PhotonPay has closed a $40 million Series C round led by Blockchain Capital to expand its stablecoin-focused Financial OS. SBI Group joined as a new investor, alongside existing backers IDG Capital, GL Ventures and Lightspeed Faction. The funding follows a January 2026 Series B round. PhotonPay reported $65 billion in annualized transaction volume as of August 2026, up from $30 billion reported at the time of its Series B. Its model combines stablecoin liquidity with bank relationships and local payment networks, rather than replacing those networks outright. The company says it holds 34 payment and financial licenses and regulatory authorizations and serves more than 200,000 corporate clients. It also plans an execution layer supporting the Model Context Protocol for autonomous AI agents. The expansion comes as Stripe and specialist firms including Rain and MassPay pursue corporate settlement opportunities.

CRB Group, the parent of Cross River Bank, has agreed to acquire Accrue, a provider of branded wallets, stored-value infrastructure and customer loyalty software. The deal would bring technology already connected to the bank into its embedded finance business. Financial terms were not disclosed, and the transaction remained subject to customary closing conditions as of late October 2026. Cross River was already Accrue’s partner bank, holding Accrue Balance funds as an FDIC-insured depository and issuing linked Visa debit cards. Accrue’s software includes merchant-specific stored-value ledgers and a way to route merchandise refunds into store credit rather than back to an outside card issuer. Founder and CEO Michael Hershfield is set to lead Cross River’s embedded finance suite, while Accrue’s 26 staff members are expected to join Cross River’s workforce. The acquisition would move the two companies from a banking partnership to a shared operating structure, if completed.

Revolut’s expansion into UK consumer lending is facing closer regulatory scrutiny. The Financial Times reported on October 27, 2026, that the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority had ordered a Section 166 skilled-person review of the bank’s product approval processes and internal risk governance. The review comes as Revolut offers unsecured personal loans and prepares to introduce a domestic credit card, with mortgages planned later. Revolut UK CEO Francesca Carlesi has said the bank intends to package and sell loans through securitisation rather than retain substantial long-term credit exposure. Revolut is targeting a loan-to-deposit ratio of roughly 6%, far below the roughly 100% typical of incumbent British high-street banks. The strategy could support lending growth while limiting loans held on its balance sheet, but it does not eliminate credit risk. S&P Global has cited the possibility of higher credit losses as Revolut expands lending across multiple jurisdictions.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and Ant International signed a memorandum of understanding on October 26, 2026, to explore cross-border payments and digital treasury services. Their initial focus is Japan, Singapore and wider Southeast Asia. Engineering teams will examine whether Ant International’s Whale RTP platform can be integrated with SMBC’s institutional transaction banking and digital asset platforms. The agreement is exploratory, not the launch of a live settlement service. SMBC’s multi-market transaction banking rails are expected to support operations involving Ant International’s Alipay+, Antom and WorldFirst businesses. Ant International says its Whale platform processed more than US$600 billion in global treasury flows in 2025, with over 95% of transactions settling on the same day. Those figures describe the existing platform, not activity under the SMBC agreement. The MoU follows separate tokenized-deposit work involving Ant International and other banks, including a live OCBC solution and an HSBC pilot.

Tech Mahindra and Finastra announced on October 23, 2026, that Tech Mahindra had completed its acquisition of Finastra’s cash management products and related intellectual property. The deal moves Tech Mahindra beyond implementing banking software for clients and into owning transaction banking products. Financial terms were not disclosed. The acquired portfolio includes Fusion Cash Management, Fusion Virtual Accounts and Fusion Liquidity Management, along with CashPlus, Global CashPlus and associated transaction banking APIs. Finastra product engineering and customer success personnel are being moved into Tech Mahindra’s banking, financial services and insurance division. Tech Mahindra plans to integrate the products into its existing Finastra Centre of Excellence to maintain service continuity for banking clients. The acquisition follows Tech Mahindra’s earlier purchase of an 85% stake in Canadian fintech Avant Techno Solutions and comes as Finastra divests businesses to concentrate on lending and payments software.

The European Payments Council implemented Version 1.1 of its Verification of Payee scheme rulebook on September 20, 2026, clarifying operations, API specifications and security after feedback from live deployment. Its directory service, operated with SWIFT, has also completed a live transition supporting provider reachability and routing. The changes come as non-eurozone EU payment providers work toward a July 9, 2027, compliance deadline. Required under the EU Instant Payments Regulation for both instant and standard SEPA credit transfers, Verification of Payee checks recipient details before authorization and must be offered free to users. The inter-provider exchange has a five-second operational maximum and can return a match, close match, no match or verification-not-possible result. A close match supplies the verified recipient name for the payer to review. A warning does not necessarily prevent a transfer: liability depends on whether a payer proceeds despite it or a provider fails to perform a required check.