Regulation & Compliance

Several newsletters focused on bank charter activity in the fintech sector. Fintech Futures reported that Avant applied for a US national bank charter to expand its lending platform, a story also covered by American Banker Fintech, which examined what fintechs obtaining bank charters means for BaaS. Fintech Futures also covered Ayan Capital securing a £75m debt facility while planning a UK banking licence application, and noted that stablecoin provider Bastion received conditional OCC trust bank approval. Banking Dive Newsletter reported on Avant's OCC charter application as well as the OCC's conditional approval of three national trust charters. Fintech Radar's issue #176 covered Grab's move into lending, Ramp's UK expansion, and Enova stepping away from its charter.

Stablecoin regulation was another major theme. Stack and Story reported that the Fed opened its stablecoin rulebook for public comment. Fintech Weekly covered European central banks' position that stablecoin reserves should be kept out of bank deposits, and separately examined European fintechs' discussions of sovereignty despite reliance on American cloud infrastructure.

Tokenized stock regulation also drew coverage. Stack and Story reported that the SEC's tokenized stock rule has a narrow lane, while Payments Wrap Up covered the US securities regulator rolling out a five-year exemption for tokenized stock trading.

On the legal and policy front, Bankless reported that New York sued Polymarket over alleged illegal gambling. American Banker Fintech covered the SBA facing blowback over a plan to redefine small business, and separately reported that AGs warned Congress that AI threatens the financial system. Fintech Futures also reported that sales tax compliance firm Numeral raised a $100m Series C.