Baselayer raises $35m for Know Your Agent checks on AI agents
Baselayer raised a $35m Series A led by M13 for Know Your Agent checks. What its credentials verify, and what its 2,300-institution claim actually counts.
Rick Steves
Senior Reporter, Regulation and Fintech
Rick Steves has seen business and economics through many lenses. He joined the financial services industry in 2009, and has been a financial journalist since 2011. He holds a degree in Business Administration and has experience producing real-time news, from both buy-side and sell-side, as well as for retail traders, brokers and service providers. Steves' work has appeared in a variety of online publications including FX Street, NewsBTC, FinanceFeeds, and The Industry Spread. Rick has great interest in the dynamics of the trading industry. The never-ending clash between technology, economics, regulation, and more importantly, the people.
September 2026
SEC release 34-106458 fines OTC Link $575,000 over Reg SCI gaps
OTC Link LLC pays $575,000 in SEC release 34-106458 after Regulation SCI access-control and vulnerability policies sat in draft from 2016 to 2025.
J.P. Morgan Payments picks Thunes to widen Xpedite Remit payouts
J.P. Morgan Payments adds Thunes to Xpedite Remit, five weeks after Fiserv chose the same payout network. What that does to cross-border differentiation.
CFTC Letter 26-27 makes mention markets presumptively manipulable
CFTC Letter 26-27 presumes mention markets are manipulable under Core Principle 3. What DCMs must show, and how Ontario, the UK and EU compare.
CellPoint’s Zenith puts an AI layer above payment orchestrators
CellPoint's Zenith, backed by $34m from Toscafund, is an AI decisioning layer above any payment orchestrator. Why the margin is leaving the routing layer.
SEC innovation exemption caps tokenised stocks at 75 and 250 symbols
SEC order 34-106402 lets real tokenised NMS stock trade on permissioned AMM venues until 2031, capped at 75 and 250 symbols. Synthetic tokens are excluded.
Paymob’s $35m pre-Series C bets on the Gulf, not Egypt
Paymob's $35m pre-Series C, co-led by Mubadala and the EBRD, lands as GCC revenue grows 7x to near half the total. What the Gulf shift means for MENA payments.
MAS draft would let it delist a foreign systemic stablecoin
MAS's draft Payment Services Act amendments would let it designate offshore stablecoins as systemic and order Singapore exchanges to delist non-compliant coins.
FintechOS raises $28m in debt and equity to push into the US
FintechOS raised $28m from existing backers plus a Santander CIB debt line after turning profitable.
Luzern Risk raises $45m to take captive insurance mid-market
Luzern Risk's $45m Series B bets captive insurance can move beyond the Fortune 500, as Marsh data shows formations rising while commercial rates fall.
FCA PS26/18 leaves crypto front-ends waiting on Article 9Z2A
FCA PS26/18 says apps letting users place crypto orders likely need authorisation, while the Article 9Z2A carve-out waits on a Treasury SI the guidance omits.
Bank Pekao picks NCR Atleos Authentic payment switch
Bank Pekao has chosen NCR Atleos's Authentic payment switch for card processing as a tax-driven profit squeeze puts its cost-to-income target under pressure.
UK Payments Delivery Company seeks £50m, blueprint due 2027
Nineteen firms funded the UK Payments Delivery Company's £50m raise four days after the design consultation closed. The blueprint is not due until Q1 2027.
FINRA Rule 3290 retires the 1994 notice that made brokers supervise outside RIA work
SEC Release 34-106381 approves FINRA Rule 3290, reclassifying unaffiliated RIA work as an outside activity and retiring NASD supervision guidance from 1994.
Enova walks away from Grasshopper Bank, saying regulators have no standards for nonbanks
Enova withdrew its OCC and Federal Reserve applications for Grasshopper Bank, saying nonbanks face no clear charter standards. ENVA fell 23.4% next session.
CFTC Letter 26-25 makes passivity the price of software relief
CFTC Staff Letter 26-25 lets passive software providers skip introducing broker registration — but its 10 conditions exclude copy trading and signal tools.
Fin.com raises $20m seed with seven acquisitions already closed
Fin.com raised a $20m seed led by Garrett Camp's Expa, a small cheque for a cross-border payments network with 200 staff and seven acquisitions closed.
Ryft’s £20m Series B targets a Malta licence and US entry
Ryft raises a £20m Series B led by Gresham House Ventures, with a Malta EU licence bid, US entry and the safeguarding duties marketplaces would rather avoid.
Acting as principal becomes an FCA permission, not an entitlement
HM Treasury's February 2026 consultation would make acting as a principal a separate FCA permission and let the Financial Ombudsman reach ARs directly.
CFTC’s 4.13(a)(4) revival exempts SEC advisers, not ERAs
CFTC proposal revives Regulation 4.13(a)(4) for SEC-registered advisers only and doubles the small pool cap to $800,000; comments close October 5, 2026.
Also filing this week: Karthik Subramanian and Abdelaziz Fathi.