue reading
M&A
🇬🇧 PayPoint completes acquisition of AperiData, strengthening its Open Banking capabilities. The full integration of AperiData into the PayPoint Group will enhance PayPoint’s multichannel payments offering by embedding Open Banking capabilities into its existing services.
🇹🇷 Kaspi.kz receives regulatory approval to acquire Rabobank A.Ş. in Türkiye. The acquisition marks a key step in Kaspi.kz’s expansion strategy, providing a licensed banking platform to support the growth of its payments, marketplace, and FinTech services in the Turkish market.
🇺🇸 Green Dot and CommerceOne Shareholders approve pending acquisition of Green Dot. The deal will combine Green Dot Bank with CommerceOne to form a new public banking group, while Smith Ventures will acquire and privatize Green Dot’s FinTech operations, creating separate banking and FinTech businesses focused on long-term growth.
🇺🇸 CPI expands Proprietary Technology platform with acquisition of TRISM Business. The acquisition expands CPI’s market-leading position with financial institutions in the high-growth Software-as-a-Service-based instant issuance market and creates a new opportunity for expansion into larger financial institutions that require an on-premise solution.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🌍 Airwallex has appointed Pranav Sood as Chief Financial Officer, marking a new phase of global expansion. Sood will help guide Airwallex’s financial strategy as it scales internationally following its recent $8 billion valuation and major investment plans across Europe.
🇬🇧 Quint Group has appointed FinTech leader Laurence Krieger as a Director, former CEO of Tide and COO of Revolut. Krieger will help drive growth across Quint’s payments and credit businesses while supporting its emerging M&A strategy focused on aggregation and AI opportunities.
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