Fintech companies make major announcements
This week, several major fintech companies made headlines. Monzo’s EU CEO, Michael Carney, announced he will step down to launch his own AI accessibility venture.
Carney has led Monzo’s European rollout since joining the challenger bank from Stripe in 2024. He secured a full European banking licence and commenced operations in Ireland.
Carney is leaving to found a start-up that will leverage AI and robotics to support people living with disabilities. His career includes senior roles at Google and Twitter (now X).
Major IPO Announcement
Airtel Money, the mobile money and digital finance business of Airtel Africa, confirmed plans to pursue an initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
The listing’s final offer price will be determined following publication of the Prospectus, subject to the completion of a book-building process, and is currently expected to be announced in mid-October 2026.
Airtel Africa, majority-owned by Bharti Airtel, holds 77.85% of Airtel Money’s issued ordinary share capital. In 2021, TPG, Mastercard, the Qatar Investment Authority, and Chimetech Holding Ltd acquired minority stakes in the fintech unit for a combined $550 million.
Stablecoin and Tokenised Deposits
Bastion, a stablecoin infrastructure provider, received preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust bank charter in the US.
The charter will enable Bastion to establish a new entity, Bastion Platforms National Trust Company, which will deliver fiduciary custody of USDC and other GENIUS Act-compliant digital assets.
A number of major high street banks, including NatWest, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC UK, Barclays, Nationwide Building Society, Santander, and Monzo, executed the first set of live retail transactions in the UK using tokenised sterling deposits.
Executive Moves and Partnerships
Adyen nominated Klarna’s Niclas Neglen as its next chief financial officer (CFO), effective 1 February 2027, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.
Neglen will replace interim CFO Hwa Tsao, who assumed responsibility for Adyen’s financial strategy in August following Ethan Tandowsky’s departure to ElevenLabs.
The UK Finance trade body convened the tokenised deposit pilot under the Great British Tokenised Deposit (GBTD) initiative, which used the GBTD platform developed by Quant, a blockchain and distributed ledger technology infrastructure provider.
They executed the first set of live retail transactions in the UK using tokenised sterling deposits, as part of the GBTD initiative. It is a significant development in the UK fintech sector, with several major banks participating in the pilot.
