botim money, the financial services arm of botim, and Mastercard, the global payments technology company, have announced a strategic collaboration to expand global remittance capabilities through Mastercard Move. The partnership is designed to broaden access to fast, secure and seamless cross-border money transfers, enabling botim money users to send funds from the UAE to more than 150 countries directly within...

Checkout.com, a global digital payments provider, has secured regulatory approval for a Merchant Acquirer Limited Purpose Bank charter in Georgia, a move that accelerates its US expansion and positions the company for full charter banking operations in 2026. The company confirmed it has received approval for its Merchant Acquirer Limited Purpose Bank (MALPB) charter from the Georgia Department of Banking...

Ingenico, a global provider of payment acceptance solutions, has partnered with Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, a supplier of retail technology and services, to introduce an enterprise-grade mobile checkout solution aimed at UK retailers and grocers, with availability extending to the global market. The collaboration combines Ingenico’s Moby 5500 payment device with Toshiba’s TCx® M7 handheld and TCx® M11 tablet, enabling...

PT. Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (BNI), one of Indonesia’s largest state-owned banks, has significantly accelerated customer onboarding and streamlined global trade operations after unifying its trade finance activities on Finastra’s Trade Innovation platform. PT. Bank Negara Indonesia has consolidated both its domestic and international trade finance operations onto Finastra Trade Innovation, resulting in customer onboarding speeds improving by around 25%....

Custody operations have quietly but decisively moved to the centre of global financial market infrastructure. What was once considered a stable, back-office function is now a mission-critical operation where even a minor exception can ripple across billions in daily settlement volumes. IntellectAI recently delved into the trends to watch in 2026. For many operations leaders, 2025 marked a clear turning point....

Agentic AI is quickly becoming a core focus for financial crime and compliance teams, with new research showing growing confidence in its ability to deliver meaningful change. Data from a joint report by Hawk and Chartis indicates that more than three quarters of compliance and risk leaders expect agentic AI to have a positive impact on financial crime and compliance...

Metro Bank has overhauled its financial crime operations through a partnership with SymphonyAI. As one of the UK’s first challenger banks, Metro Bank has long focused on customer experience and service-led banking, supported by technology. However, its existing financial crime systems had been in place for almost a decade and were no longer suited to a fast-evolving regulatory and operational...

Generative AI is no longer an emerging concept for compliance teams. Over the past year, it has become a practical tool embedded into everyday workflows, driven by rising regulatory complexity, pressure on resources, and the need for greater consistency across jurisdictions. What began as cautious experimentation has now evolved into real-world deployment across a growing number of firms. Yet as adoption...

VelaFi, a stablecoin-powered financial infrastructure platform under Galactic Holdings, has closed a $20m Series B funding round to accelerate the expansion of its global settlement layer. The latest financing was led by XVC and Ikuyo, with participation from Alibaba Investment, Planetree, existing shareholder BAI Capital and other global investors. This $20m Series B brings VelaFi’s total capital raised to more...

The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has updated its Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) examination procedures for community banks, introducing changes that will take effect from 1 February 2026. According to Moody's, the revised framework is intended to streamline supervisory reviews while preserving strong protections against financial crime, reflecting a more proportionate approach...