Klarna applies for a US banking licence

Starling Bank cuts 130 jobs in AI and restructuring push

Starling Bank is cutting 130 jobs (3% of its workforce) as part of a restructuring aimed at simplifying operations and accelerating AI adoption. The London neobank's pre-tax profit fell to £217 million for the second consecutive year, with revenue dropping from £940 million to £887 million, largely due to falling interest rates. Despite the cuts, Starling is actively hiring AI and technology engineers. Its agentic AI assistant launched in March and its scam detection tool uses Google's Gemini models. The brighter spot is Engine, its SaaS banking technology arm, which grew revenue 25% and is now targeting the US market with a New York office and $50 million investment. The move reflects a broader sector trend: Morgan Stanley estimates AI could eliminate up to 400,000 European banking jobs by 2030.

A senior FCA official says Britain should weigh regulating AI models directly

A senior FCA official, Sheldon Mills, has called on the UK's Financial Conduct Authority to review within three to six months whether general-purpose AI models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini should fall within financial regulation. Over a quarter of UK consumers already use these tools for financial advice, yet they sit outside the FCA's regulatory perimeter, leaving consumers without recourse when AI gives poor guidance. Mills flagged systemic risk from concentration on a few model providers, and floated powers to require explainability, algorithm audits for fairness, and fines for consumer harm. The intervention challenges the UK's current light-touch, sector-by-sector AI oversight approach, though regulating US-built models presents a practical jurisdictional challenge.

Thought Machine hits $100M revenue, delays IPO to 2028

UK core-banking software firm Thought Machine has crossed $100m in annual revenue and ARR for the first time, with revenue growing 57% in 2025. The company also turned free cash flow positive in H2 2024, raised a modest £30m from a tier-1 bank client, and pushed its IPO plans to at least 2028. Founder Paul Taylor is deliberately downplaying valuation in favor of commercial metrics. The firm now works with 68 banks globally, with the US as its largest market, and plans to hire over 100 engineers in 2026.

MFA-optional banks leave safe doors (and accounts) wide open for thieves to pillage

Banks like Bank of America, Chase, Capital One, and Citibank treat MFA as optional, leaving customers vulnerable to account takeover. A personal account of an 84-year-old losing $30,000 to thieves who exploited password reuse and lack of MFA illustrates the real-world cost. SMS-based OTPs are highlighted as weak due to SIM-swapping and phishing risks, while passkeys (phishing-resistant cryptographic key pairs) are presented as the correct solution. Banks are slow to mandate stronger authentication due to friction concerns and fear of losing customers, but this convenience-over-security tradeoff ultimately costs both customers and banks money.

Germany's savings and cooperative banks launch crypto trading

Germany's cooperative and savings banks are rolling out cryptocurrency trading to tens of millions of retail customers, reversing a position held just four years ago when they cited 'incalculable risks.' DZ Bank has already secured a MiCA licence from BaFin and launched the 'meinKrypto' platform integrated into its VR Banking App, supporting Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Cardano. DekaBank is building a separate platform for the Sparkassen network's roughly 50 million customers, expected later this year. The shift was enabled by the EU's MiCA regulation, which replaced fragmented national rules with a unified licensing framework. Banks are betting on customer trust — Germans trust their primary bank more than twice as much as crypto exchanges — and on staying relevant against digital-first competitors. Critics, including academics and the savings banks' own lobby group, warn that traditional customers may not fully understand the risks of highly speculative crypto assets.

Taktile raises $110M to put AI in charge of bank decisions

Taktile, a Berlin-and-New-York startup, has raised $110M in a Series C led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, bringing total funding to $184M. The company sells an Agentic Decision Platform that blends AI agents, hard rules, data, and human oversight to automate high-stakes financial decisions — including loan underwriting, insurance claims, customer onboarding, and anti-money-laundering checks. Clients include Mercury, Monzo, Faire, and Pleo. Taktile claims customers have achieved 95% automation in B2B underwriting and a 75% reduction in AML false positives. The company argues general-purpose AI is insufficient for regulated financial decisions where errors cost millions, positioning its platform as auditable and steerable by business owners, not just engineers. The funding will go toward expanding in the US, Europe, and Latin America, including a new São Paulo office.

Financial services firm banks on Google Cloud, ChromeOS

Wealthtec Holdings, một công ty dịch vụ tài chính Nam Phi, đã chuyển hạ tầng sang Google Cloud, Google Workspace Enterprise và ChromeOS với sự hỗ trợ từ Radical Cloud Solutions. Việc triển khai hơn 300 thiết bị Chrome cho nhân viên trung tâm cuộc gọi đã cải thiện bảo mật dữ liệu, tuân thủ quy định, giảm chi phí quản lý IT và kéo dài tuổi thọ phần cứng, đồng thời đơn giản hóa quy trình onboard/offboard nhân viên.

Lập trình viên nên đọc bài này để hiểu cách tích hợp các giải pháp cloud và thiết bị di động như ChromeOS vào hệ thống quản lý dịch vụ tài chính, giúp tối ưu hóa hiệu suất, an toàn dữ liệu và giảm chi phí vận hành thông qua các giải pháp tự động hóa và đơn giản hóa.