Revolut wins Australian ADI licence in a neobank graveyard
APRA granted Revolut a full ADI licence on July 21, 2026. Two of the last independent Australian neobank cohort handed their licences back.
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Fintech
Payments, KYC, trading technology and the vendors that sell it to brokers.
200 stories since 2021 · page 5 of 10
July 2026
Alpaca raises $435m and targets prime brokerage entry
Alpaca's $435m raise is majority debt - a balance-sheet signal, not growth capital, as the brokerage API provider targets prime broking and hedge fund clients.
Visa, Mastercard and Amex join x402 body for agentic payments
Visa, Mastercard and Amex are premier members of the Linux Foundation's x402 Foundation, the new open-governance body standardising AI agent payments over HTTP.
Nayax refuses to pay as leak deadline lands July 21
Nayax refused a ransom with the attacker's July 21 leak deadline live. Its shares fell 11% a day before the filing - the leak site beat the disclosure.
PayPal board rejects $53bn Stripe-Advent bid as too low
PayPal's board rejected the $53bn Stripe-Advent offer as inadequate. Why the Braintree antitrust remedy is cheap and price, not regulators, is the block.
OpenPayd takes SPAC route to Nasdaq at $1.145bn
OpenPayd will list on Nasdaq via Titan Acquisition Corp at $1.145bn. A profitable infrastructure firm choosing a SPAC says more about listing windows than quality.
Riverty opens Luxembourg bank as BNPL firms chase charters
Bertelsmann-owned Riverty starts operating as a licensed Luxembourg bank in July 2026, days after Klarna filed for a US charter. The pattern is not a coincidence.
NinjaTrader cuts off Alpha Futures over rival platform
NinjaTrader terminated Alpha Futures after the prop firm built a rival platform, closing its Premium plan and converting earned payouts into refunds.
Fed’s skinny payment account won’t replace a bank charter
The Fed's proposed payment account gives fintechs direct Fedwire and FedNow access, but no ACH, no correspondent banking. Comments close July 27, 2026.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
