Episode 273: News From The Fintech Front (January 2026)

Speaker A: This is the European edition of Breaking Banks, the world's number one fintech podcast and radio show. I am Matteo Rizzi. I am Elizabeth Kleinfeld. I am Don Genzel. And together we bring you the unicorns, startups, founders, regulators and leaders innovating the rapidly evolving financial services sector. Today, a truly globalized show with some of the world's most well known thought leaders and new voices in the fintech sector and beyond. Join us every month as we explore what makes Europe a phenomenal proving ground for many of the fastest growing players in the world today. Okay, let's roll. Hey guys. Welcome back to Breaking Banks Europe. This is the first episode of 2026, another year with us. It is also episode number 273. Yes, you heard it correctly. I am Matteo Rizzi, the executive producer of the show and I'm here with my longtime friend Rodrigo Garcia de la Cruz, president and founding member of the Global Fintech Alliance. Rodrigo, bienvenido.

Speaker B: Mucha gracias. Thank you very much for this, uh, for the invitation. The best way to start in the year is with this first episode of the 2026. So thank you very much.

Speaker A: Rodri, you and I go way back together but just share with our audience uh, your story. You not only have one title, I saw you with at least two or three different and we didn't work together in the past. So please tell us your story.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So I've been related with the fintech industry from long time, long time. In fact I was uh, one of the founders and the president of the Spanish Fintech and InsurTech Association. One year later I was the first president and founder of the Iberian American Fintech Alliance. Two years later I was one of the founders of the European association, the European Digital Finance association. And um, two years ago I decided to connect all the fintech National Fintech association not only from Europe and Latin America, but also from Africa, Asia and other regions like MENA to create this global fintech alliance. This is more institutional role but I also have uh, finnovating that is um, matchmaking B2B fintech and insuretech platform. Um, also I have uh, other roles like investing in fintechs and uh, I launched uh, three different masters in fintech and insurtech here in Spain in different schools. So I've been connecting and doing a lot of things in this amazing world of fintechs and digital banks.

Speaker A: Actually before we start, uh, uh, sort of discussing a little bit of uh, what happened in the past, uh, uh, you know, couple of weeks in the fintech world. I actually want to ask you a question. Like a more generic uh, uh, is not really a question but is uh, like a sharing uh your view on uh, building ecosystems. Right, because that's something that you have been doing for the past, I uh, want to say 20 years, ish, more or less. You know Fintech is uh, I want to say roughly 15 years old. The way that everybody is uh, you know, thinking of it, you know, back then it was way more complicated and you have this very particular experience in uh, truly have seen ecosystems from Latin America to Africa to Asia to Middle east to Europe. Uh, you know it's uh, is this uh, like a uh, trend or is the way you develop an ecosystem changed? You know and I'm just curious about uh, if uh like two or three lessons that you, that you learned.

Speaker B: For me, ecosystems is the probably the most difficult thing to do. As you also know Matteo, you also know we have been fighting uh, in this world a lot of time and it's quite complex. But on the other side the most important thing because every single company, uh, even in their own markets, they need to connect with the stakeholders for regulation, for investment, uh, for talent, for everything. However, if you want to go outside of your natural uh, or your national country, you need uh, more and more to connect with ecosystems. This is why it's so important. And if we see how the fintech has been evolved, we see that most of the companies and most of the fintechs needs to go out, needs to grow abroad. So this is why ecosystems are so, so important.

Speaker A: Actually it's funny because uh, the first thing I wanted to ask to share with the audience uh, is actually this uh, news that uh, I believe is from the past week that Nubank just got uh, a banking license in the US and it's super interesting because it took uh, I don't know, 120 something days, uh, which is still like four months. But uh, for uh, uh, for a regulator is like uh, a snap of a finger. At the same time it looks like Nubank, a Brazilian bank, uh succeeded where a bunch of others failed. Monzo Revolut. They haven't failed maybe, but they certainly are still in process. Some of them like number 26 purely gave up and for another it's been a challenge. Why do you think is because nubank is really too big to be ignored or we are speculating a bit but you know, for the sake of it.

Speaker B: Yeah. So the Nubank is an amazing um, case in I think worldwide, uh probably some of the people that are Listening. Uh, uh, this breaking news, they don't know about it but they are like revolut, uh, in Latin America they are huge. Um, and now they have for example the value of the third Spanish bank in terms of the market. So that's something we have to take care about it. And probably as you mentioned they are too big. Also they have a very good uh, fund because they are public. Um, and it's really interesting. 100, uh, 21 days sometimes in Europe is 121 months to get the license. So that's amazing. We have to, if we see the piece of news we see that is a conditional approval meaning that they must satisfy operational and regulation conditions in terms of risk management compliance and leadership team. However, I think it's a very good uh, I want to say piece of news in terms of we are here uh, and we are also open ah now to give a license and bank charter for other big uh.

Speaker A: Yeah, you know actually Rodrigo, something that is interesting that maybe our audience, they, they don't know or they haven't realized. You know, nubank invested uh, as well in Time Bank. So Time bank is an African neo bank based out of South Africa but also could be very strong presence out of Singapore. Actually headquartered in, in, in Singapore but super strong presence uh, uh, in South Africa and of course expanding very quickly. I had the honor to uh, speak with one of the co founders at last Singapore, uh, Fintech Festival. So it is talking about uh, expanding a presence in different ecosystems. Here we have uh, a Brazilian uh, specialist in financial inclusion that is basically super well placed to play a great role in a global south, you know, Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia. And the reason why in my humble, super humble opinion they, they got a US License is because the dollar is very often still the money, the currency of exchange, you know, so they say in and if I had to bet some money. And this is actually a great segue for our next uh news I want to discuss. Stablecoin is going to be their next move because uh, uh, these guys are so fast. They understand emerging markets, uh, they understand the multiple currencies. So I suspect that that could be a good next move. What do you think?

Speaker B: Yeah, and 100% uh, align with you. The thing is it's very curious to understand how nubank goes to, to your states, uh, when they are the financial inclusion leaders, why you are going to be to a mature uh, market, why you. Maybe you can go, obviously they are, they are in Mexico, but you can go to Africa, you can go to Asia. Why you are going to be to go one of the most uh, mature markets in the world, that is the United States. Uh, but I think you know the investors that they put a real, you know, a big amount of money they are thinking about we are going to create the real, the real, the unique digital bank in the States. Uh, um, because they put their money from the states. So, so that's the first reason and the second reason is what you mentioned. We are going to use the dollar we are used to and we are going to also leverage in the, in the stable coins for sure 100% aligned

Speaker A: and actually is a good segue for as I was saying for the next few years. I want to discuss and is the fact that the Cross river bank, which is a US I would call it infrastructure bank, so it's uh, of course fully licensed but it was built to serve the fintechs. And actually interesting enough, the CEO and the founder of Cross river bank is a guy called Gilles Gade. Uh, I know him for probably I don't know, 15 years. Uh, I still remember he went to Cybos, you know the Swift event to speak. I think it was in my panel and we connected and uh, today they are launching a stable coin infrastructure so that the Cross river clients uh, they can use it to actually move money from uh, on chain, off chain. And uh, you know the. Here is. I, I'm actually surprised that more banks haven't uh, done it yet. Of course is is not that simple but uh, if one bank does it, they actually reunited they reunite two essential components of this business which is the liquidity and the Rails. You know usually all these uh, like African startups for example that launch uh, you know a Stablecoin uh, uh payment business, uh, they just build with Rails then and then they work you know to have a bunch of liquidity pools to be able to you know, afford the crypto. The stablecoin Sufia. Sorry in the, you know, as the last meter. Right. But if a bank does it, oh my God, you know they, they have one stop, uh, one stop shop. And I know, I mean this is not Europe, uh but uh, I suspect that if this works once a lot of bank will follow and second they will have uh, repercussions on the business outside of the US because we all know that uh stablecoin enables transaction where currency is a critical factor. Right?

Speaker B: Absolutely. I think you mentioned that uh there is going to be a mirror in Europe. Absolutely. Always there is um, there is a case or the first leader that is launching uh, a new initiative and the rest are going to go through this initiative. For me I think the big shift is that they move uh, from a crypto product to a banking structure. As you mentioned before, um, that's for me the critic, um, success. Um, the key point uh, is that they are doing the hard part because embedding on chain payments into a banking core is for me it's more important. But if you are doing it with a real compliance and operational controls, that's the most important thing. On the other side, um, we have to see and I uh, encourage all the members of this channel that let's look for the use cases that are going to scale first. If there are going to be remittances, is there going to be B2B cross borders, uh, is there going to be using payout platforms? Because once you have the infrastructure you need to look for what is going to be the first product. On the other side we have also because probably the European banks, the regulated, the European banks and financial industry, uh, they are going to see the risk to be managed, you know, the cash to the, the anti money laundering, uh, the, the counterpart rigs, et cetera, et cetera. All you know the, the, the, the, the, the risk management is going to be followed by, by, by the European guys.

Speaker A: Actually you know just before this uh, episode I just you know um, uh, I sent a WhatsApp to Giro and uh, we will tag him, you know on this, on this, on this episode. Let's see if we can invite him uh, to uh, talk a little bit about his infrastructure. And I also checked that there is the head of crypto. He's a fellow Italian guy from uh, Rome and I also connected him on LinkedIn. So let's see how this uh, evolves. Rodrigo, let's switch to Europe. At the end of the day we're still in breaking banks Europe here. And um, I wanted there is a piece of. It's not really news, it's a piece of data which is interesting. Uh, and uh, is comparing the funding going to the French and the German ecosystem, uh last year which is roughly kind of the same like in the region of a couple of billion, I want to say 2.4 and 2.6 but the numbers are not important. What's important is where did this money go. So in France it was more like a very big rounds, you know, so it was like a much more uh, you know, seldom, seldomly sort of uh, distributed. And in Germany it was more like spread into multiple startups uh, as if you know, as a witness of the resilience of a higher resilience of the market. You know, German fintech has never been, you know, number 26. Great. Uh, Solaris bank back in the days I believe that uh, if you remember, you know. M. Uh, ah, the name escapes me, but this uh, the founder of Solaris bank, uh, Rocket um, Internet is right Was it Rocket Internet. So this, it's, it was uh, they were innovative in a way of building uh, startup differently and feeder bank. You know, our friend, uh, you know Matthias, you know and actually Matthias is one of, probably one of the biggest innovator you know. And uh, hey Matthias, I know you're listening to this and he's a fellow, he's also a fellow podcaster here at uh, Breaking Banks Europe. Uh, but then France, uh, you know, very different huge unicorns. So you might actually have a little bit of an insight, you know, in uh, in between these two different ecosystems and maybe there are others you want, you want to mention.

Speaker B: M. Yeah, that's complicated to compare France and Germans. But I think it's a question of culture, a uh, question of targets. Um, I have a very good relationship with the guys M. Fintech guys from both countries. But there is something interesting in France. You know, the, the president of France wanted to have 30 unicorns, fintech unicorns before 2030.

Speaker A: I didn't know that. Okay, interesting.

Speaker B: So they really have a strategy to have unicorns. So and when the president of a nation is going to say that, you know, and, and France is really good connected and protected and you know, you are launching uh, um, an advice and a call to the rest of the course.

Speaker A: It's like you're launching a trend, right? The unicorns trend.

Speaker B: Yeah, the unicorn trend. So they are putting the focus on the unicorns. Um, and these are rates. We can have different rates and different. Um. That is a very good way to understand this. Uh, because it's a culture for me it's a question of we have to, to manage the unicorn. The fintech unicorns in Europe. So this is why. And obviously maybe the way of the finance in France are more agile, more competing, more uh, looking for crowded markets more even B2C or B2B or B2B 2B. But at the end there are a huge market on the other side we see the Germans are more, as you mentioned, resilient, building hard tech with long cycles, more focus on validation know, more focus on.

Speaker A: So, so.

Speaker B: So this is why more they are more spread in. In the, in the, in the. In the industry and, and obviously probably the The Germans are more. How to say. Relax.

Speaker A: Oh, okay. I, I wanted to stay consistent. Consistent in a sense.

Speaker B: And that was the word. Thank you, Matteo.

Speaker A: Thank you. Oh, okay.

Speaker B: But anyway, I, I, I propose you to invite Matias and uh, me to another, you know.

Speaker A: Uh, but yeah, let's do, yeah, let's, let's do the comeback of the Titans or something, right? Or the OG is meeting. Why not? It's funny. Could be funny. Um, listen, I think that Revolut is actually doing a great job, uh, recently because uh, it is hard to uh, make uh, uh, a podcast on fintech news without mentioning anything that happens on Revolut because they are actually coming out, uh, almost every month, if not twice a month, uh, with the news. It actually makes a difference. It makes a difference. Um, and I have a story behind the news I'm about to share, which is the fact that Revolut just got the license in Mexico, which is a country that you know super well by the way. And you know what's funny is that the CEO of Revolut Mexico is uh, I think is Luis Guerra Davila, I'm pretty sure Luis Guerra. And uh, I don't want to edit it. Uh, I am sure about Guerra. I'm not super sure about the first name, but hey hermanito, uh, you will know that I'm talking about you because he actually came uh, to inno tribe almost 15 years ago with his own startup that was uh, I believe was dealing with student loans back then. And all of a sudden, almost 10 years later I saw him, uh, as a CEO of uh, uh, Revolut Mexico. And now the news came out that they got the license. Now it's not as, uh, uh, how do you say it, maybe it doesn't have the same financial weight, the nubank getting a license in the US but hey, Revolut getting a license in Mexico, opening up to all Latin America. What do you think?

Speaker B: Yeah, that's, that's uh, I didn't want him to mention before because we were talking about Nubank, but uh, you know, there is like a, uh, competition between these two guys that is going to be followed by the rest of the second tier Neobanks because we see, we see Nubank going to the north, from Brazil to the north. But uh, when is going to jump to Europe? Probably very, very, very, very soon. Why? Because Revolut is going to the Latin market. So if Revolut take the decision to go to Mexico, that is the second market in Latin America. Uh, uh, um, this is not the war because this is not the war, this is open markets. But this is the real competition not between, you know, the neobanks and the banks. This is the competition between um, the own neobanks. And that's amazing. Last week I was in Colombia and most of the people that they don't know Revolut.

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker B: These are not Revolut because in Europe it's like, oh, Revolut. I have, you know, my tattoo of Revolut.

Speaker A: No, no.

Speaker B: But they are going to go there and they are going to do it really, really well. And the most amazing thing is let's follow the both big guys in Europe and Latin America competing in the first market that is going to be Mexico. Both are going to be competing uh, in the same market for the first time and we will see who is going to grow more, who is how, because both has amazing customer experience, amazing products, probably the best in the world. So we will see, you know, who is going to be the winner between the top guys. This is like, this is like Sinner and Alcaraz, you know. Well, you know here I'm talking about the Spanish and Italian, uh, we are talking about, you know, the two big guys, Nubanka, Revolut. So let's enjoy the trip and let's enjoy, you know the match actually is

Speaker A: Juan Miguel Guerra Davila. I was right about the family names, not about the first name but now uh, you know, Juan Miguel, uh, uh, I really wish you the best of luck. And actually Rodrigo, do you think or do you see Revolut, uh, targeting also because Mexico is uh, I want to say is overseeing Latin America but is not native Latin America fintech wise. So the market is beside Brazil and Argentina of course, probably Colombia would be the immediate next one. And also in terms of innovation, you see Revolut getting a license in Colombia or in more Latin American countries.

Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. If you go to Mexico, once you have the base in Mexico, you should go to the rest of the regions, uh, maybe not in a smaller country, but once you are there it's a new bank starting in Brazil, then go to Argentina because it's very close. Then they go to Colombia, to Mexico and jumped into the States. And why not Revolut go through Mexico to go through the rest of the North America and the south or Central America. So uh, that's a very good uh, decision to go to Mexico. More than 120 million population growing a lot, big margins, very connected with the euro, sorry, with the dollar. That's the moment to do it especially

Speaker A: because uh, then I haven't digged into the dug, sorry into which type of license they are going to have but I'm actually a very happy like uh Ultra, you know customer of, of Revolut and the way they manage their you know the, even the, the different assets, you know you can do anything in the app. So if they are copy pasting the European one into Mexico they not only get uh, let's say the digital clients but also the mass affluents. Right. So the ones that uh, you know and of course maybe not with 10 less because uh it is more 100k here. The mass affluent uh threshold maybe is going to be a little bit less uh in Mexico for the mass of population. But today I don't believe that uh, even financial literacy when it comes to investment uh is uh super popular in Mexico. And someone like Revolut uh can definitely play a role, don't you think?

Speaker B: Absolutely. In fact last week in Colombia uh during that dinner talking with the CEO of a very important tech company, we were talking about Neobanks and I say oh Revolut, it's amazing what he's doing in Europe. Ah, next. Yes. And I saw him, I opened my app, I saw him the different um, solutions and products. I said oh my God, the experience is amazing. The products that the Revolut has uh, uh are really good. So I saw in the face of a very important CEO, the customer experience of Revolut that this is a very good testing because we are testing, how can I say in a B2C market because as you know Africa, Asia and the latam they are B2C big markets. So you are competing with very important guys. It's not the Europe about more about B2B so uh, the uh world was very good to see you know that they are going to have this good, this good experience and this would success.

Speaker A: Rodrigo, uh, before we wrap up I would like you to share some uh wisdom on a matter that uh, is uh, you know I believe is very high in the agenda of every single ecosystem. And I am uh taking the opportunity of the fact that we have you on the, on the podcast to um, share some uh, uh tips on how do you make uh a fintech association uh sort of sustainable. Uh because there is a reason why I'm asking. I'm on a board of the Africa Fintech Network which is this association of the fintech associations in Africa. And uh, is a very solid, very popular, very fast growing uh very prestigious, uh very trustable network. But of course you know, especially in frontier market the challenge is always uh, you know, how do we grow, how do we pay the people that work on it, how do we make sure that the value of these associations is actually perceived by, by the market? What did you learn in doing it uh, in so different part of the uh, you know, of the, of the planet and maybe I'll, I'll take, we'll, we'll tag uh our friends, you know Patrick Conte and Dr. Shagoon, uh you know of Africa fit that network and I know I send my regards as well.

Speaker B: Yeah my regards to. And they ah are also part of the global alliance founder members. So that's, we can have one hour uh of conversation and discussion about you know the fintech associations. Uh but I think um, if you want to be sustainable you need to have, you need to give value to your members and it's very important to decide which members you are going to see. I have dozens of anecdotes of good and bad associations from Latam to Asia. You know all kind. You know because you put banks and the bank is going against the fintech, you only put you know small startups and you have representation, you only put big guys and you at the end you are a lobby association um or you do it for free and you try to get money from doing just events. So there are huge amount of different cases. Um, but I think the most sustainable one is having the representation of the national country of your country to be the national fintech and connected with the transversal guys uh that can help you uh regulate I say sorry, um, illegal firms that can help you, some consulting firms, some B2B banks that can give you also other businesses and this is very important and also um, you can do different initiatives but if you put the focus only on doing events to get money from the. At the end you are going to work for the sponsors and you are going to also lose your, your neutrality. So that's complicated my experience give value to your members because um, something that I see from the global fintech alliance is every day the regulation is going to be more important for the businesses and we have to manage because the regulation can end with your business or it's going to be very difficult to jump to another region. So that's something that we are going to take care of this year and in the global fintech alliance to have uh, standard rules, worldwide issue rules and um, something that is also very important is give uh, uh the competition open. We need to give the fintechs to compete in the same and equality conditions and the rest of the, um, members of the industry and also the proportionality that's very important. So when the fintech associations are going to defend this, you are going to be honest, indispensable for your members and you are going to get, you know, the member fees and etc. People are going to be with you. That's the way not to less, you know, to put the focus on other businesses, you know, side businesses. Because at the end you are going to lose your

Speaker A: mission, your core mission, your core value. Okay, Rodrigo, thanks so much for, uh, sharing, uh, your experience. It was really fun and very, uh, cool to have, uh, this conversation. We are going to invite you in more occasions, certainly with some of our, uh, common friends. Uh, but for now, thank you very much.

Speaker B: Thank you, Matteo. Happy to see you not only in Breaking Banks, but also always physically in different events in every single corner in the world.

Speaker A: Absolutely. We've been meeting in different corners of the world, uh, last year and I hope we will continue. Guys. Episode 273. This is Evra. Thank you for listening to Breaking Bank Europe, a Provoke Media podcast in cooperation with Timeplash.org don't forget to shout us out on your favorite stream new platform, any social media channels, Medium or YouTube at breaking banks Europe. If there is something or someone you'd like to hear in our cast, let us know. See you next month on Breaking Banks Europe.