UK & Europe

Fintech kicks off 2026 - TWIF UK & Europe (05/01)

The latest fintech news across the UK and Europe for week ending 2nd January 2026.

Photo by Anna Dziubinska on Unsplash

The latest fintech news across the UK and Europe for week ending 2nd January 2026.

Hello TWIF UK & Europe friends,

I hope you’ve had a good start to 2026. In London the weather has got chillier since the new year. As I write this it’s -2°C, and the forecast is that it’ll get colder again in the next days. While the temperature may have fallen, after a quiet holiday period, I’m expecting fintech to heat up again in the coming days and weeks.

Looking back, 2025 was an exciting year for fintech. We saw stablecoins hit the mainstream, agentic commerce became a hot topic (especially in the second half of the year), and A2A payment solutions such as Wero finally gave European banks their own non-card payment offering. I'm expecting all these trends to accelerate further in the year ahead.

When it comes to stablecoin regulation, the EU has had a dedicated regulatory regime covering euro‑denominated stablecoins for over a year, but the UK’s GBP stablecoin regime is still being finalised and will come into force in 2026. With differing regulatory regimes, it highlights how the UK and EU often merit separate consideration despite their geographic proximity.

On a personal note, I’m really excited to be editing my first edition of TWIF UK & Europe. I’ve been working in the industry for over fifteen years and TWIF has been one of my go-to resources in recent times. After all the great work that Michael Jenkins put in over the past 4.5 years, I’m excited to be picking up as co-editor alongside Daniel Cronin. We plan to bring you all the latest news and updates from the world of fintech, as well as community events in London, Barcelona, and beyond.

Please find another week of fintech news, financings and exits below!

-Matt

👍 👎 Have feedback or news to share? Let me know Twitter and LinkedIn.

Funding 💸

Highlights below of deals since the last post in the fintech space across the UK & Europe. Deal data powered by Dealroom.

🇪🇺 Trade Republic became Germany's most valuable startup at a €12.5 billion valuation in a €1.2 billion secondary sale backed by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Sequoia, and GIC

🌍 Plata raised a $500m funding round - the largest Mexican fintech deal ever - to launch as a regulated digital bank

🇬🇧 ANNA Money secured a £10m growth debt deal with Flashpoint to accelerate expansion

🌍 FINNY raised a $17m Series AI to scale their AI prospecting platform focused on the wealth management industry

Challenger Banking 🚀

🇬🇧 Monzo weighs up giving a board seat to rebel investors amid governance tension

🇬🇧 Engine by Starling, the SaaS arm of Starling Group, opened a new dedicated office in the City of London

🇪🇺 N26 co-founder Maximilian Tayenthal stepped down from his role as co-CEO ahead of a leadership transition

Digital Assets ₿

🇪🇺 Nuvei secured a crypto-asset service provider (CASP) licence under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation

🌍 Stripe-backed Tempo launched a blockchain-native transaction framework designed specifically for stablecoins

🌍 Crossmint partnered with the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) to launch a blockchain based Universal Basic Income (UBI) solution in the Republic of the Marshall Islands

Infrastructure 🚧

🇬🇧 Equals Money | Railsr have partnered with Okta to bolster API-driven payments security

🌍 Visa is working with over 100 partners on agentic shopping solutions, with plans to launch AI driven commerce solutions throughout 2026

Payments 💰

🌍 PayPal CEO Alex Chriss gave a wide-ranging interview to The Sunday Times on the company’s role in the anticipated growth of AI-enabled payments

🌍 Visa and Mastercard settled a lawsuit in the US pertaining to ATM fees

Regulatory Corner 🔎

🇬🇧 Banks can remove the limit on contactless transactions from March 2026 provided strong anti-fraud controls remain in place

🇬🇧 The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) set out changes to give businesses more information on their card payment fees — including greater transparency on scheme and interchange fees

🇪🇺 The European Union’s MiCA regulation celebrated its first full year in force with 102 approved crypto-asset service providers (CASPs)