Executive Summary
This week’s fintech headlines reflect a dynamic mix of AI expansion, regulatory scrutiny, payments innovation, and cybersecurity concerns. OpenAI is pushing further into e-commerce with Shopify, while Perplexity AI partners with Motorola to bring AI to smartphones. Meanwhile, the payments sector heats up with Klarna striking a BNPL deal with eBay, and Visa strengthening its partnership with Nationwide. On the regulatory front, Revolut’s bonus system ties employee incentives to risk behavior, drawing fresh attention to governance in high-growth fintechs. In the background, data breaches continue to escalate across the healthcare sector, highlighting the urgent need for stronger security measures across industries.
📩 Stay ahead of these fintech trends! Read our full report for expert insights and deeper analysis on the latest industry developments.
Trends in Fintech Verticals
Top Data Breaches
Frederick Health data breach impacts nearly 1 million patients: Two separate ransomware hacks of a Maryland medical group and a California hospital resulted in data thefts affecting more than 1.1 million patients, according to recent reports to regulators. Cybercriminals claim to have leaked 480 gigabytes of data from one of the attacks.
Frederick Health in a report filed on March 28 to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said 934,326 people were affected by its hacking incident early this year. The Maryland-based medical group said the breach involved a Jan. 27 ransomware incident affecting its IT systems and exfiltration of data.
Yale New Haven Health data breach affects 5.5 million patients: Connecticut-based healthcare provider Yale New Haven Health System reported a data breach that affected more than 5.5 million patients.
The data breach involved a “hacking/IT incident” affecting its network server, according to breach report posted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights.
In a notice posted on its website, Yale New Haven Health System said that it identified unusual activity affecting its IT systems on March 8.
“We immediately took steps to contain the incident and began an investigation, which included assistance from external cybersecurity experts,” the company said in the notice. “We also reported the incident to law enforcement. The investigation determined that an unauthorized third-party gained access to our network and, on March 8, 2025, obtained copies of certain data.”
Landmark Admin data breach impact now reaches 1.6 million people: Landmark Admin has issued an update to its investigation of a cyberattack it suffered in May 2024, increasing the number of impacted individuals to 1.6 million.
Landmark is a Texas-based third-party administrator (TPA) handling policy accounting, regulatory reporting, reinsurance support, and IT systems for major insurers nationwide like Liberty Bankers Life and American Benefit Life.
In October 2024, the company warned that it detected suspicious activity on its networks on May 13th, 2024.
Latest Funding News
European fintech Pliant banks $40M to build the future of corporate card infrastructure: Berlin-based corporate card platform Pliant has raised a $40 million Series B equity round to fuekl its expansion to the US.
The financing round is led by Illuminate Financial and Speedinvest, with existing investors including PayPal Ventures and Motive Ventures participating.
PayPal Ventures in April last year led an €18+ million Serie A extension for Pliant as part of plans to expand into the UK. The new financing brings total funds raised to $100 million.
The latest round comes amid triple-digit revenue growth for the firm, which now supports 3500 businesses across Europe. In June last year it secured a deal with Commerzbank for the delivery of a fully digital credit card for business customers.
B2B buy now, pay later app Hokodo raises €10 million: BNPL for business operator Hokodo has raised €10 million in an equity funding round co-led by Korelya Capital and Opera Tech Ventures – the corporate venture fund of BNP Paribas.
The new funding will support Hokodo as it rolls out a new in-store solution to offline and omnichannel merchants across Europe, starting with French professional supplies merchant RÉTIF and with more customer announcements scheduled for the coming weeks.
Richard Thornton, co-founder and president of Hokodo, says: “Despite a significant shift to e-commerce in B2B, the reality is that many industries are still driven by personal relationships and traditional sales processes. But transactions that take place offline can benefit from digital trade credit just as much as those on e-commerce sites and online platforms.”
Jericho Security bags $15m to expand AI-powered cybersecurity solutions: New York-based Jericho Security has secured $15 million in Series A funding to scale its AI-powered cybersecurity training platform. The investment, announced today, follows the company’s successful five-month execution of a $1.8 million Department of Defense contract that put the two-year-old startup on the cybersecurity map.
The funding round was led by Jasper Lau at Era Fund, who previously backed the company’s $3 million seed round in August 2023. Additional investors include Lux Capital, Dash Fund, Gaingels Enterprise Fund and Gaingels AI Fund, Distique Ventures, Plug & Play Ventures, and several specialized venture firms.
Banking and Payments
EU Central Banks Explore Synchronised Settlement in FX: The Bank for International Settlements and its central bank partners have successfully demonstrated how wholesale payment infrastructures, such as RTGS systems, can interoperate with each other for FX transactions via new technologies, such as distributed ledgers.
The joint project between the BIS, Bank of England, Bank of France, Bank of Italy, Deutsche Bundesbank and European Central Bank involved synchronising the settlement of FX transactions, using distributed ledger technology, so that the transfer of one leg of the transaction – such as buying a currency – happens only if the transfer of the other – such as selling another currency – occurs.
At the heart of Project Meridian FX is the synchronisation operator – a technology-neutral interface designed to coordinate the simultaneous exchange of assets across payment systems.
Klarna seals BNPL deal with eBay in the US: Klarna has sealed a deal with eBay to roll out its flexible payment options to millions of shoppers across the US.
Already available in in the UK, Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, the push into the US is set to further cement the American market as Klarna’s biggest revenue earner.
Shoppers can pay for eligible eBay purchases in the US using Klarna’s Pay in 4 products as well as through Financing, which offers flexible payment plans for larger purchases.
Visa and Nationwide deepen 35-year partnership to expand UK payment solutions: Visa, a global leader in digital payments, and Nationwide, the UK’s largest building society, have extended their decades-long partnership to further enhance card and payment services across the country.
The renewed agreement aims to boost growth in Nationwide’s current account and credit card offerings, enabling the society to deliver greater value to more UK consumers.
As part of the expanded partnership, Visa will provide services across both card-based and account-to-account payment types—a first for the collaboration. This strategic move underscores the increasing importance of cohesive user experiences and robust fraud protection across all forms of payments.
Discover hit with $1.2 billion restitution order over interchange fees: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has ordered Discover Bank to return more than $1.2 billion to merchants that were overcharged on swipe fees and pay a $150 million civil money penalty.
In imposing the penalty, the watchdog says that for approximately 17 years, the Bank misclassified millions of consumer credit cards as commercial, resulting in higher interchange fees for transactions processed on the Discover network.
As a result, merchants were overcharged over $1 billion in interchange fees when accepting payments with the misclassified credit cards.
Wealthtech
Brits reject pension gamble, choose stability over high-risk bets: New research from PensionBee, a leader in the consumer retirement market, reveals that UK savers are highly cautious when it comes to their retirement savings, with just 8% willing to invest in high-risk assets.
The findings indicate a strong preference for stability, as nearly half of respondents, at 49%, expressed a preference for a moderate-risk approach. This means they are comfortable with some fluctuations in their investments as long as their pension continues to grow over time.
Meanwhile, 26% of savers favoured a low-risk strategy, preferring to avoid market volatility where possible, and a further 17% took an even more cautious stance, wanting no risk at all, even if it meant their pension savings would see minimal growth.
Artificial intelligence
10x Banking unveils new AI suite to transform legacy core systems: 10x Banking has announced the rollout of a new suite of artificial intelligence (AI) features designed to help financial institutions modernise legacy systems, enhance operational efficiency, and enable faster decision-making.
These AI tools will be integrated into 10x’s cloud-native meta core platform — a next-generation core banking solution launched in July 2023. The meta core is positioned as an alternative to traditional core banking systems and first-generation neo cores, offering banks a less complex and more scalable route to digital transformation.
OpenAI Plans ChatGPT-Shopify Integration for Seamless Shopping: OpenAI is teaming up with Shopify to pilot a native shopping feature within ChatGPT, per a TechRadar report that cited unreleased code discovered by Testing Catalog. The integration appears to enable users to browse, compare, and purchase products from Shopify merchants—without leaving the chat interface.
The feature would mark a significant step forward in ChatGPT’s utility as a shopping tool.
If rolled out widely, the feature could reshape how consumers shop online. While the code is tied to Shopify merchants, it’s not hard to imagine the functionality expanding to other ecommerce platforms in relatively short order.
While ChatGPT currently offers product recommendations and links to third-party sites, this integration would bring the entire shopping experience—including product details, pricing, reviews, and a “Buy Now” button—directly into the chat interface.
Perplexity AI enters the smartphone market with Motorola partnership: Perplexity AI is getting in on the smartphone game.
The startup on Thursday announced a partnership to bring its artificial intelligence search engine technology directly into Motorola smartphones. As part of the integration, Perplexity’s AI capabilities will be included in Motorola’s suite of “Moto AI” features.
That makes the Razr-maker the first smartphone brand to integrate Perplexity directly into a device. Motorola is also partnering with Microsoft Copilot, Google’s Gemini and Meta for certain queries.
Blockchain and Cryptocurrency
PayPal and Coinbase Expand Partnership to Drive Innovation of Stablecoin-Based Solutions: PayPal Holdings and Coinbase Global announced an expansion of their partnership to increase the adoption, distribution, and utilization of the PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin. This collaboration will provide value for consumers, enterprises, and institutions as they continue to utilize digital currencies across platforms and borders with the stability of regulated USD-denominated crypto-native assets.
Circle lines up banking partners for stablecoin-based Swift competitor: Stablecoin platform Circle is working with Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, Société Générale and Santander to build a cross-border payment network to rival Swift.
The Circle Payments Network (CPN) aims to connect financial institutions – banks, neo-banks, payment service providers, virtual asset service providers and digital wallets – and enable real-time settlement of cross-border payments using regulated stablecoins.
Despite improvements, cross-border payments can still take longer than one business day to settle and cost more than 6%, according to the World Bank. Delays are driven by multiple intermediaries, compliance checks, local market cut-off times, and fragmented operating hours across jurisdictions.
PayPal offers 3.7% yield on stablecoin balances: PayPal and Venmo users will soon be able to earn yield on their stablecoin holdings, the company said Wednesday.
Customers will earn an annual rewards rate of 3.7% beginning this summer. It will be paid in the PayPal USD stablecoin (PYUSD) on their holdings of the same token. The rewards will be available to use for transacting with other users on the platform, funding international transfers, exchanging dollars or other fiat currency or to make purchases with PayPal merchants.
Insurance Technology (Insurtech)
Cytora and LightBox partner to transform property risk assessment for insurers: UK-based InsurTech firm Cytora has announced a strategic partnership with US property data specialist LightBox, aimed at transforming the way insurers evaluate and underwrite property risk.
The collaboration brings together Cytora’s digital risk processing platform with LightBox’s expansive property data network, promising faster, more accurate underwriting decisions.
Through the integration, users of Cytora’s platform can now access LightBox’s comprehensive property datasets directly within their workflows.
FICO and dacadoo Join Forces to Deliver AI-Driven Precision in Life Insurance: Global analytics leader FICO and digital health innovator dacadoo have announced a strategic partnership to revolutionize life insurance risk assessment and customer engagement.
By integrating FICO’s advanced AI, analytics, and decision management capabilities with dacadoo’s health risk quantification engine, the collaboration aims to offer insurers more flexible, precise, and personalised risk assessments.
The partnership enables life insurers to move beyond traditional static underwriting models, embracing dynamic, behavior-based approaches that reduce operational costs, boost customer loyalty, and enhance overall risk management. This shift is expected to drive long-term profitability in an increasingly competitive market.
Cowbell Expands into UK Market with Launch of Professional Indemnity and Cyber Cover for Tech Firms: Cowbell, a leading provider of cyber insurance for SMEs and middle-market businesses, has launched Prime One Tech in the UK. This new product offers comprehensive coverage for technology companies with annual revenues up to £1 billion, providing limits of up to £5 million.
Prime One Tech combines Cowbell’s flagship Prime One cyber program with specialized professional indemnity (PI) coverage tailored to the tech industry. The offering is enhanced by Cowbell Co-Pilot, an AI-powered tool that streamlines underwriting processes and reduces contract review time by as much as 40%.
Regulatory Technology (Regtech)
Revolut point-based system links risky behaviour to staff bonuses: Revolut has revealed that it is using a point-based system to incentivise good risk and compliance behaviour across its workforce.
The proprietary system tracks staff engagement with risk and compliance processes, with employees gaining or losing points based on their behaviour.
Bonuses are calculated based on individual performance, but the final payout is adjusted using a multiplier tied to each team’s Karma score.
If a department completes required training, flags compliance issues early, and follows policy, employees in that group collect Karma points that may increase their bonuses.
Upcoming Events
- NEW YORK FINTECH WEEK 2025
New York Fintech Week was designed to be an inclusive collaboration of the entire startup ecosystem. It’s a series of events highlighting different fintech initiatives and range from conferences and invitation-only roundtables to events free to the community.
Date: April 21st – 25th
More Details Here
🎙️ Tech Behind Fintech Podcast Highlights
Coming Up This Week
Join us on Friday, May 2nd, 2025, at 12 PM EST for a game-changing episode of Tech Behind FinTech featuring Ryan Rosett, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Credibly—a company on a mission to rewrite the rules of small business financing. Born out of the 2008 financial crisis, Credibly is now a leading force in modernizing how capital reaches small and medium-sized businesses. Under Ryan’s leadership, the company has harnessed machine learning and generative AI to eliminate red tape and deliver fast, intelligent loan decisions—without the wait or the bank branch.
In this episode, we’ll explore the real challenges small businesses face when seeking funding, how FinTech is stepping in to bridge the gap, and whether banks are being left behind in the race to serve America’s entrepreneurs.
💡 What You’ll Learn:
✅ Why traditional banks are falling short for SMBs
✅ How AI is changing the loan approval process
✅ The truth about underwriting risk in the era of automation
✅ What the future of SMB financing looks like—without the bank
Show Links
Website: https://techbehindfintech.com/featured/the-backbone-of-fintech-a-deep-dive-into-payment-rails-2
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXiSxTGsdfM
📌 In case you missed it – Latest Episode Highlights
The Backbone of Fintech: A Deep Dive into Payment RailsAI
Host: Nnamdi Osuagwu
Guest: Iphie Jide-Ebeogu, Managing Partner at The PaymentLogue
This episode explores the foundational infrastructure behind digital finance: payment rails. Ify breaks down the concept by using relatable transportation analogies to explain how payment rails function as the “roads, airways, and waterways” for money movement. Together, they categorize modern digital payment rails into three main types:
- Account Rails (bank-to-bank transfers)
- Card Rails (credit/debit card networks)
- Crypto Rails (blockchain-powered transfers)
The conversation also covers how traditional systems like bank wires fit into today’s landscape, how innovations like Cash App, Zelle, and Venmo map onto existing rails, and how clearing and settlement processes work in real-time commerce. Ify emphasizes that even with technological innovations, the foundational rules of payment movement—identifying proper vehicles and infrastructure—remain critical. The episode ends with insights into fraud, digital wallets, the merchant liquidity dilemma, and Africa’s fragmented payments landscape compared to Europe’s SEPA system.
💡 Key Takeaways
1. Three Core Payment Rails Define Digital Finance
All digital money movements fall under account rails, card rails, or crypto rails, each requiring specific formats (e.g., account numbers, card numbers, wallet addresses) to transfer value.
2. Money Movement is About Data, Not Cash
Actual money rarely “moves” instantly—what moves in real-time are data packets, while settlement (true transfer of funds) happens behind the scenes, typically T+1 (transaction day + 1 business day).
3. Clearing vs. Settlement: Merchants Are ‘Happy and Hopeful’
Merchants are immediately happy after a sale but only hopeful until clearing and settlement confirm payment. Instant or same-day settlement solutions aim to address this liquidity gap.
4. Physical Payment Rails Preceded Digital Rails
Prior to digital systems, physical exchanges (cash, gold, barter) acted as payment rails. The digital age standardized and scaled the movement of value through structured protocols.
5. No New Payment Rail Since Crypto
Since crypto’s rise, no fundamentally new payment rail has emerged. Instead, innovation focuses on building new vehicles (like mobile wallets and super apps) on existing rails.
6. Africa Needs Interoperability, Not New Rails
Iphie highlights that African fintech innovation should focus on interoperability and seamless cross-border paymentsrather than trying to create entirely new rails.
7. Fraud and Chargebacks: Hidden Risks in Digital Commerce
Chargebacks (especially “friendly fraud”) reveal how trust and timing gaps in settlement processes can financially hurt merchants if not managed correctly.
8. Processors Are Key to Innovation
Entities like Stripe, Flutterwave, and Paystack act as processors, bridging traditional banks with modern commerce needs, allowing faster, easier innovation around payments.anticipate industry shifts—valuable for both fintech pros and casual enthusiasts.
🔗 Watch the full episode now: https://techbehindfintech.com/featured/the-backbone-of-fintech-a-deep-dive-into-payment-rails-2
Or stream it on your favorite podcast platform! 🚀
📩 Stay Connected
This is Tech Behind Fintech’s Weekly Fintech News Review, where we recap the week’s biggest fintech news. Want this delivered as a newsletter to your inbox every week? Sign up here: https://techbehindfintech.com/subscribe
💡Have a story or insight to share? Send us an email media@techbehindfintech.com — we would love to feature it!
