The UK government plans to give the Bank of England a new statutory objective to support innovation in payments and digital money, while the European Central Bank is developing infrastructure for settling tokenised assets in central bank money.
Elsewhere, the Bundesbank has called for closer integration between Wero and the digital euro, FV Bank has launched regulated account infrastructure for fintech companies, and stablecoin-linked card spending has exceeded $1 billion in a single month.
Here are the main developments in today’s FinTech Daily Digest.
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UK plans payments-innovation objective for the Bank of England
The British government intends to introduce a new secondary objective requiring the Bank of England to support innovation in payment systems and digital forms of money.
The proposed mandate would cover areas including stablecoins, tokenised assets and the modernisation of payment infrastructure. Financial stability would remain the Bank’s primary objective.
The change is expected to be introduced through the forthcoming Financial Services and Markets Bill. According to current reports, the Bank would also be required to explain how it is supporting the new objective.
The proposal follows concerns from parts of the financial and cryptocurrency industries that the UK’s cautious regulatory approach could weaken its competitiveness as other jurisdictions establish frameworks for stablecoin issuance and digital-asset infrastructure.
It would not require the Bank of England to approve individual technologies or relax its financial-stability standards. Instead, innovation would become an explicit consideration when the central bank develops and supervises payment policy.
That distinction is important. The proposal is not stablecoin deregulation, but a change in the institutional balance the Bank must consider when setting its approach.
The Bank of England already shares responsibility for the UK’s developing stablecoin regime with the Financial Conduct Authority. The Bank is expected to oversee systemic sterling stablecoins, while the FCA will regulate other issuers and related conduct requirements.
The proposed objective could influence how those rules develop and how the UK approaches tokenised deposits, wholesale settlement and other forms of digital money.
Sources: Reuters, Bank of England payments-innovation overview
ECB outlines infrastructure for Europe’s tokenised financial market
The European Central Bank is developing a two-part strategy intended to let tokenised financial markets settle transactions using central bank money.
In a speech delivered at a Deutsche Bundesbank symposium, ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said the Eurosystem is moving from experimentation towards infrastructure capable of supporting tokenised finance at scale.
The first part of the strategy involves connecting distributed-ledger platforms to the Eurosystem’s existing TARGET Services. This could allow transactions involving tokenised assets to settle against central bank money without requiring the entire financial system to migrate immediately to a new technical environment.
The second, longer-term track would explore infrastructure in which tokenised assets and central bank money can be exchanged through a shared or interoperable platform.
The distinction matters because issuing a security on a blockchain does not, by itself, create a complete financial market. Banks and investment firms still need reliable mechanisms for settlement, liquidity management, custody, ownership records and compliance.
Central bank money plays an important role in reducing settlement risk between regulated financial institutions.
Cipollone also warned that tokenisation could reproduce the fragmentation already affecting parts of Europe’s capital markets. Separate private platforms, incompatible technical standards and differing national legal frameworks could result in isolated pools of assets and liquidity.
The ECB therefore wants financial institutions, infrastructure companies and public authorities to develop common standards and interoperable systems.
The strategy suggests that the Eurosystem now views tokenisation as more than an experimental technology. Its focus is shifting towards the permanent public infrastructure required for tokenised securities and wholesale financial transactions.
Source: European Central Bank speech
Bundesbank proposes connecting Wero with the digital euro
The digital euro and Wero should work together rather than develop as competing European payment systems, according to Bundesbank Executive Board member Lutz Lienenkämper.
One possible model would be to integrate the digital euro directly into the Wero wallet.
Wero, developed by the European Payments Initiative, currently offers person-to-person transfers and online payments in selected European markets. It is backed by a group of European banks and payment providers.
The digital euro would serve a different purpose. It is being developed as a digital form of central bank money that could be used by individuals and businesses alongside cash and commercial-bank payment services.
Integrating the two could allow customers to access both bank-funded payments and digital central bank money through the same wallet.
That could also reduce the risk of duplicated infrastructure. If Wero and the digital euro are introduced through separate applications, merchant integrations and acceptance networks, banks and businesses could face higher implementation costs while consumers would need to adopt two different services.
Closer integration could strengthen the reach of European payment alternatives at a time when cards and digital wallets operated by non-European companies continue to dominate many markets.
However, the Bundesbank’s statement is currently a policy recommendation, not a formal agreement between the Eurosystem and the European Payments Initiative.
Wero reports 57 million registered users across Belgium, France and Germany, with expansion into the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Austria under development.
Source: WELT/DPA report
FV Bank launches direct account infrastructure for fintechs
FV Bank has launched Global Managed Accounts, an embedded-banking service designed to let fintech and payment companies offer branded accounts through the bank’s regulated infrastructure.
Under the model, eligible end customers receive individual underlying accounts. FV Bank remains responsible for regulated account provision and several compliance and operational functions, including:
This differs from structures in which a fintech holds one pooled account and manages customer balances internally.
Pooled and nested arrangements can make it more difficult for the underlying bank to identify individual customers and understand their transactions. That can create compliance and risk-management concerns, particularly when several intermediaries sit between the bank and the final account holder.
FV Bank is positioning direct customer visibility as part of the product. The fintech controls the branded customer experience, while the bank retains responsibility for the regulated account and its associated compliance framework.
The launch reflects a broader change in banking-as-a-service. The sector is moving away from lightly supervised middleware models towards infrastructure in which licensed banks maintain closer control over customer accounts, monitoring and payment flows.
FV Bank is licensed in Puerto Rico and provides conventional banking services alongside digital-asset custody and stablecoin-related infrastructure.
Sources: FV Bank, launch announcement
Stablecoin-card spending passes $1 billion in one month
Global spending through stablecoin-linked payment cards exceeded $1 billion in July 2026, according to Paymentscan data cited by Reuters.
Stablecoin cards allow customers to spend cryptocurrency balances at merchants operating through conventional card networks. The merchant does not generally need to accept a stablecoin directly: the balance is converted as part of the payment process, and the business receives conventional currency through its existing card-acceptance infrastructure.
This makes cards an important bridge between stablecoin balances and everyday commerce.
More than $10.9 billion has reportedly been spent through stablecoin-linked cards cumulatively, with July setting a new monthly record.
RedotPay, a Hong Kong-based stablecoin payments company, predicts that annual card spending could reach $50 billion by 2028. The forecast should be treated separately from observed transaction data because it represents the company’s projection rather than a confirmed market outcome.
RedotPay reports more than eight million users and annualised total payment volume above $14 billion. That broader figure includes top-ups as well as card purchases and therefore should not be interpreted as completed merchant spending alone.
Adoption is reportedly particularly strong in Latin America and Africa, where users may already hold stablecoins and face expensive or unreliable cross-border payments, currency conversion or access to conventional international cards.
The figures show how blockchain-based balances can reach consumers through familiar payment products. Users may fund their spending with stablecoins, while merchants continue accepting transactions through existing card networks without changing their checkout systems.
What today’s developments mean
Today’s announcements show central banks, regulated financial institutions and fintech companies addressing different layers of the same transition.
The UK wants innovation to become an explicit part of the Bank of England’s payments mandate. The ECB is designing central-bank settlement infrastructure for tokenised markets, while the Bundesbank is considering how two major European retail-payment initiatives could work together.
In the private sector, FV Bank is bringing embedded finance more directly under bank-controlled account and compliance infrastructure. Stablecoin cards, meanwhile, are allowing consumers to use blockchain-based balances through conventional payment networks.
The technologies differ, but the direction is increasingly consistent: digital assets and new forms of money are being connected to regulated accounts, central-bank infrastructure and familiar payment experiences rather than developing as entirely separate financial systems.
