http://www.banks.am/ Բիզնես լուրեր Հայաստանից, ֆինանսական լուրեր, բանկեր, աշխատատեղեր, դոլար, եվրո, փոխարժեքներ en-us Sat, 14 Mar 2026 06:19:15 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30416 https://banks.am/en/news//30416 Revolut received regulatory approval to launch a British bank, allowing it to compete head-to-head with high street lenders in areas such as current accounts and consumer lending.

The London-based firm, which has amassed 13 million customers in Britain but no physical branches since it was founded just over a decade ago, was granted a banking licence with restrictions in July 2024 after a three-year wait.

Nik Storonsky, Revolut's co-founder and CEO, has said getting a licence in its home market was his top 1 priority.

Revolut will now take on Britain's incumbent banks including Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest, opens new tab and said it expects to start rolling out current accounts to new clients "in a few days".

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It predicted the process of moving customers to the new bank to take "a few months in total", Reuters reported.

Founded in 2015, Revolut has grown rapidly around the world in the last decade, with more than 65 million customers globally and a $75 billion private market valuation.

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 09:52:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30408 https://banks.am/en/news//30408 Mastercard is developing an AI-powered virtual C-suite for small businesses, promising the kind of strategic support usually reserved for large corporations, Finextra reports.

Mastercard says that each agent will act as a digital executive, aiding in key responsibilities from finance, to security, to marketing, giving business owners deeper views into their operations.

The virtual C-Suite brings agentic AI-powered intelligence into the accounting systems, business software and banking applications that small businesses use. The agents then continuously analyse business performance, identify risks and opportunities, predict likely outcomes, and recommend prompt steps and longer-term actions.

“Our goal is to turn operational complexity into clarity — helping entrepreneurs regain time, make smarter decisions, and translate their ambition into measurable growth”, said Mark Barnett, global head, SMEs, Mastercard, says.

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Wed, 11 Mar 2026 13:33:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30391 https://banks.am/en/news//30391 Revolut has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for a US national bank charter, Finextra reports.

The firm has veered away from its initial plan to buy a lender in the country in the face of a more relaxed regime for bank charters under the Trump administration.

To spearhead its launch, the firm Revolut has appointed Cetin Duransoy US CEO.

Duransoy held senior leadership banking and payments roles at Capital One and VISA.

Revolut co founder and CEO, Nik Storonsky says: “The United States is a key pillar of our global growth strategy. Filing for a national bank charter is a major milestone toward our vision of building the world’s first truly global banking platform. This charter will give us the direct control needed to innovate faster and deliver the Revolut experience to millions more Americans as we move toward our goal of 100 million customers.”

If approved the charter will enable the firm to ramp up its operations, providing direct acces to payment rails and new revenue streams from card and credit operations.

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Sun, 08 Mar 2026 23:00:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30384 https://banks.am/en/news//30384 The increasing popularity of stablecoins could lead to a decline in retail deposits for banks in the eurozone and weaken the effectiveness of monetary policy, according to a European Central Bank study.

The growing use of stablecoins can lead people and firms to move money out of traditional bank deposits and into digital assets, says the working paper quoted by Finextra.

Banks rely heavily on deposits as a stable and low-cost source of funding to support lending to households and businesses. When deposits decline, banks may be forced to rely more on wholesale or market-based funding, which is typically more expensive and less stable.

The ECB analysis shows that increasing interest in and attention toward stablecoins are associated with a measurable decline in retail bank deposits and a reduction in bank lending to firms.

"In other words, stablecoins can reduce the amount of credit banks provide to the real economy."

The paper also warns that when stablecoins are linked to non-euro currencies, such as the US dollar, the risks to monetary policy increase.

"In simple terms, foreign monetary conditions could be “imported” into the euro area through stablecoins. This would weaken the central bank’s control over financial conditions, reduce the effectiveness of traditional monetary policy instruments, and make it harder to stabilize inflation and economic activity, especially during periods of financial stress", write the authors.

To mitigate the risks, the paper suggests stronger transparency requirements for stablecoin reserves, robust redemption guarantees, adequate capital buffer to absorb losses and effective oversight. It also claims that the planed digital euro can offer a stablecoin alternative that preserves monetary sovereignty.

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Fri, 06 Mar 2026 09:48:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30375 https://banks.am/en/news//30375 Revolut Business is taking on American Express with the launch of an ultra-premium corporate card.

The Titan Visa card incorporates premium executive-travel perks and reconciliation tools for finance teams, alongside 10GB of monthly global data and subscriptions, including WeWork, The Economist and Perplexity, Finextra informs.

An independent survey commissioned by Revolut Business found that while 82% of business decision makers plan to increase travel spend this year, 34% remain concerned about a lack of spend visibility when employees are abroad. Titan aims to eliminate this friction by offering comprehensive expense management and real-time analytics alongside a suite of benefits, many geared towards boosting travel experience for users.

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Built on the core Revolut Business platform, the card gives teams tools for real-time expense tracking, automated receipt matching, and reconciliation. Travel benefits include access to over 600 airport lounges worldwide, travel insurance and everyday purchase protection, covering delays and lost luggage

Beyond data and subscriptions, Titan users can earn RevPoints at a 1:1 rate, which can be transferred to a customer’s personal Revolut account and redeemed for airline miles, stays, experiences and gift cards.

It is launching for businesses in the UK customers at a monthly £65 + VAT per user.

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Thu, 05 Mar 2026 09:27:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30298 https://banks.am/en/news//30298 After three years of declining investment, the global fintech market turned a corner in 2025, attracting $116 billion, up from $95.5 billion in 2024, according to KPMG latest Pulse of Fintech report.

While overall deal volume continued to decline - falling to 4,719 deals, an eight-year low - the increase in total capital deployed points to larger deal sizes, renewed confidence, and a more selective investment environment, says KPMG.

Global M&A deal value rose to $55.4 billion, driven primarily by the United States ($27.5 billion) and EMEA ($11 billion), while VC investment climbed to $56.7 billion.

The digital assets sector emerged as a central focus for investors in 2025, supported by improving market conditions and increased regulatory clarity. 

There was a sharp rise in investment in digital assets-focused startups, which nearly doubled from $11.2 billion in 2024 to $19.1 billion in 2025.

AI inevitably also saw strong interest, raking in $16,8 billion across the year.

Investment in payments remained steady, totalling $19.2 billion, compared with $20.4 billion in 2024. Investor interest remained particularly strong in B2B payments infrastructure, real-time payments, and emerging markets, where digital payments adoption continues to accelerate.

“Looking ahead to 2026, the fintech sector is entering a more balanced phase - one defined by selective growth, clearer paths to profitability, and improving liquidity. While macroeconomic and geopolitical risks remain, the combination of stronger exit markets, greater regulatory clarity, and accelerating innovation provides a constructive foundation for sustained investment and long-term value creation”, said Karim Haji, global head of financial services at KPMG International.

The partner of Fintech section is  

]]> Tue, 17 Feb 2026 10:39:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30288 https://banks.am/en/news//30288 Goldman Sachs has been working with embedded Anthropic engineers for the last six months to develop agents based on the tech firm's Claude model. 

Goldman’s chief information officer Marco Argenti told CNBC that the focus has been on two areas: accounting for trades and transactions, and client vetting and onboarding.

The agents will launch soon, says Argenti, adding: 

"Think of it as a digital co-worker for many of the professions within the firm that are scaled, are complex and very process intensive."

Goldman initially focused on using Claude for coding but has since been "surprised" at how good the model is at helping in other areas, such as accounting and compliance, Argenti said.

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Sat, 14 Feb 2026 08:40:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30282 https://banks.am/en/news//30282 The National Bank of Kazakhstan plans to introduce legislative amendments by the end of the year to regulate the use of cryptocurrency payments and the operation of crypto exchanges.

The announcement was made by Zhanel Aitkazy, Project Manager at the National Payment Corporation, during the Digital Bridge 2025 forum.

“The unified QR code will enable customers to pay for purchases using a single standardized code, regardless of which bank they use,” she explained.

Zhanel Aitkazy also noted that particular emphasis is being placed on the development of a crypto-QR solution. This system would allow foreign visitors to pay for goods and services directly from their cryptocurrency wallets, without the need to convert their funds into local currency.

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Thu, 12 Feb 2026 15:35:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30265 https://banks.am/en/news//30265 Revolut is to invest $400 million over the next five years to grow its business in Australia, Finextra reports.

Since entering the Australian market in 2020 with a team of just three, Revolut has evolved from a simple digital travel card and currency exchange platform into a complete financial lifestyle app with more than 30 products and services.

In the last 12 months, Revolut Business has grown exponentially in Australia with a 235% uplift in monthly transaction volumes.

Since 2022, the company has achieved an average annual customer growth rate of almost 100% and now has more than 100 employees in Australia.

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 11:14:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30256 https://banks.am/en/news//30256 New data from Evident intelligence platform suggests that many of the world’s largest banks are reducing their reliance on OpenAI as their primary large language model provider.

18 months ago, OpenAI provided the underlying technology for roughly half of the banking AI use cases that disclosed vendor information. Evident’s latest analysis shows that by the end of 2025, OpenAI’s share had fallen to just one-third, with banks increasingly developing and deploying use cases built on alternative providers such as Anthropic and Google.

According to Evident’s analysis, coding is one of the few banking AI use cases where more than half of deployments demonstrate tangible return on investment. While Anthropic is consistently ranked best-in-class for code generation and review, Google has leveraged its existing cloud relationships to make enterprise deployment and system integration easier. 

The partner of Fintech section is  
]]> Mon, 09 Feb 2026 09:57:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30235 https://banks.am/en/news//30235 Universal Digital has launched the UAE's first central bank-approved USD-backed stablecoin, USDU.

The launch comes as Universal Digital becomes the first Foreign Payment Token Issuer registered by the Central Bank of the UAE.

USDU will be registered as a Foreign Payment Token, effectively making it the first live implementation of a central-bank-approved framework for USD-denominated digital settlement, integrating stablecoins directly into a bank-regulated environment.

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:37:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30184 https://banks.am/en/news//30184 Swift is to add a blockchain-based shared ledger to its infrastructure having successfully completed digital asset interoperability trials in collaboration with BNP Paribas Securities Services, Intesa Sanpaolo and Societe Generale–Forge, Finextra reports.

The trial enabled the exchange and settlement of tokenised bonds, while supporting payments in both fiat and digital currencies. 

This work is part of a broader series of digital asset and currency use cases trialled by Swift, which is now focussing on adding a blockchain-based ledger to its technology infrastructure. The ledger will initially focus on enabling real-time, 24/7 cross-border payments, designed in collaboration with over 30 banks worldwide.

"By proving that Swift can orchestrate multi-platform tokenised asset transactions, we’re paving the way for our members to adopt digital assets with confidence, and at scale. It’s about creating a bridge between traditional finance and emerging technologies”, said Thomas Dugauquier, tokenised assets product lead at Swift.

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Mon, 19 Jan 2026 10:13:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30177 https://banks.am/en/news//30177 Revolut has introduced a new security measure designed to thwart the rising threat of impersonation scams, Finextra reports.

The in-app call identification feature will detect in real-time when users are on a call and verify if callers are genuine Revolut agents or scammers. 

According to Revolut, the increased use of AI deepfakes has made impersonation scams much more effective - only 25% of people can accurately detect a deepfake voice, making live phone calls a "critical vulnerability". 

The new security feature adds to other product relases made by Revolut to address financial scams over the last two years, including biometric verification and greater use of machine learning to detect risky transactions. 

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Fri, 16 Jan 2026 09:20:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30169 https://banks.am/en/news//30169 BVNK is to provide a stablecoin infrastructure for Visa Direct, further cementing an earlier financial relationship between the two firms, Finextra reports.

BVNK, which processes over $30bn in stablecoin payments annually, will help power Visa Direct’s stablecoin services in select markets, including stablecoin pre-funding, enabling certain select business customers to fund Visa Direct payouts using stablecoins instead of only fiat, and payouts to end recipients in stablecoins - putting digital dollars directly in recipients’ wallets.

Visa Ventures invested in BVNK in May 2025.

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Mark Nelsen, global head of product, commercial & money movement solutions at Visa, says: 

“Stablecoins are an exciting opportunity for global payments, with enormous potential to reduce friction and expand access to faster, more efficient payment options - including during weekends, holidays and when banks are closed”.

The rollout will initially focus on markets with strong demand for digital asset payments, he says, followed by broader global expansion "based on customer needs".

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2026 09:47:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30160 https://banks.am/en/news//30160 Chase is to take over the running of Apple's credit card from Goldman Sachs after over a year of negotiations.

Under the terms of the agreement, the purchase of the portfolio is estimated to bring over $20 billion of card balances to the Chase platform, Finextra reports. 

The deal ends a long-running search for a new card issuer after Goldman sought to exit from the deal in 2023.

Goldman has been Apple's partner on the credit card since its launch in 2019 and has since become a banking partner for the tech giant's high-yield savings account feature and BNPL service.

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Tue, 13 Jan 2026 09:57:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30155 https://banks.am/en/news//30155 Global fintech funding surged by 21% in 2025, reaching $53 billion across 5,918 deals, marking a strong rebound after years of decline, according to FinTech Investment Landscape 2025 report issued by Innovate Finance.

Payments and cryptocurrency platforms dominated the largest deals worldwide. 

Binance secured $2 billion in the UAE, Ramp raised $1 billion in the US, and UK-based FNZ attracted $650 million. 

The US retained its position as the world’s largest fintech market, attracting $25.1 billion in investment.

The UK reclaimed second place globally and first in Europe with $3.6 billion, narrowly ahead of India at $3.4 billion. The UAE ($2.5 billion) and Singapore ($2 billion) rounded out the top five.

European fintech investment grew 7% year-on-year to $8.8 billion across 1,391 deals. The UK led the region with $3.6 billion from 534 deals, more than the next five European countries combined. France returned to the global top 10 with $1.1 billion, while Germany followed with $1 billion.

Despite the uptick, Europe’s recovery lagged behind the US (13%) and the rest of the world (46%).

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 09:57:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30147 https://banks.am/en/news//30147 Revolut is reportedly in talks to acquire Turkish digital bank Fups.

Fups received a licence in 2022 with a founding capital of $81 million at the time. As of September 2025, the company had 60 employees.

Bloomberg reports that no final decisions have been made and Revolut has declined to comment.

Revolut's most recent acquisition, completed in October 2025, is Swifty, an AI-powered travel agent startup originally incubated at Lufthansa Innovation Hub in Berlin.

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Thu, 08 Jan 2026 09:19:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30142 https://banks.am/en/news//30142 CaixaBank has established an Artificial Intelligence Office, with the aim of ensuring that all corporate projects involving AI comply with regulation, ethical standards, and provide real business value.

Fintextra reports that CaixaBank's 2025-2027 Strategic Plan includes initiatives for renewing current channels and developing new commercial and customer service capabilities through generative artificial intelligence. To this end, the bank has assembled a multi-disciplinary task force of more than 100 people to exclusively work on and deploy generative artificial intelligence in specific areas of internal and customer-related services.

The Office is designed to serve as a single point of contact for any AI-related needs, where all employees can submit queries, suggestions, or requests for AI use cases.

The Office has four main functions: governance, operations, strategy, and culture. 

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Wed, 07 Jan 2026 10:38:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30087 https://banks.am/en/news//30087 Visa has launched a stablecoins advisory practice to provide insights and recommendations to guide banks, fintechs, merchants, and businesses in Europe on market fit, strategy, and implementation.

The value-added service offering by Visa Consulting & Analytics comes as the stablecoin market cap surpasses $250 billion.

“Our new dedicated Advisory Practice is designed to bring practical insights and tailored recommendations for our clients to unlock growth and stay ahead, including the adoption and implementation of robust stablecoin and digital asset solutions”, said Claudio Di Nella, European head at Visa Consulting & Analytics.

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Wed, 17 Dec 2025 11:23:00 +0400 https://banks.am/en/news//30085 https://banks.am/en/news//30085 PayPal has submitted applications to the Utah Department of Financial Institutions and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to establish PayPal Bank.

As a Utah-chartered industrial loan company the company has already extended $30 billion in loans and working capital to small businesses.

“Securing capital remains a significant hurdle for small businesses striving to grow and scale,” says Alex Chriss, president and CEO, PayPal. “Establishing PayPal Bank will strengthen our business and improve our efficiency, enabling us to better support small business growth and economic opportunities across the U.S.”

In addition to small business lending, PayPal Bank expects to offer interest-bearing savings accounts to customers. The new entity would also seek direct membership in the US with card networks to complement processing and settlement activities through existing banking relationships.

The partner of Fintech section is   ]]> Tue, 16 Dec 2025 15:52:00 +0400