fintech

Mastercard, former Meta executive Sheryl Sandberg and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt are among the investors backing a financial platform aimed at small businesses, according to Forbes. The involvement of such high-profile names in corporate tech and payments highlights growing investor interest in lending and financial tools for small firms, an area often underserved by traditional banks. Details on the funding amount and the company's plans were not immediately available.

The European Central Bank has launched Pontes, a new platform for settling transactions in digital securities. The move is part of the Eurosystem's broader work on blockchain and digital market infrastructure, aiming to let financial institutions settle digital asset trades using central bank money. The initiative is drawing attention across European banking and fintech circles as a step toward modernising euro-area settlement systems.

Brazilian digital bank Nubank is reportedly in early-stage talks to acquire UK challenger bank Monzo in a deal valued at up to £10 billion. If completed, the takeover would mark one of the largest acquisitions of a British fintech and would give Nubank a major foothold in the UK banking market. Analysts and investors are watching closely for confirmation from either company.

According to the headline, 19 Indian startups raised a combined total of more than $397 million in funding between September 21 and September 26, 2026. The rounds spanned a wide range of sectors, including electric vehicles, foodtech, cleantech, healthtech, defencetech, footwear, fintech and artificial intelligence. No further details about the individual companies, investors or deal sizes are given, so the full picture of the week's fundraising activity remains limited.

Argentine regulators have approved Revolut's acquisition of Banco Cetelem, clearing the way for the British fintech to take over the consumer bank. The deal marks a significant step in Revolut's expansion into Latin America, giving it a local banking licence and established customer base in Argentina, one of the region's largest financial markets.

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, says it is working to build financial infrastructure that extends beyond its core exchange business. The move signals an effort to diversify into broader financial services, positioning the company as a wider fintech provider rather than a crypto trading platform alone. Details on specific products or timelines were not provided.

Amazon has expanded its partnership with Affirm to let shoppers pay for purchases over up to 48 monthly instalments directly in checkout. The move extends buy-now-pay-later beyond short-term instalments, making long-duration financing a standard option on one of the world's largest retail platforms and deepening the fintech's presence in mainstream e-commerce.

South African financial services firm Purple Group has launched Hello Purple, a new division focused on embedded finance. The unit is expected to allow other businesses to integrate Purple's financial products and infrastructure directly into their own platforms, tapping growing demand for banking-as-a-service offerings. Details on partners, products and launch markets have not yet been widely reported.

Fintech firm Moneyview's upcoming IPO is in focus, with investors tracking its grey market premium as a signal of expected listing gains. Commentary, including in The Economic Times, is weighing whether the issue can deliver long-term growth for high-risk investors, as sentiment ahead of the listing remains mixed.

Valley National Bancorp announced an agreement to acquire Bluevine Inc., a digital small business banking provider. The deal is intended to speed up the bank's digital small business growth strategy and strengthen its core funding capabilities. Details on price, timing and regulatory approval were not included in the initial announcement.

Revolut is promoting 'selfie payments', a pair of new features that use facial biometrics to make checkout faster, as part of its broader push to disrupt traditional banks and legacy payment providers. Commenters are weighing what the fintech stands to gain from the move and whether biometric payments will catch on with shoppers and regulators.

Financial technology firm Finastra has announced the launch of an AI-powered supply chain finance solution aimed at helping banks grow their working capital offerings. The product is designed to let lenders automate and scale supply chain finance services for corporate clients. News of the launch is circulating across financial technology trade coverage, with attention focused on how banks may adopt artificial intelligence to expand working capital business.

Payments company EBANX has announced a partnership with NetEase Games to process payments across Latin America. The deal means NetEase Games will use EBANX's local payment infrastructure to support its titles in the region, expanding access for players there. The announcement has drawn attention from gaming and fintech outlets as a sign of continued growth of games monetization in Latin American markets.

Block, the payments company founded by Jack Dorsey, has joined the x402 protocol and added support for the Bitcoin Lightning Network. The move ties Block's Bitcoin-focused payments infrastructure to x402, a standard for machine-to-machine payments that has drawn attention from fintech and crypto firms. Details on the scope of the integration have not been widely reported yet.

Block has joined the x402 Foundation, an effort to establish shared standards for agentic commerce — AI-powered systems making and receiving payments autonomously. The x402 protocol, originally developed around Coinbase's stablecoin payments work, enables machine-to-machine transactions over HTTP. By joining the foundation, Block signals its intent to help shape how automated AI agents transact commercially as the technology matures.