Revolut’s CTO Is Handing Over the Keys
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
One of Revolut's original architects is stepping back.
Vlad Yatsenko, co-founder, first-ever employee, and the person who's been under the hood since before Revolut even had a name, is handing over the CTO keys in July.
Donato Lucia, currently head of technology, steps in, though the role gets a rebrand too: VP of Technology.
Yatsenko isn't disappearing entirely. He moves to a non-exec board seat.
No explanation was given for the timing. You know the drill: when founders exit quietly, the real story usually comes out later.
Corporate reshuffling is only half the story. To truly understand where the industry is heading, we have to look at the platforms’ numbers driving the digital banking revolution.
👇Keep reading for our exclusive retrospective on Revolut vs. Monzo in 2025, where I unpack who actually won the battle for your smartphone.
See you on Monday!
Cheers,
#FINTECHREPORT
📊 Battle of the neobanks: Revolut 🆚 Monzo
Here is a comparison of 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝘀:
INSIGHTS
📰 Smart money ushers in a new era of payments. In a new article, Juan Franco, Global CEO of Getnet, argues that payments are evolving from simple transaction processing into intelligent, data-driven infrastructure. He highlights how AI, automation, and real-time analytics are enabling payment systems to orchestrate risk, fraud prevention, authentication, and routing decisions. Read the full article here
FINTECH NEWS
📰 Airwallex reveals that outdated payment systems cost global businesses $330 billion every year. Together with the Centre for Economics and Business Research, the study highlights how payment delays, FX spreads, correspondent banking fees, and settlement frictions create a “Global Growth Tariff,” with businesses across EMEA alone bearing an estimated $144 billion cost that impacts cash flow and growth.
🇺🇸 Robinhood launches Advisor Network and AI tools for RIAs in TradePMR partnership expansion. Rolling out to a select group of eligible users next week, the feature uses a short questionnaire to match customers with vetted fiduciaries, while offering a unified view of both self-directed and advised assets within the Robinhood app.
🇺🇸 Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski highlights the US as the fastest-growing market after the IPO, debuting with a market valuation of approximately $17 billion. Alongside its U.S. expansion, Klarna is advancing its digital asset strategy through KlarnaUSD on the Tempo blockchain and a wallet infrastructure partnership with Privy, extending its focus beyond BNPL into stablecoins and digital finance.
🇬🇧 GoCardless launches Recurring Pay by Bank as part of a new UK payment scheme. The new scheme supports the UK’s National Payment Vision to foster greater competition, innovation and resilience by driving widespread adoption of account-to-account (A2A) payments.
PODCAST RECOMMENDATION
🎤 CBDC: What you need you know? by DashDevs. In episode 155 of the FinTech Garden Podcast, hosts Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea explore the fundamentals of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), examining how digital euros could reshape payments, regulation, privacy, and financial infrastructure across Europe. Watch the full podcast here
CBDC: What you need you know? by DashDevs
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇬🇧 Ecommpay's AI lifts merchant payment success rates 2.6% in Q1 2026, with some merchants seeing improvements of 5% to 15%. The system analyzes large-scale transaction data to identify and reduce declines related to authentication failures, fraud checks, and customer behavior, helping merchants improve approval rates and recover lost revenue.
🇬🇹 Banco Promerica has launched the Ysi Debit Mastercard, a digital-first debit card designed to offer Guatemalan consumers a simpler and more secure payment experience. The card supports contactless payments, digital wallets, real-time account management through the bank’s mobile app, and includes benefits such as cashback, discounts, and enhanced fraud protection features.
🇮🇳 Mastercard expands value-added services push amid UPI dominance. As UPI continues to dominate the payments landscape, Mastercard is pursuing a three-pronged strategy centered on consumer payments, commercial payments, and services to diversify its presence beyond its traditional card network business.
🇺🇸 Fiserv plans to launch its FIUSD stablecoin in July, according to CEO Mike Lyons. FIUSD aims to keep stablecoin-related deposits within financial institutions while providing an alternative to dominant stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT, Circle’s USDC, and PayPal’s PYUSD.
🇩🇪 ING has enabled online shopping payments with Wero for customers in Germany. Wero allows consumers to pay directly from their bank accounts and forms part of a broader effort to build a European-owned payments infrastructure across Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands.
🇷🇺 Russia's A7 transborder payments company plans global expansion. A7 has become a major player in Russia’s cross-border payments market, supporting fund transfers for businesses as the country continues to develop alternative payment channels outside traditional Western financial networks.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇬🇧 bunq is reportedly preparing to pursue a UK banking licence as it looks to expand its presence in Britain and compete more directly with rivals. The fintech operated in the UK before Brexit under its European banking licence. City AM has reported it is now weighing a UK banking licence.
🇨🇱 Revolut has met with Chile’s financial regulator, the Financial Market Commission, to present its global banking operations and regulatory framework, signaling potential interest in entering the Chilean market. Read more
🇮🇪 Revolut has launched its first major brand campaign in Ireland, featuring Graham Norton as the face of its “Welcome To My Bank” initiative. The campaign underscores two clear trends: the mainstreaming of challenger‑bank branding, and the growing use of high‑profile cultural figures to cut through in a crowded, credibility‑sensitive market.
🇬🇧 Revolut plans to launch five credit cards in the UK as it accelerates its expansion into lending and wealth management following the receipt of its UK banking licence. The FinTech is also exploring personal loans, private banking services for affluent customers, and broader investment offerings.
🇺🇸 Ramp has launched Stack, an AI-native platform designed for accounting firms to automate workflows such as reconciliations, journal entries, schedule updates, and flux analysis. Stack enables firms to deploy AI agents that operate within firm-defined processes while connecting directly to accounting software, banking platforms, and document repositories.
🇧🇷 Nubank now allows negotiating debts from other institutions in the app. The feature allows customers to track outstanding financial obligations from different institutions. Additionally, Nu Holdings announces a US$1.0 billion share repurchase program. The buyback will be executed over the next 12 months while Nu continues to fully fund its growth initiatives and regulatory capital requirements across Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and the United States.
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🇺🇸 Cross River extends a $250 million forward-flow commitment for Figure’s crypto-backed loans. The forward-flow agreement provides funding for loans secured by digital assets, enabling consumers to access U.S. dollar liquidity while retaining ownership of their cryptocurrency holdings.
PARTNERSHIPS
🇦🇺 Volt and Trade Nation launch real-time payments for Australian traders, opening a global partnership. Combined with automatic reconciliation across incoming PayID flows, the integration removes long-standing operational pain points for high-volume trading platforms, while delivering the speed and transparency clients expect.
🇦🇪 Bybit became the first major crypto exchange to integrate Western Union’s USDPT stablecoin, bridging two financial worlds through one stablecoin. Starting with the onboarding of USDPT, Bybit and Western Union will expand on digital asset utility and towards a more inclusive vision for the future of finance.
🇺🇸 Visa and Brale explore private stablecoin settlement for institutional payments. Through the collaboration with Brale, Visa plans to evaluate support for SBC as an additional stablecoin option for institutional settlement use cases.
🇮🇪 Enfuce enters Ireland with a Payac partnership to future-proof card services for Irish credit unions. The migration to Enfuce will provide a more agile, scalable, and resilient processing environment capable of supporting the evolving needs of both credit unions and their communities.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
🇮🇳 FinTech Startup WeRize raises $7 Mn to expand product offerings. The startup plans to utilize the fresh capital to expand its financial product offerings to include mutual funds, online bonds, secured co-branded credit cards, and housing loans. It also plans to invest in its proprietary AI and technology infrastructure.
🌍 G+D Ventures and Rabo Investments co-led the €6.5 million seed round of crypto compliance expert CENSE. With the new funding, CENSE plans to accelerate the expansion of its activities across Europe. The platform helps banks and financial institutions gain visibility into customers’ digital asset activity.
🇺🇸 Ramp notches a $44 billion valuation in a new funding round. The company is expanding beyond spend management into AI-driven cost control, accounting automation, and autonomous payments, while accelerating its international growth. Continue reading
🇺🇸 Affirm and CPP Investments renew and expand their capital partnership. This investment will help power Affirm’s growing network of consumers and merchants. Affirm offers consumers honest, transparent payment options at checkout and funds its loans through a diverse network of capital partners.
🇬🇧 Edinburgh FinTech Aveni raises £12m for AI assurance platform. The funds will help to accelerate the development of its Unified Assurance Platform and launch new products designed to assess the conduct risk of AI agents in financial services.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇬🇧 Tuum names payments veteran Gregor Dobbie as new CEO. With over 30 years of industry experience, Dobbie becomes Tuum's fourth permanent CEO since the company's 2019 launch. Read on
🇮🇳 Pine Labs-owned Setu co-founder Nikhil Kumar steps down. Kumar described Setu as one of the most significant chapters of his career, following its growth into a leading FinTech infrastructure provider and its acquisition by Pine Labs in 2021.
🇬🇧 Revolut Co-Founder and CTO Vlad Yatsenko to step down from the role and transition to a non-executive director role on the company’s board. He will be succeeded by Donato Lucia, who will take on the newly titled position of Vice President of Technology.
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