Chime turns its first profit as the 2026 fintech IPO wave stalls
Chime booked its first GAAP profit ($53m) in Q1 2026 while Revolut and Monzo defer their IPOs — proof the fintech listing window now opens for earnings first.
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.
June 2026
Basel’s 1,250% crypto capital rule reopens as the US and UK opt out
Basel's SCO60 imposes a 1,250% capital charge on crypto from January 1, 2026 — but the US rejected it, the UK held back, and only the EU is transposing it in full.
Saris raises $28.8m to bring agentic AI to bank back offices
Saris raises a $28.8m Series A led by 8VC to scale agentic AI workflow automation for banks and credit unions across lending, compliance and operations.
Temenos acquires additiv in embedded-wealth orchestration push
Temenos has agreed to buy Swiss wealth-orchestration platform additiv in a 50/50 cash-and-equity deal, pushing embedded finance from payments into wealth.
Why sanctioning crypto code splits the US, EU and UK in 2026
After the Van Loon ruling forced the Tornado Cash delisting, the US, EU and UK are diverging on sanctioning crypto code and developer liability in 2026.
Hong Kong’s stablecoin licences expose a global issuer split
Hong Kong's first stablecoin licences complete a five-jurisdiction map where HK, Singapore, Japan, the US and EU agree on reserves but split on who can issue.
Klarna launches US Visa debit card in pivot beyond BNPL
Klarna has rolled out a Visa Flexible Credential debit card in the US, signalling its push to be valued as a neobank rather than a BNPL lender.
Figure buys Kiavi for $717m in tokenised-lending push
Figure is acquiring lender Kiavi for $717m, with Sixth Street warehousing the loans — a balance-sheet-light template for scaling tokenised lending.
MiCA 2: the EU reopens its crypto rulebook 18 months in
The EU's MiCA review consultation reopens the crypto rulebook 18 months in — DeFi, staking, perps and the stablecoin ban that pushed out USDT all on the table.
Why Europe’s T+1 October 2027 deadline is an FX problem
The EU, UK and Switzerland move to T+1 on October 11, 2027 — ESMA wants the build done by Q4 2026. Why FX funding, CLS cut-offs and prefunding are the risk.
KOHO raises C$130m at C$1.33bn as bank licence nears
KOHO becomes Canada's newest unicorn with a C$130m Series E backed by Mubadala and Tobi Lutke — capital aimed squarely at a Schedule 1 bank licence.
Why EU regulators are pulling prop trading inside MiFID II
FSMA, CONSOB and the Czech National Bank are pushing funded-trader firms towards MiFID II just as the CFTC's My Forex Funds case collapsed in sanctions.
How Kalshi v. Flaherty splits event contracts from gambling law
Kalshi v. Flaherty: the Third Circuit rules CFTC jurisdiction preempts state gambling law for event contracts — while the UK and Ontario draw the opposite line.
Swift retail cross-border scheme goes live at 25+ banks
Swift's cross-border payments scheme hits its June go-live with 25+ banks across 11 corridors — landing as stablecoins are reframed as settlement rails.
Wise FY26 volume jumps 25% to £181.7bn as take rate falls
Wise FY26 cross-border volume rose 25% to £181.7bn and customers hit 18.9m, even as its take rate fell to 51bps — the volume flywheel that defies neobank fee logic.
How DORA’s cloud oversight splits the EU, UK and US in 2026
DORA put EU regulators directly over Amazon, Microsoft and Google in 2026. How the EU, UK and US split on overseeing the cloud the financial system runs on.
Forage raises $40m to scale its SNAP-benefits payments rail
Forage raised a $40m Series B led by Mouro Capital to scale its SNAP/EBT payments rail — the government-benefits infrastructure mainstream fintech ignores.
How the CFTC’s crypto-perpetuals opening splits four markets
The CFTC cleared Coinbase to offer US clients crypto perpetuals while the EU caps them, the UK bans them for retail and Singapore gates them. The split explained.
Why 2026 retail FX rules move beyond the 30:1 leverage cap
Retail FX leverage caps have converged at 30:1, but 2026 enforcement targets conduct: ASIC's $40m refunds and the FCA's Consumer Duty review on CFDs.
Also filing this week: Karthik Subramanian and Abdelaziz Fathi.