JetBlue ties TrueBlue points to BNPL in ClarityPay launch
JetBlue and ClarityPay launch loyalty-linked pay later: TrueBlue points on financed bookings, 0% intro APR, $50-$50,000 range. Why white-label BNPL wins.
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.
July 2026
FATF review: Travel Rule at 83% as stablecoins take focus
FATF's July 2026 update: 83% of jurisdictions have Travel Rule laws but enforcement lags, and stablecoins carry 84% of illicit flows. Five regimes compared.
Stripe, Advent bid $53bn for PayPal in record fintech deal
Stripe and Advent International offer $60.50 a share for PayPal - a $53bn record fintech deal that would fold 439m accounts into Stripe's rails. Who wins?
Sage and GoCardless put Pay by Bank on UK SME invoices
Sage and GoCardless embed instant account-to-account payments in SME invoices — the third UK pay-by-bank move in five days, with card interchange the target.
CFTC’s twin event-contract rules end the no-action era
The CFTC's two June 2026 NPRMs codify prediction-market rules: a rewritten Rule 40.11, a 10-100 day review clock, §16.03 reporting — comments close July 27.
Flex raises $70m at $1.2bn to bank business owners globally
Flex raises $70m seven months after its Series B, doubling to $1.2bn, as the owner-first private banking platform launches stablecoin-railed Flex Global.
Deutsche Bank, MIGA launch €1bn trade finance guarantee
MIGA's first programmatic trade finance guarantee platform with a commercial bank gives Deutsche Bank €1bn of cover on frontier-market state-bank risk.
Lloyds and Stripe launch ‘Lloyds Accept’ for 1m UK SMEs
Lloyds has launched Lloyds Accept, powered by Stripe, giving 1 million-plus business customers tap-to-pay, payment links and terminals to fight neobank rivals.
Why the CLARITY Act’s SEC-CFTC split reshapes US crypto rules
The CLARITY Act would split US digital-asset oversight between the SEC and CFTC. A July 17 House hearing is the last push before a Senate vote — here is what changes.
Klarna files for US bank charter to end WebBank reliance
Klarna has applied to the FDIC and Utah regulators for an industrial bank charter, Klarna Bank USA, to run payments and credit in-house and drop sponsor WebBank.
MiCA cliff: 210 firms authorised, 990 must wind down
MiCA's transition closed July 1. Only ~210 of 1,200+ EU crypto firms got authorised. The single market is real - and far more concentrated than intended.
Indian fintech funding jumps 2.3x to $2bn on debt-heavy deals
Indian fintech raised $2bn across 48 deals in Q2 2026. But the flagship round was 84% debt - and that reframes the whole funding surge.
Mastercard explores Vocalink majority sale at £400m valuation
Mastercard is in early talks to sell 51% of Vocalink at a GBP400m valuation - half what it paid in 2016. Why it may be a willing seller of the UK's rails.
US fintech funding hits $16bn as small rounds shrink 17%
US fintech raised $16bn in Q2 2026 — the best quarter in five. But sub-$100m funding fell 17% year on year. The rebound is megadeals, not a recovery.
Why Hong Kong’s OTP ban resets crypto operational security
SFC Circular 26EC35 bars OTP logins for Hong Kong brokers and crypto platforms by July 8, 2027 — and makes senior management liable for client losses.
Nubank’s Visa-veteran CFO starts amid US bank charter push
Rob Livingston takes over as Nubank CFO on July 13, 2026. Hiring a Visa finance chief — not a banker — signals how the US charter push will be monetised.
Airwallex hits $11bn valuation as fintech funding rebounds
Airwallex raised $320m at an $11bn valuation. Payments is now just 30% of its revenue - which is exactly why the round priced at a software multiple.
FCA finalises UK crypto rules and refuses to copy MiCA
The FCA cut stablecoin capital to 1% and rejected MiCA alignment. Its regime bites in Oct 2027 - 16 months after MiCA's cliff. The gap is the story.
Riverty opens Luxembourg bank to serve 1,800 merchants
Bertelsmann's Riverty starts as a licensed EU bank in July, turning a BNPL book of 25m customers into a deposit-funded merchant lender. Why charters win.
Kord raises £6.4m to fight AI fraud in regulated sectors
UK RegTech Kord has raised £6.4m led by Guinness Ventures to unify onboarding, compliance and payments for regulated firms — a bet that AI fraud forces re-bundling.
Also filing this week: Karthik Subramanian and Abdelaziz Fathi.