The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | Jan 12th

By Puja Sharma

The Monday Roundup sets the scene for the week’s biggest news stories, industry deals, and upcoming events. For Prime subscribers only.

Digital Finance Begins Its Infrastructure Shift

Lloyds Banking Group has completed the UK’s first transaction using tokenised sterling deposits on a public blockchain, marking a significant milestone in digital finance. The bank issued tokenised deposits—digital representations of traditional commercial bank money—on the Canton Network, a blockchain designed for regulated financial markets. These deposits were then used to purchase a tokenised gilt from UK-based digital asset exchange Archax. Following the transaction, Archax transferred the underlying funds back into its standard Lloyds account, demonstrating seamless movement between blockchain-based assets and conventional banking systems.

This achievement represents the global debut of sterling deposits in tokenised form and highlights how tokenisation can digitise traditional financial instruments, enabling faster, more secure, and more efficient transactions. By running its own validator node, Lloyds ensured the integrity of the process, underscoring the potential of tokenisation to bridge traditional banking with blockchain technology and pave the way for broader adoption in regulated markets

The Financial Data and Technology Association (FDATA) has added Prometeo as its newest member, marking a further expansion of the trade body representing more than 30 FinTech companies and consumer-permissioned data access platforms across the U.S. and Canada.

Prometeo operates as a FinTech infrastructure provider focused on bank connectivity, account verification, payments initiation, and financial data access for businesses in Latin America and the United States. Its entry into FDATA comes as open banking and open finance frameworks gain momentum across multiple jurisdictions, raising the importance of cross-border interoperability, regulatory coordination, and secure data-sharing standards.

Through its membership, Prometeo will participate in FDATA-led engagement with regulators and industry stakeholders, with a focus on aligning regulatory approaches across jurisdictions in the Americas. This collaboration reflects a broader trend of infrastructure providers seeking a stronger voice in policy development as financial ecosystems become more interconnected.

Prometeo provides an embedded banking platform and multi-bank API that connects businesses to financial institutions across the region, supporting automated access to account data and transaction capabilities. The company’s network spans more than 1,500 connections to 1,200 financial institutions across 11 Latin American countries, positioning it at the intersection of infrastructure development and regulatory evolution in the open finance landscape.

Compliance and Payments Infrastructure Take Centre Stage

Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO has selected Fenergo’s client lifecycle management (CLM) platform to streamline know your customer (KYC) and onboarding processes across its diversified portfolio in emerging markets.

The move reflects growing pressure on development and multilateral banks to strengthen compliance frameworks while managing complex client relationships across jurisdictions with varying regulatory standards. As regulatory scrutiny intensifies globally, institutions operating in higher-risk or developing markets are increasingly turning to technology to balance robust due diligence with operational efficiency. Under the partnership, FMO will deploy Fenergo’s CLM solution and Document Agent to centralise and automate customer due diligence, documentation, and onboarding workflows. The platform is expected to help the bank reduce onboarding timelines, improve transparency, and provide greater consistency in KYC processes across its portfolio.

FMO said the implementation will also allow teams to shift resources away from manual compliance tasks toward higher-value activities, while improving client engagement through more efficient onboarding journeys and better data visibility.

Singapore Gulf Bank (SGB) has joined J.P. Morgan’s global correspondent banking network, securing direct access to the US dollar clearing infrastructure to strengthen cross-border payment capabilities across Asia and the Gulf region.

Through the newly opened correspondent banking account, SGB gains direct USD clearing access, reducing reliance on intermediary banks and improving settlement efficiency for corporate and institutional clients. The development comes amid growing demand in the region for faster, more reliable cross-border payments and improved liquidity management.

As part of the collaboration, SGB has also become one of the first digital banks in the Middle East and North Africa to implement J.P. Morgan Payments’ Wire 365 solution. The service enables USD wire payments to be received and credited 365 days a year, including weekends and public holidays—removing traditional cut-off times that have long constrained global cash management.

By integrating Wire 365 with its existing correspondent banking relationships and its proprietary real-time settlement infrastructure, SGB Net, the bank aims to deliver continuous, near real-time USD payment processing. This hybrid approach combines traditional global payment rails with modern digital banking architecture, offering clients greater flexibility in managing cash flows and meeting payment obligations.

What is the Buzz

US-based FinTech Avian Labs, developer of the crypto payments app Sling Money, has secured approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to operate as a registered crypto-asset business. The registration, granted on 23 December 2025 under the UK’s Money Laundering Regulations, allows Sling Money to conduct specific crypto activities but restricts the use of automated machines for exchanging crypto and fiat without prior FCA consent.

Founded in 2022 by former Monzo executives, Avian Labs launched Sling Money in the US after raising $15 million in Series A funding led by Union Square Ventures, Ribbit Capital, and Slow Ventures. The app enables international money transfers by converting deposits into USDP (Pax Dollar), a regulated, reserve-backed stablecoin issued by Paxos on the Solana blockchain.

With FCA approval, UK users can now join Sling’s global network spanning over 120 countries, expanding access to stablecoin-powered remittances. The company previously integrated EURC (Circle’s euro-backed stablecoin) and obtained a MiCA license in Europe, signaling its broader ambitions in regulated digital finance.