Santander's Ebury Eyes Lumon Acquisition
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
Ebury could be preparing for its next acquisition.
According to reports, the Santander-backed FinTech is in talks to acquire UK foreign exchange specialist Lumon in a deal that could value the company at more than £100 million.
Earlier this year, Ebury raised around £550 million to support its next stage of growth. If the Lumon deal goes ahead, it would be one of the first clear signs of how the company plans to put that capital to work.
There's plenty more waiting below.
You'll find an insightful conversation with Checkout.com's Remo Giovanni Abbondandolo on how AI is reshaping digital commerce across MENA, along with our latest comparison of two of Europe's largest FinTech success stories: Revolut and N26.
See what else is shaping FinTech. 👇 See you tomorrow!
Cheers,
Marcel
#FINTECHREPORT
📊 Revolut 🆚 N26
Here is a comparison of 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝘀 👇️

FINTECH NEWS
🇺🇸 Visa, Stripe, Coinbase, and more than 140 companies have joined the launch of Open USD (OUSD), a shared stablecoin that distributes reserve income across participating businesses. The initiative aims to create a collaboratively governed stablecoin network for payments, liquidity, and digital asset use cases.
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇬🇧 Checkout.com partners with Agoda to deliver AI-powered payment performance for global travel. Through its partnership with Checkout.com, Agoda strengthened its virtual card-issuing capabilities, ensuring travellers can complete bookings smoothly and suppliers are paid without disruption.
🌍 Mastercard launches Africa Cybersecurity Center of Excellence to help secure the continent's digital future. The initiative is designed to strengthen cyber resilience, enhance collaboration, and help safeguard the trust that underpins Africa's expanding digital economy.
🌎 Visa makes the smartphone the new cash register for the world’s small businesses. Visa announced new capabilities across Visa Pay, Visa Accept, and Visa Direct that are designed to expand how smartphones can accept and send digital payments.
🇺🇸 Stripe sees a 4x increase in AI-driven sign-ups since January 2025. Stripe says AI-driven businesses now account for around 40% of new sign-ups on its platform, with AI companies reaching revenue milestones 30% faster than comparable 2023 cohorts.
🇬🇷 UPI launches in Greece through a partnership between Eurobank and NPCI International Payments Limited, expanding India’s global digital payments network to 10 countries, enabling Indian travellers to make instant digital payments using their existing UPI apps.
Q&A
➡️ Q&A: How AI is reshaping digital commerce in MENA - A conversation with Remo Giovanni Abbondandolo, General Manager of MENA at Checkout.com, and Arthur Bedel. Exploring the findings of the MENA Digital Commerce 2026 report, the discussion highlights how AI, localized payments, and invisible checkout are reshaping digital commerce in the region. Read the full Q&A here

DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇳🇱 Finom launches Finom AI, an in-app assistant that answers finance questions using customers' real-time business account data. Integrated through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), the tool helps SMEs analyze cash flow, invoices, spending, and balances without relying on third-party integrations.
🇱🇺 Standard Chartered secures MiCA and EMI licences from the Luxembourg regulator. The new licences give Standard Chartered a regulated entry point to offer digital asset services from Luxembourg, with subsequent expansion across the European Union, subject to applicable regulatory approvals and cross-border rules.
🇫🇷 FinTech company Defacto is seeking a banking license in France and is targeting Belgium and Germany. The business financing FinTech expects to reach profitability by early next year and aims to strengthen its ability to support SMEs with working capital solutions across Europe.
🇬🇧 Tide expands wealth offering with launch of dedicated investment account for SMEs, launching the Tide Investment Account (TIA). The new offering is designed to help business owners grow surplus cash through investing, removing many of the barriers that have historically made wealth creation more complicated for smaller businesses.
🇪🇺 Sygnum has received a MiCA Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) licence in Liechtenstein, enabling it to expand digital asset services across the EU. The authorization strengthens Sygnum’s European growth strategy and supports the rollout of its bank-to-bank platform for financial institutions entering the digital asset market.
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🌍 Bybit limits EEA access as the MiCA deadline closes in. Bybit said affected users will receive clear notices before any measures start, including timelines for managing existing and new positions. Also, users will retain access to assets held in their accounts while they address open positions and balances.
🇪🇺 FalconX receives MiCA authorization, expanding regulated institutional digital asset services across the EU. The authorization strengthens FalconX's ability to serve institutional clients across the European Economic Area through a unified regulatory framework, supporting trading, custody, and liquidity solutions across digital asset markets.
PARTNERSHIPS
🇦🇪 Mashreq collaborates with Mastercard to expand quick remit cross-border payment corridors. Through this collaboration, Mastercard Move will elevate Mashreq's cross-border remittance capabilities, boosting its overall service proposition and allowing customers to send money directly in local currencies across new international corridors.
🇬🇧 Paysafe joins the Primer platform to streamline card payments for online merchants. The integration expands global payment routing capabilities, enabling businesses across multiple regions to optimize card acceptance and transaction performance.
🇬🇧 Qliro signs strategic agreement to become PPRO’s Nordic BNPL partner. By offering Qliro BNPL through its platform, PPRO will enable global merchants to easily access a payment method that appeals directly to Nordic consumers. Read more
🇺🇸 Personetics embeds AI within the digital experience from Fiserv, enabling banks and credit unions to deliver real-time personalized financial insights, proactive guidance, and tailored recommendations for consumers and small businesses.
🇬🇧 Curve uses BigQuery Graph to tackle fraud networks. The UK FinTech uses graph analytics to uncover linked fraud networks by identifying shared devices, payment cards, and contact details across accounts, improving its ability to detect organized fraud at scale.
🇧🇪 Beobank launches Beobank Pay with the integration of Wero for easy, fast, and secure mobile payments. Initially supporting instant peer-to-peer payments, the app is designed to expand into e-commerce, mobile commerce, and NFC payments while strengthening Beobank’s digital payment capabilities.
🇫🇷 Coinbase powers Spiko’s mutual fund with stablecoin funding. By leveraging Coinbase Payments, Spiko has eliminated the traditional multi-day settlement gap, allowing institutional investors to move seamlessly between USDC and T-bills 24/7.
🇦🇪 American Express and Network enter a partnership to expand merchant acceptance in the UAE. Through this collaboration, local and international American Express Card members are expected to gain access to new locations in the UAE, both in-store and online, broadening everyday spending opportunities.
🇬🇧 RedotPay selects OpenPayd to strengthen global stablecoin payment infrastructure for millions of customers. The collaboration strengthens RedotPay’s payment infrastructure, enabling a more seamless experience for global fund movement so users can navigate between local and digital currencies effortlessly.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
🌍 BR-DGE raises £10m in funding to accelerate global expansion. The new investment will be used to further enhance BR-DGE’s platform capabilities, strengthen go-to-market activity and drive geographic growth, with significant new market and product launches planned for the second half of this year.
🇺🇸 Nomerra raises $2 million to tackle private markets’ looming paperwork crisis. The company will use the funding to grow its engineering team and meet surging demand for AI solutions across enterprise asset servicers and managers in Europe and the United States.
🇺🇸 MDOTM raises a $27M growth equity round led by Expedition Growth Capital as AI adoption permeates the asset and wealth management industry. The funding will accelerate international expansion and hiring across AI research, engineering, product, sales, and client solutions.
🇸🇬 Qashier raises $6.125m after turning profitable. Qashier intends to use the fresh capital to develop omnichannel payment capabilities, widen its embedded finance offering, and introduce AI-driven insights alongside workflow automation tools.
M&A
🇬🇧 Santander’s Ebury eyes £100m Lumon takeover. Ebury is reportedly considering the acquisition of foreign exchange firm Lumon in a deal that could value the business at more than £100 million. Backed by Banco Santander, Ebury is pursuing acquisitions to accelerate its growth ahead of a potential IPO.
🇧🇷 Nubank is making headway in the race to acquire a Portuguese bank's subsidiary, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, in Brazil. The FinTech said it is evaluating multiple options to achieve this goal but has not made a final decision on any specific transaction.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇦🇪 Crypto.com hires OKX alum Iskandar Vanblarcum to head Prediction Markets. As Managing Director, Iskandar Vanblarcum will be responsible for expanding Crypto. com Exchange’s client base and overseeing new features and services for institutional partners, including spearheading the platform’s planned regulated Prediction Markets and Real-World Asset (RWA) offerings.
Want your message in front of 275.000+ FinTech fanatics, founders, investors, and operators?

Comments ()