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The Next Wave of Global Entrepreneurs Is Building Businesses With Just a Smartphone

In emerging markets, fintech tools and trust-based platforms are replacing bank loans and MBAs as the foundation for new startups.

In working with founders across various markets, I’ve seen how dramatically the path to launching a business has shifted. For many entrepreneurs, the process of starting and funding a new business has remained largely unchanged through history: Leverage your existing credentials to get a bank loan or outside investing. Then, use the funds to launch and grow your business, ensuring you’ll have the necessary financial resources to acquire the talent and other resources needed.

But in many developing nations, such systems simply aren’t possible. Globally, 1.4-billion adults are unbanked, often due to geographic isolation, low income levels, or local instability.

Read more at INC.COM

US gov debt is nearly $113K per person

How much debt does the US have?

The US has $39 trillion in debt as of April 2026. The federal government borrows money when its spending and investments cannot be funded by federal revenue alone; this debt enables the government to pay for programs and services when funds aren’t immediately available.

When the federal government spends more money than it brings in through taxes and other revenue sources, a budget deficit occurs. To cover the deficit, it borrows money by selling bonds and other securities. Generally, the federal debt is an accumulation of budget deficits over time.

How has national debt changed over time?

The federal debt in the most recent month of data, April 2026, was $39 trillion. This is 4% higher than in April 2025 and up 36% from 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read more at USAFACTS.ORG

Validate consumer and business bank accounts, confirm ownership, detect fraud, and assess risk 

Why are US consumers so angry? It’s not just high prices

American consumers are angry. Nearly 80% of Americans had a service or product problem in 2025, and about two-thirds of those felt “rage” about it, according to the “National Consumer Rage” survey.

Many consumers feel they are constantly fighting against an onslaught of overcharges, customer service hassles, shoddy products and billing mistakes that always seem to go in the company’s favor. All of this comes against a background of soaring prices and rising inflation.

There’s a stew of factors at work behind the rise in consumer rage: company consolidation, regulatory rollbacks, years of court decisions that limit consumer power, tech-enabled cost cuts, private equity takeovers, Covid-era business model changes, a moribund media and the rise of AI customer service, to name a few. But there is hope, too.

Read more at The Guardian

Why Cloud Security Has Become a Strategic Priority for Financial Institutions

The financial services industry is experiencing one of the biggest digital transformations in its history. Banks, insurance companies, payment providers, and investment firms are increasingly moving their operations to cloud-based platforms to improve efficiency, scalability, and customer experience. While this shift creates major opportunities for innovation, it also introduces serious cybersecurity risks that financial institutions can no longer ignore.

Today, cloud security is not simply an IT responsibility hidden inside technical departments. It has become a strategic business priority discussed at the executive and boardroom levels. Financial institutions now understand that a cyberattack can lead to financial losses, regulatory penalties, operational disruption, and long-term damage to customer trust.

Read more at Finextra.com

Have a tax law question?

Our #IRS Interactive Tax Assistant has answers.

Watch this short video to learn more:

https://youtu.be/y6HkaBkdKdU

Jose L. Santiago

Public Affairs Specialist

Tax Outreach, Partnership and Education

Email: jose.l.santiago@irs.gov

Stablecoins remain little used for payments

Less than 1% of stablecoins are used for payments, and about one-fifth aren’t being used at all, a Kansas City Fed researcher estimated.

Dive Brief:

• The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s lead payments specialist, Franklin Noll, estimated the total market capitalization for stablecoins stood at $300.5 billion as of Nov. 14, 2025, with nearly half (48.8%) used “as a trading asset,” according to a new report. That includes stablecoins that are used for cryptocurrency exchanges’ liquidity, as collateral for lending and as a store of value between trades.
• Stablecoins are used for fund transfers in about one-third of cases (29.3%), including for corporate treasury money movement on blockchain technology, according to the Fed analysis of crypto exchange data in the report released Friday.

Read more at BankingDive

The Supply Chain Data Problem That Fintech Is About to Inherit

The supply chain finance market is growing fast and drawing serious institutional attention. In February 2026, Visa expanded its supply chain finance capabilities with a platform targeting SME invoice financing. In January 2026, SAP introduced an AI-driven supply chain finance module directly inside its ERP suite. J.P. Morgan, Citi, and a growing roster of fintech lenders are embedding working capital products deeper into procurement workflows than they have ever sat before.

The data feeding all of these products comes from warehouses, ERPs, and operational systems that most of the fintechs building on top of them have never audited.

That is the problem. And it is coming.

Read more at Finextra.com

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Americans meet unexpected challenge with mortgage news

New research discovers yet another problem high mortgage rates cause homebuyers.

With mortgage rates hovering around 6.5% for weeks, many would-be homebuyers are wondering whether they should actually buy property in 2026. Is it a good time to buy? Would monthly mortgage payments be too high?

Now, potential buyers should ask themselves yet another question: Will they even qualify for a mortgage with a lender?

New research from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows that higher mortgage rates lead to higher rates of mortgage application denials.

Read more at TheStreet.com

BofA preps cross-border real-time payments service

Bank of America will soon enable corporate, commercial and financial institution clients to send and receive funds across borders instantly through Swift or the bank's CashPro digital platform.

The service is expected to launch next quarter and will support high‑volume, low‑value international payments.

BofA says it is designed to address rising demand for faster and more transparent global payments, supporting use cases such as international remittances, gig‑worker payouts, and e‑commerce marketplace vendor payments.

Read more at Finextra.com

Payliance enables organizations to streamline

payment acceptance, minimize processing costs,

and reduce the risk of fraud.

Fintech rebounds from reset years as profits and revenues surge

The world’s fintech sector is emerging from a bleak period of retrenchment to a new found maturity, as the giddy excitement from the breakout years is replaced with a more disciplined approach that has prompted a sudden surge in profitability and revenue growth.

The world’s largest fintechs are now more profitable than at any point in the sector’s history, with 74% of the biggest public players turning a profit and average EBITDA margins rising 400 basis points to 20% in 2025.

The sector attracted $58 billion in equity funding, up 53% year over year, while global fintech revenues surpassed half a trillion dollars, growing 22% and more than four times faster than incumbent financial institutions.

Read more at Finextra.com

Stop Managing B2B Payments Like It’s 2010

In nearly every conversation I have with financial institution leadership, the stated priority is growth. New revenue. Stronger client relationships. A business that looks meaningfully different in five years than it does today. In practice, most of the budget and internal attention goes toward efficiency. Reducing costs. Automating what already exists. That is necessary work. It is not a growth strategy.

Key insight: B2B acceptance is a genuine growth opportunity, one that builds new revenue streams and deepens existing client relationships at the same time. It sits adjacent to the consumer business most institutions have already optimized, and it represents an $80 trillion commercial payments market that remains largely underpenetrated.

Read more at The Financial Brand

Loved by collection agencies, debt buyers, and lenders handling diverse portfolios. cf

Why More People Are Exploring Financial Tools Than Ever Before

Not long ago, managing money was simple. You worked, saved a portion of your income, and maybe kept it in a bank account. For many people, that was the entire financial journey.

Today, things look very different.

Across the world, millions of people are exploring financial tools that previous generations never had access to. From stocks and ETFs to cryptocurrencies, digital payments, savings products, and investment platforms, people are becoming more curious about how money works and how they can make it work for them.

Read more at BINANCE.COM

Major US banks to launch tokenized deposit network in 2027

US banks JP Morgan, Citi, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo are reportedly releasing a tokenised deposit system in 2027 in response to the stablecoin boom.

Originally reported by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, the banking giants are seeking to combat the threat of crypto companies that are encroaching on banking territory under the pro-crypto Trump administration.

The Clearing House will run the payment network that will connect traditional payment rails with digital assets infrastructure. Tokenised deposits will be settled instantly across a 24/7 blockchain network.

CEO of The Clearing House, David Watson, told the WSJ that the launch is “a big move for the banks”.

Read more at Finextra.com

Our Vision is to become the leading

PAYDAY + ALTERNATIVE LENDER in NORTH AMERICA

The Side-Income Obsession Changing How Americans Think About Work

For a long time, work in America followed a relatively predictable structure. A person found a stable job, stayed there for years, moved upward slowly, and built financial security around consistency. That idea has not disappeared completely, but it no longer feels realistic to a growing number of people. Rising living costs, burnout, layoffs, and the pressure to stay financially flexible have changed the emotional relationship people have with employment.

The result is a culture where side income no longer feels optional. It has become part of how people think about security itself. Conversations that once focused entirely on promotions or salaries now drift toward digital storefronts, investing, freelancing, content creation, online marketplaces, and second streams of income that exist outside traditional employers.

Read more at DCReport.org

Fraud Servicing: The Limits of Detection-First Thinking and the Value of a Customer-First Approach

Fraud servicing can be viewed as a technical problem – something to detect, stop, and resolve as quickly as possible. And in many cases, it is. Most fraud alerts are resolved quickly and feel like a brief interruption rather than a lasting issue.

But in my experience, that framing misses something important. Even when financial impact is minimal, fraud is one of the few moments in the customer journey that immediately tests trust. When something doesn’t look right, customers aren’t thinking about risk models or detection rates. They’re asking: What just happened? What do I need to do next? Can I trust this to be handled?

In those moments, the experience matters just as much as the outcome.

Read more at Finextra.com

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LEND360 is an annual summit for the leaders in online lending that

explores fintech industry trends and new technologies impacting

consumer lenders, small business lenders, service partners, investors,

bank representatives, and more.

How Gen Z and Millennials are Converging into a Single, Digitally Native Market

For years, banks have treated Gen Z and millennials as two separate plays, with different campaigns, and sometimes different messaging.

Gen Z has often been portrayed as distrustful of financial institutions and drawn to alternatives. Millennials, on the other hand, have been depicted as financially cautious, shaped by prior crises and more deliberate in managing money. The premise was simple: these are distinct customer segments that require differentiated strategies.

But banking behaviors tell a different story.

Read more at The Financial Brand

How high-end credit card perks are hurting shoppers who pay in cash

A Harvard study estimates that people who pay with cash and debit cards are subsidizing $30 billion a year in points and rewards for credit card users.

RUCKERSVILLE, Va. — At the Tiger Fuel gas station and convenience store near the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the managers expect to pay more in fees to credit card companies this year than they will on rent — one more expense weighing on the company and its customers amid the surging price of gas.

Those credit card fees — which can be 2% or higher for some premium cards offering luxury perks and hefty rewards — have been contributing to higher prices and limiting how much the store can spend on other areas, like wages, said Maurice Lamarche, vice president of retail operations for Tiger Fuel Co.

Read more at NBCNews.com

E-Complish, LLC Launches: IntellAgent™, a 24/7

AI Companion for Customer Account Management & Payment Processing

Homeowners face crushing insurance cost increases

The numbers behind the premium surge reveal a deeper affordability story.

Homeowners insurance premiums climbed 24% nationwide between 2021 and 2024, with the steepest increases hitting inland states like Utah and Illinois rather than the hurricane-prone coasts.

Communities that were once considered low risk for insurance pricing are now facing double-digit rate increases. Higher construction costs and more frequent severe weather events have changed how insurance companies calculate the price of covering a property.

Homeowners insurance premiums jumped 24% in just three years

The average annual premium rose 24% between 2021 and 2024, reaching $3,303 for a typical policyholder, according to a CFA report titled “Overburdened”, published April 2025.

Read more at TheStreet.com

“Buy Now, Pay Later” Beyond “Pay in 4”, A Comprehensive Product Overview: Federal Reserve

1. Summary

The emergence and rapid growth of "Buy Now, Pay Later" (BNPL) services represent a novel financial development in the consumer credit landscape, reflecting evolving payment preferences and changes in point-of-sale financing arrangements. While BNPL providers offer a menu of credit products typically at the point of sale (such as a range of short- and longer-term installment loans in addition to the signature "pay in 4" plans), the nascent literature on BNPL has centered on "pay in 4" products, focusing on user characteristics and usage consequences.1 Similarly, existing market size estimates—such as those from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB 2025) for 2019 through 2023—examine exclusively the "pay in 4" plans.2 However, comprehensive and current measures of the broader U.S. BNPL credit market—including "pay in 4" and other short- and longer-term installment loans sometimes also called BNPL—remain scarce.

Read more at Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Fast-growing mortgage loan option solves major problem facing self-employed borrowers

Despite some dangerous misconceptions, these mortgage loans are actually helping more Americans become homeowners.

When you think about different types of mortgage loans you could apply for, what comes to mind? Probably conventional mortgages. Depending on your situation, maybe FHA or VA loans.

I’ve been reporting on mortgages for a decade, and I believe one type of mortgage loans doesn’t get enough attention. It’s called a non-qualifying mortgage, commonly referred to as a non-QM loan.

Thankfully, more homebuyers have seen the light over the last year or two, and non-QM loans are growing in popularity.

Read more at TheStreet.com

Treasury and IRS Ease Reporting Requirements for Sales of Partnership Interests: by Alston & Bird

Our Federal & International Tax Group examines final regulations that relieve partnerships from the requirement to report a transferor’s share of hot assets and other items within a short time after a transfer of partnership interests.

The change resolves an unduly onerous compliance burden for partnerships

Partnerships are no longer required to provide this complex information before completing Form 1065 and Schedule K-1s

Certain simple and administrative reporting remains subject to the existing January 31 deadline

Read more at JD Supra, LLC

Are you looking to grow your portfolio?

Our Vision is to become the leading

PAYDAY + ALTERNATIVE LENDER in NORTH AMERICA

Whether Physical or Digital, Debit Cards Are a Payments Mainstay

Card-not-present transactions may be rising, but this is far from a referendum on debit products. Instead, the growth of e-commerce and the emergence of digital wallets have created more avenues for this staple product.

One reason why debit cards have staying power is they are often the first product new banking customers encounter, but they are far from a starter service. Debit usage spans generational divides, presenting a unique opportunity for banks to develop lifelong customer relationships.

However, as Ben Danner, Senior Debit Analyst at Javelin Strategy & Research, detailed in the Invisible Debit: When the Card Disappears, Usage Remains report, traditional financial institutions no longer have a corner on the debit card market.

Read more at PaymentsJournal.com

OREGON: New Law Protects Consumers From High-Interest Loans

A new law going into effect June 5, House Bill (HB) 4116 (2026), closes a loophole that allowed internet lenders to charge interest rates in excess of Oregon’s limit of 36 percent for consumer finance loans.

Consumer finance loans are unsecured small dollar loans with a term of 60 days or more. Since 2007, consumer finance loans in Oregon have been limited to a 36 percent interest rate. This limit is intended to protect Oregonians from predatory lending practices.

However, in recent years, some lenders have sought to take advantage of a provision in federal law called the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (DIDMCA) enabling state-chartered banks from other states to export their home state’s interest rate to Oregon.

Read more at MyCentralOregon.com