Malhotra urged Indian banks to inventory the AI models they use and establish board approved AI governance policies, while arguing that banks cannot afford to avoid the technology because of its risks. The BRICS discussion is less advanced, but it has progressed beyond India's proposal earlier this year.
AI Governance Is Becoming A Bank Operating Responsibility
The RBI has been working toward this point for some time. India's FREE-AI framework was developed around responsible AI use in finance, including governance, explainability, privacy, fairness and risk controls. The central bank has also been expanding its model risk work beyond credit models into other operating areas.
Malhotra's August remarks make the institutional responsibility clearer. A bank cannot govern AI well if it cannot identify which models are running, where they are used or who owns the decisions around them. An inventory creates the starting record. Board approved governance then establishes responsibility above individual technology teams.
That becomes more important as AI spreads beyond analysis into customer service, credit, fraud detection, risk management and other live banking functions. Cybersecurity and operational risk also grow with the number of systems, vendors and data connections involved.
Canada is dealing with more or less the same operating problem. OSFI and GRI's financial AI work found that regulated deployment depends on practical controls around identity, cyber risk, financial crime, third party providers and customer outcomes. More than 170 participants contributed to that work, with 72% reporting AI use at work in financial services.
Financial regulators are asking institutions to prove control over AI that is already being used. For banks, model inventories, ownership, monitoring and escalation are becoming part of normal operating discipline.
BRICS Payment Links Advance From Proposal To Discussion
The payments comments are at an earlier stage.
In January, India proposed that BRICS members consider linking their official digital currencies for cross border trade and tourism payments. NCFA captured that proposal in its January BRICS payments evidence.
Malhotra now says BRICS members are discussing potential links between both fast payment systems and CBDCs. The objective is lower cost cross border payments, but he was equally clear that the work is still at the discussion stage.
There is no shared BRICS CBDC network, agreed settlement architecture or implementation timetable. There is also no basis for treating the discussions as evidence that a common BRICS currency is being created. Official BRICS material has instead focused on reducing the cost of trade and financial transactions and improving payment links between member countries.
The addition of fast payment systems is also important. CBDCs are only one possible route. Connecting existing national payment rails may offer another way to improve cross border transfers without waiting for every participating country to deploy a mature digital currency.
More Capability Means More Governance At Every Layer
Malhotra did not present AI governance and BRICS payment connectivity as a single program, however combined they do expose a common operating issue. Inside a bank, more capable AI requires clearer ownership, controls and auditability. Between countries, more connected payment systems require agreements around access, standards, settlement, legal responsibility and risk.
Interoperability is useful only when participants know who is accountable when something fails. The same is true for AI performing more important financial work.
For Canadian readers, the comparison is timely. Canada's financial infrastructure is becoming more open through new payment system access, PSP supervision and the Real Time Rail, while banks are also deploying more AI. Different technologies are involved, but both require stronger operating controls as access and automation expand.
Talking Point
Financial infrastructure gets harder to govern as it becomes more capable and connected. The RBI's AI expectations and the BRICS payment discussions show that control, accountability and interoperability are becoming operating questions, not side issues for innovation teams.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
August 10, 2026 | NCFA Market Activity | Digital Banking And BaaS, Competition And Market Structure, Open Banking Open Finance And Data Sharing
Payroll Switching Gives TD A New Primary Banking Advantage
On August 10, 2026, TD introduced in-app payroll direct deposit switchingfor Canadian customers using technology built with U.S. fintech Atomic Financial. Eligible customers can redirect their pay to a TD account from inside the TD app instead of downloading a direct deposit form and submitting it to their employer.
TD says the process takes about a minute with most employers. The bank also secured exclusive Canadian rights to the Atomic capability through the end of 2026.
That places payroll switching directly into TD's customer acquisition strategy. Opening a chequing account gives TD a customer. Redirecting the customer's pay can help make TD the account where money arrives, bills get paid and other financial products are used.
Winning The Paycheque Can Be More Valuable Than Opening The Account
TD is already offering eligible customers up to $500 for opening certain chequing accounts and completing qualifying activities, including recurring direct deposit. Moving payroll into the same app reduces one of the steps between opening an account and actually using it as a primary account.
Atomic's direct deposit infrastructureconnects financial apps with payroll providers so customers can change where their pay is routed without leaving the bank's digital experience. Atomic markets the product around deposit growth, account profitability, retention and wallet share, and says its network connects to roughly 90% of U.S. payroll providers.
The commercial logic is visible in Atomic's own product design. Once direct deposit is established, the company wants banks to use that recurring relationship to increase account activity and adoption of other products. Its broader platform also includes payment switching, subscription management and income and employment verification.
There is a Canadian reason to take the friction seriously. An earlier survey of Canadian banking customers found that 35% considered switching institutions too much hassle or too time consuming, while 21% specifically cited difficulty transferring payments or deposits.
Sixty-two percent said they would be open to switching if the process were easier.
TD is attacking a known switching barrier at the point where it can affect deposits, everyday account activity and retention.
A U.S. Fintech Is Supplying Part Of TD's Switching Infrastructure
The customer remains inside TD's app, but some of the infrastructure connecting that customer to payroll systems comes from a U.S. fintech.
Atomic describes itself as infrastructure linking financial applications with payroll accounts and now offers tools for direct deposit, payment switching, bills and subscriptions, income verification and payroll authentication.
That helps explain why a large bank would use outside fintech infrastructure. The real value is in the connections and authentication behind the app. Atomic says its newer CoAuth method produced 2.4 times higher conversion for direct deposit switching in 2025.
TD has used outside connectivity providers before. A previous TD data access agreement with Envestnet Yodlee used APIs to connect TD customer data with third party applications. Years earlier, TD executives were already arguing that standardized APIs could improve Canadian financial services and make account switching easier.
The Atomic arrangement goes further into customer action. Rather than transferring account information to another application, the technology can help redirect where the customer's income is deposited.
TD's Canadian exclusivity gives it a temporary advantage in deploying Atomic's version of that capability. It doesn't stop another bank from developing or sourcing a competing system, but rivals cannot simply take the same Atomic product while TD's exclusivity is in force (remainder of 2026).
Payroll Portability Could Become Another Battleground For Canadian Banks
The difference between opening an account and actually switching banks is still visible in the Canadian market. TD's existing guidance has traditionally required several steps to redirect direct deposits, bill payments and preauthorized debits. Atomic removes one of those handoffs for supported payroll systems.
Canada's consumer-driven banking framework addresses a related but different form of portability. Its initial focus is regulated access to customer approved financial data. Redirecting payroll through Atomic is not open banking, but both deal with reducing the friction involved in changing financial relationships.
TD now has until the end of 2026 to see whether easier payroll switching changes customer behaviour. If direct deposit adoption rises, the benefit could extend into payments, credit, savings and other products. If price, rewards, service or existing relationships matter more, the feature may remain a convenience rather than a lasting advantage.
If automated payroll and payment switching become common across Canadian banking, they could become part of the standard digital account experience rather than a feature that sets one bank apart.
Talking Point
TD is using Atomic to make payroll switching easier and win more primary banking relationships. Will competitors follow and make the rest of a customer’s financial connections just as easy to move.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
August 10, 2026 | NCFA Companies On The Move | Digital Banking And BaaS, Competition And Market Structure
French Banking Licence Extends Revolut’s Global Bank Expansion
On August 10, 2026, Revolut secured a French banking licence from the ACPR and European Central Bank. France will become Revolut's second EU banking base alongside Lithuania, with Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain expected to follow.
Revolut enters this phase with more than 75 million customers and $6 billion of 2025 revenue. It is also building licensed banks in several major markets, which changes the competitive significance of its renewed interest in Canada.
Revolut Now Has Bank-Scale Economics
Revolut's 2025 results show a business well beyond its original foreign-exchange and card proposition. Revenue rose 46% to $6.0 billion, profit before tax reached $2.3 billion and net profit was $1.7 billion. Customer balances reached $67.5 billion.
Eleven product lines generated more than £100 million each. Card payments produced $1.3 billion of revenue, wealth $876 million and foreign exchange $800 million. Revolut Business accounted for 16% of group income.
Credit is becoming substantial enough to change the risk profile. The loan book grew 120% to $2.9 billion across personal loans, credit cards and an early mortgage portfolio, while commercial real estate lending has extended the company into more specialized credit.
Private-market pricing has climbed with the operating results. Revolut completed a secondary transaction at a US$75 billion valuation in November 2025. A new secondary sale confirmed in July 2026 is reportedly pricing the company at US$115 billion. The current sale has not been announced as completed.
Revolut Is Adding Local Banking Operations In Major Markets
The French licence divides Revolut's European banking structure more deliberately. Lithuania remains the banking base for much of the European Economic Area, while the French entity will take responsibility for six Western European markets with roughly 30 million Revolut customers.
Revolut completed the next stage of its UK banking licence in March, launching the bank for a domestic customer base of 13 million after receiving the licence in 2024 and completing its mobilisation period.
Owning more of the banking infrastructure gives Revolut greater control over deposits, credit, payments and pricing. It also requires more local capital, compliance and operating capacity. In Western Europe, Revolut has committed more than €1 billion to the new regional structure and plans to build its headquarters in Paris.
Canada Is A Different Proposition Than It Was In 2019
Revolut's renewed Canada strategy follows an earlier attempt built around prepaid cards and foreign exchange. The company entered a limited Canadian beta in 2019 and withdrew in 2021 without establishing a domestic banking presence.
Jan Pilbauer was appointed to lead Revolut Canada in 2025 after senior roles at Payments Canada and the Bank of Canada. Revolut has described Canada as attractive but remains early in its evaluation. It hasn't announced a launch date, and there is no public evidence of a Canadian bank licence application.
The regulatory setting has changed too. OSFI's Streamlined Approvals Framework creates a clearer federal route for eligible innovative banking models, while consumer-driven banking could reduce data-access barriers once regulated sharing is operating.
Revolut would also be operating a different business. A payments and FX app would add another fintech option. A Canadian operation spanning deposits, credit, wealth and business banking would compete for much more of the customer relationship.
Local Licences Put More Responsibility On Revolut
Italy offers a recent reminder that localization cuts both ways. In April, the country's competition authority fined Revolut entities more than €11 million over investment disclosures, account restrictions and information concerning Italian IBAN availability.
The Italian action touched the same customer-treatment and localization issues Revolut has to manage as more markets gain their own banking entities. Revolut disagreed with the findings and said it would appeal.
Revolut now has the customers, earnings and product breadth to compete much more directly with established banks. Its French licence shows how much regulatory infrastructure that ambition requires. A Canadian return would reveal whether Revolut is prepared to build the same depth here.
NCFA Company Intelligence Snapshot
Revolut
Global payments, banking, credit, wealth and business finance platform
Last updated Aug 10, 2026
Company At A Glance
Founded 2015 by Nik Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko
Headquarters London, United Kingdom
Status Private financial technology and banking group
Customers 75M+ globally
Markets More than 40
2025 Revenue US$6.0B
2025 Net Profit US$1.7B
Customer Balances US$67.5B at Dec 31, 2025
Loan Book US$2.9B at Dec 31, 2025
Valuation US$75B completed valuation; July 2026 secondary sale reportedly at US$115B
Products Payments, cards, deposits, FX, lending, wealth, investing and business finance; availability varies by market
Revenue Model Payments, subscriptions, FX, wealth, lending, interest income and business services
Milestones
Select a milestone to follow Revolut from international payments into locally regulated banking
1 Payments Launch 2015
2 EU Bank Licence 2018
3 Canada Trial 2019–2021
4 US$800M Series E 2021
5 Profitable Scale 2025
6 Local Bank Buildout Jan–Jul 2026
7 French Bank Hub Aug 2026
Milestone 1
Revolut Starts With International Spending (2015)
Nik Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko launched Revolut in London around spending, transfers and foreign exchange.
Company
Revolut Mobile financial technology company
Stage
Launch Initial consumer product
Capital
Early Venture Outside funding follows early adoption
Markets
UK First International spending and transfers
Customers
Consumers Customers seeking cheaper international money use
Competition
Banks And FX Digital alternative to bank foreign-exchange pricing
Additional Company Data
London launch
Mobile-first onboarding
Initial focus on spending and transfers abroad
Why This Milestone Matters
A narrow international-spending problem gave Revolut an entry point before it asked customers to use the app for more of their finances.
Milestone 2
Lithuanian Licence Adds Banking Capability (2018)
The Bank of Lithuania granted Revolut a banking licence in 2018, the regulatory base later used to provide banking services across the European Economic Area.
Company
Revolut Bank Payments business adding banking capability
Stage
Regulated Expansion Banking joins the product base
Capital
US$250M Series C raised in 2018
Markets
European Union Lithuanian regulatory base
Customers
Retail Payments customers gain access to more financial products
Competition
Digital Banking Revolut starts competing beyond payments
Additional Company Data
US$250M Series C valued Revolut at US$1.7B
Revolut Business had launched in 2017
Metal launched in the EEA in 2018
Why This Milestone Matters
The licence gave Revolut a regulated base for deposits and banking services instead of limiting the customer relationship to payments.
Milestone 3
Canada Gets A Limited Version Of Revolut (2019–2021)
Revolut entered Canada with a beta centred on prepaid cards and foreign exchange and withdrew in 2021 without establishing a Canadian bank.
Company
Revolut Canada Beta Partial version of the global product
Stage
Market Trial Entry ends before full banking launch
Capital
Group Funded No Canadian financing disclosed
Markets
Canada Cards and foreign exchange
Customers
Beta Users Narrower product access than in core markets
Competition
Limited Product No full domestic banking proposition
Additional Company Data
Beta began in 2019
No Canadian bank was established
Revolut exited in 2021
Why This Milestone Matters
Canada exposed the difficulty of competing with only part of Revolut's product set.
Milestone 4
US$800 Million Series E Funds A Larger Platform (2021)
SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Tiger Global backed an US$800 million Series E that valued Revolut at US$33 billion.
Company
Revolut Platform Consumer and business financial services
Stage
Global Scale Product and geographic expansion
Capital
US$800M US$33B Series E valuation
Markets
International Europe with expansion outside the region
Customers
16M+ Customers worldwide at the financing
Competition
Financial Platform More products compete for more customer activity
Additional Company Data
SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Tiger Global joined as investors
Capital supported U.S., India and other international expansion
Savings, insurance, wealth and trading were part of the product build
Why This Milestone Matters
The Series E financed expansion well beyond the original payments proposition and put Revolut among the world's highest-valued private fintechs.
Milestone 5
Revenue And Profit Catch Up With Customer Growth (2025)
Revolut closed 2025 with 68.3 million retail customers, US$6.0 billion in revenue and US$1.7 billion in net profit. A November secondary transaction valued it at US$75 billion.
Company
Global Financial Platform Retail and business products at large scale
Stage
Profitable Scale Fifth consecutive year of net profitability
Capital
US$75B November secondary valuation
Markets
40+ Markets worldwide
Customers
68.3M Retail 767,000 business customers at year-end
Competition
Primary Banking More customers use Revolut for everyday finances
Additional Company Data
US$67.5B in customer balances
US$2.9B loan portfolio
Eleven product lines above £100M of annual revenue
Jan Pilbauer appointed to lead Revolut Canada
Why This Milestone Matters
Profit and customer balances gave Revolut more capacity to fund lending, licences and local banking operations from a much stronger financial base.
Milestone 6
UK, Mexico And Australia Add Local Banking Operations (Jan–Jul 2026)
Revolut launched full banking in Mexico, exited UK mobilisation and received an unrestricted Australian banking licence. Its U.S. national bank charter remains under review.
Company
Multi-Market Bank Local banks operate within the global platform
Stage
Banking Expansion More markets gain local regulated entities
Capital
Local Balance Sheets Deposits and lending require local capital
Markets
UK, Mexico, Australia U.S. charter application remains pending
Customers
Local Bank Users 13M UK customers and 1M+ Australian retail customers at launch
Competition
Full-Service Banks Deposits and credit deepen competitive overlap
Additional Company Data
UK bank launched in March 2026
Mexico passed 500,000 retail customers
Australia became Revolut's first licensed bank in APAC
U.S. banking still depends on charter approval
Why This Milestone Matters
Local banks let Revolut own more of the deposit, credit and payment relationship instead of depending as heavily on partner institutions.
Milestone 7
France Becomes Revolut's Second EU Banking Base (Aug 2026)
Revolut's French banking licence creates a regional base for France and, progressively, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
Company
Revolut Banking Group Regional banks inside a global platform
Stage
Regional Scale Second EU banking base
Capital
€1B+ Western Europe investment commitment
Markets
Six Countries France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain
Customers
~30M Across the intended Western European hub
Competition
Local Banking Depth More direct competition with domestic banks
Additional Company Data
Paris will house the Western Europe headquarters
The regional operation adds local risk, compliance and product capacity
Lithuania remains Revolut's other EU banking base
The July secondary share sale is reportedly pricing Revolut at US$115B
Why This Milestone Matters
Revolut is placing more banking responsibility inside the European markets where many of its customers actually live.
Frequently Asked Questions About Revolut
What is Revolut?
Revolut is a London-headquartered financial technology and banking group founded in 2015 by Nik Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. It offers payments, cards, deposits, foreign exchange, lending, wealth, investing and business financial services, with availability varying by market.
Is Revolut a bank?
Revolut operates licensed banks in several jurisdictions, including the European Economic Area, UK, Mexico and Australia. Its legal entity and customer protections vary by market.
How many customers does Revolut have?
Revolut reports more than 75 million retail customers globally. It ended 2025 with 68.3 million retail customers and 767,000 business customers.
How does Revolut make money?
Revenue comes from card payments, subscriptions, foreign exchange, wealth products, lending and interest income, and Revolut Business. Eleven product lines each generated more than £100 million in 2025.
Is Revolut profitable?
Yes. Revolut reported US$2.3 billion in profit before tax and US$1.7 billion in net profit for 2025.
What is Revolut worth?
A completed November 2025 secondary transaction valued Revolut at US$75 billion. A secondary sale underway in July 2026 is reportedly pricing the company at US$115 billion, but Revolut has not announced that sale as completed.
Is Revolut coming back to Canada?
Revolut has renewed its Canadian effort and appointed Jan Pilbauer to lead the local business. Canada remains under evaluation, with no announced launch date or public evidence of a Canadian bank licence application as of August 10, 2026.
Why did Revolut leave Canada?
Revolut entered Canada in 2019 with a limited beta centred on prepaid cards and foreign exchange and withdrew in 2021 without establishing a Canadian banking presence or the wider product set available in its larger markets.
Who competes with Revolut?
Competitors vary by product and country. Revolut overlaps with traditional banks, digital banks and specialist fintechs across payments, deposits, credit, foreign exchange, investing and business finance.
Information notice: Private-company estimates are identified and attributed. Information may change after the stated update date. This content is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, financial or legal advice.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
August 10, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Intelligence Question | Capital Markets And Market Infrastructure, Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Treasury Liquidity
Can Gold Move From The Vault Into Wholesale Finance?
Last Updated: August 10, 2026 Status: Emerging
Organizations: UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Bank of England, Prudential Regulation Authority, World Gold Council, London Bullion Market Association (LBMA)
On August 10, 2026, the Financial Times reported that the UK FCA is talking with banks and market participants about how tokenized gold could fit within the regulatory framework, including its possible use as collateral in wholesale markets.
The FCA declined to comment to the FT and hasn't published a gold specific framework, consultation or rule. But the discussion connects two developments already under way. UK authorities are working on tokenized collateral for wholesale markets, while the gold industry is trying to make physical bullion easier to own, transfer and pledge.
So can tokenized gold actually become collateral in wholesale markets?
Possibly, but creating the token is the easy part. A bank or market operator still has to trust the ownership claim, know where the bullion sits, value it quickly and take control if the borrower fails. Its own rules also have to permit gold as collateral.
That last hurdle matters. The UK is building infrastructure for tokenized collateral, but the Bank of England's current work focuses on tokenized versions of assets that already qualify. Gold isn't currently eligible collateral under the Bank's Sterling Monetary Framework.
Private markets could get there sooner. Banks and other wholesale counterparties have more room to agree on collateral terms between themselves. Acceptance by a clearing house would be a bigger step. Central bank eligibility would go further again.
This is why tokenized gold is different from simply launching another real world asset product. NCFA's analysis of tokenization in collateral and cash shows that institutional adoption is strongest where digital assets solve a real operating problem. Gold now has to pass that test.
Strategic Takeaway
Tokenized gold becomes useful collateral when institutions can trust the claim, control the asset and sell it quickly if something goes wrong. Better technology helps, but it can't grant collateral status on its own.
Evidence
Click each item to expand
1. Gold Enters The UK Tokenization Discussion August 2026, United Kingdomⓘ
The Financial Times reports that the FCA has been discussing tokenized gold with major banks and other market participants, including whether it could be used as collateral in wholesale markets.
The discussions concern the regulatory treatment of tokenized gold.
Wholesale collateral is one of the potential uses being considered.
The FCA declined to comment to the FT.
No gold specific FCA proposal or rule has been published.
That makes this credible early evidence of regulatory interest, not a policy decision. What happens next depends on whether the industry can show that tokenized ownership works inside existing market controls.
2. UK Authorities Are Already Working On Tokenized Collateral May 2026, United Kingdomⓘ
The FCA and Bank of England set out a joint vision for UK wholesale tokenization in May. Collateral is one of the areas where firms have asked for clearer rules and infrastructure.
The programme covers prudential treatment, tokenized collateral and settlement instruments.
Sixteen firms are working through the Digital Securities Sandbox toward live issuance and settlement.
The Bank is targeting a live synchronisation service for 2028.
It is also working toward accepting tokenized versions of assets that are already eligible collateral at central counterparties and in its own operations.
The distinction is important. The programme can help an eligible security retain its collateral role when it is tokenized. It doesn't make a new asset eligible simply because someone puts it on a digital ledger.
Europe is dealing with the same operating challenge from another direction. The ECB roadmap for tokenized finance infrastructure focuses on connecting digital wholesale markets with central bank settlement rather than treating tokenization as a standalone product.
3. The Gold Industry Is Changing The Ownership Model 2025 To 2026, United Kingdomⓘ
The World Gold Council is tackling a problem that exists before the token arrives.
Allocated gold gives an investor ownership of specific physical bars, but that precision adds operating friction. Unallocated gold trades more easily, but the investor holds a claim against an institution rather than title to specific bullion.
The proposed Pooled Gold Interest is designed to sit between those structures.
Investors would hold a beneficial interest in a pool of vaulted physical gold.
The model allows fractional ownership rather than requiring whole bars.
Linklaters developed a legal framework for issuing and transferring the interests.
Easier use of gold as collateral is one of the stated goals.
That legal structure is central to the question. A collateral taker needs more than proof that a token exists. It needs an enforceable claim on the gold if the borrower fails.
4. Shared Infrastructure Is Being Built Around The Bullion March 2026, Globalⓘ
The World Gold Council's proposed Gold as a Service platform addresses the operating layer. A gold token is only as reliable as the records connecting it to the bullion in the vault.
The proposed platform connects physical custody with digital issuance.
It would standardize reconciliation, compliance and redemption.
Token supply could be kept aligned with physical inventory records.
The World Gold Council identifies collateralized borrowing as a possible use, subject to legal enforceability, custody and market infrastructure.
That qualification does a lot of work. Digital infrastructure may make gold easier to lock, transfer and release. The lender still needs a reliable right to the asset and a practical way to turn it into cash.
5. Gold Already Has The Market Depth 2026, Globalⓘ
Gold doesn't need a token to become a liquid asset. It already trades at enormous scale.
The World Gold Council estimates roughly US$31 trillion of gold exists above ground.
More than US$15 trillion is considered investable gold across private holdings, official holdings and derivatives.
Global gold trading averaged about US$361 billion per day in 2025.
Average daily trading reached about US$488 billion in the first half of 2026.
That gives gold an advantage over many tokenized assets. There is already a deep market and established pricing. The challenge is connecting that liquidity to a digital claim that collateral takers can actually use.
6. Physical Gold Still Faces An Eligibility Gap June 2026, United Kingdomⓘ
The London Bullion Market Association is separately asking UK authorities to reconsider how gold fits within the liquidity framework.
LBMA says allocated gold held at the Bank of England can be transferred and monetized quickly.
It argues that current regulatory treatment doesn't fully reflect that practical liquidity.
LBMA wants greater recognition of gold in firms' liquidity assessments.
It also asks regulators to consider whether gold could eventually become eligible collateral for Bank of England facilities.
That exposes the biggest gap. If physical allocated gold isn't currently eligible Bank collateral, tokenizing it won't remove the policy decision that comes first.
7. Tokenized Gold Products Are Arriving Before Collateral Acceptance 2025 To 2026, Globalⓘ
Institutions are already proving that physical gold can be represented and distributed digitally. HSBC has offered tokenized gold, DBS plans tokenized physical gold for customers in Singapore, and other issuers are expanding digital bullion products and infrastructure.
NCFA's evidence base also includes Tether's US$150 million investment in Gold.com, NatGold reporting more than US$469 million in premarket token demand, the DBS initiative and a bullion platform venture between AGTech and the Hong Kong Gold Exchange.
Together, those developments show growing demand, distribution and infrastructure. They don't show that the tokens are being posted as margin to clearing houses or widely accepted under institutional financing agreements.
The next proof is a financing transaction. A regulated bank accepting tokenized gold against a real loan, credit line or margin obligation would show that the ownership structure works beyond issuance. The terms would tell us even more. Who holds the bullion? How much of its value can be borrowed against? What happens if the borrower defaults? Can the lender take control immediately?
Those are ordinary collateral questions. Tokenization changes how the asset is recorded and transferred, but it doesn't make them disappear.
This is also where gold separates from tokenized Treasuries. Government securities already function inside mature repo, margin and central bank collateral systems. Their digital versions are trying to preserve an existing function while changing how the asset moves.
Gold has deep liquidity and established institutional ownership, but a more limited role inside regulated collateral frameworks. Private banks could accept tokenized gold first, particularly where they already understand bullion custody and financing. Wider dealer use would be stronger evidence. Acceptance by a central counterparty would show that the asset can meet tougher rules for valuation, control and liquidation.
The Bank of England is another threshold entirely. LBMA is still making the case for physical gold to become eligible, so tokenized gold clearly hasn't reached that point yet.
Canada offers a useful infrastructure comparison without forcing a Canadian gold story. Project Samara tested tokenized bond issuance, trading and lifecycle management with wholesale central bank settlement. The CSA has also opened Project Tokenization to examine how tokenized products and market infrastructure fit Canadian securities law. Neither establishes tokenized gold collateral in Canada. They show the kind of coordinated legal and settlement work that has to sit underneath institutional tokenization.
Why London Has More At Stake
London isn't searching for a tokenization use case. It already is at the centre of one of the world's deepest wholesale gold markets. If the ownership, custody and regulatory pieces can be made to work together, tokenization could make existing bullion easier to move between banks, trading venues and collateral accounts. The value would come from making a large market work better, not from creating another digital asset to trade.
There is also competition. Asian financial centres are investing in bullion markets, tokenized assets and digital settlement, while major central banks are building new wholesale infrastructure. London's existing market depth is an advantage, but only if the digital version preserves the legal certainty and liquidity that made the physical market valuable in the first place.
For now, the answer remains conditional. Tokenized gold has credible building blocks and a plausible route into private wholesale collateral. What it doesn't yet have is broad institutional acceptance.
The moment to watch is not the next gold token. It is the first repeatable collateral transaction where a regulated institution is willing to rely on one.
Do you agree the evidence supports this answer?
Click Agree or Disagree. Your vote is recorded anonymously and aggregate results are tracked.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem providing education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities to thousands of members. NCFA works with industry, government, partners and affiliates to support a competitive and innovative fintech and funding sector in Canada. Join Canada’s Fintech and Funding Community or learn more at NCFA Canada.
August 10, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Regulation And Policy, Competition And Market Structure, Public Sector Policy And Industrial Strategy
FCA Expands Scale-Up Support With Five Fintechs
On August 10, 2026, ClearScore, Modulr, Teya, Urban Jungle and Zilch became the first firms regulated solely by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority to join its Scale-up Unit. These aren't startups testing whether a product works. They already operate across credit, payments, SME finance and insurance, and several are adding products, distribution channels or new markets. The FCA wants closer contact during that stage of growth, when regulatory questions and operational complexity can multiply quickly.
The FCA Is Extending Support Beyond Market Entry
The Scale-up Unitgives participating firms a dedicated regulatory contact. It can help:
Identify which regulatory processes apply to expansion plans
Coordinate discussions around formal submissions such as changes to permissions
Bring policy or supervisory specialists into early conversations about new products
The FCA also wants feedback when its own policies or supervisory processes create unintended barriers to growth or competition. That makes the programme a two-way channel where companies get earlier regulatory access, while the FCA gets evidence from companies dealing with expansion in real time.
The unit sits alongside Innovation Pathways, the Pre-Application Support Service and Early and High Growth Oversight, giving the FCA several points of contact from early product development through commercial scale. Its innovation services have supported more than 1,000 firms.
The Scale-up Unit fills more of the space after authorization, when successful firms start becoming harder to supervise and harder to change.
Five Firms Show Where Scale Gets Complicated
1. ClearScore - Credit Is Becoming A Wider Marketplace
ClearScore reported £144.7 million in 2025 revenue, up 37%, and more than 25 million users globally. Acquisitions of Aro Finance and Acre Platforms have taken it further into embedded finance, mortgages and financial product distribution, while AI is becoming more central to the platform. That means more than scaling a credit-score app. ClearScore now has to manage credit broking, mortgages, customer data, embedded distribution and AI across a larger financial marketplace.
2. Modulr - Payment Volume Raises The Stakes
Modulr processes more than 200 million transactions and over £180 billion in annualised payment value for more than 6,000 businesses. Its infrastructure supports payroll, supplier payments, collections and other finance operations where outages or control failures can affect many customers at once. Its scale problem is therefore operational as much as commercial. More volume and wider market reach increase the importance of resilience, financial crime controls and oversight of critical payment infrastructure.
3. Teya - Payments Are Turning Into An SME Finance Stack
Teya's 2026 product release extends well beyond card acceptance. Its offering now brings together payments, a business account, team cards, e-commerce tools, savings features and Teya AI. One merchant relationship can therefore span payments, cash management, spending and business data. That creates more regulatory dependencies inside a product experience designed to feel simple to the customer.
4. Urban Jungle - Distribution Is The Growth Lever
Urban Jungle says it has helped more than 300,000 UK customers and now distributes insurance both directly and through white-label partners. Its August partnership with IKEA puts Urban Jungle-powered home insurance into a much larger retail customer journey. That tests whether product design, pricing, claims and customer outcomes remain consistent when insurance is distributed through another brand rather than only through Urban Jungle's own channels.
5. Zilch - A UK Payments Business Is Expanding Into European Banking
Zilch passed 5.5 million registered customers and $200 million in annual revenue before agreeing to acquire Lithuania's Fjord Bank. Subject to regulatory approval, the deal would give Zilch a European banking licence and a base for expansion across the region. Zilch is now bringing consumer credit, payments, AI and cross-border banking into the same business. That is a very different regulatory footprint from the one it had when it entered the FCA's Regulatory Sandbox earlier in its development.
The FCA Has Already Seen What Can Go Wrong
The Scale-up Unit arrives with evidence from the FCA's own supervision. Between July 2025 and March 2026, its Early and High Growth Oversight pilot worked with 15 firms across asset management, wealth management and payments to see whether governance, risk management and controls were keeping pace with growth.
The FCA found that stronger firms invested early in boards, risk management, compliance resources and management information. Weaker examples included governance that had fallen behind business growth, too much responsibility concentrated in a few people and insufficient independent challenge.
The reality is commercial growth can arrive faster than the systems needed to govern it. The regulator's answer is earlier engagement rather than waiting for those gaps to surface through an application, incident or supervisory problem.
Regulatory Access Is Becoming Part Of The UK Scale-Up Model
The FCA isn't promising easier rules. Participation doesn't lower regulatory standards, guarantee approvals or amount to an endorsement of the firms involved.
What it is offering is earlier access to the regulator when a company is changing quickly. That could help commercially if firms can resolve regulatory questions before they delay product launches, permissions or expansion plans.
It also gives policymakers a closer view of where regulation itself creates unnecessary friction. That question is already live in Canada. Canada's competition and growth debate has increasingly focused on faster approvals, proportionate oversight and whether regulation helps challengers reach scale rather than protecting established market structures.
ClearScore, Modulr, Teya, Urban Jungle and Zilch will provide the first real test of whether that approach can deliver both: faster regulatory navigation and controls that keep pace with expansion.
Ontario's decision to join the securities passport tackles another part of the same problem where regulatory duplication can consume legal budgets, management time and capital without producing proportionately better outcomes. The FCA model goes a step further by asking whether regulators should actively help successful firms navigate the next layer of complexity.
Talking Point
Should regulatory support extend beyond startup experimentation and authorization to help established fintechs navigate the complexity that comes with rapid growth?
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
The size of the financing gets attention, but the operating model is more interesting. Decade is building a wealth-management service that can connect investment and financial data held across different institutions, analyze the client's wider financial position with AI and pair that technology with human advisers.
Clients do not have to transfer their investments to Decade first. They can connect accounts through Brazil's Open Finance system, add statements or other assets and build a consolidated view that can include investments, pensions, international holdings and real estate. Decade currently charges R$200 per month (approx $54 CAD) on an annual plan for its Decade Intelligence service and is admitting customers gradually.
Brazil's Open Investment Rails Change The Wealth Model
The regulatory infrastructure underneath Decade is important. Brazil expanded Open Finance into investments through Open Investment, allowing customers to authorize the sharing of investment information held across participating financial institutions.
The Central Bank of Brazil specifically identified faster consolidation of investments held with different custodians as one of the benefits. Today the data that can be shared includes stocks, ETFs, investment funds, government bonds, debentures and several types of fixed-income securities.
That creates a different competitive starting point for wealthtech. A new adviser can potentially understand more of a client's portfolio without first winning custody of every asset. The client relationship, data layer and asset custody no longer have to all be tied to the same institution.
Decade's privacy policy shows how that works in practice. Customer-authorized Open Finance data is received through Iniciador Instituição de Pagamento Ltda., a payment institution authorized by the Central Bank and participating in Open Finance. Decade can then consolidate and analyze the information inside its own service without becoming the custodian of those investments.
AI Works Across The Financial Picture
Decade's product combines continuous monitoring with human advice. The company says its AI can monitor markets and portfolios around the clock, identify high fees and tax inefficiencies, review spending and cash flow, run investment simulations and retain context from previous client interactions.
Each client can also work with a human adviser. Decade positions the AI as the analytical layer and the adviser as the source of judgment, explanation and support around decisions.
That makes the model more substantial than a robo-adviser that simply recommends a portfolio. The platform is trying to work across investments, spending, taxes, financial goals and assets held elsewhere while keeping a person in the advisory relationship.
The approach also extends a direction already visible in AI-supported wealth management. Technology can expand the amount of portfolio analysis and monitoring available to advisers without removing the human adviser from the service.
The US$85M Bet Still Needs Client Evidence
The founders bring unusually relevant experience. CEO Vitor Olivier was an early Nubank engineer who later became its CTO, while Head of AI Felipe Meneses founded financial-services AI company Hyperplane before Nubank acquired it. Decade says Olivier previously worked in wealth management at BTG Pactual.
But the financing is well ahead of the operating proof. Access remains limited, and Decade has not disclosed client numbers, assets advised, retention, portfolio outcomes or how much of the service customers use through AI versus human advisers.
The regulatory perimeter is also still developing. Decade's website states that Decade Asset Management Ltda. is in the process of obtaining CVM accreditation and joining ANBIMA's third-party asset-management codes. The current service therefore should not be described as Decade taking custody of or independently managing client assets.
The larger opportunity is clearer. Brazil's regulators have already created a way for investment data to travel with the customer. Decade is testing whether a new wealth company can use that access to compete for advice and financial intelligence before it competes for custody.
Talking Point
If Open Investment lets customers bring a consolidated view of their portfolios to a new adviser without moving the underlying assets, does custody remain the main competitive advantage in wealth management or does intelligence around the assets become more valuable?
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
August 7, 2026 | NCFA Market Activity | Artificial Intelligence And Data, Cybersecurity And Fraud, Risk Compliance And Regtech
Coding Agents Get Cheaper And More Competitive
On August 5, 2026, Meta released Muse Code in beta, a terminal-based coding agent that can plan changes, write code, validate results and divide larger jobs among parallel sub-agents across software repositories.
The timing of the announcement is more interesting than the launch alone. In less than three weeks, Moonshot released the 2.8-trillion-parameter Kimi K3 as an open-weight model built for reasoning and long-horizon coding, OpenAI cut the price of GPT-5.6 Luna by 80%, DeepSeek launched V4-Flash at $0.14 per million input tokens and Alibaba unveiled the 2.4-trillion-parameter Qwen3.8-Max.
Coding agents are taking on more of the engineering job while the models underneath them are getting cheaper and easier to mix and match.
For fintechs and financial institutions, that makes the buying decision less about which model tops a benchmark and more about what useful work gets completed, at what cost and under which controls.
2.4T parameters; 1M-token context; 95B parameters active per request
Alibaba expanded the open-weight option for large-context and agentic workloads while using a mixture-of-experts design to reduce compute requirements per request.
Meta entered long-running agentic coding with parallel sub-agents and a persistent activity log.
The price cuts do not mean every engineering job is suddenly cheap. Agentic work can consume substantially more compute because agents inspect repositories, call tools, run tests, retry failed work and sometimes launch other agents.
Cursor has already changed its pricing around that reality. It says a difficult agent request can consume an order of magnitude more tokens than a simple request, such as a syntax question. In June, Cursor also introduced a $120 monthly Premium team seat with five times the included usage of its $40 Standard seat and added stronger spend alerts for administrators.
That makes cost per million tokens a weak buying metric on its own. A fintech should care more about the cost of a completed engineering task after model calls, retries, testing and developer review.
The Agent And The Model Are Starting To Separate
Another important change is that choosing a coding environment no longer always means committing to one model provider.
Qwen Code is an open-source terminal agent that supports OpenAI-, Anthropic- and Gemini-compatible APIs, Alibaba Cloud, other providers and bring-your-own API keys. GitHub Copilot and Cursor also offer access to multiple models inside their development environments.
That creates two buying decisions. Which agent should work with the codebase, and which model should do the reasoning underneath it. A financial firm could use one managed development interface while selecting different models for cost, capability or internal risk requirements.
Open-weight does not mean free. The firm still has to pay to run the model or provide the computing infrastructure, monitoring and security needed to operate it itself. Commercial terms are also evolving. Alibaba is reportedly preparing revenue-sharing requirements for some large commercial users of Qwen3.8-Max, following a similar approach used by Moonshot for Kimi K3.
Cursor asks firms to make AI more central to the development environment.
Muse Code is too new to put in the same enterprise-maturity category. Its price and multi-agent design are competitive.
Meta still has to show how it performs inside real development teams and which administrative controls follow the beta.
Qwen Code offers a different choice. Firms can keep the coding interface more portable and compete the model layer separately, which becomes more valuable when model prices can fall 80% in a matter of weeks.
For Financial Firms, Access Is Part Of The Product
A coding agent becomes more useful as it gains permission to read repositories, edit files, run commands, call tools and execute tests. Those permissions also increase the consequences of an incorrect instruction, compromised dependency or bad code change.
For financial firms, security and oversight need to be part of the comparison alongside coding quality. That includes who can access the agent, what repositories it can reach, what activity gets logged, how data is handled, whether code is used to train models, what networks it can connect to and how spending is controlled.
The market is changing quickly. Open-weight models are pushing down prices, coding tools can increasingly work with more than one model, and agents are taking on larger jobs that make simple token-price comparisons less useful.
Banks and fintechs should be prudent and practical. How much usable engineering work did the agent complete, what did it cost, how often did a developer need to step in and did the work stay within the firm’s security and approval rules?
Talking Point
As coding agents and models become easier to mix and match, should financial firms standardize on one managed platform or keep the agent, model and infrastructure layers separate so each can compete on capability, cost and control?
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. 
