1. Top Headlines
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FedNow to enable cross-border payments — Finextra. The US Federal Reserve is advancing plans to let FedNow participants support cross-border payment use cases through correspondent banking arrangements. The move could extend real-time payment infrastructure into international payroll, corporate payments and treasury flows.
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UK banks pilot tokenised deposit transactions — Finextra. Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest and Santander have completed live customer transactions using tokenised sterling deposits. The pilots demonstrate programmable commercial-bank money in practical scenarios such as property transactions and consumer payments.
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BNP Paribas forges agentic AI partnership with Google Cloud — Finextra. BNP Paribas is expanding its use of Gemini Enterprise and specialised AI agents across corporate and institutional banking. The initial focus on corporate credit memos illustrates the shift from general-purpose copilots toward workflow-specific financial agents.
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Swift and Wells Fargo join Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust — Finextra. Swift and Wells Fargo are joining an open technology ecosystem focused on decentralised infrastructure. The development reflects growing institutional interest in interoperable tokenisation, digital identity and blockchain infrastructure rather than isolated blockchain experiments.
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Deutsche Bank estimates 30% uplift in client onboarding by deploying KYC AI — Finextra. Deutsche Bank has deployed agentic AI for Source of Wealth processes across its Singapore and Hong Kong booking centres. The system automates research and documentation while retaining human review, illustrating how banks are applying AI to regulated operational workflows.
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MoonPay to acquire private markets platform North Capital — FinTech Futures. MoonPay plans to acquire North Capital Investment Technology, bringing regulated private-market infrastructure into its crypto payments ecosystem. The transaction points toward convergence between traditional securities infrastructure, tokenised assets and digital-asset payments.
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Baselayer raises $35m Series A for new agentic identity suite — FinTech Futures. Regtech Baselayer has raised $35 million while launching an agentic identity product. The funding highlights investor interest in infrastructure that can help financial institutions automate identity and compliance processes.
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The Clearing House selects Quant infrastructure for US tokenised deposits project — FinTech Futures. The Clearing House has selected Quant to provide infrastructure for its On-Chain Money initiative. The planned network is designed to connect tokenised deposits with existing payment rails including RTP and CHIPS.
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Modulr boosts US expansion with Cogent Bank partnership — FinTech Futures. Embedded payments provider Modulr is expanding its US footprint through a partnership with Cogent Bank. The move illustrates continued demand for banking and payment infrastructure that fintechs can integrate rather than build themselves.
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Adyen names Klarna CFO Niclas Neglen as next finance chief — FinTech Futures. Adyen has nominated Klarna CFO Niclas Neglen as its next CFO, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. The leadership transition comes as major payment companies increasingly operate across payments, commerce and financial infrastructure.
2. In-Depth Highlight
UK banks pilot tokenised deposit transactions marks a significant step in moving tokenised money beyond demonstrations into real customer activity. The Great British Tokenised Deposit initiative involves seven major UK banks and uses infrastructure developed by Quant to enable programmable commercial-bank money. Early transactions included remortgage completions and consumer shopping, with funds effectively locked until predefined conditions were satisfied. The model could eventually support digital-asset settlement, automated corporate payments and delivery-versus-payment transactions. The broader significance is that tokenisation is increasingly being tested inside regulated banking infrastructure, rather than existing solely within crypto markets.
3. Market & Industry Insight
The week’s strongest infrastructure theme is the convergence of real-time payments, tokenised deposits and programmable money. The UK pilot, The Clearing House’s US initiative and the Federal Reserve’s work on cross-border FedNow payments point toward payment systems becoming more interoperable and increasingly capable of supporting conditional or automated settlement. The Clearing House expects its tokenised-deposit network to connect with established systems such as RTP and CHIPS, demonstrating that tokenisation is being designed as an extension of existing financial infrastructure rather than an isolated replacement.
At the same time, agentic AI is moving deeper into regulated banking workflows. BNP Paribas plans to deploy specialised agents beginning with corporate credit-memo preparation, while Deutsche Bank is applying agentic AI to Source of Wealth processes in Singapore and Hong Kong. These deployments suggest that the next phase of financial AI will focus less on generic chat interfaces and more on controlled workflows, data access, auditability and human accountability.
4. Company & Startup Spotlight
BNP Paribas is combining a multi-cloud, multi-model strategy with specialised agents for corporate and institutional banking. Its Google Cloud agreement gives the bank access to Gemini Enterprise while its existing Mistral AI relationship continues, illustrating how large financial institutions are avoiding dependence on a single AI model or infrastructure provider. BNP Paribas forges agentic AI partnership with Google Cloud
Baselayer is targeting another critical layer of financial infrastructure: identity. Its $35 million Series A and new agentic identity suite reflect growing demand for systems that can automate identity processes while supporting the control requirements of regulated financial institutions. Baselayer raises $35m Series A for new agentic identity suite
5. Regulatory & Policy Watch
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US real-time payments: The Federal Reserve is advancing regulatory and technical changes that could enable FedNow participants to support cross-border payment use cases, with the FedNow component covering the US domestic leg. FedNow to enable cross-border payments
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UK tokenised deposits: The Great British Tokenised Deposit initiative is testing regulated commercial-bank money on digital infrastructure, with additional pilots expected around digital-asset settlement. UK banks pilot tokenised deposit transactions
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Digital-asset infrastructure: ClearToken received Bank of England approval to operate a Digital Securities Depository within the Digital Securities Sandbox, enabling supervised issuance and settlement of tokenised securities within specified limits. ClearToken wins Bank of England approval to clear tokenised assets
6. Quote of the Day
“Participants have consistently told us that enabling cross-border use cases is a priority, and this milestone reflects our commitment to delivering on that feedback.”
— Nick Stanescu, Chief FedNow Executive, on the Federal Reserve’s plans to extend FedNow into cross-border payment use cases. FedNow to enable cross-border payments
7. What’s Next
The coming week will provide further signals from Sibos 2026, where banks, payment networks and technology providers are focusing heavily on AI, tokenisation and next-generation financial infrastructure. Attention is likely to remain on whether tokenised deposits can connect effectively with existing payment rails, while banks continue moving agentic AI from experimentation into controlled production workflows.
For fintech executives, the key question is increasingly practical: how can new digital-money and AI capabilities be integrated with regulated infrastructure, existing payment networks and accountable operating processes?