Articles
Tracking Fintech Insights and Trends That Shape Money & Markets
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Why Mizuho took a majority stake in India’s Avendus
Japan’s financial heavyweights like Mizuho, MUFG and Sumitomo Mitsui are increasingly looking for more promising banking opportunities overseas as growth in their home market is flat given a legacy of ultra-low interest rates, deflation, heavy corporate cash holdings stifling investment, and a shrinking population. India has emerged as a preferred market for Japanese financial firms.
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UK neobanks hungrily eye U.S. market
UK neobanks, including Monzo and Revolut, are hungrily eyeing the massive, affluent but ultra-competitive American market. Monzo launched in the U.S. in 2022 via a partnership with Sutton Bank after an initial failed attempt to get its own U.S. banking license in 2021. Revolut also operates in the U.S. via partnerships, such as the one
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Why Toss Bank had a stellar Q3
Korean digital banks tend to be a cut above the industry standard, and Toss Bank is no exception. Leveraging the broader Toss super app’s 10 million monthly active users (MAU), the company has successfully integrated payments, stock trading, and lending, improving profitability and user engagement. While most tech companies outside China have struggled to build super apps,
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Paytech deals drive Europe’s Q3 fintech funding
A recent Finch Capital report shows that paytech deals drove Europe’s fintech funding in the third quarter, which fell slightly from the April to June period. Overall, paytech startups raised €896 million the third quarter, up 117% from €413 million sequentially. A key third quarter paytech deal was XBO Ventures’ US$25 million strategic investment in Rapyd’s Series F round, which
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Why is GXS Bank cutting 10% of its staff?
One of the brightest ideas (or not) of Southeast Asia’s early 2020s tech bubble was centralizing every digital service imaginable in a single smartphone app, a barely veiled attempt to replicate the success that China’s dominant platform companies enjoyed with this business model. Unsurprisingly, the results have been inconclusive because China is a unique market
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Why The CBDC Fever Has Cooled In Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia has 11 countries with a combined population of 700 million people, including some of the world’s most dynamic markets for digital finance: Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. From mobile wallets to digital banks to cryptocurrency and CBDCs Southeast Asia is usually a few steps ahead of the rest of the world
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Paytm’s remarkable comeback gains momentum
Paytm just might be that rare SoftBank bet that pays off big—even though the Japanese telecoms giant’s Vision Fund completed its exit from the Indian fintech sensation in Dec. 2024. While Paytm’s core financials continue to improve, its performance in capital markets (the stock is up 43% over the past year) is equally, if not
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South Asia Fintech Heats Up Outside of India
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As one of Asia’s largest economies and a wellspring of digital financial innovation, India has long dominated the fintech industry in wider South Asia. Historically, neighboring countries have been slower to adopt digital financial technology. That is changing with the ascendancy of fintech in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and, to a lesser extent, Nepal. The payments segment
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Klarna hops on the stablecoin bandwagon
If there was any doubt that the world is in the midst of a stablecoin craze – we hesitate to use that loaded term “bubble” – it should be dispelled by the recent launch of a stablecoin by buy now, pay later (BNPL) behemoth Klarna. In a news release, Klarna explains its rationale for the issuance of
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Why the K Bank IPO is a crapshoot
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South Korean digital lender K Bank has been talking about an IPO for years, literally. Since 2022, the company has twice aborted plans to go public. In early November, it formally filed for a third time, aiming to go public in the first half of 2026 on the Korea Stock Exchange (KOSPI). Both the company and
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Why A Grab GoTo Merger might be too little too late
The Southeast Asian super apps Grab and GoTo, long archrivals in some of the world’s most competitive digital services markets, are once again considering a Grab GoTo merger. In contrast to previous merger talks earlier in the decade, this time the discussions include a proposal to give the Indonesian sovereign wealth fund Danantara a minority
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Why has Chime’s market cap fallen 50% since its IPO?
The June 2025 IPO of Chime, the biggest American digital bank, was a big deal. The San Francisco-based company priced its market debut at US$27 per share above the expected range, raising US$700 million at a valuation of US$11.6 billion. Chime’s arrival in public markets was long anticipated and helped thaw an erstwhile frozen fintech IPO pipeline.
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How did Nubank conquer the Brazilian banking market?
Brazil’s Nubank posted a record profit of US$783 million in the third quarter, an increase of 39% from a year earlier and ahead of the US$723 million estimate from analysts surveyed by Valor. The total loan portfolio reached $30.4 billion in the third quarter, up 42% year-on-year. Nubank revenues reached $4.2 billion in the July
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Kakao Bank Hits New Record In First 9 Months of 2025
Kakao Bank, South Korea’s largest and most successful digital lender, posted a record cumulative profit in the first 9 months of the year of 375.1 billion won (US$259.1 million), up 5.5% over the same period in 2024. A diversified revenue base offset narrowing margins in interest income and was a key factor in its strong
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Why did GCash delay its IPO until H2 2026?
Ant Group-backed GCash, the most successful Philippine payments platform, has been eyeing an initial public offering (IPO) for several years. It achieved profitability in 2021, three years ahead of target. Having hit that milestone four years ago and boasting 94 million users, the company seems like it should be primed to go public. In fact,
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Revolut’s Nordic expansion is about more than challenging Klarna
UK fintech giant Revolut, riding high on a new and improved valuation of US$75 billion, is set to challenge buy now, pay later (BNPL) juggernaut Klarna on the Swedish company’s home turf—and immediate environs. Revolut announced on November 6 that it would open a branch in Stockholm in 2026. The Swedish capital is home to
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Section 1071 whiplash: compliance timelines, stays, and what community banks should do next
How we got here (fast) In March 2023, the CFPB finalized its small-business data collection rule under ECOA/Reg B (Dodd-Frank §1071), requiring covered lenders to collect and report application-level data including demographics on small-business credit. The Bureau’s landing page remains the single source of truth on rule scope and resources. Litigation started almost immediately. In
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Community Banks Cash-in on Instant Payments
Walk into a community bank boardroom today and you’ll hear a familiar refrain: deposits are harder to hold, small-business clients want their money faster, and fraud feels like it’s evolving by the week. None of those pressures is new. What is new is that the United States finally has two always-on instant rails, The Clearing
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Monzo’s Second Shot at a U.S. Bank License: What’s Different This Time
Four years after withdrawing its application, Monzo is gearing up to try again for a U.S. banking licence. If successful, the UK neobank would shift from a sponsor-bank model to a fully chartered presence controlling deposits, credit, and economics end-to-end rather than renting access through a partner. The timing isn’t accidental. Monzo is financially stronger
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UPI International: Can India’s Rail Outcompete Card Networks Overseas?
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) through UPI International is expanding from a domestic phenomenon into a cross‑border contender. The question now is whether it can pry tourist spend and remittance flows away from the global card duopoly, and on what economics. Why now At home, UPI has become the operating system of everyday money. In