UK fintech investment has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, even as global funding increases and capital flows toward companies connected to artificial intelligence.
Today’s FinTech Daily Digest also examines Binance’s new infrastructure for AI trading agents, Stripe’s expansion into business money management in Australia, preliminary approval for a new digital bank in Egypt and a wider partnership between Bank of China Hong Kong and Ant International.
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UK fintech funding falls to its lowest level in a decade
UK fintech companies attracted £1.8 billion across 205 transactions during the first half of 2026, according to new KPMG figures based on PitchBook data.
Investment fell by almost two-thirds from approximately £5 billion during the same period of 2025. Deal activity also weakened, with the combined number of mergers and acquisitions, private-equity transactions and venture-capital rounds declining from 281 to 205.
This represents the lowest UK fintech investment total in at least a decade.
The decline is particularly notable because it contrasts with the wider global market. Worldwide fintech investment reportedly increased from £37.1 billion in the first half of 2025 to £75.8 billion during the equivalent period in 2026.
The UK remains the largest fintech investment market in Europe, but its relative dominance has weakened. It accounted for approximately 22% of EMEA fintech investment during H1 2026, compared with 68% at the end of 2025.
AI-related fintech investment resists the decline
Companies associated with artificial intelligence performed considerably better than the wider UK fintech sector.
AI-related fintech businesses received £445 million across 79 transactions, representing approximately one-quarter of all UK fintech funding during the six-month period. This was higher than the £382 million invested across 67 AI-related deals in H1 2025.
The figures indicate that investors are not withdrawing from fintech uniformly. Instead, capital is becoming concentrated in selected areas that are perceived to offer defensible technology, infrastructure or long-term growth.
This reflects a wider shift away from funding businesses primarily on rapid customer acquisition and projected scale. Investors are increasingly looking for sustainable margins, differentiated technology and clearer routes to profitability.
The updated KPMG report was not yet reliably available through the consultancy’s public website at the time of publication. The figures have been attributed to KPMG by multiple financial and fintech publications.
Sources: Finextra and The Business Times
Binance launches an operating system for AI trading agents
Binance has launched Agent OS, a developer platform designed to connect compatible AI applications with the company’s trading, market-data, wallet, payment and blockchain infrastructure.
The platform combines several existing and new Binance services:
The company says Agent OS is intended to reduce fragmentation by giving developers a shared platform rather than requiring them to build separate integrations for every service.
What can an authorised AI agent do?
Subject to user permissions, account eligibility and regional availability, compatible agents can access several categories of functionality.
They can read market information such as tickers, order books, candlestick data and funding rates without authentication.
After receiving the necessary authorisation, an agent can also check balances and positions within an agentic sub-account. It may be given permission to trade through supported spot, margin, Convert and futures products.
Agents can also transfer funds between wallets associated with the agentic sub-account—for example, moving assets from a spot wallet into a futures wallet.
Binance says users remain responsible for deciding which permissions an application receives.
Automated trading introduces higher risks
Agent OS represents a significant extension of the agentic-finance trend seen across the industry.
Amazon Web Services recently made infrastructure for AI-agent payments generally available, while companies such as Stripe, Coinbase and Natural are developing billing, wallet and credit products for autonomous software.
Binance is bringing similar functionality into digital-asset trading and fund management. This is a materially higher-risk application because an incorrectly configured, manipulated or unreliable agent could potentially execute trades or move money.
User-controlled permissions are therefore only one layer of protection. The practical safety of an application will also depend on how developers configure access scopes, trading limits, approval requirements and monitoring systems.
Read Binance’s Agent OS announcement
Stripe launches Treasury for Australian businesses
Stripe has launched its Treasury platform in Australia, allowing businesses to accept payments, hold and convert funds, and pay recipients internationally through a single dashboard.
Australian companies can use Stripe Treasury to hold balances in Australian dollars, US dollars, British pounds and euros. The service supports instant conversion between ten currencies, including Hong Kong dollars, Singapore dollars and New Zealand dollars.
Stripe says businesses using the service can gain immediate access to revenue received through its payment platform. They can then use those funds to pay suppliers, contractors and other recipients in nearly 100 countries without first waiting for the money to settle into an external bank account.
The company argues that this can eliminate unnecessary currency conversions and reduce delays created by maintaining multiple banking and payment-provider relationships.
Later in 2026, Australian platforms will also be able to offer financial accounts to their own customers through Stripe Treasury for Platforms.
Stripe moves closer to business banking
The launch takes Stripe beyond its original role as an online payment processor.
A company using Stripe Treasury can accept revenue, maintain balances, exchange currencies and make international payouts from the same environment. This begins to resemble the functionality offered by business-account providers and transaction banks.
The expansion places Stripe in closer competition with traditional banks, Wise Business, Revolut Business and other fintech companies seeking to become the main financial operating platform for internationally active businesses.
The Australian launch also follows Stripe’s announcement that it will acquire AI model-routing platform OpenRouter. Together, the two developments demonstrate the company’s broader ambition to control more of the financial and operational infrastructure used by digital businesses.
Read Stripe’s Australian announcement
CIB receives preliminary approval for Yomo digital bank in Egypt
Commercial International Bank has received preliminary approval from the Central Bank of Egypt to establish a new digitally native bank called Yomo.
The approval allows CIB to begin preparing the proposed bank’s technology, operations and customer services under Egypt’s regulatory framework for digital banks.
CIB has reportedly committed $300 million to the project and appointed Rashwan Hammady as Yomo’s chief executive.
A full launch, reportedly targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026, remains subject to final regulatory clearance. The preliminary approval should therefore not be interpreted as permission to begin full commercial banking operations immediately.
Another bank-owned digital challenger
Yomo is an example of an established financial institution creating a separately branded digital bank rather than delivering every new service through its existing organisation.
This model allows an incumbent to develop a new technology platform and customer experience while benefiting from the parent bank’s capital, regulatory expertise and established infrastructure.
Egypt introduced its specialised digital-bank framework in 2023. The preliminary approval for Yomo indicates that this framework is now producing new regulated institutions rather than remaining largely theoretical.
For CIB, the project could provide a way to reach digitally active consumers and smaller businesses through a proposition designed without the legacy processes associated with a conventional bank.
Sources: CIB’s announcement through the London Stock Exchange and FinTech Futures
Bank of China Hong Kong and Ant International expand their payments partnership
Bank of China Hong Kong and Ant International have formed a wider strategic partnership covering cross-border payments, treasury management and technology-supported financial services.
The agreement expands a relationship between the two companies that began in 2013.
BOCHK will provide account and settlement infrastructure to support Alipay+ cross-border payments in Southeast Asia. Alipay+ connects multiple mobile wallets and payment applications to an international merchant network.
The companies also plan to improve cross-border payment and treasury services for customers of WorldFirst, Ant International’s business payments platform.
Another part of the agreement involves Bettr, Ant International’s embedded-finance and lending business. BOCHK and Ant will explore funding and banking services designed to support small and medium-sized businesses.
Future cooperation could include AI-powered treasury tools, real-time liquidity management, tokenised deposits and other blockchain-based settlement services.
Banks and fintech platforms become more interdependent
The partnership illustrates the increasingly complementary relationship between established banks and large financial-technology platforms.
Ant International provides digital distribution, payment connectivity and technology through products such as Alipay+, WorldFirst and Bettr. BOCHK contributes regulated accounts, settlement services, liquidity and banking infrastructure.
Rather than one side replacing the other, both companies are using their respective strengths to expand cross-border financial services.
Read the official BOCHK–Ant International announcement
Nationwide introduces free credit-score access
Nationwide Building Society has introduced a free credit-score service through its mobile application and online banking platform.
Customers can check their score without affecting their credit profile and access information explaining some of the factors that influence it.
Nationwide plans to expand the service with additional educational content designed to improve customers’ understanding of credit and financial wellbeing.
The launch follows Experian’s recent upgrade to its ChatGPT app, which allows authenticated UK users to access their personalised Experian Credit Score inside the AI platform.
The two products use different distribution models. Experian is embedding authenticated financial information inside an external AI assistant, while Nationwide is keeping the experience within its existing app and online-banking environment.
Both developments nevertheless point toward the same trend: credit scores are becoming a regular customer-engagement feature rather than information consulted only when someone applies for a mortgage, loan or credit card.
For banks, providing continuous access to credit information could increase app engagement and create opportunities to support future lending and product recommendations.
Read Nationwide’s announcement
X reportedly considers stablecoin payments for creators
X is reportedly exploring the possibility of paying creators and other content providers using stablecoins.
Circle’s USDC is understood to be among the options under discussion, but X has not confirmed a partnership, selected a token or announced a launch date.
Important operational details—including custody, wallet verification, fees, currency conversion and the treatment of mistaken transfers—also remain unknown.
Stablecoin payouts could eventually allow X to compensate creators across borders without relying entirely on conventional banking infrastructure. However, the current information describes preliminary discussions rather than a confirmed product.
The story should therefore not be interpreted as an announced X–Circle partnership or an imminent USDC rollout.
The wider picture
Three developments stand out from today’s news.
First, fintech investment is becoming more selective. The UK experienced a severe overall funding decline, while AI-related companies attracted a growing share of the remaining capital.
Second, agentic finance is progressing from information and payment tools into higher-risk activities. Binance Agent OS gives authorised AI applications access to trading and fund-management functions, making governance and permission controls increasingly important.
Finally, the boundaries between payments, banking and business-account infrastructure continue to blur. Stripe is adding balances, currency conversion and international payouts, while Ant International is connecting its platforms more deeply to the regulated infrastructure of an established bank.
