In the age of European fintech funding scarcity, Solaris’s “grown-up” Series F equity finance round shines like a beacon, marking a turning point in how scale-ups seek financing. But it’s not just any raise—it signifies a pivotal shift toward B2B and infrastructure fintechs in the rapidly expanding Embedded Finance (EmFi)…

The United States’ long-awaited real-time payments (RTP) system, FedNow, is due to launch any day now. The availability of instant money transfers has huge potential to impact virtually all players in the economy, from financial institutions and corporate giants to online shoppers, small business owners and employees. We in the…

OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FINTECH SNARK TANK Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that some Apple Card Savings account holders experienced issues moving money out of their Apple savings account to an external bank account. In an effort to placate disgruntled customers, Apple announced this week that it would offer…

With the surge in popularity of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, it has become more important than ever to ensure that related companies and projects are as “green” as they purport to be. PwC estimates that ESG-related assets under management (AuM) will reach US$33.9 trillion by 2026, from US$18.4…

OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FINTECH SNARK TANK In an article titled Is the Banking Crisis Over? We Are About to Find Out, the Wall Street Journal identified three concerns that could determine if the banking industry is out of the crisis or still in one: Deposit costs. High interest rates have…

America had 470,000 ATMs (the machines where you put in a card to get out some cash) when their numbers peaked in 2019. By the end of last year, according to Euromonitor International, there were 451,000. Meanwhile, the number of reverse ATMs (the machines where you put in some cash…

The Bridgetown Initiative, spearheaded by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has been essential in pointing out the shortfalls of the current international financial system in dealing with the consequences of climate change. The Prime Minister has been advocating for the world’s most vulnerable countries in the face of a debt…

US District Judge Analisa Torres in New York ruled on Thursday that Ripple Labs Inc. sales of the XRP XRP token to institutional investors is a securities offering, but such sales are not securities when sold to the general public. The court did not rule on whether secondary market sales…

Amid a rocky crypto market that eroded investors’ appetite for the highly-volatile assets, Singapore-based startup Dtcpay has carved out a safe niche facilitating regulated crypto payments to high-end businesses. Joining Dtcpay’s growing list of adopters is one of Singapore’s largest property groups, Pontiac Land, controlled by billionaire Kwee Liong Tek…

Finastra, a global fintech company, will offer the FedNow connectivity through its cloud-based payments hub, called Payments to Go, and later through its Global PAYplus solution. FedNow will present both technical and operational challenges for banks, said Michelle Bateman, Finastra’s director of product management for U.S. Payments. It is a…