2026 begins in earnest today as the first full working week of the year gets underway. Be sure to check in with Finovate’s Fintech Rundown over the next few days to get you up and running with the latest in fintech news and announcements!
Open banking
Flutterwave acquires African open banking infrastructure company Mono.
Credit and analytics
Experian announces availability of its commercial data via its Ascend platform.
Investing and wealth management
Universal Exchange (UEX) Bitget opens its TradFi trading suite to all users.
TradeStation unveils the upcoming launch of TITAN X, its next generation of its flagship trading platform designed for active traders.
Crypto and DeFi
Telcoin, a digital asset bank that just won final charter approval from the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance, launches its eUSD stablecoin.
Kast, a financial platform built on stablecoin rails, expands global payouts to 11 new local currencies including GBP, EUR, and CAD, as well as a multiple currencies in the Asia Pacific region.
Insurtech
Zurich North America partners with modularized AI underwriting, data, and intelligent document automation workbench company Convr.
Insurance broker and risk management firm M3 Insurance turns to SimplePin to modernize its finance and accounting operations.
Commerce
Fiserv and Mastercard extend their partnership to advance agentic commerce for merchants, leveraging Mastercard’s Agent Pay Acceptance Framework at scale.
Swap secures $100 million in Series C funding to develop commerce solutions platform.
Lending
India-based digital lender Knight Fintech raises $23.6 million in Series A funding.
BMG Money unveils tightened controls and institutional capital-markets program to support the next phase of scalable growth.
Pluto Financial Technologies launches AI-powered lending platform purpose built for private markets.
Digital banking
Egypt’s Bank NXT partners with IBM and inspire for Solutions Development.
Sanibel Captiva Community Bank selects Jack Henry to modernize its technology and streamline operations.
Payments
Solutions by Text acquires Triple Play Pay to accelerate payments innovation and expand FinText payment capabilities.
Gr4vy selects Affirm to bring flexible and transparent payment options to merchants.
Paychex and PayPal team up to bring direct deposit alternatives into Paychex Flex perks.
Worldline launches One Commerce in the UK.
Chase to become new issuer of Apple Card.
DailyPay announces new $195 million senior secured revolving credit facility.
Blink Payment launches Card Present API to connect in-person payments.
Compliance
Ripple’s GTreasury acquires no-code financial automation, data management, and analytics solutions company Solvexia.
European Merchant Bank selects AMLYZE to strengthen compliance framework.
Onboarding
SMBC Americas selects Fenergo to transform client onboarding.
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