Latest news by Rick Steves
Why the FCA’s retail crypto-ETN reopening splits from US and EU
The Financial Conduct Authority's decision to reopen retail access to crypto exchange-traded notes (cETNs) — effective October 8, 2025 — puts the United Kingdom on a third path between the US spot-ETF model and the…
Adyen wins GOV.UK Pay deal, displacing Stripe on 1,000 services
Adyen has won the contract to run card and bank payments for GOV.UK Pay, displacing Stripe across roughly 1,000 public sector services and signalling a shift in how government procurement now reads the payments market.…
Riverty secures Luxembourg bank licence for embedded finance
Riverty, the fintech arm of Bertelsmann, has secured a Luxembourg banking licence to turn its Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) and credit unit into a regulated European bank — the latest sign that BNPL providers…
How the CLARITY Act carves crypto between the SEC and CFTC
The Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act would split US crypto oversight by token function — handing spot digital-commodity markets to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission while leaving investment-contract assets with the Securities and Exchange…
Slash hits $1.4bn as corporate-spend fintechs split paths
The corporate-spend category is splitting in two, and the clearest evidence is the gap between two April 2026 outcomes: Brex sold itself to Capital One for $5.15 billion, while rival Slash raised $100 million to…
Why EMIR 3.0’s active-account rule targets London euro clearing
EMIR 3.0's active account requirement forces in-scope EU counterparties to open and use accounts at EU-based clearing houses for euro interest-rate derivatives from June 24, 2025, with the detailed calibration in force from February 26,…
PFOF’s June 30 cliff ends Germany’s carve-out as EU, UK, US split
From June 30, 2026, the European Union's last transitional carve-out for payment for order flow (PFOF) expires, ending Germany's two-year reprieve and leaving the EU, the United Kingdom and the United States with three sharply…
Airwallex launches billing, escalating its Stripe rivalry
Airwallex has launched a billing product that lets businesses generate invoices, meter software usage and manage subscriptions — and in doing so it has walked directly onto turf Stripe has held for almost a decade.…
Japan’s FIEA shift pulls crypto into securities law from 2027
Japan's amended Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA) moves crypto out of payments law and into securities law, importing insider-dealing prohibitions, mandatory issuer disclosures and a flat 20% tax — a securities-style model that diverges…
Outmarket AI raises $17m as AI dominates insurtech funding
Outmarket AI, an insurtech building artificial-intelligence (AI) software for insurance brokers, has raised a $17 million Series A led by Permanent Capital Ventures — a round that lands precisely as AI-native insurtechs hoover up the…