Independent fintech decision research

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The RegTech Stack Every Digital Bank and Neobank Needs in 2026

RegTech capability and evidence map

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How Payment Orchestration Works: Architecture and Trade-offs

Payment orchestration value sensitivity

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Open Banking Explained: How API-Driven Finance Is Reshaping Banking

Open banking regulatory timeline

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synthetic datafinancial AI

What Is Synthetic Data, and Why Does Financial AI Use It?

Synthetic data is solving AI's privacy paradox in finance. How banks and fintechs are using algorithmically generated data to train models without exposing real customers.

1 Jul 20267 min

The RegTech Stack Every Digital Bank and Neobank Needs in 2026

Standing up a neobank is easier than ever. Staying compliant once you have customers is where most of the operational risk sits, and choosing the wrong RegTech stack is where that risk becomes expensive.

29 Jun 202612 min

regtechneobanks

Machine Learning in Wealth Management: How AI Is Changing Investing

Robo-advisers were just the start. Machine learning is now embedded in portfolio construction, tax optimisation, risk profiling, and research analysis. What it cannot do, though, is as instructive as what it can.

machine learningwealth management

KYC, KYB and AML Explained: Fintech's Compliance Backbone

Every fintech that touches money has to answer three questions about its customers: who are you, what is your business, and are you laundering money? The answers determine whether the firm operates or gets shut down.

KYCKYB

How Payment Orchestration Works: Architecture and Trade-offs

A technical guide to payment orchestration: routing, tokenisation, retries, reconciliation, cost modelling, and the build-versus-buy decision.

29 Jun 20269 min

payment orchestrationpayment routing

neobanksfintech business model

How Do Neobanks Make Money? The Full Business Model Explained

Neobanks grew fast by offering free accounts, but free is not the same as unprofitable. Here is how Monzo, Revolut, Starling, Chime and their peers actually generate revenue, and why turning a profit has taken longer than the hype suggested.

29 Jun 20269 min

Crypto & DeFi

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) Explained: Retail, Wholesale, and the Race to Digital Cash

Central bank digital currencies are sovereign money in digital form. Here is how retail and wholesale CBDCs work, and where major projects stand.

CBDCdigital euro

What Is Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS)? Platforms, Players, and Risks Explained

BaaS promised to turn any software company into a bank. The infrastructure exists, but the Synapse collapse exposed exactly what happens when the middleware layer fails.

BaaSbanking-as-a-service

Account-to-Account Payments Explained: The Challenge to Card Networks

Moving money directly between bank accounts costs a fraction of what card networks charge merchants. The technology exists, the regulatory framework is in place, and the card networks are paying attention.

A2A paymentsopen banking

BNPL Explained: How Buy Now, Pay Later Works and Who Is Actually Winning

Buy now, pay later spread from Scandinavian fashion checkout buttons to a global consumer credit product worth hundreds of billions. The 'no interest, no credit check' pitch obscured a more complicated business model, one that regulators are now examining closely.

BNPLbuy now pay later

Open Banking Explained: How API-Driven Finance Is Reshaping Banking

Banks held data about their customers but kept it to themselves. Open banking changed the deal: with your consent, that data can now flow to the services you actually want to use.

open bankingPSD2

What Is MiCA? The EU's Crypto Regulation, Explained

The EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation is the first major attempt to build a comprehensive legal framework for crypto across an entire economic bloc. What it covers, and what it doesn't, determines who can legally operate in Europe.

MiCAcrypto regulation

embedded insuranceinsurance distribution

What Is Embedded Insurance and How Is It Sold? The 2026 Revenue Model

Embedded insurance is moving from travel sites to B2B software. Here's how the distribution economics work and where the margin really sits.

26 Jun 20267 min

Startups

What Makes a Neobank Profitable? A Unit-Economics Model

A reproducible model for neobank profitability across interchange, deposits, lending, subscriptions, acquisition, losses and operating cost.

20 Jun 20268 min

neobanksunit economics

How Banks Use AI to Detect Rogue Traders: A Control Benchmark

A primary-source control benchmark for rogue-trading surveillance: what the Kerviel and Adoboli cases reveal, where analytics helps, and which decisions must remain human.

15 Jun 202610 min

AI surveillancetrading compliance

Crypto & DeFi

Stablecoins for Treasury Teams: A Practical 2026 Guide

A corridor-by-corridor guide to stablecoin payments for treasury teams, using Bank of Italy cost evidence and a controlled pilot framework.

8 Jun 202612 min

fintech fundingventure capital

stablecoinstreasury

Startups

Fintech Funding in 2026: What the Latest Data Shows

The latest complete datasets show a 2025 funding rebound with fewer deals, larger cheques, and concentration in digital assets and AI.

8 Jun 20269 min

Cloud-Native Core Banking Migration: The 2026 Playbook

A practical guide to cloud-native core-banking migration patterns, the limits of public case studies, and the controls a bank should test before moving customer cohorts.

8 Jun 20269 min

cloudcore banking

AI in Financial Services 2026: The Complete Map

A function-by-function map of where AI is actually deployed across banking and finance in 2026, and why the durable value sits in the back office, not the demo-stage chatbot.

8 Jun 202613 min

AIfinancial services

DORAOperational Resilience

DORA Compliance: The Operational Playbook for 2026

DORA has applied since January 2025. A year on, most firms have the policies, but the register of information and concentration-risk obligations are where the real exposure sits. Here is the 2026 operational playbook.

8 Jun 202612 min