This Week in Fintech

For years, tier one commercial lenders treated digital assets and agent distribution networks like high-risk edge cases. September and October 2026 just officially ended that era. Within days of each other, three of the continent's biggest banking institutions made moves to co-opt the entire digital asset stack. First National Bank (FNB) opened the retail floodgates by plugging crypto trading straight into its core banking app for 9 million users via local exchange VALR.

Regulatory evolution and strategic growth: MAS mandated AI risk rules, Vietnam updated its fintech sandbox, and Revolut committed $270M to its Singapore HQ. : In our last edition, we removed a headline covering SBI’s partnership with Mesh and Money Forward. The company has since clarified that the partnership is for a digital asset joint venture. The confirmed details are added in this edition.

This week, Anchorage Digital scooped up enterprise payouts platform Routable, while Shares completed its acquisition of banking-as-a-service provider Treezor from Société Générale. Alto agreed to buy self-directed IRA custodian Forge Trust from a Charles Schwab subsidiary. Among banks and financial institutions, BPCE acquired a 7% stake in Spain’s Banco Sabadell, worth approximately €1.2 billion.

Ledgebrook led this week’s raises with $200 million for its AI-powered specialty insurance platform. Mortgage-servicing software provider Valon followed with a $150 million Series D at a $2.3 billion valuation. In other notable raises, Capitolis raised $120 million at a $1.9 billion valuation. Tokenized cash-management provider Spiko secured $90 million, and Stuut raised $52.5 million to automate billing and payment collection.

But this time, it’s all about fintech jobs. Every month, we’ll be putting together the 10 hottest jobs in fintech, curated by our team and distributed to our 170k+ subscribers. Want to get your job featured? Let us know why your open role is different and exciting, and how your company is redefining the future of fintech by submitting it for consideration here.

👋 Welcome to the new readers who’ve joined us since last week. You’re joining 176,000+ other subscribers who love fintech. Welcome back to This Week in Fintech-China, my fintech friends! From monster funding rounds to new AI shopping agents, it’s been a busy week for Chinese tech. On the AI side, Manus pulled in over $500M post-Meta unwind and DeepSeek is closing in on $12B ahead of an IPO, while TikTok and Reap are both rolling out autonomous buying features.

This week Wise rolled out e-sim functionality in its app. Wise is the latest in a series of banks and fintechs to offer such a solution. Others that already have an e-sim offering include Starling, Santander, Monzo, N26 and Revolut. While Klarna isn't a bank in the UK, it does have an e-sim offering. Yonder offers credit and debit cards, and it also provides an e-sim solution to its customers.

Egypt’s largest IPO since 2021 opened for subscription this week, and it’s a fintech. MNT-Halan is listing MNT Tech Holding, its Egyptian business, at EGP 24.5/ share, valuing the company at around $750 million. The base offering of 320 million existing shares (20% of the company) would raise about $150 million, with room to upsize to 25% if demand allows. Trading is planned to start on October 20. MNT is going in with confidence.

Two out of three cyberattacks now start with a stolen or misused identity, according to Palo Alto Networks. Attackers sign in with valid credentials and look like any other user. Organized crime is using a similar disguise. Diálogo Américas reports that six Brazilian fintechs allegedly processed about $5.1 billion between 2022 and 2025 as "parallel banks" for criminal groups. Globally, Nasdaq Verafin puts illicit financial activity at $4.4 trillion, up $1.3 trillion in two years.

“Getting a loan using the money you’re owed is very expensive,” Eden said in an interview with This Week in Fintech. “We use AI to automate that entire process, so the lending companies that offer these types of loans can do it more securely, more cheaply, and offer it to more businesses.” Getting Paid Before a Bill Comes Due “If you are a massive company, say you're Coca-Cola, you can get a bank line of credit; you don't need invoice finance,” Eden said.