There's Not a Banking License For All Anymore...

Hey FinTech Fanatic!

If you follow my Future of Banking newsletter, you may have caught my coverage of Revolut's and Nubank's new banking licences. If not, give it a follow!

For a moment it looked like everyone was getting one. Not anymore...

Revolut just secured a full French banking licence from the ECB and ACPR, months after finally landing its UK licence. That's 75 million customers now backed by a dual-hub European structure.

bunq, meanwhile, got rejected by U.S. regulators for its national bank charter application.

One green light, one red light. Will Bunq make a comeback? What do you think?

Now, let's dive into today's stories 👇

I'll be back in your inbox tomorrow!

Cheers,

Marcel

INSIGHTS

💡 DashDevs: Banking Circle Integration Guide. Banking Circle provides payment businesses, banks, and investment funds with multi-rail payments, accounts, FX, and liquidity infrastructure, helping streamline cross-border payments and reduce fragmented banking relationships. But integration goes well beyond API connectivity, spanning payment orchestration, reconciliation, compliance, liquidity management, and operational readiness across API, SWIFT, and file-based models. Read the full article here

FINTECH NEWS

🇺🇸 Mesta launches its white-labeled customer portal, enabling businesses to offer branded payment management interfaces to their end users. The portal is built on Mesta's infrastructure combining fiat and blockchain-based payment rails for global transactions.

🇮🇳 India grapples with the pros and cons of fees for UPI payments as the system has grown sevenfold in five years. Policymakers are debating whether introducing charges could sustain payment infrastructure without hurting digital adoption rates.

🇺🇸 Trump-linked FinTech AI Financial sells a unit to PrimeDelta, according to Reuters. The deal involves the divestiture of a business unit from the politically connected financial technology firm. Keep reading

🇬🇧 Robinhood launches crypto trading for UK investors, offering 50+ digital assets with zero trading fees through Bitstamp UK Ltd. The product rolls out alongside stocks, ISAs, options, and futures in a single app.

🇺🇸 Bybit takes North Korea and Lazarus Group to court over the record $1.5B hack from 2025. A U.S. District Court issued a preliminary injunction barring unidentified asset holders from moving or selling the stolen funds.

PAYMENTS NEWS

🇧🇷 UnionPay to link Chinese payment apps to Brazil's Pix, connecting Chinese tourists to the instant payment system used by 15 million merchants. Users of the UnionPay app will scan a merchant's code and pay directly from their home account.

🇮🇳 Google Pay is not focusing on cross-border payments now, prioritising faster and safer domestic transactions instead. The company says it likely holds the highest transaction success rates in the industry for domestic payments.

🇮🇳 Apple Pay is set for an India launch in October, initially supporting Visa and Mastercard credit cards but not UPI. Apple is still negotiating transaction fees with Indian banks ahead of the rollout.

🇮🇶 Apple Pay coming soon to Iraq as Credit Bank of Iraq announced availability on its website. The NBK subsidiary will let customers register eligible cards on Apple devices for contactless purchases nationwide.

🇺🇸 Circle launches AI Agent Discovery Layer for USDC payments, enabling AI agents to find and consume services via a single public endpoint. Builders can query the full Agent Marketplace catalog without requiring an API key, authentication, or a Circle account.

🇧🇩 Bangladesh Bank sets zero Interchange Reimbursement Fee for Bangla QR transactions. The central bank move aims to accelerate merchant adoption of QR code payments across the country.

🇪🇸 Klarna reaches 7% of Spain's population after just five years in the market. The BNPL firm says Spain, France, and Italy have become among its biggest growth bets outside the U.S. and Nordic home markets.

#FINTECHREPORT

📊 PayPal Q2 2026

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DIGITAL BANKING NEWS

🇫🇷 Revolut receives a French banking licence after a joint assessment by the ACPR and the ECB Governing Council. The licence creates a dual-hub model with its Lithuanian entity, strengthening Revolut's position as one of Europe's largest retail banks.

🇺🇸 US regulator rejects Dutch FinTech Bunq's application for a national bank charter, blocking the Amsterdam-based neobank's planned expansion into the American banking market. Read more

🇷🇴 ING Bank Romania launches RoPay for business banking customers, offering merchants a fully digital way to accept instant payments. Promotional fees of 0% for ING customer payments and 0.25% for other banks apply until July 2027.

🇵🇭 Maya targets a 2027 IPO debut on the Philippine Stock Exchange, according to chair Manuel V. Pangilinan. The digital bank and e-wallet operator is preparing for a listing while rival GCash is expected to go public first.

🇧🇷 Belvo launches MCP servers for agentic open finance in Latin America. The three new servers let AI agents communicate directly with Belvo's platform of over 80 million connected accounts for real-time financial data access.

BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS

🇸🇨 BitMEX shuts down after a failed $1B sale amid legal and ownership challenges. The exchange spent two years seeking buyers, but declining volumes and U.S. legal baggage from 2020 criminal charges deterred acquirers.

🇦🇺 AUSTRAC orders Cryptolink's 96 crypto ATMs offline, suspending the firm's VASP registration for three months over AML concerns. The regulator cited ongoing issues with compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing obligations.

🇦🇪 Flowdesk receives a full VARA licence for broker-dealer services in Dubai. The crypto market maker will operate from its One Central office under the supervision of Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority.

🇪🇺 EU to review MiCA framework and adjust rules for non-EU stablecoins, influenced by the U.S. GENIUS Act and Trump administration stablecoin policy. Diplomats will assess whether to expand MiCA's scope to include tokenized payments and tokenized deposits.

🇦🇺 Superhero launches a digital asset strategy in partnership with Bitstamp, enabling Australian investors to buy and hold crypto within their portfolio. The move is the first step in a multi-year roadmap covering tokenisation, stablecoins, and blockchain settlement.

PARTNERSHIPS

🇦🇪 Botim and Mastercard launch the region's first all-in-one card with Mastercard One Credential in the UAE. Eligible cardholders can switch between prepaid balances, credit funding, and installments through a single card solution.

🇺🇸 Adyen expands its global partnership with Toast into the U.S., supporting more than $215B in gross payment volume across approximately 180,000 locations. The deal adds Adyen's platform to Toast's domestic operations after years of international collaboration in Ireland, the UK, Canada, and Australia.

🇹🇿 UnionPay International and Pesapal partner to boost cross-border payments in East Africa. The rollout immediately expands UnionPay acceptance by over 3,000 merchant locations across Tanzania and Rwanda in key tourism sectors.

🇲🇴 Galaxy Macau and Ant Bank (Macao) launch a Financial Services Station, bringing digital banking into the integrated resort landscape for the first time. The station combines self-service banking, financial consultation, interactive displays, and membership services.

🇳🇬 SeerBit integrates PayPal to expand cross-border payments for African merchants. Customers on SeerBit-powered platforms can now choose PayPal alongside cards, bank transfers, and mobile money at checkout.

DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS

🇺🇦 Piraeus Bank partner Activitis plans to raise $85M to develop its WEAGRO and eDilo digital financial ecosystems in Ukraine. The FinTech expects to provide $582M in B2B BNPL financing to suppliers and buyers over three years.

🇨🇭 Finster AI secures a strategic investment from UBS to advance AI innovation in investment banking. The funding will help automate complex workflows across global investment banking operations using AI-driven tools.

🇩🇪 Auxmoney weighs an IPO or sale as Centerbridge explores an exit. The Düsseldorf digital lender has halved credit losses since the PE firm invested, and discussions are in early stages with no final decision yet made.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

🌍 Mastercard announces Yasemin Bedir as new President of its Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region, effective 1 September. The EEMEA region now spans 81 countries identified as having high growth potential for the payments giant.

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