Registry — Vantage Bank Texas (US) added to the registry
Enforcement — Termination of Enforcement Action issued against Deutsche Bank AG, DB USA Corporation, and Deutsche Bank AG New York Branch · Federal Reserve · Aug 25, 2026
Partnership — Revolut Japan Partners with Minna no Ginko via BaaS Banking Agency Agreement · Aug 25, 2026
Product — Absa Develops Embedded Payment Tool for Township Small Businesses · Aug 22, 2026
M&A — I-Remit Approves P20 Million Capital Infusion Into Surepay Technologies · Aug 22, 2026
Payments platform Flywire secured $120 million in Series E funding led by Goldman Sachs, achieving a valuation exceeding $1 billion. The funding supports multi-vertical expansion and follows the acquisition of healthcare payments firm Simplee. Flywire provides embedded payment processing across education, healthcare, and travel verticals.
French fintech Bankin' launched Bridge Pay, an API extension of its Bridge infrastructure enabling bank transfer payment initiation directly through apps. The product targets e-commerce for high-value items and B2B payment automation without credit card reliance. Bankin' leverages its aggregation platform serving 4 million users to position itself as a payment initiation API provider for developers.
Temenos announced a global strategic partnership with Google Cloud to make its cloud-native, API-first banking software available on Google Cloud. The partnership enables over 3,000 financial institutions to leverage scalable cloud infrastructure for core banking and digital transformation. This marks a significant alignment between a major banking software provider and a hyperscale cloud platform.
SoFi's leadership announced they had abandoned pursuit of a federal banking charter, opting for alternative growth strategies instead. The decision reflected the difficult regulatory environment for fintech charter applications and signaled continued reliance on partner-bank models.
Teller, a bank account API access startup competing with Plaid, raised a $4M seed round from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Founders Fund, and SciFi. The company provides direct API connections to bank accounts, enabling fintechs to embed banking data access into their applications.
Currencycloud, a cross-border payments API provider, raised $80M in Series E funding on January 27, 2020. The round included Visa, IFC, BNP Paribas, SBI Group, Siam Commercial Bank, and existing investors like Notion Capital. The funding supports Currencycloud's embedded FX and payments infrastructure used by banks and fintechs.
Entities: Currencycloud · Visa · IFC · BNP Paribas · SBI Group · Siam Commercial Bank · Notion Capital
Texas Capital Bank launched Bask Bank, an all-digital savings bank offering American Airlines AAdvantage miles instead of traditional interest. The product represents a bank-brand embedded finance partnership, combining digital banking infrastructure with airline loyalty rewards. It highlights the trend of banks launching digital-first sub-brands to reach new customer segments.
Entities: Texas Capital Bank · Bask Bank · American Airlines
The OCC's Special Purpose National Bank Charter for fintech companies remained on hold due to ongoing legal challenges from state regulators. The case was headed to the Second Circuit court. This uncertainty continued to shape the BaaS landscape by pushing fintechs toward bank partnership ('rent-a-charter') models.
Entities: Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) · Conference of State Bank Supervisors
A Duke University Financial Regulation Blog analysis examined the growing 'rent-a-charter' model where sponsor banks like WebBank, Celtic Bank, and Cross River Bank provide banking charters to fintech lenders. The analysis highlighted expanding regulatory and consumer protection risks in these BaaS partnerships.
Entities: WebBank · Celtic Bank · Cross River Bank
ZA Bank, Hong Kong's first virtual bank, announced a strategic partnership with Visa to enhance its payment services. The deal leverages Visa's technology for faster and more secure transactions. ZA Bank had launched its pilot under the HKMA Fintech Supervisory Sandbox in December 2019. The partnership strengthens ZA Bank's embedded payments capabilities as it scales its digital banking offering.
Visa announced a $5.3 billion acquisition of fintech data connectivity platform Plaid. Plaid enables consumers to connect their bank accounts to fintech applications, making it a critical piece of embedded finance infrastructure. The deal was later terminated in January 2021 due to a DOJ antitrust lawsuit.
Open Lending, a fintech lending-enablement platform serving banks and credit unions, announced a SPAC merger with Nebula Acquisition Corp. The deal provided Open Lending a path to public markets. The merger closed in June 2020.
The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) filed a lawsuit to block the OCC's approval of Figure Technologies' national bank charter application. The legal challenge exemplified the ongoing federal-state battle over fintech chartering authority that shaped the BaaS industry's structure.
Entities: Conference of State Bank Supervisors · Figure Technologies · Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)
Mansa Bank opened in January 2020 as a branchless, digitally-focused bank with technology support from SBS software. The bank offers personal and business checking and savings accounts, loans, mortgages, and credit cards. The launch exemplifies the trend of new digital banks built on third-party banking software platforms.
Paris-based SME neobank Qonto raised €104M as part of a €136M total round from Tencent, DST Global, Valar Ventures, Alven, and the European Investment Bank. The funding supports European expansion and pursuit of a banking license, strengthening Qonto's embedded business banking platform.
Entities: Qonto · Tencent · DST Global · Valar Ventures · Alven · European Investment Bank
Ziglu, a crypto-focused digital banking app, was planned for launch in 2020 by Mark Hipperson, former co-founder and CTO of Starling Bank. The app aims to bridge traditional banking and cryptocurrency services. The venture reflects growing interest in embedding crypto capabilities into consumer banking products.
Currencycloud launched Currencycloud Spark, a multi-currency account product for banks and fintechs. The product enables clients to collect, store, convert, and pay in more than 35 currencies. It extends Currencycloud's embedded payments platform with a turnkey account solution.
Nigerian payments infrastructure company Flutterwave raised $35M in Series B funding led by Greycroft and eVentures, with participation from Visa, Green Visor Capital, and others. The round supports Flutterwave's API-based payments platform enabling businesses to embed payment processing across Africa.
Entities: Flutterwave · Greycroft · eVentures · Visa · Green Visor Capital · CRE Venture Capital · Endeavor · FIS
BNP Paribas extended its open banking partnership with Swedish fintech Tink. The deal expands Tink's account aggregation and payment initiation capabilities across BNP Paribas's European footprint. This partnership is significant for embedded finance as it enables BNP Paribas to leverage Tink's open banking infrastructure to offer enhanced digital services.
MOX Bank, Standard Chartered's digital banking venture, partnered with Paymentology for embedded global card processing capabilities. The partnership enabled MOX's full launch following receipt of its virtual banking license. Paymentology provides the issuer-processing infrastructure powering MOX's digital card and payment products.
Entities: MOX Bank · Standard Chartered · Paymentology
The Central Bank of the Bahamas launched Project Sand Dollar, a central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot, on December 27, 2019. The pilot enables wallet enrollments through participating financial institutions. This initiative represents one of the world's first CBDC pilots and signals how central banks may leverage existing banking infrastructure for digital currency distribution.
Modulr, a UK-based Payments as a Service platform, announced direct participation in Bacs, the UK's direct debit and credit payment system. This milestone allows the fintech to process payments independently of third-party banks, reducing costs and friction for clients embedding payment capabilities into their platforms.
Hong Kong-based fintech WeLab raised $156 million in Series C strategic financing, the largest fintech fundraise in Greater China in 2019. The company had earlier secured a virtual bank license for WeLab Bank, with a planned launch in 2020. The funding supports WeLab's expansion into digital banking services across Asia.
Ocrolus announced Ocrolus+, a premium extension to its fintech infrastructure platform, offering a single API for document ingestion and digital data streams with over 99% accuracy. The platform supports loan underwriting, account openings, and invoice processing with built-in fraud detection. Ocrolus had raised over $30 million in venture capital from investors including Oak HC/FT, FinTech Collective, Bullpen Capital, and QED Investors.
Entities: Ocrolus · Oak HC/FT · FinTech Collective · Bullpen Capital · QED Investors