The US arm of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has reportedly paid a ransom to restore its systems after a hack attack last week that disrupted trading in US Treasuries.

Startups in Africa’s fintech market have secured more than $2.7bn in venture capital (VC) funding in the last two years, according to a recently released report.

FundGuard, the cloud-native, AI-powered, multi-asset class investment accounting platform, has closed a $100 million Series C funding round led by Key1 Capital.

United Fintech, an umbrella outfit dedicated to scooping up a stable of capital markets, wealth management and wholesale banking vendors, is preparing for a new wave of M&A activity with the appointment of Deutsche Bank’s Rupsa Mukherjee as head of mergers and acquisitions.

Cloud-based investment data management platform Finbourne has raised £55 million in Series B funding.

Golgdman Sachs has led a $36 million Series C funding round in alternative investment data platform Canoe Intelligence.

Keir Starmer’s Labour Party wins by majority in the UK general election that took place yesterday.

In the opening plenary of Sibos 2025 in Frankfurt, executives at Swift and leading German banks Deutsche Bundesbank and Deutsche Bank introduced the themes of the conference and what can be accomplished on ‘the next frontier of global finance’.

The European Central Bank is inviting expressions of interest from financial market stakeholders in participating in trials of new technologies for wholesale central bank money settlement.

Standard Chartered has become the first global systemically important bank to offer digital asset spot trading to institutional clients.

Australian consumers are adopting digital banking services in increasing numbers with 99.3% of transactions taking place over digital channels, including A$160bn in payments made via mobile wallets.

Danske Bank has become the third institutional investor to invest in United Fintech, following in the footsteps of Citi and BNP Paribas.

The Financial Conduct Authority is to establish a new company formed by 31 firms to enable variable recurring payments in the UK.

Mollie has agreed a deal to acquire GoCardless, marking a new wave of consolidation in the venture-backed fintech payment sector.

Two Asia-based fintechs, Line Next and Kaia, have launched what is described as a stablecoin superapp, designed to facilitate cross-border payments.