For those who stepped away out of your desk over the vacations, you’re most likely realizing that fintech didn’t decelerate when you had been gone. Even when your e mail inbox is lastly again to zero at this level, we’re right here that can assist you filter out the noise and atone for the necessary fintech information you missed. Beneath, we’ve rounded up a very powerful fintech developments that broke through the vacation lull.
December 19
Mercury applies for OCC nationwide financial institution constitution to turn into the financial institution for builders.
Enterprise banking fintech Mercury submitted an software to the OCC for a nationwide financial institution constitution and utilized for federal deposit insurance coverage with the FDIC. Receiving approval from these businesses would enable Mercury to function as an FDIC-insured nationwide financial institution. The transfer would grant Mercury independence from its accomplice banks, Alternative Monetary Group and Column N.A., giving the fintech full management of its clients.
European Central Financial institution (ECB) completes its technical and preparatory work on the digital euro.
ECB President Christine Lagarde mentioned throughout a press convention that the financial institution has accomplished technical and preparatory work on the digital euro. Within the assertion, Lagarde talked about that the digital euro is a precedence for Europe’s monetary future. The announcement proves that central financial institution digital currencies are nonetheless on the desk for 2026, at the same time as stablecoins and tokenized deposits take priority within the headlines.
December 30
Retail funding platform PrimaryBid lays off about 40% of its workforce.
The UK-based firm’s latest registry filings point out that PrimaryBid’s common worker headcount fell to 91, which is down from 152 throughout the identical interval final yr. PrimaryBid has a long-term settlement with the London Inventory Trade to permit on a regular basis retail buyers to transact on the identical time and value as institutional buyers.
December 22
Digital financial institution Erebor closed $350 million in funding at a $4.35 billion valuation.
Erebor is a brand new digital financial institution that was based by Palmer Luckey, billionaire and founding father of Oculus VR and Anduril Industries. The brand new digital financial institution seeks to bridge conventional finance with the digital asset economic system and has already obtained FDIC approval and conditional approval from US banking regulators. The financial institution is predicted to launch this yr.
Fiserv and Mastercard accomplice to advance agentic commerce.
Fiserv introduced it’s deepening its partnership with Mastercard, leveraging Mastercard’s Agent Pay Acceptance Framework to supply interoperable agentic commerce and empower retailers to embrace AI-driven funds.
December 23
JPMorgan considers permitting crypto buying and selling for institutional shoppers.
With Jamie Dimon’s detrimental feedback about crypto far previously, JPMorgan introduced plans to permit institutional shoppers to commerce crypto. The announcement comes weeks after the financial institution’s asset administration arm launched its first tokenized cash fund.
Picture by Ono Kosuki
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