Europe leads the world in cross-border payment interoperability as overarching regulations create coordinated governance frameworks that enable the implementation of unified policies across the region and allow for consistent improvements, according to new research by Thunes. However, success remains largely insular, with inefficiencies emerging when transactions extend beyond the EU. These findings come from the newly released Thunes Cross-Border Payments Interoperability Index, which uses proprietary survey data and established benchmarks, including the World Bank Global Findex Database 2025 and World Bank remittance cost data, to evaluate 50 markets. The index ranks these jurisdictions by overall score across five pillars: Economic Health, which assesses a country’s macroeconomic environment, as well as the human and social experiences of living within it; Digital Infrastructure, which measures how connected citizens are to the Internet and digital payment penetration; Financial Inclusion, which tracks wealth inequality, access to bank branches, and account penetration; Cross-Border Connectivity, which measures factors such as the cost of sending and receiving remittances, the use of instant payments, and and overall cross-border payment market development; and Market Dynamics and Progress, which measures the progress of various regulatory and government mandates to improve the money transfer market. Eight European countries rank among the world’s top 10 countries in the 2026 Thunes Cross-Border Payments Interoperability Index, powered by the integrated Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) network. SEPA processes cross-border euro transfers within 10 seconds across more than 40 participating countries. Denmark ranks first globally with a score of 8.8, leading across Financial Inclusion (9.5), Digital Infrastructure (9.5), and Economic Health (8.8). Denmark boasts an advanced domestic payment infrastructure, strong integration with European payment systems, and regional cooperation across the Nordics. Organizations such as the Nordic Payments Council, and initiatives like Vipps MobilePay exemplify this collaboration. Vipps MobilePay is a digital payment company owned by a consortium of Norwegian banks and Danske Bank from Denmark that provides a payment platform, enabling consumers and merchants to make seamless, near-instant payments, including cross-border transactions, across Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. Norway ranks third globally with an overall score of 8.2, leading in Cross-Border Friction (9.2) and excelling in Economic Health (8.5). Norway is followed by Spain, the Netherlands, and Sweden at 8 each. Switzerland places eighth with a score of 7.7, performing notably well in Cross-Border Friction (8.3) and Financial Inclusion (8.2). The Thunes Payments Interoperability Index 2026, Source: Thunes and Juniper, Jun 2026 While Europe dominates the top 10 in the 2026 Thunes Cross-Border Payments Interoperability Index this friction-free experience with SEPA remains largely insular to the Eurozone. When transactions extend beyond the European Union (EU), interoperability often breaks down. According to 2024 research by the World Bank, it costs a business approximately 12 times more to transfer EUR 5,000 and 15 times more to transfer EUR 20,000 from the EU to the Western Balkans than among the EU countries. This creates a two-tier system where users experience instant, cheap payments domestically and regionally, but face inefficiencies and high costs when moving money internationally. Emerging markets redefine financial inclusion Beyond SEPA-driven interoperability, the Thunes report also emphasizes how emerging markets with low bank penetration are leveraging mobile and Internet adoption to introduce innovative solutions like mobile money accounts and regionally tailored digital wallets, allowing users to transact seamlessly without relying on legacy banking systems. Markets like Brazil and India exemplify this shift. These markets are not constrained by legacy payment infrastructure, allowing them to leapfrog countries with entrenched payment networks by building modern, real-time payment ecosystems from the ground up. A study conducted by Juniper Research in April 2026 as part of the Thunes report polled more than 6,700 respondents across ten markets across the world. It found that Brazil has one of the highest usages of bank transfers across the surveyed countries, second only to India. Notably, 59% of those in Brazil use bank transfers daily or weekly. This success in A2A payments in Brazil is attributable to the launch of Pix by Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) in 2020. Pix is a real-time payments system offered by almost every financial institution and fintech in the country, allowing users to transfer money instantly using Pix keys, or QR codes at checkout, eliminating the need for card detail entry and card fees. According to BCB’s Deputy Governor for Licensing and Resolution, Renato Dias de Brito Gomes, about 170 million people use Pix in Brazil, or nearly every adult. The platform has reached more than 20 million businesses using the service. Similarly, India operates its own real-time payment system. Launched in 2016, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) facilitates inter-bank peer-to-peer (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions. UPI is widely popular across the country, processing more than US$300 billion monthly, and leading retail payments by accounting for 85.5% of all digital transactions. The UPI ecosystem spans nearly 700 banks and serves 491 million individuals and 65 million merchants, making it one of the world’s largest real-time payment systems in terms of volume. Despite their domestic innovations, both Brazil and India face challenges in cross-border connectivity. In the 2026 Thunes Cross-Border Payments Interoperability Index, Brazil ranks 24th and India ranks 30th. ASEAN economies are also highlighted for their cross-border payment interoperability efforts. These economies are at the forefront of multiple cross-border fast payment system linkages, with Singapore being a particular forerunner. The Monetary Authority of Singapore has been involved with multiple bilateral linkages, allowing users in Singapore to transfer funds directly to the bank account or digital wallet of another user in a different jurisdiction, using just a mobile number or QR code. For example, Singapore’s PayNow system links with India’s UPI, Indonesia’s and the Philippines’ respective QR payments systems, Malaysia’s DuitNow network, and Thailand’s PromptPay system. This is in addition to its involvement in Project Nexus, an initiative led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) that aims to develop a standardized and multilateral network to accommodate the different instant payment systems around the world and enable instant cross-border payments. Globally, Singapore ranks second in the 2026 Thunes Cross-Border Payments Interoperability Index, scoring a perfect 10 score on Market Dynamics and Progress, alongside Brazil. These two jurisdictions are recognized for launching new payment rails, and spearheaded multilateral payment linkage projects. Cross-border initiatives in ASEAN countries, Source: Thunes and Juniper, Jun 2026   Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by arslantanoli via Magnific The post Denmark and Singapore Top the 2026 Global Ranking for Cross‑Border Payment Interoperability appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

By 2030, tokenized assets could account for 2% of all financial assets in the capital markets ecosystem, representing a market value of up to US$8.2 trillion, according to new estimates by Citi. This projection marks a dramatic shift from the estimated US$17 billion global tokenization market for financial assets recorded as of April 2026, a figure which itself reflects a threefold increase from the previous year. Public equities lead the charge This growth will be driven by public market equities, which are expected to achieve the highest penetration rate among key asset types at 2.9%, generating the largest volume in absolute terms. By 2030, approximately US$5.4 trillion worth of public equities assets could exist in tokenized form, constituting roughly 66% of the total tokenized asset market. The US is set to dominate this segment, accounting for US$3.9 trillion of that volume through a 4.5% tokenization penetration rate. Estimating tokenization market size by 2030 (US$ trillion), Source: Tokenization 2030: Wall Street On-Chain, Citi, Jun 2026 Retail trading activity and participation in US equity markets are projected to migrate towards tokenized distribution models over time, with Citi estimating that about 10% of such activity could eventually move to these platforms. This trend will be mostly driven by younger, digitally native investors, particularly millennials and Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, alongside the continued rise of app-based brokerage and crypto-native financial ecosystems. These investors, both in and outside the US, will continue to expect 24/7 convenience in everything they do, from food delivery to e-commerce, banking and trading. With approximately 145 million Gen Z and Millennials in the US, these generations have been raised in a digital finance environment and are actively reshaping the sector. According to a 2025 report by Robinhood Markets, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and the World Economic Forum, these younger investors participate in capital markets at higher rates than previous generations and seek personalized, tech-enabled guidance. 58% of Gen Z individuals start learning about investing before entering the workforce, compared to 21% of Baby Boomers, or those born between 1946 and 1964. 36% of these younger generations use AI chatbots, versus 15% for their older counterparts, and 19% utilize robo-advisors, compared to 11% for Baby Boomers and Gen Xs born between 1946 and 1980. The services investor respondents use, Gen Z and Millennials versus Gen X and Baby Boomers, Source: 2024 Global Retail Investor Outlook, World Economic Forum, Robinhood Markets, Boston Consulting Group, Mar 2025 Outside of the US, public equities are expected to see lower tokenization penetration, estimated at just 1.5% and amounting to US$1.6 trillion worth of tokenized assets. Citi attributes this disparity to fragmented market structures, lower retail participation, and slower-moving regulatory and post-trade modernization efforts. The US has the world’s largest public equity market, accounting for about half of global stock market capitalization at more than US$75 trillion, according to Bloomberg and Visual Capitalist calculations. East Asia, led by China, stands in second with about US$40 trillion in stock market capitalization, followed by Europe as a whole, with about US$20 trillion. World’s largest equity markets, Source: Visual Capitalist, Bloomberg, Apr 2026 Tokenization in public fixed income and institutional innovation After public equities, public fixed income is set to constitute the largest portion of tokenized assets by absolute value. By 2030, up to US$2.2 trillion in fixed-income assets could be tokenized, representing a penetration rate of 1.3%. This implies a 27% share of the total tokenized market for this asset class, which includes instruments like US Treasury Bills and Money Market Funds (MMFs) designed to provide predictable income and principal return. This projection assumes a tokenization penetration of up to 15% for the US Treasury Bill market, representing the highest among all asset types. According to Citi, treasury bills are operationally well-suited for tokenization given their deep liquidity, broad collateral usage, standardization, and central role in repo and liquidity markets. Current adoption has been led by crypto-native treasury and stablecoin ecosystems. For example, Ondo Finance is a platform for tokenized real-world assets that has surpassed US$2.5 billion in total value locked (TVL) across its tokenized products, which comprise tokenized US Treasuries and stocks. Simultaneously, MMFs are poised to emerge as an important area of adoption with tokenization penetration potentially reaching 7% by 2030. This will be driven by MMFs’ growing role as institutional cash-equivalent and collateral instruments. Large US asset managers have already launched tokenized government liquidity and MMF products. Franklin Templeton, for example, launched in 2021 the Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX), the first US-registered MMF to use a public blockchain as the official system of record for processing transactions and recording share ownership. The fund accrues yield continuously and reflects it in holder balances throughout the day, and holds at least 99.5% of its assets in short-term US government securities, cash, and repurchase agreements. BlackRock entered the space in 2024, launching the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL). BUIDL invests 100% of its total assets in cash, US Treasury bills, and repurchase agreements, and allows investors to earn yield while holding the token on the blockchain. Investors can transfer their tokens 24/7/365 to other pre-approved investors, and access flexible custody options. BlackRock is now working on launching two additional MMFs designed specifically for investors who hold their cash in stablecoins, Bloomberg reported in May. Transforming capital markets structure Beyond specific asset classes, Citi expects tokenization to fundamentally change how core market functions in capital markets are delivered, connected, and priced. In traditional markets, multiple intermediaries perform post-trade functions such as clearing, settlement, reconciliation, and custody, often due to fragmented record-keeping and delayed settlement cycles. Tokenized systems introduce a shared ledger where ownership transfer and settlement can occur in near real-time, reducing reconciliation-heavy processes and compresses post-trade layers. This will result in significant efficiency gains, with a 2025 report by BCG and Ripple suggesting that an issuer handling US$1 billion in annual bond issuance could save approximately US$2-3 million in costs by moving to on-chain issuance. Furthermore, traditional markets tend to be structured around asset-for-cash exchanges, where cash acts as the intermediary in most transactions. Tokenization could facilitate a shift towards asset-to-asset transactions, including collateral swaps, securities-for-securities exchanges and multi-asset transactions executed atomically, reducing reliance on cash as an intermediary and supports more efficient collateral utilization. Tokenization is also expected to introduce new revenue opportunities emerging in areas such as token issuance and structuring, collateral optimization and financing, data and analytics, and smart contract lifecycle services. It could also enable real time collateral mobilization, supporting intraday funding and dynamic pricing, and improving liquidity. Industry participants recognize these potential advantages. A 2025 survey by Citi involving 537 market participants found rising expectations that market structures based on distributed ledger technology can reduce post-trade processing costs (51%), improve liquidity and asset mobility (43%), and enhance balance sheet efficiency (32%). DLT-based market structures could improve cost efficiency and collateral mobility (% of respondents), Source: Tokenization 2030: Wall Street On-Chain, Citi, Jun 2026   Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Swtzerland, based on image by Mockup_Mania via Magnific The post Tokenized Assets Projected to Reach up to US$8T by 2030 appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

Digital Asset has secured US$355 million in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz‘s crypto fund, a16z crypto, to expand its Canton blockchain network for institutional finance. The round included participation from both traditional and decentralised finance institutions. Notable backers include ABN Amro, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, BNP Paribas, Broadridge, Citadel Securities, and HSBC. The company will use the Digital Asset funding to scale the Canton network. Digital Asset plans to deepen its engagement with developers and financial institutions. The company will focus on bringing more assets and regulated workflows onchain. Yuval Rooz “For capital markets to move onchain, institutions need infrastructure that reflects how they actually operate with privacy, compliance, scale, and interoperability built in from the start,” said Yuval Rooz, Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Asset. Rooz noted that Digital Asset is working with more than 700 participants to establish Canton as core infrastructure for global finance. The network is designed to address barriers to blockchain adoption by enabling institutions to use shared infrastructure while maintaining necessary regulatory controls. Ali Yahya “Digital Asset has built one of the clearest examples of blockchain product-market fit in regulated finance,” said Ali Yahya, General Partner at a16z crypto. The investment also establishes a broader partnership between Digital Asset and a16z crypto. The blockchain firm will draw on the investor’s expertise in policy and research to support its growth in tokenisation, collateral mobility, and settlement use cases.     Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by mrsiraphol via Magnific The post Digital Asset Secures US$355 Million Funding Led by a16z Crypto appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

ING is launching a global subscription model across nine retail markets, consolidating its everyday financial services and lifestyle benefits into four tiered plans. The rollout marks a strategic shift for the bank towards relationship-based customer offerings. The new plans, ING Go, ING More, ING Extra, and ING Max, are designed to meet growing consumer demand for simplicity and flexibility. The model introduces premium options that bundle debit and credit cards, investment benefits, and comprehensive insurance. It also includes partner extras such as streaming services, travel benefits, and cashback features. With over €600 billion in retail banking customer deposits, ING is scaling the model internationally while tailoring specific features to local markets. The new plans are currently live in the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, and Romania, with 3 million customers already migrated to the updated offerings. Sali Salieski “We act when we see an opportunity to create value for customers,” said Sali Salieski, Global Head of Private Individuals at ING. “Following extensive customer research, they told us they want everyday banking to be simpler, designed around their lifestyle and with more flexibility.” The bank plans to continue its phased international rollout to its remaining retail markets, which include Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, and Turkey.     Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by alexokov via Magnific The post ING Launches Global Subscription Banking Model in Nine Markets appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

Swiss retail banks are facing intense pressure to control their technology budgets, leading most to prioritise automation and shared platforms over staff reductions. Researchers from the Institute of Financial Services Zug at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts surveyed 42 Swiss retail banks on their technology sourcing challenges. Costs emerged as the primary concern. Two-thirds of the institutions described the challenge as very great, while the remaining third called it great. The survey found that 90% of the banks plan to use process optimisation and automation to reduce their operating expenses. Cooperation with other banks and service providers is nearly as important, with 86% of institutions looking to shared platforms to ease budget constraints. Dr. Thomas Fischer “Cost reductions are not only sought through technology, but also through shared infrastructures and economies of scale,” said Dr. Thomas Fischer, Co-author, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Simplifying and standardising existing technology infrastructure is also a preferred method for 64% of the respondents. Staff reductions play a minor role in the cost-saving strategies across the sector. Only 40% of the banks consider cutting personnel to lower technology expenses. An equal number of institutions are turning to artificial intelligence as a cost-reduction measure. Fischer noted that the banks prefer to increase efficiency within their current operations rather than implementing radical structural changes. Cloud services and the expansion of sourcing partnerships are viewed as complementary strategies, cited by 36% and 33% of the respondents respectively. The institutions are addressing the budget pressures through careful and continuous planning rather than immediate structural downsizing. Fischer added that the banks are focusing on cooperation, leaner technology stacks, and gradual automation to achieve their financial goals.     Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by thanyakij-12 via Magnific The post 90% of Swiss Banks Prioritise Automation to Reduce Rising IT Budgets appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

TVL Capital, an institutional digital asset infrastructure firm, has raised US$5 million in a funding round led by San Francisco-based venture capital firm Framework Ventures. Amsterdam-based liquidity provider Flow Traders and several strategic investors also participated in the capital raise. The company will use the capital to build out its core engineering and business development capabilities. This expansion aims to accelerate the deployment of Chain-Traded Products (CTPs), which are compliant, composable structured derivatives issued, settled, and managed directly on blockchain rails. TVL Capital was founded by traditional finance veterans, including CEO Andrew Peel, who formerly served as the Head of Digital Asset Markets at Morgan Stanley. The founding team also includes Chief Operating Officer Penny Tunbridge, the former Global COO of the Group Integration Office at UBS, and Chief Strategy Officer Lars Hoffmann, who previously worked as the Senior Research Director at The Block. The firm is actively partnering with global systemically important banks, traditional financial institutions, centralised exchanges, and onchain protocols to bring its products to market. They design CTPs to function as the blockchain equivalent of exchange-traded products, delivering institutional-grade yields and specific payoffs through smart contract infrastructure. The global retail structured products market represents US$2.5 trillion in outstanding notional value, with new issuances nearly tripling since 2021. TVL Capital plans to provide infrastructure for this asset class to migrate onchain, opening up digital access to structured payoffs while establishing direct onchain distribution channels for traditional issuers. Andrew Peel “The global financial system is in the early stages of migrating onchain,” said Andrew Peel, Founder and CEO of TVL Capital. “Structured products, with their conditional payoffs and programmable mechanics, are a natural fit for smart contract infrastructure, and an upgrade on how they are issued, distributed and managed today. We are building CTPs for a new generation of capital markets, and are grateful to be doing so alongside partners who share that conviction.” The funding round comes amid regulatory shifts and market changes in the United States, including the passage of the GENIUS Act and the pending CLARITY Act. Financial infrastructure entities such as the DTCC, Nasdaq, and NYSE have each announced tokenised securities initiatives, with onchain trading of US securities expected to begin in 2026.     Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by AI Generated via Magnific The post TVL Capital Secures US$5 Million to Launch Onchain Structured Products appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

The Fintech Marketing Hub, an online non-profit platform representing the global fintech market community, has unveiled its annual selection of the world’s 30 most influential fintech marketers. Among the 2026 winners, 16 are based in Europe, giving the region a 53% share of the total and cementing its status as a powerhouse in the industry. Unveiled last week, the 2026 Top 30 Most Influential Fintech Marketers list recognizes the leaders shaping the fintech industry over the past year through standout brand building, major product launches, aggressive growth strategies, and meaningful contributions to the community. These 30 winners were selected from hundreds of nominations following an evaluation process focused on impact, originality, and industry contribution. A judge panel comprising senior fintech marketing leaders and industry stakeholders then oversaw the final selection. Of the 2026 winners, 16 are based in Europe and represent leading organizations such as Monzo, Taxfix, and Revolut. Geographically, the UK leads with 11 entries, followed by Germany with two, while Ireland, Austria, and Spain each secured one spot. AJ Coyne, CMO, Monzo Bank, UK AJ Coyne serves as the CMO of Monzo Bank in the UK, where he leverages a strategic approach that blends creativity with commercial results. As a proven growth driver with experience spanning fintech, consumer packaged goods (CPG), charity, sustainability, technology, gaming and fashion, Coyne emphasizes purpose-driven business practices and believes that organizational success begins with nurturing talent from within. Coral Kratenstein, Head of Go-to-Market, OpenPayd, UK Coral Kratenstein is the Head of Go-to-Market at OpenPayd in the UK, leading strategies for the financial infrastructure platform. With a background that includes roles at PayPal and GoCardless, as well as experience as an entrepreneur in the travel industry and a certified attorney, she connects her expertise in payments and technology to help shape the future of the tech industry. Fiona Davies, Head of Growth UKIE, US, Nordics, Revolut, UK Fiona Davies leads growth efforts for the Nordics, US, and UK markets at Revolut, bringing over a decade of experience in product marketing, growth, creative strategy, and copy. Her career ranges from being employee number 15 at a California-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup to holding senior leadership positions at one of Europe’s most valuable private tech companies. Ian Peel, CMO, Taskize, UK Ian Peel is the CMO of Taskize, a role he assumed in June 2025. At Taskize, Peel is responsible for building a new, data-driven marketing practice that has so far encompassed team building and upskilling; messaging, positioning and strapline; and brand new website and CRM implementation. Results so far include achieving top rankings in sector for earned media, online engagement, and thought leadership. His achievements also include an award nomination for thought leadership and winning the “Marketing Leader of the Year” title at the Fintech Marketing Community Global Awards in 2025. Ingrid Sierra, Brand and Marketing Director, Zego, UK Ingrid Sierra is the Brand and Marketing Director of Zego where she leads global teams across product marketing, brand, performance digital, and customer experience, delivering impact across B2B, B2C, and B2B2C. She specializes in integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into marketing operations while leading global teams through complex growth stages, acquisitions, and rebrands. Sierra has over 20 years of experience scaling brands across FTSE 100 companies, private equity-backed firms, and fintech and insurtech startups in the US and European, Middle Eastern, and African regions. She has been recognized as a Top 50 Woman in Tech, and also serves as a mentor and advisor to rising talent through initiatives like Women in Open Banking and Bloom UK. Kaynat Choudhury, UK Kaynat Choudhury is a marketing leader based in the UK with more than 15 years of experience bridging the gap between marketing, design, and product for organizations in the fintech, financial services, and media industries. Having previously served as Head of Marketing at StrideUp and Pfida, she’s built marketing functions from the ground up, led rebrands and repositioning, and brought complex products to market in a way that resonates. Toni Gregory, Brand and Content Lead, OpenPayd, UK Toni Gregory leads the Brand and Content function at OpenPayd where she is responsible for driving brand equity and long-term revenue through strategic design, client advocacy programs, and high-impact event management. She also oversees public relations and thought leadership initiatives to amplify executive profiles while optimizing short-term opportunities to secure long-term wins for a fast-scaling fintech company serving over 1,000 global clients. Jessica Rhodes, Global Marketing Director, Paysecure, UK Jessica Rhodes is the Global Marketing Director of Paysecure. She is a chartered marketing leader with over 13 years of experience of directing multi-disciplined teams to scale technology, SaaS and consulting organizations from startup, to scale-up and established with ambitious growth plans. She balances strategy, strong commercial acumen, brand storytelling and creative hands-on application to deliver data-driven, multi-channel marketing initiatives that showcase the brand’s story, product value and company culture. Alongside her professional roles, Rhodes is also an active speaker and mentor in her local community, delivering lecturing at universities and associations, as well as leading public speaking engagements and podcast conversations. Malkit Kaur, Vice President Marketing, Genesis Global, UK Malkit Kaur is the Vice President of Marketing of Genesis Global, bringing over 15 years of expertise in campaign planning, stakeholder relationship management, and demand generation. Her extensive skill set covers budget forecasting, trade show planning and coordination, e-commerce strategy and development, and leveraging social media to expand brand visibility and product awareness. Miranda McLean, CMO, Ecommpay, UK Miranda McLean is the CMO of Ecommpay, a global payments platform. She has more than 20 years of experience in strategic and operational marketing in financial services and fintech. Before joining Ecommpay as CMO, McLean led the creation, launch and development of the Banking Circle and Banking Circle Group brands globally. She was also responsible for successful marketing programs for leading professional corporate brands, including Equifax, LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters and Standard and Poor’s. Paul Afshar, CMO, Paybis, UK Paul Afshar is the CMO of Paybis. He is an innovative leader with over 15 years of experience, driving GBP 76 million in revenue growth, fivefold annual recurring revenue (ARR) increases, and efficiently scaling global marketing team capabilities using AI. With deep expertise in navigating regulated global markets, he combines digital transformation skills with data-driven go-to-market execution to optimize customer acquisition and retention across emerging fintech ecosystems. Mary-Kate Collins, Head of International Communications, Coinbase, Ireland Mary-Kate Collins is the Head of International Communications of Coinbase, leading all Coinbase communications outside the US, with responsibility for ten international markets, namely the UK, Germany, France, UAE, India, Singapore, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, and Canada. Her work spans earned media strategy, executive profiling, regulatory and policy communications, crisis communications, and institutional narrative-building. Collins also manages the global media profile of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong across all his international travel and engagements, and lead communications programs for country directors and regional managing directors across all of my markets. Alexander Beresford, Chief Growth Officer, Taxfix, Germany Alexander Beresford is the Chief Growth Officer of Taxfix where he is responsible for growing group revenue, managing country operations, and leading all aspects of marketing, public relations (PR), and product growth. He oversees a comprehensive portfolio ranging from performance marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) to partnerships and sales. Vanessa Schotes, CMO, Enfuce, Germany Vanessa Schotes is the CMO of Enfuce. She is an accomplished senior marketer with a strong record of achievement across industries, and has a strong track record of implementing results-driven marketing, communications and brand building programs. Her specialties include marketing planning, strategic market penetration, market research, creative development, external and internal communications, full campaign management, comprehensive brand messaging, PR strategy, product development, and project leadership. Imrich Babics, Managing Director, Chief Growth Officer, Relai, Austria Imrich Babics is the Managing Director and Chief Growth Officer of Relai, a MiCA-licensed Bitcoin app. At Relai, Babics is responsible for statutory representation and regulatory alignment of the company at the EU level. He also leads growth and market expansion for Relai, which has facilitated US$1 billion in total volume by combining consumer adoption strategies with regulatory compliance. Prior to Relai, Babics built the marketing function of Austria’s Bitpanda to reach over one million users. Before Bitcoin, he spent a decade in the media and entertainment industry at Universal Pictures, Xbox, PlayStation, Microsoft, and Huawei, specializing in growing companies in complex, regulated markets. Antoine Le Nel, Global CGO and CMO, Revolut, Spain Antoine Le Nel is the Global Chief Growth and Marketing Officer and Group Executive Committee Partner of Revolut, where he drives global growth for both B2C and B2B offerings across multiple channels and geographies. He oversees marketing, communications, European and expansion markets, analytics, and growth partnerships, working closely with product, engineering, and design teams to deliver seamless and engaging customer experiences. Prior to Revolut, Le Nel spent seven years at King, the developer of Candy Crush Saga, where he held various roles, most recently, as VP Growth, overseeing continuous expansion of the world’s most famous mobile game. Before that, he was a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and Oliver Wyman.   Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by fernandocortesde via Magnific The post 16 European Leaders Named Among 2026’s Most Influential Fintech Marketers List appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

Silverflow, a cloud-native payments processing platform, has launched a new API called Terminal-to-Cloud to enable payment terminals to connect directly to its host platform. The new tool completely removes the need for a third-party terminal gateway. The product launch shifts processing away from the traditional host-to-host model, where a third-party gateway acts as an intermediary to translate messages between the terminal and the processing host. This direct connection strips away legacy software complexity and reduces the number of intermediaries involved in each transaction. For fintech companies and agile acquirers building modern infrastructure, the setup reduces costs, improves reliability, and increases operational control. Clients can avoid gateway fees and the annual payment card industry (PCI) compliance audit obligations that usually accompany an additional processing layer. The shorter transaction chain also minimises points of failure. If an issue occurs, businesses have a single platform and point of contact rather than multiple vendors to manage during an outage. Paul Buying “The traditional model asks fintechs to take on a gateway relationship they do not need just to get terminals talking to a host,” said Paul Buying, Co-founder, Silverflow. “Terminal-to-Cloud changes that. We have built a direct connection using modern technology, so our clients get the reliability and simplicity they expect without carrying the weight of old gateway infrastructure.” Buying added that payment providers need a clean path from terminal to host without the overhead of a middle layer. The solution aims to simplify their technical stack and reduce exposure to third-party outages. It also ensures there is only one relationship to manage when troubleshooting. The product is designed primarily for fintech operations and acquirers that do not own a legacy gateway. It helps them launch services quickly without having to build or license one. Larger financial institutions can also adopt the solution incrementally to replace existing infrastructure. The Terminal-to-Cloud API is available immediately, with integration support provided directly by the company.     Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by bunditinay via Magnific The post Silverflow Launches Terminal-to-Cloud API to Bypass Third-Party Gateways appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

Am Donnerstag ist es soweit: Die Fussball-Weltmeisterschaft in Mexiko/USA/Kanada startet mit dem Eröffnungsspiel Mexiko gegen Südafrika. Schon seit 2016 stellen wir alle zwei Jahre unsere Schweizer Fintech‑WM‑ und EM‑Nationalteams zusammen. Wie immer gilt: just for fun — weil wir Fussball und Fintech lieben. Im Gegensatz zu früheren Jahren haben wir unseren Stammgoalie Twint ersetzt und setzen dieses Jahr schwerpunktmässig auf Neobanken und ETF‑Vermögensverwalter. Wir freuen uns sehr aber über jeden Kommentar zu unserer 2026 Auswahl und auf die bevorstehenden WM-Spiele. Schweizer WM-Spiele: 13.06 Schweiz-Qatar, 21.00h (immer Schweizer Zeiten) in San Francisco 18.06 Schweiz-Bosnia-Herzegovina, 21.00h in LA 24.06 Schweiz-Kanada, 21.00h in Vancouver Im Achtelfinale geht es dann leider aber wahrscheinlich schon wieder gegen Portugal, falls beide Gruppenerste werden und das 1/16 Finale überstehen ;( Hopp Schwiiz! Zum Vergleich: Das Fussball WM Team von vor 4 Jahren in 2022 gibts hier nachzulesen, und ja richtig, Payrexx scheint unser Zakaria zu sein;)   Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by user6702303, ibrandify, and f11photo via Magnific The post Das Schweizer Fussball Fintech WM Team 2026 appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

Money20/20 Europe concluded its 10th edition in Amsterdam, gathering more than 7,500 attendees and 2,300 companies to address the shifting dynamics of global financial infrastructure. The three-day event brought together financial professionals, regulators, and technology firms to examine emerging trends across the banking and payments sectors. AI transitioned from theoretical discussion to practical deployment throughout the event. Speakers highlighted how financial institutions are integrating automated tools into compliance, risk management, fraud prevention, and operational workflows to improve efficiency. Bryony Naylor “This year’s show demonstrated that financial services has entered a new phase of transformation,” said Bryony Naylor, Vice President of Money20/20 Europe. “Across the show floor and on stage, we saw leaders move beyond discussing what’s next to actively building it.” The event also highlighted digital assets and the increasing convergence of traditional finance and decentralised finance networks. Discussions focused heavily on the mainstream adoption of stablecoins, tokenised assets, and blockchain technology to streamline liquidity and asset ownership. To address this trend, the event organisers launched a new publication titled The New Intersection of Money: Where TradFi and DeFi Converge. The book explores the collaboration between established banking systems and decentralised networks in shaping future transaction rails. European financial sovereignty emerged as another core theme. Industry stakeholders examined how regional players can strengthen cross-border payments infrastructure and digital identity frameworks to maintain strategic autonomy in a competitive global market. Aviel Intelligence won the event’s Start-Up Pitch Competition. The UK-based anti-scam platform uses artificial intelligence to identify and interact with active scammers to extract live financial accounts in real time. Money20/20 Europe will return to the RAI convention centre in Amsterdam next year from 8 to 10 June.     Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by alexokov via Magnific The post Money20/20 Europe 10th Edition Spotlights AI, Digital Assets and Fintech Shift appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

The hypt Report Banking Switzerland 2026, released last week in collaboration with HES-SO, evaluates how Swiss banks perform regarding AI visibility, leveraging the KI Sichtbarkeits-Score (AI Visibility Score) to quantify bank reputations across multiple large language model (LLM) platforms, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. This score was determined by analyzing the frequency of online mentions, average ranking positions in AI recommendations, sentiment and tonality of outputs, and the authority of sources cited by these models. In Switzerland’s retail banking landscape, Zurcher Kantonalbank (ZKB), Raiffeisen Switzerland, and Neon lead the market in AI visibility, benefiting from strong security credentials, extensive positive sentiment across online sources, and clear, AI-readable information, according to new research by Swiss software company hypt. ZKB ranked the highest with an AI Visibility Score of 96%. This institution benefits from high security rating, including its AAA credit rating and state guarantee, as well as its strong technical user experience features and top performance among incumbent banks in App Store analyses. Raiffeisen Switzerland ranked second with a score of 94%, benefiting significantly from a high volume of positive sentiment found in forum posts and news articles that demonstrate trustworthiness. AI systems often recommend it as the “human” or people-focused bank. Taking the third place with a score of 91% is Neon, a neobanking platform offering low-cost everyday banking, payments, and investing services. This players exemplifies AI optimization, the report says, offering clear communication regarding its fee structure and making its data easier for AI crawlers to process compared to the complex fee models of universal banks. This makes Neon stand out as the “cost leader”. 2026 AI Visibility Score ranking (retail banking), Source: hypt Report Banking Switzerland 2026, Jun 2026 Other niche specialists, like digital challengers Yuh and Alpian, are recognized depending on customer profiles. Yuh, a digital banking and investing app, is almost exclusively recommended when the user asks about “investing”, “crypto”, or “euro account”. Yuh, provided by Swissquote, combines everyday banking, savings, and access to stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and cryptocurrencies in a single mobile platform. Digital private bank Alpian, meanwhile, appears as soon as the AI detects signals of higher net worth or a desire for “digital wealth management”. The company offers banking, investing, and wealth-management services aimed at affluent clients through a mobile-first experience. Despite these leaders, the research reveals that the broader Swiss retail banking market remains underprepared for AI visibility. An analysis of Google reviews for 2,489 bank branches found that 1,650 branches (66%) have fewer than 15 reviews and are therefore excluded from the rankings. This gap is worrisome because online reviews are one of the central data sources from which LLMs derive their recommendations. Differences between LLMs and shifting search paradigms The study also highlights significant differences in how LLMs weigh data. For example, Gemini weighs Google Reviews and local signals most strongly, while ChatGPT relies on media such as Handelszeitung and Moneyland. Meanwhile, Perplexity prioritizes up-to-date information, allowing agile neobanks like Neon and Yuh to rank higher because their features and news are fresher compared to the more static profiles of traditional banks. Finally, Claude pursues an analytical approach, praising cantonal banks for their stability and explicitly naming online reviews as the most important recommendation source. The research also highlights how these chatbots are fundamentally redefining customer decision-making. Between 2025 and 2026, usage of LLMs for search surged dramatically from just 6% to 45%. At the same time, classical search engines for local recommendations declined from 83% in 2025 to 71% in 2026. Generative AI tools have become the third most popular source for business recommendations, Source: hypt Report Banking Switzerland 2026, Jun 2026 In this changing landscape, online reviews are playing a much bigger role than merely acting as marketing tool, evolving instead into primary validation mechanism for algorithms. With 42% of consumers placing the same value on online reviews as on personal recommendations, LLMs use this collective feedback as a trustworthiness filter. Consequently, customer expectations, and the standards applied by AI systems, have risen dramatically. For example, 82% of consumers now read AI-generated summaries of reviews, 31% of exclusively use companies with a rating of 4.5 stars or higher, and 74% of searchers only consider reviews written within the last three months. Furthermore, 89% of customers expect a response to their feedback, underscoring the critical need for active online engagement, which serves both to retain customers and to generate the positive sentiment signals required for favorable algorithmic treatment. Findings from the hypt research align with earlier studies in the field. A 2025 Claneo research on search engine optimization (SEO) surveyed 2,000 individuals in Germany and the US and found that while traditional search engines still dominate search with a 67% market share, AI chatbots follow behind at 20%. The study also reveals that for simple information, Google leads at 50.5% while for complex topics, AI chatbots, at 38.6%, are almost on par with Google at 40.3%. This highlights that AI chatbots are highly relevant for complex information needs and are rapidly emerging as a strong alternative to traditional search engines.   Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by thanyakij-12 via Magnific The post Who Dominates AI Visibility in Swiss Retail Banking? appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

Temenos has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Zurich-based fintech company additiv to strengthen its wealth management technology suite. The acquisition integrates additiv’s software orchestration layer directly into the Temenos banking platform. The transaction targets growing demand from financial institutions looking to launch scalable, hybrid wealth models. additiv’s technology combines workflows and data into a single layer. This allows banks and wealth managers to design and launch mass affluent wealth services. According to additiv, its platform reduces the typical implementation timeframe for new wealth services to between three and six months. This compares with an industry standard of approximately 12 months. The firm has around 200 employees across 10 global offices. It serves 30 clients across the wealth management, banking, and insurance sectors. Temenos plans to use the platform’s AI capabilities to automate more complex banking workflows over time. These include client onboarding and loan origination, which will be managed through AI agents using specific governance controls. Expanding wealth management capabilities As Temenos acquires additiv, the company intends to expand its client footprint in investment services across retail, universal, and wealth banks. Temenos expects the integration to create additional cross-selling opportunities across its current global customer base while providing existing wealth clients with more adaptive front-office workflows. Takis Spiliopoulos “This acquisition strengthens our wealth proposition at a time when we see strong, growing demand for our products across tiers and geographies in the wealth segment,” said Takis Spiliopoulos, CEO and interim CFO of Temenos. Spiliopoulos added that additiv’s orchestration capabilities complement the existing Temenos platform to support the delivery of personalised, regulatory compliant wealth services efficiently and at scale. Continuity and geographic expansion Following the completion of the transaction, additiv will retain its name and brand. The company will continue to support its existing clients and partners to ensure continuity of service. Michael Stemmle “Joining Temenos enables us to scale our orchestration approach globally, including into the US,” said Michael Stemmle, Founder of additiv. Stemmle noted that the combination allows the fintech to pair its orchestration capabilities with Temenos’ banking and wealth technology infrastructure for the benefit of its clients.     Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by awaisbinaziz7862 via Magnific The post Temenos Acquires additiv to Expand Wealth Management Technology Suite appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

Ramp is launching its financial services for companies headquartered in the UK and Europe this summer, backed by a US$750 million primary financing round that values the corporate spend platform at US$44 billion. ICONIQ, GIC, and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan led the funding round. New backers include Goldman Sachs Alternatives, D.E. Shaw & Co., and Morgan Stanley Investment Management, alongside participation from existing venture capital investors. The capital injection arrives as Ramp expands its capabilities to address AI tokens. The firm is positioning AI tokens as an emerging third major category of enterprise spend. In March 2026, Ramp grew its total payment volume by approximately 170% year-over-year. This marks its highest growth rate in three years despite operating at 20 times its previous scale. Managing AI token computing costs Eric Glyman “For 500 years, business ran on two pillars of spend: people and vendors. In the last 24 months, a third arrived: intelligence, paid by the token and invisible to every system we’ve built to manage cost,” said Eric Glyman, co-founder and CEO of Ramp. Glyman added that Ramp is building the infrastructure for this third pillar. To manage these emerging costs, the company recently rolled out specialised visibility and control tools for AI token tracking. The firm also deepened its multi-year partnership with Visa to allow autonomous corporate payments. These payments are executed by AI agents using real-time controls. European expansion and accounting automated toolsRamp accelerated its international footprint through two recent acquisitions. The firm purchased Billhop, a corporate payments provider operating in the UK and Europe, and Juno, a guest travel platform, to support its upcoming European launch. The platform is also making its first entry into the accounting firm market through a dedicated operating system called Ramp Stack. This launch accompanies a rapid product cycle that saw the company ship more than 70 features over the past few months. These releases include tools for real-time budget tracking, automated procurement, and startup spend infrastructure. The company reported substantial efficiency gains for its user base following these updates.In May 2026, the median customer saw year-over-year improvements in efficiency, saving 50% more funds and 32% more hours annually compared to the prior year. These savings more than doubled for companies using the full software suite. Internal AI adoption and financials Internally, the firm uses its own AI systems to run operations. Its internal software factory, Inspect, writes more than two-thirds of the company’s code. A configured AI workspace called Glass has helped the company reach 99.5% internal AI adoption across all departments, according to company-reported metrics. “Every company needs infrastructure to navigate an AI economy, from a CFO in London to an accounting firm in Wichita,” Glyman said, noting that finance is going through its biggest structural change since the spreadsheet. As of June 1, 2026, the company has surpassed US$1 billion in annualised revenue with positive free cash flow. It serves more than 70,000 customers, including Visa, Uber, Shopify, and Stanford Athletics. The platform handles US$200 billion in annualised purchase volume. In their first year, the median customer achieves 5% savings alongside 16% revenue growth.     Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by alexgolovinphotography via Magnific The post Ramp Raises US$750 Million at US$44 Billion Valuation to Fund European Expansion appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

In the global banking sector, artificial intelligence (AI) has transitioned from the exploratory phase to strategic integration. The 2026 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey underscores this shift, with 55% of the 2,300+ banking CIOs and tech executives polled in 2025 reporting that their enterprises had already deployed generative AI, and 26% planning to deploy it within 12 months. State of deployment for emerging technologies in banking, Source: 2026 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey As banks accelerate their AI strategies, Gartner released in January a report identifying the sector’s top AI trends for 2026, highlighting increased investment in AI application development platforms, multi-agent ecosystems, and domain-specific language models (DSLMs) among the most prominent developments in the space this year. AI application development platforms As AI efforts scale and move deeper into core operations, CIOs will increasingly recognize the need for a shared foundation that can support the safe, secure and repeatable delivery of AI across use cases, Gartner forecasts. This will drive a shift towards modular AI application development platforms with reusable components. These platforms allow banks to build, govern, and expand AI capabilities with the speed and consistency that isolated tools cannot provide. Leading financial institutions are already leveraging AI application development platforms. Wells Fargo has developed the Enterprise Open Source Data Science Platform, which features reusable AI building blocks; and BNY has built Eliza, an enterprise AI platform with a solutions marketplace as well as approved datasets and models to build upon. Gartner predicts that this year, more than 40% of banks globally will make investments in AI application development platforms to scale AI securely and compete in emerging agent-to-agent ecosystems. Multi-agent systems As banks increasingly adopt AI agents, they are starting to experiment with multi-agent systems (MAS). MAS are networks of AI agents that collaborate or operate independently to achieve specific objectives. Currently, adoption is concentrated among Tier 1 banks that are building multi-agent workflows for complex processes such as quantitative investing and lending. Relevant examples include MACAW, a multi-agent workflow for car buying and financial assistance by Capital One; ASK DAVID, a multi-agent workflow for quantitative investing and research launched by JP Morgan; and Project Coral, an autonomous multi-agent orchestration system for engineering workflows introduced by Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). According to Gartner’s 2026 CIO and Technology Executive Survey, 17% of banking CIOs have already deployed AI agents, and 41% plan to do so within the next 12 months. By year-end 2027, the firm forecasts that at least 30% of day-to-day banking decisions, including loan pre-approvals, transaction anomaly detection, and dispute resolution, will be made autonomously by multi-agent systems. Domain-specific language models Banking CIOs recognize that while genAI and agentic AI offer significant potential for differentiation and revenue generation, building these on generic LLMs present risks of hallucinations and knowledge dilution. DSLMs mitigate these risks by being trained and fine-tuned on curated, high-quality banking data. These models offer superior accuracy, quality and domain specificity in business-critical tasks while reducing risk and optimizing costs for banking workflows. For banks, the specialization of DSLMs provides a defensible competitive advantage, and several institutions are already leveraging such models. These include Westpac, which has adopted Kai‑GPT, a model fine-tuned on its proprietary data specifically for financial services; Wells Fargo, which has developed a DSLM and small language model (SLM) for personally identifiable information (PII) detection integrated into its conversational AI assistant; and State Bank of India (SBI), which is creating its own DSLM. Gartner states that by 2028, more than 60% of the genAI models used by banks will be domain-specific, up from 30% in 2025. Physical AI The rise of frontier‑scale foundation models, more capable embedded AI, and significant improvements in edge computing are reducing the historical constraints associated with physical automation. These technologies now empower robots and intelligent devices to operate more reliably in semi-structured environments such as branches, ATMs and service lobbies, while interacting more naturally with customers and staff. As AI maturity improves on both the supply and demand sides, Gartner expects physical AI to play an increasingly important role in modernizing physical banking operations, a trend that’s already reflected in early deployments. China Construction Bank has deployed humanoid robots in its flagship branches to guide customers, answer queries, and assist with account opening; HSBC has introduced Pepper humanoid robots in branches across the US and Canada to greet customers, answer FAQs, and direct them to staff; and Caixa Bank has launched AI-powered ATMs equipped with facial recognition authentication. By year‑end 2027, about 10% of banks will deploy physical AI in branches or operations, up significantly from about 3% today, according to Gartner. Adoption is projected to rise sharply afterward as proven use cases and customer familiarity drive confidence in the technology. AI security platforms As banks scale AI and agentic AI solutions across internal and external environments, AI security platforms are becoming indispensable. According to Gartner’s 2H 2025 Financial Services Leaders’ AI Survey, the top two risks in agentic AI investments are regulatory compliance and data privacy and security breaches, underscoring the necessity for centralized AI security platforms (AISPs). AISPs consolidate fragmented AI risk controls, AI governance, and cybersecurity into a single architecture. They provide a unified way to secure third-party and custom-built AI applications, centralizing visibility, enforcing usage policies and protecting against AI-specific risks, including prompt injection, data leakage and rogue agent actions. Gartner forecasts that by 2028, 75% of data breaches will be a result of AI and agentic AI adoption, resulting in stalled adoption unless banks adopt AI security platforms.   Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by thanyakij-12 via Magnific The post Top AI Trends in Banking in 2026 appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

Swiss banks are facing mounting pressure from technological developments, shifting customer expectations, and intensifying competition from fintech startups, forcing them to spend more to keep up. According to a new EY study, 57% of the 100 Swiss and Liechtenstein banks surveyed in November 2025 identified rising operating costs as the greatest strain on their income over the next one to two years. This concern far outweighs other challenges, including falling income from maturity transformation, cited by 16% of respondents, deposit shortages, cited by 12%, and pricing pressure in investment banking, cited by 9%. Where do you see the most pressure on the income of your institution coming from in the next one to two years?”, Source: EY Banking Barometer 2026, Jan 2026 This cost surge is in part driven by the need to modernize. According to the 2026 IFZ Fintech Study by the Institute of Financial Services Zug (IFZ), though cloud-native and modular “neo-core” solutions are attracting growing attention, established core banking providers remain dominant in Switzerland’s banking industry. These providers lock banks into rigid, expensive legacy systems that are slow to adapt, preventing them from efficiently meeting modern customer demands and competing with agile fintech startups. This financial tool is illustrated by findings from the IT Cost Survey for Swiss Banks 2025. Drawing on 2024 data, the study found that while operating income per customer across all participating retail banks increased by 4.3% in 2024, the median of IT expenditure per customer rose by 5.1%, reflecting that increased business volumes had not offset the escalading rise of IT costs. Additional pressure is coming more intensive competition from fintech companies and their increased integration into the financial system. According to the IFZ study, Swiss and Liechtenstein fintech companies are heavily international (81%) and business-to-business (B2B)-oriented, serving financial institutions rather than only retail consumers. Specifically, 60% of fintech companies in these two countries primarily operated in B2B markets, while a further 33% combined B2B and business-to-consumer (B2C) activities. Furthermore, banking infrastructure is now the largest fintech segment in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, accounting for 39% of all fintech companies in these two countries. This suggests that fintech firms are capturing portions of the banking value chain that were historically owned entirely by banks. Swiss banks tap new opportunities Recognizing these challenges, Swiss banks are embracing artificial intelligence (AI) to keep up with younger, and more agile players. Results from the EY study show that AI has moved beyond mere discussion to become a firmly established part of the banking landscape. In 2025, the proportion of banks that had solely got as far as discussing AI and its introduction fell to 22%, down from 38% the prior year. 78% of banks were already busy implementing AI projects, with 5% stating that they had actually integrated AI into many applications already. “Many Swiss banks are already testing the first applications of AI and hoping these will make workflows more effective and efficient. How far advanced is your bank in using AI?”, Source: EY Banking Barometer 2026, Jan 2026 In terms of application, banks are strengthening their focus on process automation. 80% of respondents prioritized this area in 2025, up 13 points from 67% a year prior. The proportion of banks identifying AI in customer and investment advice as the primary source of efficiency gains also rose, increasing from 13% in 2024 to 19% in 2025. Conversely, a decline of almost 20 points was recorded in the area of risk management, falling from 27% of the institutions surveyed in 2024 to just 8% in 2025. According to EY, banks appear to be shying away from the challenges in data quality and availability, regulatory requirements and low error tolerance. “Which areas do you think are seeing the largest efficiency gains in applying AI in the banking business?” (Multiple choice; max. two), Source: EY Banking Barometer 2026, Jan 2026 Despite progress in AI adoption, Swiss banks also identified significant challenges in implementing the technology. In the area of AI governance and AI risk management, banks continue to see data security and ethical aspects as the greatest challenges in implementing and using AI, with 49% of respondents citing data protection and ethics among the biggest challenges, though this figure represents a 5 point decline from the previous year. At around 30%, banks rated all other aspects the same, including the lack of clear guidelines and standards, difficulties in identifying and assessing risks, insufficient transparency and traceability, insufficient capabilities and training of employees, and definition of AI governance. “Which of the following challenges has your institution encountered in the areas of governance and risk management of AI when implementing and using AI?”(Multiple answers possible), Source: EY Banking Barometer 2026, Jan 2026 Besides AI, the study also examined Swiss banks’ stance on digital assets, highlighting that the new asset class is now established. This is evidenced by the market dividing up and banking groups adapting their respective business models. Notably, foreign and private banks primarily focus on the various digital asset models, with 64% and 50%, respectively, stating that digital asset business models will be relevant for them in the next one to three years. Foreign banks are focusing on asset management of digital assets in particular, while private banks are concentrating on digital asset brokerage and advisory services. Meanwhile, regional banks, but mainly cantonal banks, are disproportionately distancing themselves from digital assets, focusing instead on tried-and-tested business models. For cantonal banks, the share of institutions sticking strictly to traditional methods nearly doubled, jumping from 24% in 2024 to 47% in 2025. Regional banks are following a similar trend, though less dramatically, with the number of institutions limiting themselves to traditional models rising from 38% to 61% over the same period. “What new digital assets business model is the most relevant for your institution in the next one to three years?”, Source: EY Banking Barometer 2026, Jan 2026   Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by thanyakij-12 via Magnific The post Swiss Banks Identify Rising Operating Costs as Greatest Income Strain appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

Money20/20 Europe returned to the Netherlands from June 02 to 04, 2026, drawing a reported 7,600 attendees from more than 100 countries and 2,000 companies to explore the age of agentic AI, the rise of stablecoin-driven infrastructure, and the rapid policy changes creating new competitive frontiers for the fintech industry. Like previous editions, the event saw several corporations, startups and public agencies announce their latest initiatives, leveraging the visibility, audience, and media coverage provided by the large-scale gathering to gain maximum exposure and garner interest from key stakeholders. The following are the key announcements and news unveiled at Money20/20 Europe 2026, covering new stablecoin launches, global expansion plans, and strategic partnerships spanning AI agents, international trade, and open banking. Kraken eyes global expansion On Day 1, a keynote discussion between Scarlett Sieber, chief strategy and growth officer at Money20/20, and Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of digital asset exchange Kraken and its parent company Payward, recapped recent headlines involving the crypto exchange. These included its string of agreed acquisitions, such as US digital asset derivatives exchange Bitnomial and stablecoin and payments infrastructure provider Reap. Sethi also shared plans for future acquisitions to broaden the platform’s capabilities with spot, margin, and US perpetual futures trading methods. Though Payward filed for a national trust bank license in the US in May 2026, Sethi said the holding company is also actively seeking to extend operations to Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America, “either through buying existing business and shaking it up, or build from scratch”. Qivalis BV unveils EUR stablecoin plans On Day 2, the “Can Europe Build Its Own Stablecoin Champion?” fireside chat featured Jan-Oliver Sell, CEO of Qivalis BV, and moderator Anna Irrera, senior editor at Bloomberg News. The session discussed geopolitical sovereignty in the age of stablecoins, noting that the current market is dominated by US dollar-denominated stablecoins, which account for approximately 99% of global volume. This dominance creates structural dependency for Europe. To counter this, Qivalis BV, an electronic money institution backed by a consortium of 37 banks across 15 countries, is applying for a license in the Netherlands to issue a euro stablecoin under the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework, targeting international business-to-business (B2B) use cases. Sell argued that without a liquid, on-chain euro asset, European banks managing blockchain processes are forced to use the USD, introducing FX hedging costs and sovereign risk. In a volatile geopolitical environment, ceding this space to the dollar is deemed unwise. Qivalis BV plans to operate as an open infrastructure layer where licensed intermediaries handle the minting and burning of tokens, ensuring sufficient volume for large-scale corporate settlements while adhering to regulatory standards. Expanding the stablecoin landscape Other players also announced initiatives to broaden access to fiat currency-based digital assets globally. Clear Junction Group, a global payments infrastructure provider serving financial institutions and cryptoasset businesses, announced a partnership with stablecoin issuer Agant to support institutional access to GBPA, Agant’s Pound sterling stablecoin. The proposition is designed to support practical use cases across domestic and cross-border payments, settlement, corporate treasury, foreign exchange (FX) and exchange liquidity. Under the agreement, Clear Junction Digital will support access to GBPA for eligible institutional financial services and cryptoasset businesses that meet the required onboarding and compliance requirements, acting as a distribution partner for GBPA. Clear Junction and Agant Collaborate on Access to Sterling Stablecoin GBPA, Fintech News Switzerland Separately, MoneyGram announced the launch of MGUSD, a native USD stablecoin intended to serve as the foundation for the company’s growing suite of financial services. MGUSD will be integrated directly into the MoneyGram app in a self-custodial wallet to give customers a stable, USD-denominated balance. The launch targets the US market initially, but plans are in place to scale globally. MoneyGram’s MGUSD relies on a collaboration of partnerships: Bridge, a Stripe company, is the regulated issuer; MGUSD tokens are minted and burned using M0’s smart contract infrastructure and deployed on the Stellar blockchain at launch; and MoneyGram holds MGUSD in Fireblocks wallets, which are used to send to individual customer wallets embedded in the MoneyGram app. Enhancing cross-border payments In a bid to streamline international trade, XTransfer, a B2B cross-border trade payment platform, and Societe Generale, a leading European bank, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The partnership aims to enhance cross-border payment infrastructure and develop integrated financial solutions that support global trade flows. Under the MOU, the parties will explore the development of integrated cross-border financial solutions. This includes developing local collection and outbound payment solutions that help suppliers collect from overseas buyers more efficiently and reliably, while enabling global importers to pay suppliers worldwide with greater speed, security and end-to-end operational certainty. The cooperation also includes “Pay to China” services with USD and CNY settlement and transfer services in Hong Kong SAR and Mainland China. Furthermore, the parties will explore FX solutions to enable fast and reliable conversion of local currencies into major FX currencies such as USD and EUR, supporting smoother settlement and greater certainty for cross-border traders. A new open banking payment scheme in the UK Parallel to these initiatives, the UK is setting a new standard for domestic and automated payments with the launch of a scheme by the UK Payments Initiative Ltd (UKPI). Developed collaboratively with banks and fintech companies, UKPI’s scheme establishes a shared rulebook, commercial model and operational standards for flexible, automated, or recurring account-to-account payments, powered by open banking. It aims to reduce the UK’s dependence on the card networks of Visa and Mastercard. By enabling consumers to authorize recurring and variable payments directly from their bank accounts, the initiative aims to bypass the need for payments to be routed through card schemes. It also aligns with the ambitions set out in the UK Government’s National Payments Vision by enabling new use cases for open banking payments at scale. Initially, these payments will cover payments to the government, utilities, charities, financial services, and more. Founding industry shareholders of UKPO include Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest, Santander, Monzo, Revolut, Starling, Token.io, and TrueLayer. Agentic AI in payments Another key theme during this year’s Money20/20 Europe event was agentic AI. Moving beyond theoretical experimentation, Worldline, a European payment specialist, and ING, a financial institution, announced the successful execution of Europe’s first end-to-end agentic payment transaction in production with Mastercard. Completed between an ING cardholder and a merchant in the Netherlands, the solution operated on the same underlying infrastructure across Belgium and ran across Mastercard network, utilizing secure authentication and authorization mechanisms from all parties. It represents a milestone, proving that payments initiated and authenticated by merchant AI agents can function seamlessly across multiple European markets. Separately, Experian announced the launch of its Agent Operating System, an agentic AI layer within the Experian Ascend Platform designed to help financial services organizations scale agentic AI. The system enables AI agents from Experian, clients and partners to work together through a common trust, semantic and orchestration layer, supported by clear controls, auditability and human oversight. The Agent Operating System will be available to early adopters later this year, before rolling out to more than 2,300 client solutions globally. Policy 20 forum At the Policy 20 forum on June 02, senior policymakers, regulators, central banks, supervisors, and industry leaders convened to address one of the defining challenges facing financial services: the cross-border implications of diverging policies, implementation, and technological momentum. Policy 20 at Money20/20 Europe Addresses Cross-Border Regulation and Fintech Scale, Fintech News Switzerland The invitation-only program brought together more than 40 leaders to explore how greater cooperation can support innovation, resilience and trust across an increasingly interconnected financial ecosystem. Participants acknowledged that technology is no longer the primary barrier, as faster, cheaper, and more efficient solutions already exist. Consequently, the challenge now lies in ensuring innovation scales through interoperable frameworks, supportive regulation, and practical implementation. Consensus also emerged that trust remains the foundation of cross-border finance, with agreement that trust between institutions, jurisdictions, and consumers is essential to enabling adoption and growth across payments, digital identity, AI, and digital assets. Finally, attendees determined that reducing fragmentation will be critical to future progress. While complete global harmonisation may be unrealistic, greater coordination between regulators, policymakers and industry will be needed to support resilient and interoperable financial systems. 6 fintech startups spotlighted On June 03, the 2026 Start-Up Media Session highlighted six fintech startups representing breakthrough innovation across AI-native finance, fraud prevention, digital assets, trust infrastructure, and modular banking technology. These ventures were showcased as part of Money20/20 Europe’s broader Startup Hub, a platform designed to help early- and growth-stage companies gain visibility, forge connections, and accelerate scaling. The hub also hosted the industry-leading Start-Up Pitch Competition where emerging companies competed for recognition on one of fintech’s most influential stages. This year’s Startup Pitch Winner, Aviel Intelligence, is a UK-based anti-scam intelligence company that identifies and engages with active scammers at scale. This live feed of intelligence is used by major banks and payment service providers (PSPs) to both minimise mule risk and protect customers from sending money to scammers. The remaining startups showcased were: Fraudio, which provides AI-powered fraud detection and risk intelligence for the payments ecosystem, helping PSPs, acquirers, and issuers identify and prevent fraud across every stage of the transaction lifecycle; Vouchsafe, an AI-era anti-fraud infrastructure that makes it safer and easier for businesses to trust their customers, and vice versa; SoftBees, a Ukrainian-Polish fintech company helping banks and financial institutions launch digital banking products across different markets with a significantly shorter time-to-market; Sapi, which provides payment-linked financing for small businesses, working in partnership with payment companies to provide working capital directly via their existing payment relationships; and Serene, a behavioral intelligence platform that helps financial institutions identify customers at risk of financial distress, vulnerability, fraud and poor outcomes earlier than traditional approaches.   Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by Money20/20 The post Money20/20 Europe 2026 News Roundup: Stablecoins, AI Agents Take Center Stage appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

Triple-A is rolling out stablecoin-enabled multicurrency accounts in Europe, allowing businesses to access local banking collection networks without setting up a local entity. The product is designed for companies with European customers and cross-border payment flows. It provides businesses with a named euro international bank account number (IBAN), enabling them to settle funds into their bank accounts, convert them directly into stablecoins, or initiate local currency payouts across more than 70 countries. Companies collecting euros often face the cost and complexity of establishing European Union entities. They also have to manage separate providers for collection, conversion, and payout. Triple-A stated that its multicurrency accounts address this by combining borderless euro collection through the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and SEPA Instant with global payouts in one system. Because European B2B payments rely heavily on bank transfers, this setup allows companies to collect euros via SEPA without opening a local bank account or entity. Instead of treating the IBAN as a standalone account, Triple-A links euro collections directly to stablecoin and local currency payouts. The company said this enables faster settlement, third-party payouts through local transfers, more predictable transaction costs and easier reconciliation. The system supports B2B firms selling into Europe, exporters collecting from European buyers, and platforms that need to pay out to users, freelancers or suppliers worldwide. It also allows payment service providers, digital wallets and electronic money institutions to add euro collections and payouts to their own platforms. Eric Barbier “The European launch of multicurrency accounts supports our move toward a more complete payments infrastructure model, where local currency collection connects directly to global payout rails, stablecoins and traditional local currencies,” said Eric Barbier, Founder and CEO of Triple-A. Triple-A plans to add USD and SGD collections to its multicurrency accounts in the near future.     Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by leungchopan via Magnific The post Triple-A Rolls Out Stablecoin-Enabled Multicurrency Accounts in Europe appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

The Swiss Fintech Awards has selected four AI startups as finalists for this year’s ceremony, following a review of 70 applications by a 19-member jury. All of the shortlisted companies use automated technology to address fraud prevention, banking workflows, or regulatory governance. Early stage contenders ForenSwiss and Porters have reached the final in the Early Stage Startup of the Year category. ForenSwiss ForenSwiss uses generative AI to combat online crime and money laundering. The company deploys fully automated chatbots to interact with fraudsters and extract data, helping financial institutions detect fraudulent activity quickly. Porters Porters positions itself as an AI native outsourcing partner for banking operations. The company harnesses agentic systems to automate processes and generate consistent workflows, allowing financial institutions to scale operations cost-effectively while maintaining compliance. Growth stage finalists In the Growth Stage Startup of the Year category, BLP and Calvin Risk are the final contenders. BLP BLP provides end-to-end enterprise resource planning automation for finance and sales departments. The platform uses digital twins of existing systems alongside pre-trained AI agents to manage exceptions and meet compliance requirements. Calvin Risk Calvin Risk offers tools for the validation, testing, and governance of AI models. The company standardises and automates testing processes to simplify risk management and improve compliance with regulatory frameworks.   The jury will announce the winners on 23 June at the Swiss Fintech Awards Night in Zurich. The event forms part of the international Swiss Fintech Week running from 19 to 25 June, which includes formats such as SwissHacks, a fintech conference organised by Finanz und Wirtschaft, and the Point Zero Forum. The post Swiss Fintech Awards Shortlists 4 AI Startups as Finalists appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

Swiss digital wealth manager findependent has crossed CHF 500 million in assets under management, a milestone reached weeks after the company transitioned into a licensed securities firm. The company recently became the first pure ETF wealth manager in Switzerland to receive approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to operate as an account-holding securities firm. Following the regulatory approval, more than 98% of existing customers have migrated to the new securities firm structure. The updated setup allows users to manage their investments directly within the application. The company reported that the second quarter of the year marks its 22nd consecutive quarter of net new money inflows, with April and May recording the highest volumes to date. Matthias Bryner “Breaking the half-billion mark in entrusted customer assets is a great success for us,” said Matthias Bryner, Founder and CEO of findependent. “I am equally pleased with how smoothly our customers transitioned to the securities firm and that findependent is trusted as a depository institution,” Bryner added. Building on its recent growth, findependent plans to expand its services by launching a Pillar 3a retirement savings offering in the second half of the year. To support this expansion, the company is establishing its own pension foundation, aiming to replicate its existing digital investment experience for retirement planning.     Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by findependent The post findependent Surpasses CHF 500 Million AUM, Prepares Pillar 3a Rollout appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

CORA Group, a portfolio company of Constellation Software’s Jonas Software operating group, has acquired Finastra’s US mid-market banking business. The transaction includes core banking, digital banking, and related software businesses used by banks and credit unions across the US. Following the acquisition, the division will operate as a focused, standalone company. The acquisition shifts ownership of several software brands. Among these are the Phoenix Core Banking System, MalauzAi Digital Banking, Analyzer IQ, and Enterprise Content Management solutions. The cloud-based Phoenix platform helps community financial institutions scale efficiently while managing shifting regulatory demands. Celent’s 2024 report references the software and Gartner’s 2025 Magic Quadrant for retail core banking systems in North America includes it. The business intends to maintain its existing product lineup, personnel, and customer relationships. CORA Group operates under Constellation Software’s model, which focuses on the long-term ownership of vertical market software providers. Denis Brosnan “Finastra’s US mid-market business is exactly the kind of company we look for, with strong products, loyal customers, and people who really know their industry,” said Denis Brosnan, Portfolio CEO of CORA Group. Brosnan added that the company provides resources to let teams stay close to their clients without changing configurations that already function effectively. Finastra said the move sharpens its focus on areas where it leads and can deliver greater value. Chris Walters “CORA Group’s long-term approach is the right fit for this business and its customers,” said Chris Walters, Chief Executive Officer of Finastra. Customers were informed that day-to-day operations and support contacts will remain unchanged as the unit transitions to its new corporate home.     Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by ismode via Magnific The post CORA Group Acquires Finastra’s US Mid-Market Banking Business appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.