FinTech Newsletter

Innovation

How Middle East can become a global hub for fintech, AI

Without doubt, financial technology and artificial intelligence are two of the most transformative industries reshaping economic structures, productivity, and global competitiveness.

When it comes to AI, current projections indicate substantial expansion, with one widely cited trajectory suggesting the global AI market will climb to between $407 billion and $990 billion by 2027, rising toward $1.6-$3.6 trillion by the early to mid 2030s. What is intriguing is that the compound annual growth rates are frequently estimated in the 20-30 percent range depending on scope and methodology.

Building Block’s Square base

The fintech is expanding its efforts to market local restaurants using its point-of-sale system across Cash App’s user base.

Walmart adds digital wallet options

The mega-retailer said it will now accept Apple Pay and Google Pay payments, using tap-to-pay with smartwatches, contactless cards and phones.

AI

Why Lloyds is Investing £100m in AI, Skills and Careers

Lloyds Banking Group is committing £100 million (US$135.3m) to future skills, reskilling tens of thousands of colleagues while expanding pathways for young people into work by 2030.

Ramp launches its own AI model router, called Router

Ramp on Wednesday evening launched its own AI model routing service, dubbed Router, that lets users and companies use and switch between various large language models through an API. The company says it has been using the router it built for its own AI usage needs over the past three years.

Venture Capital

Singapore is putting S$220M into fintech as private funding hits a decade low

The state money arrives three days after KPMG reported the weakest first half in about ten years.

Digital Finance

Stripe and Advent International End Pursuit of PayPal

Stripe and Advent have ended their US$53.4bn pursuit of PayPal, taking what would have been the largest fintech acquisition of all time off the table

Payments

Walmart to finally start accepting Apple Pay and Google Pay

The retail giant says that beginning August 24, it will begin adding Tap to Pay to its payment options at select Walmart stores and Sam’s Club locations. It expects the feature to reach all stores and clubs by the end of the year, and will then roll it out to all its fuel stations by the middle of 2027.

Modernizing payments is a must

“Payments modernization is no longer a future aspiration,” writes one bank tech executive. “It has become an operational and strategic imperative.”

Digital Banking

Sezzle pivots to national bank charter

With states imposing tighter rules on buy now, pay later companies, Sezzle CEO Charlie Youakim views a federal charter as “the most robust solution.”

Technology

Stripe, OpenRouter finally strike a deal

The payments behemoth’s acquisition of the AI spend management firm has been in the works for weeks. The reported price tag: $7.5 billion.

Acquisition

Priority Tech buys IntelliPay for up to $15M

The payments company is gaining a new government payments business with its deal for Utah-based IntelliPay.