UK Banks Put Tokenised Deposits to Work
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
Banks are finally putting tokenised deposits to work. 👀
Lloyds, NatWest and Barclays have completed interbank transactions using blockchain-based tokenised deposits, including two mortgage transactions, while another trial involved HSBC and a peer-to-peer payment.
The interesting part is that this isn’t just about putting deposits on a blockchain. The trials showed how programmable bank money could move between institutions and even be automatically released when certain conditions are met.
That could make some payments faster, more efficient, and potentially reduce fraud, while keeping money within the regulated banking system.
And the UK is already looking beyond the pilot. The project plans to move toward a formal operating framework, with digital bonds using tokenised deposits planned for 2027.
That brings us to Noah. In Why Every FinTech Is Suddenly Publishing Its ARR, Shah Ramezani looks at why FinTechs are putting more focus on recurring revenue, growth and the underlying infrastructure that creates a durable business.
And on the infrastructure side, Ove Kreison from Tuum explores how AI could help banks leapfrog legacy complexity, from mapping old cores to accelerating compliance and connecting systems, freeing more resources for customer-focused innovation.
Let’s get into today’s FinTech stories. 👇
See you on Monday!
Cheers,
INSIGHTS
💡 Noah: Why Every FinTech Is Suddenly Publishing Its ARR. In a recent analysis, Shah Ramezani, Founder & CEO of Noah, explains why ARR is becoming a standard headline metric for FinTech companies. Funding and valuation show investor appetite, but ARR and growth rate reveal whether customers are actually paying and how quickly the business is scaling. The important questions go beyond the headline: net vs. gross revenue, contracted vs. usage-based revenue, customer concentration, and - most importantly - whether the company can maintain its margins as pricing pressure increases. Shah also argues that FinTech’s regulatory licences, banking relationships, and compliance infrastructure create moats that are difficult to replicate, while AI can act as leverage on top of that infrastructure rather than replace it. Read the full article here
FINTECH NEWS
🇺🇸 Experian becomes the first personal finance app integrated with Google Gemini. The integration allows users to access credit and financial insights through Gemini's AI interface, marking a new distribution channel for personal finance data.
🇺🇸 FIS moves retirement recordkeeping into real time, launching a cloud-native version of its Retirement Platform. The system helps providers meet SECURE 2.0 requirements at scale.
🇺🇸 FinTech lender Avant applies for an OCC bank charter, joining a growing wave of FinTechs pursuing full banking capabilities. A national charter would let the Chicago firm expand credit products and reduce its cost of funds.
🇲🇩 Moldova extends EVO digital ID wallet to four banks, expanding access to its national identity infrastructure. Citizens can now use the EVO wallet to authenticate and transact with four participating banks.
🇮🇪 Stripe spends almost €150M on staff share-based payments as its Irish unit ramps up hiring and pay. The figures reflect a significant increase in equity compensation as Stripe scales its Dublin operations.
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇬🇧 Checkout.com builds its own agent infrastructure, while backing three rival agentic payment protocols. The processor launched an MCP Server claiming 81% faster integration, while supporting ACP, Google AP2, and Mastercard Agent Pay.
🇨🇳 Tencent launches TenPayGo, its first mobile payment app built for overseas visitors to China. The app supports cards from seven international networks and plans to connect roughly 60 foreign wallets by year end, giving travelers access to tens of millions of merchants.
🇬🇧 Revolut shakes up the high street with first facial recognition payments and zero processing fees for merchants. The launch introduces biometric checkout as a new in-store payment method and removes transaction fees to drive merchant adoption across its UK network.
🇮🇳 Pine Labs plans to deploy 1 million soundboxes across India to accelerate digital payment acceptance. The rollout targets small merchants and aims to expand audio confirmation of UPI and card transactions at the point of sale nationwide.
🇵🇰 EBANX expands into Pakistan and launches native Apple Pay decryption for global merchants. The move adds Pakistan to the company's emerging market footprint and lets merchants process Apple Pay transactions locally without third party decryption.
🇦🇪 AUSTRIACARD delivers the first Jaywan payment cards to Wio Bank in the UAE. The cards are produced under the national Jaywan scheme and support contactless payments across the domestic network, marking a milestone for UAE payment sovereignty.
🇮🇳 PayGlocal receives IFSCA approval to operate as a payment service provider in GIFT City. The cross border payments firm already holds an RBI licence and a US MSB registration, and will now build international payment capabilities from India's financial hub.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇺🇸 IBM expands its digital banking infrastructure with Swift integration and on premises Digital Asset Haven. The beta lets financial institutions connect to Swift's blockchain based shared ledger for tokenised deposit transactions using ISO 20022 messaging.
🇦🇷 Argentina's central bank confirms Mercado Libre and Revolut will receive banking licences before year end. The announcement positions both companies to enter the formal banking system as fully licensed digital banks in one of Latin America's largest markets.
🇯🇵 MUFG's digital bank subsidiary clinches a banking licence and rebrands to MUFG Emut Bank. The fully owned subsidiary holds $300M in capital and plans to begin offering services around January to March 2027 under the Emut Bank name.
ARTICLE OF THE DAY
🚀 With AI, banks don’t have to catch up; they can leapfrog, as Tuum explores how AI can break the cycle of legacy complexity, slow regulatory change, and costly integrations. From mapping old cores to accelerating compliance and connecting systems, AI enables banks to move faster, manage risk, and put more of their budget toward customer-focused innovation.
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🇬🇧 UK banks complete the first live customer transactions using tokenised sterling deposits. The milestone demonstrates that tokenised commercial bank money can settle real retail payments on a shared ledger alongside traditional rails.
🇮🇳 HDFC Bank launches five Digital Rupee use cases spanning retail and corporate payments. The rollout covers credit card reward redemption, gift vouchers, corporate allowances, BHIM integration, and offline payments onboard flights via tap to pay.
🇺🇸 Oracle expands Digital Assets Data Nexus to help banks operationalize digital money. New capabilities include ISO 20022 payment integrations, configurable wallet controls, and AI enabled oversight for tokenised deposits and stablecoins.
🇺🇸 BitGo launches BitGo Research, appointing Greg Cipolaro as Head of Research. The new division will provide institutional clients with digital asset market analysis and insights.
🇺🇸 Episode Six launches E6 Token Control Ledger, a system of record for tokenized money management. The platform gives banks and issuers tools to manage tokenized assets at enterprise scale.
PARTNERSHIPS
🇩🇪 Solaris goes live on ACI Worldwide's ACI Connetic for SEPA Instant Payments. The licensed German bank has consolidated its instant payment infrastructure onto the cloud native platform for payments orchestration, completing the first phase of its modernization initiative.
🌏 Airwallex is now an official Replit Connector, letting developers use Replit Agent to add payments, invoices, and payouts to apps. The integration builds against Airwallex's latest docs and tests in its sandbox before deployment.
🇩🇰 Adyen partners with Flatpay to power SMB expansion across Europe and beyond. Adyen will provide acquiring capabilities and global infrastructure to support Flatpay's scaling plans across seven European markets.
🇬🇧 Teya taps ClearBank to launch a high yield savings account for UK small businesses. The partnership lets Teya's merchant customers open instant access savings pots directly within the Teya platform, powered by ClearBank's banking infrastructure.
🇬🇧 Midnite partners with BR-DGE to sharpen payments performance and power international sportsbook expansion. The collaboration gives the betting platform access to optimised checkout routing across multiple payment methods and geographies.
🇦🇪 Bank al Etihad enters the UAE market through a strategic partnership with Ethmar International Holding. The Jordanian bank signed an MoU to establish a new Category 1 bank in Abu Dhabi Global Market, expanding its footprint beyond Jordan and Iraq.
🇮🇳 Pine Labs partners with Google Cloud for AI powered commerce. The collaboration will bring Google Cloud's AI capabilities to Pine Labs' merchant and payments platform, enhancing checkout and commerce experiences across India.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
🇺🇸 Stablecoin payments startup HIFI raises $37M to scale its infrastructure for enterprise transactions. The funding positions HIFI to expand stablecoin based payment rails aimed at replacing traditional cross border settlement flows.
🇺🇸 Crux Analytics raises €1.9M in seed funding to help banks win and retain small business customers. The US based FinTech replaces traditional sales tools with an agentic business development engine that identifies, researches, and prioritises high potential prospects.
🇺🇸 MyComplianceOffice lands over $100M in a strategic investment. The compliance technology provider plans to use the capital to scale its platform for regulated financial institutions managing conduct, conflicts, and trade surveillance.
🇺🇸 Pagaya secures a $460M revolving credit facility to support its AI driven lending network. The facility provides additional capital to fund consumer loan originations across its bank and FinTech partner ecosystem.
🇸🇦 Saudi FinTech TalMal lands pre-Seed investment for local expansion in Saudi Arabia. MM Partners backed the salary-backed purchasing platform as it moves from product validation into commercial scaling.
🇺🇸 Baselayer raises $35M in a Series A, to build out its new agentic identity suite. The round will fund development of identity tools designed for AI agent verification and authentication.
🌍 IPID raises $16M as instant payments expose a growing blind spot. The funding targets fraud prevention gaps created by the global shift to real-time payments. Read more
🇩🇪 Kontext raises $4M to put guardrails on AI agents for banks and FinTechs. The Munich startup, backed by 42CAP, a16z CSX, and HTGF, reviews AI agent actions against company policy before execution.
🇺🇸 USD.AI announces a $128.9M GPU financing facility, its largest to date. The asset backed loan supports the deployment of 32 NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 systems in British Columbia for a publicly listed GPU cloud provider.
🇳🇱 AI FinTech Duqu raises €1.5M to tackle Europe's late payment problem. The Amsterdam based startup uses an AI underwriting engine to give businesses instant access to money tied up in unpaid invoices, targeting the B2B collections gap.
🇮🇳 IPO bound Moneyview nets ₹327.5 Cr from anchor investors ahead of its ₹1,092 Cr public offering. SBI Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund led the anchor round, which allocated shares at ₹34 apiece, the upper end of the price band.
M&A
🇺🇸 PLACE acquires FinTech Maxwell, bolstering its platform for lenders and institutional partners. Maxwell touched nearly 10% of U.S. mortgage originations in 2025, serving over 400 financial institutions.
🇮🇹 Azimut buys out Epic's FinTech arm in a €19M deal, capping Zest's 3.5x exit. The acquisition gives Azimut full ownership of the FinTech unit. Read more
MOVERS & SHAKERS
🇬🇧 Stripe puts ex-HSBC compliance leader Marc Fungard in charge of its UK business. Fungard has spent three and a half years at Stripe as global head of financial crime, compliance and risk oversight.
🇺🇸 Solana Foundation appoints Rachel Conlan as CSO, and Jamal Raees as General Manager of Payments. The hires strengthen institutional growth as Solana has processed over $5 trillion in stablecoin volume in 2026.
🇬🇧 Yellow Card appoints Ross Everett as Group CFO, following leadership roles at Monzo Bank and Deutsche Bank. Everett will lead global finance as Yellow Card scales its stablecoin payments infrastructure internationally.
🇺🇸 Wells Fargo CRO Derek Flowers to retire, with COO Scott Powell set to succeed him. The leadership transition comes as the bank continues its multi year risk and regulatory overhaul under CEO Charlie Scharf.
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