Recurring Pay by Bank moves closer to commercial reality in the UK GoCardless says it has completed the first recurring Pay by Bank transaction on behalf of Jellyfish Energy , marking an early live test of how open banking could move beyond one-off payments and account sweeping into mainstream recurring commercial use. The milestone matters because recurring Pay by Bank has long been seen as one of the missing pieces in the UK’s push to make bank-to-bank payments a credibl

Euro area consumers trimmed their short- and medium-term inflation expectations in February 2026, while becoming slightly less pessimistic about growth and a little more willing to spend. The ECB ’s latest Consumer Expectations Survey shows m edian inflation expectations for both the next 12 months and the next three years fell to 2.5% from 2.6% in January, while five-year expectations held at 2.3%. The release comes with an important caveat: around 97% of responses were co

Saudi Arabia has moved open banking from sandbox testing into formal regulation, with Lean Technologies becoming the first company to receive a Major Payment Institution license from the Saudi Central Bank t o provide open banking services in the Kingdom. For banks, lenders and fintechs, that turns open banking into a licensed infrastructure layer rather than a pilot initiative. What changes now that open banking is licensed? The main change is regulatory certainty. A full

FinanceX Magazine is pleased to announce its media partnership with ITC Europe 2026 , one of the leading gatherings for insurance leaders, insurtech innovators and investors across the European market. ITC Europe 2026 will take place on 28 - 29 May 2026 at La Llotja de Mar in Barcelona, Spain. The event is positioned as a curated, high-level meeting point for senior decision-makers, founders and investors shaping the future of insurance. For FinanceX Magazine, this partnershi

Solaris says it will rebuild its banking platform around automation, with AI handling more operational workflows and humans retaining control and governance. The move matters because Solaris is not a fintech app pivoting into AI language; it is a licensed German bank with an established Banking-as-a-Service stack, existing enterprise partnerships, and a majority owner in SBI that has already committed material capital to the business. SBI became Solaris’ majority sharehold

Reap has entered the Mexican market after obtaining a Money Transmitter Registry, a regulatory step that allows the company to offer localized money transmission services in the country. The move marks Reap’s formal expansion into the Americas and positions Mexico as a base for broader growth across the region. The company said the authorization supports its strategy to build cross-border payment infrastructure linking Asia and Latin America. In addition to the money transmi

BMO has announced plans to introduce tokenized cash capabilities for institutional clients in collaboration with CME Group and Google Cloud . The initiative will use CME Group’s permissioned network on Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL) to support continuous movement of value for margin, collateral and settlement activities. The bank said the platform is designed to help institutional participants meet the growing demand for around-the-clock financial infrastructure. By

Mastercard has completed live end-to-end agentic payment transactions across Latin America and the Caribbean, marking a practical milestone in the rollout of AI-driven commerce in the region. The transactions, carried out in controlled environments, showed that AI agents can initiate and complete purchases on behalf of consumers using Mastercard’s existing network infrastructure and with full cardholder consent. Participating issuers and processors i ncluded BAC , Banco de l

Fingular has launched Tazee, a new Shariah-compliant consumer financing brand in Malaysia, marking its entry into the country’s digital Islamic finance segment. Headquartered in Singapore, the fintech holding said the new brand is designed to address a gap in the Malaysian market for fast, small-ticket digital financing that is fully aligned with Shariah principles. The company argues that existing options tend to fall into two categories: Islamic banks focused on larger fin