Future of Fintech: Revolut’s Licence-Led Takeover
Future of Fintech – Edition #190 (15th–26 June’ 26)
In late June, fintech momentum centered on bigger global commerce plays, sharper digital banking propositions, AI-led wealth tools, and embedded finance moving deeper into everyday business workflows.
✔ Digital banks pushed premium plans, local licences, and market-specific banking models
✔ Payments players expanded cross-border commerce, and virtual card infrastructure
✔ Wealth, embedded finance, and infrastructure platforms embedded investing, and payments into partner ecosystems
Ready to connect the dots? 👀
🚨 Story of the Week: Revolut’s 2026 Licence Push Accelerates
Revolut received approvals for Stored Value Facilities and Retail Payment Services licences in the UAE, adding another important piece to its 2026 regulatory expansion story.
The UAE move comes alongside a wider run of regulatory progress across markets including the UK, Mexico, and Peru, while Revolut continues to pursue a US national bank charter.
Rather than a new global push, 2026 is about converting years of international ambition into deeper, market-level authorisations. 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: Sprault
This edition, we’re spotlighting Sprault, a UK wealth-building startup preparing to enter the market with a more accessible approach to investing and long-term financial planning.
Sprault recently opened its waitlist ahead of a planned Q4 launch, as it looks to help everyday users start building wealth through simpler, more guided financial journeys.
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Edition #190 connects the dots across the latest developments shaping the future of digital finance.
The Hot 10 that formed June’s second half !!♨️🔟
Regulated rails follow borderless customers
⤷ Revolut received approvals for Stored Value Facilities and Retail Payment Services licences in the UAE.
⤷ Wise acquired Expatica to pair cross-border money tools with relocation guidance for expats and globally mobile customers.
The Profit-and-AI Era of Fintech
⤷ N26 reported its first full year of net profitability in 2025, alongside €500M+ in revenue and €350M+ in gross profit.
⤷ SoFi launched Composer by SoFi, an AI-powered investing tool that helps users turn plain-language investment ideas into executable strategies.Cards get rebuilt for differentiated distribution
⤷ Mastercard partnered with BBVA TO launch a credit card in Germany, adding cashback, no FX fees, and enhanced card security features.
⤷ Thredd activated Visa Cloud Connect across APAC, strengthening its cloud-native issuinginfrastructure for fintechs, and digital banks.
Merchant platforms turn financing into a native feature
⤷ Adyen partnered with ROLLER to launch ROLLER Capital, embedding business lending directly into its venue management platform.
⤷ myPOS partnered with finmid to embed merchant lending for 90K merchants in Italy, giving businesses access to financing.Open banking becomes the operating layer for payments
⤷ Modulr launched commercial Variable Recurring Payments (cVRP) through its Collections Hub, in partnership with the UK Payments Initiative.
⤷ PayPoint acquired AperiData, strengthening its Open Banking capabilities after a previous £1M strategic investment in the company.
Now, for the ‘byte’-sized fintech buzz –
Digital banks are entering new markets through more licence-led and infrastructure-led models.
Revolut is planning a South Africa launch by 2028, after applying for a local banking licence and building a waitlist that is approaching 100,000 registrations.
Jet Bank launched a digital-only bank in Albania, built entirely on Backbase’s AI-Native Banking OS.
Digital payments players are strengthening checkout and cross-border payment infrastructure by making payments faster, more secure, and easier to embed into business workflows.
HSBC and Mastercard launched a mobile virtual card solution in the UAE, letting corporate customers add tokenised virtual cards to digital wallets for faster, controlled, and more secure B2B payments.
Worldline brought Click to Pay to recurring payments in Europe, helping subscription merchants boost conversion and reduce failed payments.
Digital wealth platforms are expanding beyond trading into broader wealth and AI-led investing.
eToro is exploring wealthtech acquisitions and possible banking licences as it expands into wealth and payments to diversify beyond trading revenue.
SoFi launched Composer by SoFi, an AI-powered investing tool that helps users turn plain-language
investment ideas into executable strategies.
Embedded finance is moving deeper into SMB credit, with platforms embedding financing directly into business workflows.
Nordic Capital is bringing Qred and Liberis together to create a larger global SMB financing platform
across Europe and North America.
Parafin launched Spend with Column and Visa, giving platforms a fully managed business credit card
programme for SMBs.
Open finance is moving from data access into workflow automation, connecting banking data with business and treasury tools.
Spiris partnered with Lunar to connect banking and business tools, helping small businesses reduce administrative work.
Embat partnered with Sage to bring AI-powered treasury management to Sage Intacct, helping finance teams automate reconciliation and improve cash visibility.
Fintech infrastructure modernisation is accelerating as banks replace legacy systems with cloud-native platforms and upgrade payment capabilities for faster, more flexible money movement.
Nordiska partnered with Finastra to modernise its payments infrastructure and connect more directly to Sweden’s payment rails.
Gr4vy partnered with Airwallex to expand global payment control for enterprise merchants, combining payment orchestration with Airwallex’s acquiring and cross-border infrastructure.
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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