How Wave Built a 23M-User Fintech Empire in Africa; The Global State of RegTech in 2026

Innovation

How Wave Built a 23 Million-User Fintech Empire in Africa

In less than a decade, Wave Mobile Money has evolved from a startup tackling high transaction costs into one of Africa’s most consequential fintech platforms, reshaping how millions of people send, receive, and manage money across the continent.

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Senegal, Wave has expanded rapidly beyond its home market, building a presence across roughly 11 African countries, including Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. That footprint reflects both the scale of unmet demand for affordable financial services and the company’s aggressive push into markets where traditional banking infrastructure remains limited.

AI

Acrisure: How AI is the Critical Core Engine for Growth

For the modern business, AI is more than just a means to an end.

With the advancements being made to AI in the last few years, businesses in the financial sector have rapidly adopted the technology, producing faster results and reducing costs.

IMF: AI Cyber Threats' Impact on Fintech Infrastructure

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has published a warning about how AI in the hands of bad actors could "undermine financial stability".

The alert carries particular weight for fintech companies, digital payment platforms and neobanks that operate on shared infrastructure and cloud-based systems.

According to the IMF, advanced AI models can now exploit cyber risk by allowing attackers to scale operations fast across interconnected systems.

Verifone: Advancing Fintech at the Forecourt with AI

Verifone is embedding AI across its platform to help fuel and convenience retailers reduce fraud, streamline operations and unlock real-time insights

Backbase and Atos partner for AI-native banking

The two companies will collaborate across regions including Africa, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Portugal, Spain, Southeast Europe, Switzerland, and Turkey. The arrangement establishes a joint go-to-market framework covering opportunity development, co-selling, solution design, professional services delivery, and training.

Digital Finance

Fintech startup Parker files for bankruptcy

Parker, a well-funded startup offering corporate credit cards and banking services for e-commerce businesses, has filed for bankruptcy and is widely reported to have shut down.

Payments

Comviva and Unlimit join forces on global payments

Under the agreement, Unlimit has been integrated as a selectable payment gateway within Comviva’s mobiquity® One platform, opening access to more than 1,000 payment methods for Comviva’s merchant base. The integration is designed to accelerate time-to-market, improve checkout reliability, and provide scalable access to global acquiring capabilities. Merchants stand to benefit from a streamlined onboarding process and coordinated go-live support, allowing payment services to be deployed more quickly and efficiently.

Paymentology raises $175m to expand beyond issuer processing

Paymentology now confirms work in "adjacent areas including credit, stablecoin, tokenisation and AI-driven services" following the new support from Aspirity Partners and Apis Partners.

Security

How Open Finance Combats Synthetic Fraud in the AI Era

Synthetic identity fraud is reported as one of the fastest‑growing forms of financial fraud, accounting for a large share of losses across digital channels

Research

Africa’s Fintech Second Wave Takes Shape

Africa’s fintech industry, long celebrated for pioneering mobile money and digital payments on a scale, is entering a more complex and consequential phase of growth—one that will test whether the sector can move from enabling transactions to powering broad-based economic transformation.

A 2026 report by Boston Consulting Group, “Beyond Payments: Unlocking Africa’s Second FinTech Wave,” finds that while the continent has built one of the world’s most advanced digital payment ecosystems, future growth will depend on expanding into credit, financial infrastructure and cross-border integration—areas that remain significantly underdeveloped.

Affirm CEO says 'the American consumer is unbelievably resilient'

Affirm CEO Max Levchin said the American consumer continues to spend despite growing concerns around the economy, pointing to healthy shopping activity and strong repayment trends.

Digital Banking

nCino Brings its Lending Platform to Austrian Banking Cooperative

Agentic banking platform provider nCino announced a new partnership with Austrian financial institution Raiffeisenbankengruppe Oesterreich. The company, one of the largest cooperative banking institutions in Europe, will use nCino as its unified corporate lending platform to support the entire financing lifecycle, including origination, underwriting, pricing, compliance, and portfolio monitoring.

From Fortress Core to L7: Scaling into a Global Fintech Powerhouse

Fortress Core has rebranded to L7, marking its transition from a regional infrastructure provider into a global, multi-vertical fintech group. The rebrand reflects its evolution into a scaled institutional fintech focused on white-label solutions and Tier-1 liquidity access, aligned with its broader international expansion strategy.

How can Fintech Founders Foster Growth?

Susanne Chishti, FINTECH Circle Founder and Chair on fintech growth, and how communities and leaders can collaborate to continue innovation

Regulatory Technology

What is the global state of RegTech in 2026?

RegTech Analyst and Parker & Lawrence Research have collaborated to unveil a major new industry report, The Global State of RegTech 2026, offering one of the most comprehensive assessments of the global RegTech market to date.

The report brings together survey responses from 300 senior compliance decision-makers at financial institutions, contributions from 100 RegTech vendors, qualitative interviews with regulators and market experts, and bottom-up market analysis to provide a detailed view of how the sector is evolving.

Is RegTech becoming infrastructure, or is it being absorbed into it?

RegTech, once framed as a distinct category of specialist vendors solving compliance pain points, is starting to lose its edges. The capabilities it introduced – automation of reporting, real-time monitoring, AI-driven risk detection, embedded compliance workflows—are no longer sitting neatly on top of financial systems. They are moving inside them.

Europe

Wise Bridges the Atlantic: Nasdaq Debut Signals New Strategic Frontier for Fintech Giant

London-founded fintech giant Wise has officially transitioned its primary listing to the Nasdaq, signaling a major strategic pivot toward the US financial ecosystem. With $2.5 billion in net revenue and a pending application for a Federal Reserve master account, the move highlights Wise’s ambition to bypass traditional correspondent banking and integrate directly into the US dollar payment stack.

Spanish treasury platform Embat lands €30m Series B

After launching in the UK and Ireland 12 months ago, Embat says it will use a "significant portion" of the funding to scale its presence in both markets.