Latest long reads: Finextra Research

Are you a HENRY (High Earner, Not Rich Yet)?

Madhvi Sonia Head of Content at Finextra

Are you a HENRY (High Earner, Not Rich Yet)?

As reported in Moneywise, HENRYs are a “surprisingly large class of Americans who pull in big bucks but still feel financially strapped.” Despite earning over $100,000 annually, because these individuals do not have substantial wealth, assets or the investment knowledge to make a change in this era of inflation and high cost of living, they remai...

13 hours /wealth

Tokenised deposits are Britain’s best bet for smarter payments

Jana Mackintosh Managing Director at UK Finance

Tokenised deposits are Britain’s best bet for smarter payments

Confused by the stablecoin versus CBDC debate? There’s a third way - and the Bank of England is right to call it out. There’s a saying in finance: a payment is a payment is a payment. It reflects how, for most people, the mechanics of money movement are invisible - we just expect it to work. But beneath the simplicity of a tap on a card reader or a...

27 August 2025 /crypto

Why are orchestration tools essential within today’s payments arena?

Madhvi Sonia Head of Content at Finextra

Why are orchestration tools essential within today’s payments arena?

Be it small e-commerce firms, sprawling corporations, or financial institutions within open finance contexts, organisations of all stripes must at some point face the challenge of uniting innumerable payment service providers (PSPs) within a secure and seamless payments ecosystem. The most effective way to do this is by deploying orchestration too...

26 August 2025 /payments

Britain must get serious about stablecoins – or risk falling behind

Simon Jennings Executive Director at UK Cryptoasset Business Council

Britain must get serious about stablecoins – or risk falling behind

The UK Government wants Britain to be a global hub for digital assets. A goal the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, placed firmly at the centre of her recent Mansion House speech. But when it comes to stablecoins – one of the most practical and fast-growing components of the digital asset economy - the UK is moving too slowly and potentially in the wrong...

21 August 2025 /crypto

How will UK BNPL regulation impact merchants?

Stephanie Storry Consultant at PSE Consulting

How will UK BNPL regulation impact merchants?

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) has quickly become a retail staple in the UK. With consumers increasingly seeking flexible payment options, BNPL services have surged in popularity, promising an easy way to split payments into bite-sized chunks. But with this growth comes a growing wave of regulatory attention around rising default levels and consumer pr...

20 August 2025 /retail

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is boss-tech?

Accountancy firm PwC has launched a biometric-based “traffic light system” in its offices, enabling managers to digitally track employees’ attendance. Such measures – known as ‘boss-tech’ – are part of a rising tide of in-house biometric deployment by institutions within the UK financial services industry. But here’s the contention: Is boss-tech ...

19 August 2025 /identity

Africa’s cross-border payments boom: Why stablecoins and AI are key to the next financial leap

Amish Patel Coverage Banker at Absa

Africa’s cross-border payments boom: Why stablecoins and AI are key to the next financial leap

Remittances to Africa have hit record highs, but sky-high fees and inefficiencies in Africa’s payments landscape still hold back economic potential. This article explains why stablecoins and AI could reshape cross-border payments and inclusion across the continent. Africa is experiencing a cross-border payments boom, with data from the World Bank ...

14 August 2025 /inclusion

Carbon markets in 2025: A year of volatility and innovation

Sehrish Alikhan Reporter at Finextra

Carbon markets in 2025: A year of volatility and innovation

The carbon market is a dynamic and fast-moving space within sustainable finance. As it is nascent, fintechs, regulators, and financial institutions are still in the process of standardising and organising the carbon market so that carbon credits can mitigate climate change and propel us down the road to net zero. Weighing up where we stand amid al...

13 August 2025 /sustainable

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What are sustainable securities?

In recent years the shores of sustainable finance have been battered by the choppy waters of geopolitics. Despite a surge in growth, public interest, and market momentum between 2020 and 2022 (a result of progressive policy, disclosure frameworks, and an explosion in environmental, social and governance [ESG] investment products) sustainable finan...

12 August 2025 /sustainable

What SoftBank’s PayPay IPO float means for embedded finance in Japan

Madhvi Sonia Head of Content at Finextra

What SoftBank’s PayPay IPO float means for embedded finance in Japan

Last week Reuters reported that SoftBank has picked investment banks Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Mizuho and Morgan Stanley to support a potential US IPO for its Japanese payments app operator, PayPay. In what could be as early as Q4’25, PayPay could raise over $2 billion from investors, but timing and the amount are subject to market conditio...

11 August 2025 /payments

The changing face of international payments

Manish Kohli Head of Global Payments Solutions at HSBC

The changing face of international payments

By 2030, the global payments landscape is set to undergo a profound transformation. At the heart of this shift will be real-time processing, enhanced cross-border interoperability, and a growth in blockchain-based innovations – all driving forward a smarter, faster and more connected global financial system. This transformation is being driven by ...

07 August 2025 /payments

What are debt-for-nature swaps and what is their impact on climate financing?

Sehrish Alikhan Reporter at Finextra

What are debt-for-nature swaps and what is their impact on climate financing?

Debt-for-nature swaps have become more common among nations in attempts to boost conservation efforts and refinancing climate. The concept of debt-for-nature swaps is for creditors to forgive governmental debt in return for their commitment to sustainable and green initiatives, allowing for indebted countries to ease their financial burden whilst f...

06 August 2025 /sustainable

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