Fintech Intel

Attributed to Jacob Rider, UK Payments Lead Projective Group The financial services industry has rarely invested so heavily in a single idea. AI, and more recently generative and agentic AI, now sits at the centre of boardroom agendas, capital allocation and competitive positioning. Yet for all the investment, the value is far from straightforward.

Freetrade has opened its new Stocks and shares Junior ISA (JISA) ahead of the upcoming tax year end. Freetrade’s new JISA is now available across all Freetrade plans, offering commission-free investing across more than 7,000 UK and global investments, including stocks, ETFs, funds, bonds and UK Treasury Bills. The JISA was announced earlier in the year but is now open for customers ahead of the tax year deadline. It is available to under 16s.

Guest Article written by Eddie Harrison, Chief Growth Officer, Navro Ever since it was introduced for credit transfers in 2008, the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) has helped make the EU economy more efficient by eliminating the differences between national and cross-border payments and harmonising standards. Since then, SEPA has been extended to cover direct debits (2009) and was fully implemented across the Eurozone and non-Eurozone SEPA countries by 2016.

Halcyon, the leading anti-ransomware platform, today announced the appointment of Dave Hannigan as Field Chief Information Security Officer (Field CISO). In this role, Hannigan will work closely with customers and partners to help organizations strengthen resilience against ransomware and modern cyber threats, while supporting Halcyon’s product and go-to-market efforts with frontline practitioner insight.

Paymentology, the leading global issuer-processor, is supporting Snappi as the Greek digital bank moves beyond launch into a new phase focused on product depth, operational scale and regulatory-ready platform maturity. Snappi has emerged as one of Europe’s newest fully regulated digital banking entrants. The company secured a universal banking licence from the European Central Bank in 2024, enabling it to offer a full range of banking services including deposits and lending.

BALBOA | CORP, Panama’s first local stablecoin issuer and infrastructure company focused on shipping, trade settlement and escrow, today announced its launch from stealth, unveiling infrastructure designed to reduce payment friction in shipping, trade-finance and international commerce.

Lorum, the specialist correspondent institution serving financial institutions globally, announced it has filed an application with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust bank charter. This filing is the culmination of a founding thesis: that the correspondent banking system is not broken because of technology or regulation. It is broken because the wrong institutions are running it.

Blackcat, the European fintech platform formerly known as Blackcatcard, launched a completely rebuilt mobile app based on a multi-wallet architecture that combines euro accounts and crypto services in a single interface. The launch accompanies a formal rebrand that retires the Blackcatcard name — a change driven by how users had already begun referring to the product.

Fintech has never lacked confidence in its own story. In its earliest phase, that story was built around disruption. A new generation of financial brands willing to do what traditional institutions could not or would not. That narrative helped define the sector. However, as fintech has matured, that story has also had to evolve. Nowadays, customers, investors and regulators are more discerning and less willing to back ambition without evidence.

Moneypenny has appointed Kevin Love-Hughes as Business Development Manager as the company continues to expand its support for the financial services sector, combining its award-winning people-powered service with its AI Receptionist to help organisations deliver secure, compliant and high-quality customer conversations. Kevin will work closely with organisations across insurance, lending and credit, accounting, wealth and investment, payroll and fintech.