Future of Fintech: Revolut Lands Full French Banking Licence
Future of Fintech – Edition #191 (1st–15th Aug’ 26)
The first half of August saw fintechs deepen activity across banking, AI, payments and infrastructure, led by Revolut’s French banking licence, Mastercard’s BVNK acquisition and continued expansion in Pay by Bank, embedded finance and AI-powered wealth.
✔ Digital banks are widening products and market reach
✔ AI is moving deeper into wealth and financial infrastructure
✔ Pay by Bank and embedded finance are gaining broader distribution
Ready to connect the dots? 👀
🚨 Story of the Week: Revolut’s 2026 Licensing Run
Revolut’s 2026 expansion has increasingly been built around securing local regulatory licences and moving closer to full banking status across major markets. The latest milestone came in August, when Revolut Bank S.A. received a full banking licence in France from the ACPR and ECB, creating a second European banking hub alongside Lithuania and laying the groundwork for expansion across Western Europe.
Its 2026 regulatory milestones include:
→ UK: Received approval to exit mobilisation and launch Revolut Bank UK as a fully licensed bank in March.
→ Peru: Secured Organisation Authorisation, the first stage toward becoming a fully operational bank in the country.
→ UAE: Received Stored Value Facilities and Retail Payment Services licences from the Central Bank of the UAE.
→ Australia: Secured a full unrestricted ADI licence and launched Revolut Bank Australia, its first licensed banking entity in APAC.
→ France: Received a full banking licence, with France set to anchor expansion into Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
Revolut also launched full banking operations in Mexico in January and filed for a US national bank charter in March, showing how regulation is becoming central to its push toward a more globally integrated banking model. Our deep dive on Revolut unpacks this regulatory roadmap in detail, from where approvals are landing to what they unlock across banking, payments, wealth, and market expansion.
Download the full report here.
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🚀 Startup Spotlight: Astraeus
This edition, we’re spotlighting Astraeus, a newly launched AI-native wealthtech startup building infrastructure for wealth management firms. Its platform unifies data, business rules, permissions and workflows to support adviser operations, compliance, investment research and AI-agent orchestration.
Astraeus launched in 2026 and has raised more than $10M from investors including Fintech Collective, F-Prime, Walkabout Ventures and Plug and Play Ventures.
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Edition #191 connects the dots across the latest developments shaping the future of digital finance.
The Hot 10 that formed August’s first half !!♨️🔟
Banking scale gets more serious
⤷ Revolut received a full banking licence in France and will start serving customers through Revolut
Bank S.A.
⤷ Monzo Business reached 1M customers in the UK, doubling from more than 500K in October
2024, 6 years after launching its business banking service.
AI moves deeper into financial infrastructure
⤷ Astraeus launched an AI-native infrastructure platform for wealth managers, unifying data,
workflows and AI tools for advisers and investment teams.
⤷ Belvo launched three MCP servers, enabling AI agents to connect with its open finance APIs and
access consented financial data.
Payments infrastructure keeps expanding
⤷ Mastercard completed its acquisition of BVNK, adding stablecoin infrastructure for cross-border
payments and treasury flows.
⤷ Adyen expanded its partnership with Toast into the US, extending its payments infrastructure
beyond Ireland, the UK, Canada and Australia.
Financial products get broader and more connected
⤷ Klarna upgraded its 4 membership tiers across 11 European markets, increasing cashback,
removing service fees and adding new benefits.
⤷ Plaid expanded its open finance and products with broader investment data, improved transaction
and identity insights, and new verification tools.
Infrastructure players deepen their regulated role
⤷ Defacto partnered with Mambu to automate SEPA disbursements and repayments for its
receivables-financing product.
⤷ Modulr joined the FCA’s Scale-up Unit, gaining dedicated regulatory support as it expands its UK
payments infrastructure.
Now, for the ‘byte’-sized fintech buzz –
Digital banks are expanding customer engagement beyond core banking, adding new payment experiences and lifestyle-led services across European markets.
N26 added Wero to its instant payments offering, enabling customers in Germany, France
and Belgium to send and receive money.
Revolut plans to launch its first proprietary airport lounge at Copenhagen Airport in 2027, with
additional lounges planned across major European hubs.
Digital payments is combining regulatory support with product expansion, as firms strengthen market access while broadening wallet and payment capabilities.
Teya was selected for the FCA’s Scale-up Unit, gaining dedicated regulatory support as it
expands in the UK and internationally.
Paysafe launched PaysafeWallet in Poland, offering an IBAN-linked account, virtual debit
card, transfers, cash top-ups and withdrawals.
Digital wealth is widening access to investment products while using AI and digital content tools to strengthen investor and adviser engagement.
Robinhood launched commission-free crypto trading in the UK, allowing customers to buy
and sell more than 30 digital assets through its app.
WealthReach partnered with SageContent to turn adviser videos into website content
optimised for Google and AI search platforms including ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity.
Embedded finance is broadening across credit and insurance, with financial products being integrated into existing merchant ecosystems while infrastructure providers scale into new markets.
Klarna integrated with J.P. Morgan Payments in the US, enabling merchants to offer
pay-in-full and financing options through their existing setup.
Vertical Insure raised funding led by Updata Partners to expand its embedded insurance
infrastructure and enter new markets.
Open finance is moving deeper into lending and payments, using consented bank data to improve decisioning while enabling more direct A2A transactions.
Beyond Bank Australia expanded its NextGen partnership to use Open Banking data for
faster branch loan applications and credit assessments.
Sionic launched Instant Bank Pay via Microsoft Marketplace, enabling real-time bank payments using FedNow and RTP with AI-based fraud detection.
Fintech Infrastructure is becoming more intelligence-led, combining broader commercial banking capabilities with richer data for credit and risk decisioning.
FIS launched Digital One Commercial in APAC, offering businesses multi-rail payments,
trade finance, FX and treasury capabilities.
Edge partnered with Socure to combine cashflow, identity and fraud data for early-stage
lender screening.
And that’s a wrap 👋
We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Weekly Fintech Brew!
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.
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