Nuvei has secured authorisation from the Payments Association of South Africa to provide local acquiring and payment acceptance services, bringing the Montreal-headquartered company's local acquiring footprint to 52 markets globally.
EMVCo published a draft framework for agentic payments on 1 September 2026, opening a formal industry comment period that ran through 30 September. The document introduces an Intent Services concept to anchor consumer authorisation in AI-executed transactions but stops short of defining business rules or finished technical standards.
The Financial Conduct Authority has launched an application gateway allowing cryptoasset businesses in the UK to seek full FCA authorisation for the first time, marking what the regulator describes as a structural shift in crypto oversight. The new framework includes standards covering consumer protection and safeguarding, according to the FCA's published statement.
The Federal Reserve Board issued a formal proposal on 20 May 2026 seeking public comment on a new 'payment account' category that eligible financial institutions could use solely for clearing and settling payments. The notice, published in the Federal Register as document 2026-10375, also proposes revisions to the Policy on Payment System Risk and the Guidelines for Evaluating Account and Services Requests.
Federal Reserve Financial Services launched a cross-border messaging pilot on FedNow on 23 September 2026, testing enhanced ISO 20022 formats that handle only the US domestic leg of international payments while overseas settlement continues through existing intermediaries. The move follows an April 2026 rulemaking proposal and aligns with the G20 and BIS CPMI agenda to interlink national real-time payment systems.
Europe's securities markets regulator has formally designated AI in client-facing financial services and tokenized financial products as a Union Strategic Supervisory Priority for 2027, triggering coordinated supervisory mapping across all 27 EU member states. The designation, announced in September 2026 alongside ESMA's Annual Work Programme, will mobilise national competent authorities in a bloc-wide examination of how financial firms deploy these technologies toward customers.
Mission Lane has received conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Mission Lane Bank National Association as a nationally chartered credit card bank, under OCC decision reference CD1394. The approval allows the consumer credit company to pursue direct federal authorisation rather than relying on bank partnerships to issue its card products.
The Senate Banking Committee advanced H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, in a bipartisan vote on 14 May 2026, marking a significant procedural milestone for US digital-asset legislation. The bill, led by Committee Chairman Tim Scott, now awaits a Senate floor date that has not yet been publicly confirmed.
The Federal Reserve has announced plans to enhance FedNow to support the domestic leg of cross-border payments, allowing participating banks to combine real-time Fed settlement with their own correspondent arrangements for the international portion. The move follows a formal April 2026 proposal to amend Regulation J, which would permit FedNow participants to use third-party intermediaries for the cross-border leg.
ClearToken CSD Limited has received authorisation to operate a Digital Securities Depository within the Bank of England's Digital Securities Sandbox, enabling continuous 24/7 settlement for tokenised debt and equities. The approval, announced on 22 September 2026, follows the firm's entry into the sandbox as an initial entrant in December 2024.
The European Central Bank has issued a formal call for expressions of interest from private organisations seeking to participate in its digital euro innovation platform, marking a structural shift in how the ECB is approaching CBDC development ahead of finalised legislation. The move signals growing institutional confidence in the project's political runway, even as key details of the call remain unverified against primary ECB documentation.
The European Central Bank has announced it will invest a portion of its own funds portfolio in tokenised securities, settling transactions through a platform called Pontes — marking one of the most consequential institutional endorsements of digital asset infrastructure from a major central bank anywhere in Europe.
The European Central Bank has confirmed it will allocate a portion of its own-funds portfolio into tokenised securities settled via a platform called Pontes, marking the first time the eurozone's central bank has directed genuine balance-sheet capital — not exploratory budget — into tokenised asset markets.
The European Central Bank has announced it will invest a portion of its own-funds portfolio in tokenised securities, with settlement handled through a platform called Pontes — marking one of the most consequential institutional endorsements of tokenised capital markets in the eurozone to date.
The U.S. Justice Department has filed to seize approximately $84 million from Montana-based payments company Capstone, alleging the firm operated as an unlicensed money services business and misrepresented its activities to U.S. banking partners. The action follows a now-familiar prosecutorial template targeting payments intermediaries serving grey-market corridors.
The European Central Bank has launched Pontes, a distributed ledger settlement infrastructure connecting tokenised-asset platforms to TARGET Services in central bank money, and separately confirmed it will invest part of its own funds in tokenised securities settled through the new system. Both announcements were issued on 21 September 2026.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued an order on 17 September 2026 establishing an Innovation Exemption to permit tokenised National Market System stocks to be traded through on-chain automated market makers. The framework requires that stock token holders retain the same rights as traditional stockholders, with a public comment process open alongside the order.
Building a regulated financial product in Europe without your own licence is not a grey-area tactic — it is a regulator-sanctioned model that most early-stage founders still misunderstand. This explainer breaks down how PSD2 and EMD2 agent frameworks work, what BaaS partners must deliver, and where founders underestimate the compliance burden.
Enova International has withdrawn its regulatory applications with the OCC and the Federal Reserve to acquire Grasshopper Bank, ending a deal that would have transformed the non-bank lender into a bank holding company. The collapse underlines how difficult the fintech-to-bank ownership path remains, even in a nominally more permissive regulatory climate.
Reports suggest the ECB has issued a call for e-commerce and m-commerce merchants to join a digital euro pilot, but Fin Desk cannot independently verify the claim. What is established fact is that merchant acceptance remains the most consequential unsolved challenge in any retail CBDC rollout.
The European Securities and Markets Authority has confirmed a new weekly commodity derivatives position reporting framework is approaching go-live, compressing the operational window for trading venues, investment firms and commodity dealers across EU derivative markets. Full technical parameters remain subject to verification against ESMA's published notice and accompanying regulatory technical standards.
The Biden administration's SAVE income-driven repayment plan has been struck down by federal courts, leaving millions of borrowers scrambling to choose an alternative before servicers default them onto costly standard repayment. Here is what remains of the IDR menu and why the legal logic behind SAVE's collapse could reshape the entire framework.
Block Inc has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust bank charter, seeking a federal licence to custody Bitcoin and stablecoins for retail and institutional clients. The move marks one of the most prominent fintech names to enter the OCC's licensing pipeline during a period of renewed regulatory openness toward digital assets.
The Financial Conduct Authority has issued a fresh consumer warning about unregulated loan notes and mini-bonds, citing the administration of litigation funder Woodville Consultants Limited as a recent example of the harm these instruments can cause. Investors in unregulated firms have no access to the Financial Ombudsman Service or FSCS compensation if a company fails.
The Federal Reserve Board on 20 August 2026 published a formal order approving an application by National Westminster Bank Plc, marking confirmed regulatory engagement between the UK lender and US supervisory authorities. The precise operational scope of the approval has not been independently verified from the full order text.