España Gets a Revolut-ion 🚀
Future of Fintech - Edition #156 (11th-17th March, 2025)
⚡ Instant, and Everywhere—This is the Future of Finance. Borders don’t matter. Cash is fading. Transactions are instant. This week, fintech is making moves that change the way we pay, bank, and grow money.
✔️ New cards, new perks, new players
✔️ Payments going global at lightning speed
✔️ Crypto creeping further into the mainstream
Fintech’s wheels are turning fast—let’s break it down. 🚀
Pledge your access to fintech analysis and exclusive insights ⚡
What’s on the fintech menu today?
📖 The Week’s Featured Story: The Stripe Strategy: Decoding the Infrastructure Behind the Internet Economy
🌟 Fintech Fiesta: The Week's Hot 10!
🌐 ‘Byte’ Buzz: Fintech highlights, sorted by segment!
🔗 Link Up: Your gateway to resourceful links!
Featured Story of the Week 📰
The Stripe Strategy: Decoding the Infrastructure Behind the Internet Economy
Stripe is architecting an economic infrastructure stack that extends far beyond payments. What started as a seamless checkout solution has evolved into a full-scale financial operating system for businesses, platforms, and fintechs. Stripe’s expansion reveals a definitive pattern: payments are no longer standalone transactions but deeply embedded, invisible, and orchestrated by AI. The biggest shift? Financial services are being absorbed into platforms, eliminating traditional banking intermediaries and giving businesses direct control over money movement, credit, and financial operations.
🔑 3 Key Patterns Driving Stripe’s Economic Infrastructure Strategy:
Stripe’s Platform of Platforms model has moved beyond payments to power entire ecosystems. Whether it’s Shopify embedding Stripe for merchant transactions or Uber integrating Stripe for driver payouts, Stripe is now an operating system for digital business finance, monetizing platform-driven network effects at scale.
Stripe’s Treasury, Issuing, and Charge Card are a fundamental shift away from banks controlling business finances. Stripe is handing platforms the ability to own, manage, and monetize financial services internally, leading to a future where fintech is seamlessly embedded inside digital ecosystems.
From fraud prevention and compliance automation to predictive transaction routing and API-driven optimizations, Stripe’s AI-powered infrastructure is removing inefficiencies in payments, lending, and tax management, quietly reshaping how businesses handle financial operations.
How is Stripe leveraging its ‘platform of platforms’ strategy to make itself indispensable to the fintech and SaaS economy? How does Stripe’s embedded finance model challenge traditional banks and BaaS players? How is its AI-driven infrastructure shaping the future of fraud detection and business intelligence?
Our “Stripe’s Economic Infrastructure Playbook” report reveals how Stripe is positioning itself at the epicentre of digital commerce, fintech, and AI-driven financial services.
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This week’s fintech roast—hot, bold, and packed with insights! ☕🔥
The Week's Hot 10!♨️🔟
Cards and Payments Get Smarter
⤷ Santander and Amazon introduced the Amazon Visa credit card in Austria, offering customers rewards on purchases with no annual fee. This initiative aims to enhance customer loyalty and provide more flexible payment options.
⤷ Virgin Money partnered with payments giant Mastercard for its open banking technology to enable its customers to view balances and transactions from other banks on the Virgin Money Credit Card App.
Borderless Finance Takes Off
⤷ Sokin was named Nottingham Forest's official business payments provider, establishing a multi-year partnership to manage global payments for the football club.
⤷ Israeli fintech firm Rapyd acquired PayU's Global Payment Organization (GPO) for $610M. This acquisition positions Rapyd to carry out transactions in over 100 countries, using more than 1,200 payment methods.
Banking Evolves for Different Users
⤷ Monzo removed the waitlist for its Under 16s bank accounts, allowing parents and guardians to register their children aged 6-15, introducing them to digital money management tools under parental supervision.
⤷ Marqeta became the issuer processor for Spendesk Financial Services in Europe, enhancing expense management solutions for SMBs and improving financial control and cash flow.
Financial Infrastructure Gets Stronger
⤷ Dwolla and Plaid expanded their integration, providing enterprise clients with a unified API for instant, secure transactions, streamlining financial operations.
⤷ The Monetary Authority of Singapore and the State Securities Commission of Vietnam signed a Letter of Intent to collaborate on capital markets regulation and digital asset frameworks, strengthening financial infrastructure in both countries.
Spain’s Financial Evolution
⤷ Revolut launched the Revolut Terminal in Spain, introducing physical ATMs in Madrid and Barcelona to facilitate currency exchange with low or zero fees, enhancing customer convenience.
⤷ BBVA received approval from the Spanish Securities and Exchange Commission (CNMV) to offer cryptocurrency services to retail clients, enabling Bitcoin and Ether trading through its mobile banking app.
Now, for the ‘byte’-sized fintech buzz –
Embedded Finance is slipping further into the background, making transactions effortless while embedding financial tools into everyday experiences.
Klarna expanded its Gift Card Store to Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands in partnership with Blackhawk Network, allowing customers to purchase gift cards from various brands using Klarna's payment options.
Reece partnered with Adyen to process payments across its online and offline stores in Australia and New Zealand, aiming to create seamless customer experiences and modernize payment processes.
Open Finance is blurring the lines between banking and credit, giving businesses and consumers more control over their financial footprint.
Mastercard collaborated with CredibleX to integrate Small Business Credit Analytics, enhancing SMEs' access to financing in the UAE.
Curve partnered with Infact to introduce real-time credit reporting for Curve Flex customers, aiming to enhance financial inclusivity in the UK.
Digital Finance is expanding its reach, breaking into new markets and reshaping how loans and banking services scale globally.
Revolut confirmed its interest in entering the South African market by applying for a banking license, aiming to offer its digital banking services to South African customers.
SoFi finalized a loan platform agreement worth up to $5B with Blue Owl Capital, focusing on personal loans, to support loan originations through SoFi’s platform.
Fintech Infrastructure is tightening the rails, making payments and banking smoother across industries and borders.
Backbase and Synpulse partnered to accelerate digital transformation for banks across the Asia-Pacific region. This collaboration aims to modernize customer experiences and boost operational efficiency by combining Backbase's Engagement Banking Platform with Synpulse's regional expertise.
dLocal and Coda teamed up to expand gaming payment streams in emerging markets. This collaboration aims to enhance Coda's payment capabilities by leveraging dLocal's network, providing access to various local and alternative payment methods across multiple countries.
DeFi is bridging traditional finance and blockchain, turning digital assets into real-world financial tools.
Deutsche Börse's trading unit, Clearstream, to launch cryptocurrency custody and settlement services for institutional clients, starting with Bitcoin and Ether. This move aims to meet the increasing demand for regulated digital asset infrastructure among institutional investors.
MoonPay acquired Iron, an API-based stablecoin infrastructure platform, to enhance its capabilities in managing multi-currency treasuries, enabling instant cross-border payments, and offering yield-bearing assets. This acquisition positions MoonPay at the forefront of enterprise-grade stablecoin solutions.
And that's a wrap 👋
We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Weekly Fintech Brew!
As a reward for making it this far, enjoy a curated list of awesome fintech resources to keep your curiosity cuppa full to the brim. Cheers to continuous learning!
🔗 Link Up! –
How far can digital innovation improve credit to small firms in emerging market economies? Report - BIS
GPR 2025 - The Past, Present, and Future of Consumer Payments Report -
Worldpay
Pay by Bank payments: why they’re key to your business growth in 2025 Blog - Trustly
A business owner’s guide to credit card processing: what you need to know in 2025 Blog - Airwallex
Magalu Demystified: The Retail Giant’s Financial Side Hustle Report - WhiteSight
Banco Inter: Carving a Distinct Digital Identity in Brazil’s Banking Landscape Blog - WhiteSight
If you're someone who likes to read think pieces, you will likely love our monthly blog, Fintersections, where our team members analyse the convergence of fintech with the world.
And lastly, to stay updated on everything fintech and web3, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and don't be shy to show some ❤️