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/startups

Afin taps Thought Machine to launch digital bank for Africans in the UK

Afin Bank, a digital lender created to help people from Africa living and working in the UK, has picked Thought Machine as its core banking provider.

/cloud

Citi signs with Google Cloud for AI

Citi has inked a multi-year agreement with Google Cloud that will see the US banking giant tap into the vendor's Vertex AI platform.

/payments

Tappy launches payments and fitness ring

Tappy Technologies has launched a combined fitness and contactless payments ring.

/markets

BBVA Asset Management pilots ‘tokenised’ fund

BBVA Asset Management is investigating the use of blockchain technology for a "tokenised" investment fund.

/payments

Klarna investor increases valuation

A Klarna investor has increased the valuation it assigns to the BNPL giant, giving it an implied price tag of $14.6 billion ahead of a widely anticipated 2025 IPO.

/retail

Central 1 to wind down digital banking business

Central 1 Credit Union is to wind down its digital banking business and transition clients to one or more alternative digital banking providers.

/regulation

Central banks prove use case for embedding compliance into cross-border transactions

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) along with central banks in Australia, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore have successfully demonstrated the feasibility of embedding regulatory compliance requirements with cross-border financial transactions.

/payments

HSBC and Ant International laud results of blockchain-based tokenized deposit transfers

HSBC and Ant International have completed HKD-denominated cross-bank blockchain-based test transactions under the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Ensemble Sandbox.

/regulation

FCA fines Wise CEO Käärmann £350,000 for breach of senior manager conduct

Wise CEO Kristo Käärmann has been slapped with a £350,000 fine by the FCA for a breach of senior manager conduct relating to his failure to immediately report a default on his tax bill.

/payments

Bank of England presses on with retail CBDC to plug bank innovation gap

The Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey has re-affirmed his support for a retail central bank digital currency, arguing that central banks are the "only game in town" as commercial banks lack the incentive to push for innovation.

/inclusion

Visa teams up with USAID for financial inclusion push

Visa is joining forces with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to improve access to digital government and payment systems across the world.

/ai

Fintech investment sector remains muted

Venture capital investment in US fintech remains muted, hovering near a six-year low for the sector, as deal flow has shifted toward the early stage, according to a report from Silicon Valley Bank.