Latest long reads: Finextra Research

How will UK BNPL regulation impact merchants?

Stephanie Storry Consultant at PSE Consulting

How will UK BNPL regulation impact merchants?

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) has quickly become a retail staple in the UK. With consumers increasingly seeking flexible payment options, BNPL services have surged in popularity, promising an easy way to split payments into bite-sized chunks. But with this growth comes a growing wave of regulatory attention around rising default levels and consumer pr...

20 August 2025 /retail

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is boss-tech?

Accountancy firm PwC has launched a biometric-based “traffic light system” in its offices, enabling managers to digitally track employees’ attendance. Such measures – known as ‘boss-tech’ – are part of a rising tide of in-house biometric deployment by institutions within the UK financial services industry. But here’s the contention: Is boss-tech ...

19 August 2025 /identity

Africa’s cross-border payments boom: Why stablecoins and AI are key to the next financial leap

Amish Patel Coverage Banker at Absa

Africa’s cross-border payments boom: Why stablecoins and AI are key to the next financial leap

Remittances to Africa have hit record highs, but sky-high fees and inefficiencies in Africa’s payments landscape still hold back economic potential. This article explains why stablecoins and AI could reshape cross-border payments and inclusion across the continent. Africa is experiencing a cross-border payments boom, with data from the World Bank ...

14 August 2025 /Sibos

Carbon markets in 2025: A year of volatility and innovation

Sehrish Alikhan Reporter at Finextra

Carbon markets in 2025: A year of volatility and innovation

The carbon market is a dynamic and fast-moving space within sustainable finance. As it is nascent, fintechs, regulators, and financial institutions are still in the process of standardising and organising the carbon market so that carbon credits can mitigate climate change and propel us down the road to net zero. Weighing up where we stand amid al...

13 August 2025 /sustainable

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What are sustainable securities?

In recent years the shores of sustainable finance have been battered by the choppy waters of geopolitics. Despite a surge in growth, public interest, and market momentum between 2020 and 2022 (a result of progressive policy, disclosure frameworks, and an explosion in environmental, social and governance [ESG] investment products) sustainable finan...

12 August 2025 /sustainable

What SoftBank’s PayPay IPO float means for embedded finance in Japan

Madhvi Sonia Head of Content at Finextra

What SoftBank’s PayPay IPO float means for embedded finance in Japan

Last week Reuters reported that SoftBank has picked investment banks Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Mizuho and Morgan Stanley to support a potential US IPO for its Japanese payments app operator, PayPay. In what could be as early as Q4’25, PayPay could raise over $2 billion from investors, but timing and the amount are subject to market conditio...

11 August 2025 /payments

The changing face of international payments

Manish Kohli Head of Global Payments Solutions at HSBC

The changing face of international payments

By 2030, the global payments landscape is set to undergo a profound transformation. At the heart of this shift will be real-time processing, enhanced cross-border interoperability, and a growth in blockchain-based innovations – all driving forward a smarter, faster and more connected global financial system. This transformation is being driven by ...

07 August 2025 /payments

What are debt-for-nature swaps and what is their impact on climate financing?

Sehrish Alikhan Reporter at Finextra

What are debt-for-nature swaps and what is their impact on climate financing?

Debt-for-nature swaps have become more common among nations in attempts to boost conservation efforts and refinancing climate. The concept of debt-for-nature swaps is for creditors to forgive governmental debt in return for their commitment to sustainable and green initiatives, allowing for indebted countries to ease their financial burden whilst f...

06 August 2025 /sustainable

Would you trust a machine with your money?

Madhvi Sonia Head of Content at Finextra

Would you trust a machine with your money?

Deciding how to manage finances can be a significant step. In a world where algorithms manage portfolios, rebalance assets, and offer retirement advice, a question remains: do people trust robo-advisors? And if they do, why? The psychology of trust in robo-advisors Polaris Market Research expects the global robo advisory market to reach $72 bill...

05 August 2025 /wealth

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is supply chain finance?

Supply chain finance (SCF) – also known as reverse factoring – was birthed by globalisation and the increasingly complex, multi-party supply chains that enable it. While the use of SCF necessarily fluctuates in line with the health of the geopolitical landscape (as well as the shifting weight of regulatory and reporting requirements) it will remai...

05 August 2025 /wholesale

Is the UK 'overestimating the risk and underestimating the opportunity' of stablecoins?

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

Is the UK 'overestimating the risk and underestimating the opportunity' of stablecoins?

I remember writing about the introduction of the Financial Services and Markets Bill in July 2022 and reflecting how the (then) Chancellor’s Mansion House speech had claimed “it reinforces the UK’s position as a leading centre for technology as we safely adopt crypto assets” stressing a “vision to make the UK one of the most dynamic financial cent...

04 August 2025 /regulation

The top payments stories you missed in July 2025

Dominique Dierks Senior Content Manager at Finextra

The top payments stories you missed in July 2025

Catch up on Finextra’s most-read Payments stories from last month. Australian banks launch nationwide Confirmation of Payee scheme Confirmation of Payee (CoP) has officially arrived in Australia, with Australian banks having started the roll-out of the nationwide scheme early in July. Even though Australia is one of the only countries where scam lo...

01 August 2025 /payments

Long reads